Further Listening

Composer: Hector Berlioz

Title: Symphonie Fantastique (Fantastic Symphony), fourth movement

Unhappy in love, the "Artist," or protagonist of the Fantastic Symphony (understood to be Berlioz himself), swallows an overdose of opium. He survives the powerful drug; but in his delirium, he experiences wild, impassioned dreams of his unfaithful "Beloved." In the first movement ("Reveries and Passions"), she appears as a lovely figment of his unhappy dreams. She waltzes through the second movement. "A Ball," and appears in a pastoral setting in the third, "Scene in the Country."

Fourth Movement: "March to the Scaffold"

Key: G minor
Tempo: allegretto non troppo
Form: scherzo and trio

The Artist has killed his beloved and is being led to his execution. After the dark, ominous introduction, which includes the beat of muffled drums, the march theme begins, a descending melodic line with a "staggering" rhythm. The sounds of an enthusiastic crowd are reflected in our instruments; the timpani continue their ominous roll. The march melody is heard in inversion, as the hero struggles toward the guillotine.

In the festive mid-section of the movement, a "brass band" celebrates the pageantry of the occasion. The march theme blares forth. Suddenly the hero remembers his Beloved, and the idee fixe is heard in a solo clarinet. Then the guillotine falls with a crash.

Composer: William Billings

Title: "When Jesus Wept"

Type of Composition: a four-voice canon

Meter: quadruple
Text: When Jesus wept, the falling tear
In mercy flowed beyond all bound.
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
Seized all the guilty world around.

The text of this canon is religious, but the piece originally served a pedagogical and social function. It provided a sample of music to be read and sung properly, as taught by the American singing school masters; and it contributed to the social entertainment of neighbors and friends singing together.

The piece consists simply of four melodic phrases, one for each line of text. Billings neither orchestrated nor harmonized the work; but its performance by four voices, each entertaining as a new phrase begins, forms rich and attractive harmonies.

This canon is often performed as a round, each voice repeating it two or more times.

Composer: Johannes Brahms

Title: Symphony No. 4 In E Minor, first and fourth movements

Like those of Beethoven, Brahms' themes seem to develop from each other's provocative ideas. His orchestra is conservative by the standards of his day, typically dark and rendered rather "heavy" by his penchant for doubling voices and for pairing them in thirds and sixths.

First Movement:

Tempo: allegro non troppo
Key: E minor
Meter: duple
Form: sonata allegro

The main theme is rich in ideas for symphonic development, of which Brahms takes ample advantage. Elements of the theme are heard in diminution (twice as fast as originally) and in augmentation (twice as slow), and are also subjected to other means of development and variation. Fragments of the theme are excerpted for effective presentation in their own right. However, the broad sweep of melodic range and the warmth of emotional expression identify the music as that of a Romantic at heart, if a Classicist "at head."

A chromatic bridge or transition leads to the second theme, which is in the dominant key, B major. Introduced by cellos and horns, it is rich in timbre and generally stepwise in contour, although like the main theme, it covers a general range of pitches.

The development begins in the tonic key but moves through several others, gently exploring the resources of the main theme and of the chromatic transition. The recapitulation is succeeded by an expansive coda, with soaring melodic lines and the sonorous harmonies characteristic of the music of the Romantic Classicist.

Fourth Movement:

Tempo: allegro energico e passionato
Key: E minor
Meter: triple
Form: Passacaglia or chaconne

A PASSACAGLIA is generally considered to be variations over a bass ostinato, and a CHACONNE varies over a recurring harmonic pattern. Even musicians confuse the terms, and this movement is referred to by either name; but in any case, it is a stirring monument to baroque form, Classical organization, and Romantic emotional expression.

The ostinato theme is boldly presented at the beginning of the movement alone in the woodwinds and brass instruments - including trombones, which were unusual for that day. It begins in the tonic key, but cadences (surprisingly) in E major.

Thirty variations follow, all supported by the stable yet endlessly interesting ostinato. The chord progressions, and sometimes the melody line of the ostinato are varied. For instance, in Variation No. 12, a lovely flute solo stretches and alters the melodic intervals.

The coda, which begins with eight measures reminiscent of the ostinato theme, brings the symphony to a brilliant conclusion.

Composer: John Cage

Title: Aria and Fontana Mix

Aria is a vocal work, whose text employs five languages and whose rhythms and pitches are only vaguely suggested by the composer, leaving much to the imaginative interpretation of the performer. Cage has indicated, by wavy lines rather than traditional notation, only the general contour of each phrase. The wavy lines are of different colors, each color signifying a particular vocal quality (Sprechstimme, coloratura, nasal sounds, a baby's voice, etc.). The significance of each color is to be determined by the singer; thus each interpretation of this remarkable piece is sure to be unique.

Fontana Mix is a collage of sounds - electronic, musical, mechanical, physical (swallowing, for example). There are several tapes which may be played together in various combinations, as suggested by the series of abstract drawings, transparent sheets, and a graph. The varying results have been considered accompaniment for Aria, although each work may be performed independently.

Composer: Elliot Carter

Title: Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Ensembles

In this work,, which was first performed in 1961, Carter explored the inherent qualities of assorted musical sounds. The piece is a kind of duet between two ensembles, and may be heard as a minidrama between opposing musical concepts. The essence of the drama lies in sounds and rhythms, rather than significant melodic and harmonic ideas.

Each ensemble consists of a solo instrument, a chamber orchestra, and two percussionists.

The solo instruments: Although the harpsichord and piano are both keyboard instruments, they differ widely from each other in construction and effect. The harpsichord has a much softer dynamic level than the piano is capable of producing. Harpsichords vary in construction, but the instrument required for a performance of this work includes a number of stops (see p. 43 in the text) which produce a variety of timbres. Performance technique and the style of music appropriate for the instrument are also different for the piano than the harpsichord. The piano, for example, can achieve sustained, lyrical effects foreign to other instruments.

The chamber orchestras: Each orchestra includes four wind instruments and two strings, but the specific combinations of instruments produce quite different effects.

The piano's orchestra: bassoon, horn, clarinet, oboe, cello, violin.

The harpsichord's orchestra: trombone, trumpet, horn, flute, double bass, violin.

The percussionists: Each percussion plays a variety of instruments of indefinite pitch. Although the percussionists mark the basic rhythm of the piece, a sense of pulse is obscured by the complexity of the rhythmic combinations.

Form: The Double Concerto is tightly organized into one long movement (about 23 minutes) with seven sections, forming a balanced "arch" design:

Introduction

Cadenza for harpsichord

Adagio

Presto

Two cadenzas for piano

Coda

The introduction begins with quiet percussion sounds that build to the dramatic introduction of the piano and then the harpsichord.

The cadenza for the harpsichord effectively explores the range of timbres for that instrument. The apparent tempo changes in this section are due to the technique Carter call "metrical modulation" (p. 344). Although the cadenzas, and even other portions of the Double Concerto, sound improvised, all the material is meticulously written out.

The allegro scherzando, adagio, and presto may be heard as the fast-slow-fast movements of a classical concerto. (There is a pause before the Allegro, which sets it slightly apart from the introductory material.) The slow section is particularly expressive, with running keyboard passages alternating with and accompanied by plaintive comments in the winds and strings. Simple melodic fragments are clearly heard against the complex background. Dynamic surges and increasing dissonance raise the level of tension and lead to the Presto.

The virtuosic two cadenzas for the piano are accompanied by expressive passages for other instruments.

The coda begins dramatically, but the texture thins out and tapers down to keyboards and percussion, and then to nothing, as the piece ends much as it begins.

Composer: Arcangelo Corelli

Title: Trio Sonata in E Minor, op. 3, no. 7

Corelli's trio sonatas da chiesa have four movements, in the order slow, fast, slow, fast, each movement representing a particular mood or Baroque "affection" or "affect." In this trio sonata the two upper lines lie within the same range of the pitched and are played by two violins. The lower line is played by the continuo, a cello which plays the bass line and an organ which double the bass and "realizes" the harmonies about it.

First Movement:

Tempo: grave (slow)
Meter: duple
Texture: imitative polyphony. The motive introduced by the first violin is imitated by the second violin and the bass instruments in turn.
Mood: solemn, stately

Second Movement:

Tempo: allegro
Meter: duple
Texture: imitative polyphony. This, like the second movement of most of Corelli's trio sonatas, is frugal, Each of the three lines participates in the imitation of the subject, which is characterized by the upward leap of an octave and by an eighth-note sequential pattern.
Mood: vigorous, bright

Third Movement:

Tempo: adagio
Meter: triple
Texture: polyphonic. The two violins play a songlike duet, their imitative lines occasionally causing poignant dissonances between themselves or with the supportive bass line.
Mood: lyrical, serene

Fourth Movement:

Tempo: allegro
Meter: triple
Texture: polyphonic. The violins treat their motivie figure lightly while the strong bass line emphasizes the harmonic structure and the dancelike character of this movement.
Mood: cheerful

The sudden piano of the last phrase of the sonata is the only change in dynamic level Corelli indicated in the score.

Composer: George Gershwin

Title: Porgy and Bess (excerpts)

Porgy and Bess ia and opera; but is have generally been performed in commercial theaters, rarely in the opera house. It was also made into a movie, which has been enthusiastically view around the world. There are recitatives, arias, choruses and other ensembles, all with orchestral accompaniment; but much of the music has a popular, folk or jazzlike character. Gershwin also interspersed some spoken lines in the dialogue, in an attempt to make the work as "natural" as possible.

The opera based upon a novel by Dubose Heyward on the subject of a true character, a poor and crippled negro who lived in a poverty-stricken area of Charleston, North Carolina ("Catfish Row"). Gershwin was so moved by the novel that he spent a summer in its locale, steeping himself in the sounds of people - their street cries, lullabies, work songs, spirituals, and spoken dialect. His efforts to imitate their speech were not always accurate; but they were always sensitive and musically effective.

"Summertime"

After a jazz instrumental introduction, the curtain rises to reveal a young mother, Clara, rocking her baby and singing this famous lullaby. The melody is almost entirely pentatonic - that is, most of it can be played on the five black notes of a piano, as can many folk and children's songs. "Summertime," strophic in form, has a gentle rocking motion, and includes certain Negro effects - blue notes, expressive sighs, a slight break in the voice. The word "jumpin" is gently syncopated. Clara's second verse is accompanied by a chorus of girls singing "ooh" in the background. She repeats the first verse, and this time the calls of a group of men shooting a game of craps provide contrapuntal effects.

"A Woman Is a Sometime Thing"

The baby's daddy, Jake, takes the infant and sings him a different kind of song - saucy, strident, and jazzy. The form of this song, too, is strophic.

Two northerners, Crown (the villain) and his woman, Bess, enter, and Crown picks a fight, suddenly killing one of the village men. Crown runs off and the villagers scatter to safety, leaving Bess stranded, until Porgy invites her into his poor home. In time, Bess and Porgy develop a great love for each other. Porgy celebrates his joy in the famous "I Got Plenty o' Nothin'."

"Bess, You Is My Woman Now"

The lovers join in one of the glorious duets in the entire opera repertoire. Porgy declares his love and insists that Bess must "laugh an' sing an' dance for two instead of one." Bess sings of her love for Porgy and vows to stay with him forever. Then together, each singing slightly different words and different music, they ecstatically express their happiness and optimism for the future.

Porgy and Bess skillfully blends elements of humor with a basically tragic tale. Porgy persuades Bess to join their friends at a picnic on a nearby island, where Crown, who has been hiding there, abducts Bess. They return to Catfish Row, and Crown, furious with jealousy, tries to kill Porgy and is killed by him instead. The villagers, who have never accepted Bess, persuade her that Porgy will never get out of jail, and she reluctantly returns to New York. As it happens, Porgy is released; and the opera ends as he sets off in his goat cart to find her.

Composer: George Frideric Handel

Title: "Plangero ia sorte mia" ("I bemoan my cruel fate") from Giullo Cesare

Type of Composition: operatic aria

Form: da capo
Timbre: soprano, with orchestral acompaniment

Cleopatra sings the aria early in Act III of Giulio Cesare, when she has been captured by Ptolemy and believes that her beloved Caesar is dead. The first part of the aria is somber, the mood subdued, as Cleopatra mourns her fate. The meter is triple, the tempo slow. Some of Cleopatra's poignant phrases are expressively echoed by the violin in the accompanying ensemble. A short instrumental passage brings the first section to a close.

He mid-section of the aria is stormy and dramatic, with a fast tempo and a rather heavily accented duple meter. Cleopatra's agitation is reflected in the instrumental accompaniment, and in her virtuosic vocal display. She vows to haunt Ptolemy after her death, in vengeance for his treatment of her and her beloved.

The first section returns, with improvised melodic embellishments in both the voice and the instruments. Sensitive performers agree that modest ornamentation is best suited to the serious, resigned mood of this aria.

Composer: Charles Ives

Title: "General Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England

Programmatic and patriotic, like much of Ives's work, "Putnam's Camp" is a kind of tone poem which depicts a small boys fantasies and dreams as he enjoys a Fourth of July picnic at a former Revolutionary War campground site.

The piece has a loose A B A' structure. It opens with a raucous blast (a sound dear to Ives's ears) and continues with a wonderfully virile and highly unorthodox march theme. Snatches of Sousa marches and patriotic tunes emerge from the subsequent confusion, as does a comic parody of "Yankee Doodle."

The boy wanders off and falls asleep, to dream of the hardship and suffering of the soldiers of long ago. He imagines that he hears General Putnam coming over the hill to save the troops, and there is an amazing juxtaposition of two bands (one for strings and woodwinds, the other for piano, drums, and trumpet) which approaches and pass each other, playing different tunes, in different keys, and in different meters. (Here the conductor must beat four with one hand and three with the other.)

The boy awakens, hears sounds of celebration, and rejoins his friends at the picnic. With a jaunty reference to "The Star Spangled Banner," the piece ends on as raucous a note as it begins.

The texture of this piece is so dense that repeated hearings generally provide recognition of previous missed tunes and fragments. Modern in so many ways, this composition yet reminds us of the linear polyphony of the Middle Ages, when melodic lines were intended to be heard independently. Polyrhythms, polytonality, and distorted quotations of familiar tunes provide a delightful confusion which Ives forbears to spoil with any resolution.

Title: "Hellhound on My Trail"

Perfomer: Robert Johnson (1911-38), one of the great country blues singers, accompanying himself on the guitar.

Form: Twelve-bar blues

The bluesy mood fits the impassioned nature of the text, while the varying length of the lines indicates the informality and improvisatory nature of country blues. Notice, too, the manner in which Johnson fills out each line with repetitions of fragments of the text and with eloquent commentary on his guitar. The frequent blue notes and intricate melodic embellishments add to the individuality and the passion of Johnson performance.

I got to keep movin'. Blues fallin' down like hail.

I got to keep movin'. Blues fallin' down like hail.

I can't keep no money with a hellhound on my trail.

If today was Christmas Eve, and tomorrow Christmas Day,

If today was Christmas Eve, and tomorrow Christmas Day,

I would need my little sweet rider [lover] just to pass the time away.

You sprinkled hot-foot powder [a voodoo spell?] all around my door.

You sprinkled hot-foot powder all around my door.

It keeps me like a ramblin' mind, Rider every old place I go.

I can tell the wind is risin', the leaves tremblin' on the tree.

I can tell the wind is risin', the leaves tremblin' on the tree.

All I need is my little sweet woman to keep me company.

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

Title: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, op. 64

First Movement:

Key: E minor
Tempo: allegro molto appassionata (very fast, impassioned)
Meter: duple
Form: sonata-allegro

Mendelssohn dispensed with the traditional double exposition, having the solo violin enter with the main theme after a few introductory orchestral measures. This broad, expanisive melody is high in pitch and passionate in mood. The full orchestra (called TUTTI in an orchestral score) plays the theme, and then an attractive bridge or transition modulates to G major (the key with the same signature as E minor) for the second theme. Softer than the main theme, and moving more by steps than leaps, this gentle theme is introduced by flutes and clarinets over a PEDAL POINT (a sustained tone) in the solo violin.

The development primarily concerns the main theme and the bridge melody. A cadenza, normally reserved for decoration toward the end of the movement, is prominently placed at the end of the development. The cadenza ends with several arpeggios (broken chords), and the violin continues the arpeggio pattern as it accompanies the orchestra playing the main theme in the recapitulation.

The first movement is connected to the second by a sustained bassoon note.

Second Movement:

Key: C Major
Tempo: andante
Meter: compound duple (each of the two beats per measure is divided by the three pulses)
Form: A B A'

The songlike melody of the first section A, played in the violins high register, is calm and serene, with a flowing accompaniment. The middle section (B) is more active and included dramatic, virtuosic passages for the solo violin. The return of A is somewhat modified.

There is a transition from the second to the third movement, as Mendelssohn seems to deny, in a Romantic way, the traditional boundaries between them.

Third Movement:

Key: E major (the parallel major of E minor - the same name, but a different key signature)
Tempo: allegro molto vivace (very fast and lively)
Form: sonata-allegro

The last movement is light and joyous, with thrilling virtuosic passages for the solo violin. Staccato notes in the main theme add to the lightness of the movement. The second theme is less aggressive, but its second phrase is in fact derived from the first theme.

The development introduces a new theme for the violin, but it, too, bears rhythmic relationship to the earlier material, namely the second theme. In the recapitulation, the main theme is accompanies by this songlike melody in the orchestra. There is a stirring coda.

Mendelssohn's adherence in the concerto to the principles of absolute music, his mastery of Classical forms, and the superb balance in the dramatic relationship between orchestra and soloists reveal the classical side of his nature. His essential romanticism is apparent, however, in the expressive themes and harmonies, adaptation of forms to suit his needs (absence of a double exposition and unorthodox placement of a cadenza, for example), and the denial of boundaries between one movement and the next.

Composer: Daniel Read

Title: "Sherburne"

Fuging tunes are four part songs in two sections. The first section is homophonic in texture, with the melody in the tenor voice, as was customary in 18^th-century America. The second section begins with imitative entrances in polyphonic texture. Each voice sings the melody, or a variation, and then - unlike a canon or round - the voices come together to the end on a tonic chord. The second section is repeated.

The form of a fuging tune may be described as A B B.

(The vertical lines represent chords)
While shepherds watched		The angel of the Lord
their flocks by night		came down,
All seated on the ground;		And glory shown around.

Composer: Steve Reich

Title: "Drumming"

"Drumming is a long piece (about one-and-a-half hours) for an ensemble of twelve, including voices, piccolo, and percussionists. The percussion instruments include some that come from other cultures but are now familiar in the West, such as bongo drums, marimbas, and a glockenspiel. Human voices become a part of the ensemble by imitating the sounds of the particular instruments.

There are four sections in the piece, performed without pause between them. Each section is scored for a particular combination of instruments. The change in timbre from one section to another provides the variety traditionally associated with changes of key in a long composition. One section is joined to the next by having the "new" instruments double the melodic and rhythmic pattern already being played, as the "old" instruments gradually fade out.

There is one basic rhythmic pattern throughout the piece. This pattern is introduced in the beginning by two drummers who perform the pattern substituting rests for most of the beats. Gradually drum beats replace the rests, until the basic rhythmic pattern is realized. The process of the reduction of the pattern then begins, as rests replace some, then most of the beats.

Throughout the piece, the drummer gradually move out of "phase," or synchronization, causing new rhythmic combinations to emerge from the basic pattern. All changes occur gradually over a long period of time and according to a highly ordered scheme. The incessant repetition and the gradual evolution of material only slightly different from that which came before lend a deceptive simplicity to this music, which closer examination reveals to be elegant, precise, and sophisticated.

Composer: Karlhelnz Stockhausen

Title: Gesange der Junglinge

This piece is extraordinary synthesis of dissimilar ideas integrated into an expressive musical composition. Some of the sounds are sung by a boy, and some are electronically produced. The sung sounds are manipulated so as to lose much of their verbal meaning, and the electronic effects sometimes approached the sound of vowels; thus the distinction between the human and the mechanical is lessened.

Stockhausen has addressed the problem of wedding words and music in an entirely original fashion. By lessening the differences between them, he makes the text both more and less intelligible. The boy's voice is sometimes superimposed upon itself so as to scramble the syllables or to produce a synthetic choral effect. There are pauses between the syllables of some words, and some words are half-spoken, half-sung. However, the text is based upon a Bible story (the miraculous survival of three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from a fiery furnace as told in the book of Daniel) and so would be familiar to many listeners, who would not need to recognize, every syllable to understand the meaning of the piece.

Five groups of loudspeakers surround the audience, making space and the direction in which the sounds move throughout space significant elements in this composition. Gesange der Junglinge is a piece of serial music, or electronic music, or musique concrete. Written in 1955-1956, it sounds fresh and original, offering a myriad of provocative ideas to the creative musician and listener.

Composer: Edgard Varese

Title: Ionisation

Type of Composition: a one-movement piece for percussion instruments

Form: through-composed

This was one of the first compositions for percussion instruments. It is scored for thirty-seven instruments under the control of thirteen performers. Some of the instruments have definite pitch (chimes, celesta, glockenspiel, piano), some have indefinite pitch (cymbals, gong, triangle, castanets, sleigh bells, tambourine), and there are two sirens, which are treated as "instruments" with continuous pitch.

Significant non-Western influences are reflected by the use of Cuban, West Indian, and Chinese instruments, and by Varese's effective "counterpoint" of rhythm and tibre, related to the music of certain African and Asian cultures. The piece was prophetic in its appreciation for the sophisticated juxtaposition of complex rhythms and for the qualities of timbres over those of melody and harmony.

These are several sections, contrasting in mood, ranges of pitch, rhythm, meter, and especially timbre. The instruments cover ranges comparable to the soprano, alto, tenor and bass, of more traditional Western music, and Varese ingeniously combines several of them at one time into choirs of unlike timbre, or pairs them in a manner reminiscent of Josquin's techniques.

The piece begins with metallic sounds, generally in low pitch. Musical expression is achieved by crescendo and decrescendo and by changes in tempo, dynamic level, density, and intensity. Tension is created by tone clusters on the piano and by dramatically raising pitches in the sirens. Occasional unison sounds are quite striking.

The tuned instrument - piano, bells, chimes, and glockenspiel - are first heard in the coda, which become softer and softer, bringing the piece to a quiet close.