3. Berlioz Harold in Italy: movement III (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding) Background information Biography • Berlioz was born in 1803 in La Côte Saint-André, a small town between Lyon and Grenoble in France. • In 1830 he wrote his early masterpiece, Symphonie fantastique. • In 1830 he won the Prix de Rome composition prize on his fourth attempt, allowing him to spend two years in Italy. • In 1834, he composed Harold in Italy - a symphony in four movements with a part for solo viola. • He died in his Paris home in 1869. Harold in Italy was inspired by: • ‘Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, a ‘childe’ here signifying a candidate for knighthood. • The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world weary young man looking for distractions in foreign lands. • He does not tell the story of Harold in the music but merely captures the mood of the traveller. Concerto or Symphony? • A concerto is a composition with a solo part, usually virtuosic, accompanied by orchestra. • Berlioz, however, wrote a non-virtuosic solo viola part, even though it was intended for Paganini, the leading virtuoso of the time. • Consequently, Paganini refused to perform the piece as he felt the solo part did not have enough for him to play. • In fact, the work is really a symphony rather than a concerto. • This is the third of four movements, and in place of the Beethovenian Scherzo, Berlioz wrote a Serenade, a song by a mountaineer in honour of his mistress. • The influence of folk music from the Abruzzi Mountains is clear in parts of this movement, e.g. use of drones, modal inflections and saltarello rhythms.
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3. Berlioz Harold in Italy: movement III
(for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background information
Biography
• Berlioz was born in 1803 in La Côte Saint-André, a small town between Lyon and
Grenoble in France.
• In 1830 he wrote his early masterpiece, Symphonie fantastique.
• In 1830 he won the Prix de Rome composition prize on his fourth attempt,
allowing him to spend two years in Italy.
• In 1834, he composed Harold in Italy - a symphony in four movements with a
part for solo viola.
• He died in his Paris home in 1869.
Harold in Italy was inspired by:
• ‘Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, a ‘childe’ here signifying a candidate for
knighthood.
• The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world weary young man
looking for distractions in foreign lands.
• He does not tell the story of Harold in the music but merely captures the mood of
the traveller.
Concerto or Symphony?
• A concerto is a composition with a solo part, usually virtuosic, accompanied by
orchestra.
• Berlioz, however, wrote a non-virtuosic solo viola part, even though it was
intended for Paganini, the leading virtuoso of the time.
• Consequently, Paganini refused to perform the piece as he felt the solo part did
not have enough for him to play.
• In fact, the work is really a symphony rather than a concerto.
• This is the third of four movements, and in place of the Beethovenian Scherzo,
Berlioz wrote a Serenade, a song by a mountaineer in honour of his mistress.
• The influence of folk music from the Abruzzi Mountains is clear in parts of this
movement, e.g. use of drones, modal inflections and saltarello rhythms.
Idée fixe
This theme is announced in the first movement.
Unlike the idée fixe in Symphonie fantastique, it does not go through any formal
transformations but recurs superimposed over various orchestral textures.
Performing forces and their handling
• In this movement, Berlioz uses an unusual combination of instruments from the
Romantic era symphony orchestra such as piccolo, cor anglais, harp and four
horns but he does not use trumpets, cornets, trombones and percussion.
• Violas are divided at the opening to enable the lower part to play open string
drones with the upper part playing melodic material.
• Piccolo and oboe at the opening represent pifferi (rustic oboes).
• At the Allegretto the violins and cellos play pizzicato (plucking the string) with
double stopping (playing two strings at the same time) in the second violin. This
simulates the sound of plucked instrumental accompaniment (guitar-style) in the
serenade.
• The clarinet uses the (low) chalumeaux register with broken chord figures at b.
48.
• At b. 53 all the strings return to “arco” (playing with the bow).
• For the final section the strings also play with mutes (con sordini).
• Here the harp plays harmonics indicated by the circles above the notes.
• Overall, the technical demands of the solo viola part are relatively simple, the
octave passages from b. 99 being the most demanding feature.
Texture
The prevailing texture is melody-dominated homophony, with variations in layout:
• The opening of the piece starts with a drone (double pedal) on C and G in long
notes in 2nd oboe, clarinets and bassoon. The violas play the same notes with a
rhythmic figure.
• The main melodic material is played in octaves by the 1st oboe and the piccolo
(the piccolo transposes/sounds an octave higher then written).
• A counter melody is played by the 1st violas. There are minor changes within the
other parts but the bassoon maintains a pedal C throughout this section.
• At the Allegretto (b. 32) the strings play a homophonic accompaniment to the cor
anglais solo/ serenade theme. The violins and cellos play pizzicato (plucked) while
the violas maintain a broken chord figure.
• At b. 53 the strings play in octaves a chromatic counter melody to the woodwind,
while a third part appears in clarinet and horn.
• At b. 60 the two horns in C play a horn call version of part of the Serenade theme
in 3rds and 6ths.
• The idée fixe in long notes on viola provides an additional strand from b. 65.
• At b 79-80 there is brief dialogue between cor anglais/oboe, clarinet, flute/picc
and bassoons, playing in octaves.
• At bars 202-206, there is a monophonic statement of the serenade theme on the
solo viola.
Structure
The movement replaces the traditional Scherzo movement in the standard symphony
(which in turn had evolved from the Minuet and Trio). The scherzo usually had an overall
structure of ABA with subdivisions of A = ABA, B(trio) = CDC.
Berlioz’s movement has a broad ABA structure, with the addition of a coda in which
elements of both sections are combined, so expanding on the traditional structure.
The overall structure is as follows:-
Bars 1-31: Section A: Allegro assai
Drone, saltarello rhythm and ‘pifferi’ melody in C major
Bars 32-135 Section B: Allegretto
(Serenade)
32: Melody with irregular phrase structure of 7, 7, 4 and 7 bars.
65: Harold theme (idée fixe) superimposed on Serenade material. There is
here increased rhythmic elaboration involving triplets and semiquavers.
100: The serenade theme in D minor.
122: Final references in this section to serenade theme in C major.
Bars 136-165 Section A
An exact repetition of the opening Allegro assai.
Bars 166-208 Extended coda: Allegretto
A combination of various elements:
• The saltarello rhythm of the Allegro assai is maintained in violas
throughout.
• The viola plays the opening of the serenade theme (fragmented).
• The idée fixe is now played by the flute, doubled by harp
harmonics, again with long note values.
Tonality
The overall tonality of the movement is the key of C. There are clearly defined cadences
throughout the movement with comparatively limited modulation, reflecting the folk
character of the piece.
• The tonality of the Allegro assai is clearly defined by the constant tonic pedal C in
the bassoon.
• There are modal inflections (B flat).
• The serenade theme is also in C.
• The only strong modulation occurs with the return of the serenade theme at b100
in D minor.
• From the return of the saltarello material in bar 136 to the end, the music
remains in C major.
Harmony
• The harmonic language is essentially diatonic throughout with some chromatic
inflections largely through the use of diminished chords.
• The harmony of the opening Allegro assai is built on a tonic pedal C with brief
references to the chords of G7 (e.g. b. 19) and F (e.g. b. 14).
• In the Serenade section, the harmonic vocabulary expands to include an
imperfect cadence in A minor, with 4-3 suspension (b. 39-40).
• The second part of the serenade from bar 51 is more chromatic, e.g. a change
from A minor to A major harmony.
Melody
The opening Allegro assai (Saltarello) is based on a folk-like melody characterized by:
• Repeated notes.
• Conjunct movement .
• Range of a 9th, but with no interval greater than a third within phrases.
• Grace notes colour the repeated Gs.
• The melody is largely centered around the note E.
• The B flat can be regarded as a modal inflection.
• One-bar cells, leading to irregular phrasing.
• Some inversion of basic material.
The melody of the serenade (Allegretto) is in the cor anglais (sounding a fifth below
written pitch):
• It opens with an arpeggio figure on the tonic C major chord with the added
auxiliary note A.
• This is followed by a falling third reminiscent of the idée fixe, which opens with a
falling 3rd and falling 6th.
• Here the falling 6th is delayed by the E (sounding A) resolving to the D#
(sounding G#).
• Chromaticism occurs at b. 49.
The viola introduces the idée fixe at b. 65:
• The long note values of the Harold theme do not match the rhythm of the original
theme but the pitch is exactly the same as that of the original’s first three bars.
In the final Allegretto (coda):
• The Harold theme (idée fixe) is heard complete in C played by the flute and harp
in long notes.
• The serenade theme is fragmented.
• The saltarello theme is also fragmented, with the figure in b. 194-195 repeated
an octave lower in b. 195-196.
Rhythm and metre
• The metre throughout is compound duple (6/8).
• The tempo of the Allegro assai introduction is double that of the Allegretto.
• The melodic ideas of the piccolo and oboe have marked accents on the second
beat of the bar.
• The Serenade theme exploits the possibilities of mixing 3/4 and 6/8, evident in
the third bar of the melody where two quavers are followed by a minim (see
above example).
• In b. 132 this idea is ornamented with semiquavers.
• Semiquavers are also used in the clarinet accompaniment at b. 48.
• Triplet semiquavers also appear (e.g. b. 77).
• There is a hint of rhythmic augmentation in b. 192 as the final motif is turned
from semiquavers to quavers to complete the phrase.
15. Corelli
Trio Sonata in D, Op. 3 No. 2: Movement IV (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background information and Performance Circumstances
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) is one of the most important and influential composers
of the late baroque period. This is all the more remarkable for the fact that his output
was very small, being just four sets of twelve trio sonatas, twelve solo sonatas and
twelve concerti grossi, plus a handful of other works. All of his music was written for
instrumental forces (almost entirely string ensemble) and the form and style of these
works were highly regarded by the later generation of baroque composers such as
Handel and Bach. The compositional techniques Corelli employed are frequently cited as
a model for students of baroque counterpoint and harmony today.
At the time of writing this Op.3 No.2 Trio Sonata (1689) Corelli was employed by
Cardinal Pamphili as his music master, living in the Cardinal’s palace and organising and
directing the regular academies (Sunday concerts) there. They are types of Sonata da
Chiesa (or Church Sonatas) and were designed to be played either in church or for
sacred concerts. Typically there are four movements in the order slow – fast – slow –fast
and the style is broadly contrapuntal in character.
Op.3 consists of 12 such Sonata da Chiesa (six in major keys and six in minor keys). The
keys use no more than two sharps or flats except for one which is in F minor. No.2 is in
D major and all four movements Grave – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro are in that key.
There is no melodic link between the movements although they are clearly designed to
be played as a whole (the third movement, for instance, finishes with an inconclusive
Phrygian cadence).
Performing forces and their handling
Although described as a Trio Sonata, this work requires four performers:
• Violin 1
• Violin 2
• Violone
• Organ
The first violin part (probably designed to be played by Corelli himself) and the second
violin part (possibly played by Matteo Fornari, one of Corelli’s pupils) are broadly equal
partners in that they share a similar tessitura (range of pitch): Violin I covering two
octaves and a semitone, and Violin II a 14th. Furthermore, they frequently imitate each
other at the unison and are constantly crossing parts and exchanging ideas. Although
the first violin always states the material first in this (and other) movements, the second
violin finishes the whole sonata on top. The parts are not difficult to play, only twice (in
bars 11 – 13 and again in bar 34) requiring either player to venture beyond first
position, and not using the bottom G string except for the penultimate note in the first
violin part. It is possible that performers would embellish the repeated sections with
some ornamentation (although this is not heard on the CD).
The violone is a low pitched bowed string instrument similar to the bass viol, often with
five or six strings. However, the term is used loosely and may simply refer to any bass
string instrument such as the violoncello. The pitch range is almost the same as that
required by the two violinists – two octaves, and it fits comfortably within the range of
the modern ‘cello’.
The continuo part is provided by the organ which would probably have been a single
manual pipe organ without pedals. The player would have been expected to improvise
the inner harmonies by providing suitable chords above the bass line according to the
figured bass. Corelli’s original figuring is likely to have been somewhat sparser than that
provided by this edition, but it is interesting to note the passages where the organ is
given a simplified version of the bass part (bars 7 and 22).
Texture
The texture is three-part imitative counterpoint. Each of the three voices has its own
independent melodic line, bearing in mind that the organ also improvises inner harmonic
filling.
The opening sounds like the start of a fugue with the first violin stating the subject,
the second violin providing the answer (in the dominant) and the violone joining in at
bar 6 with a further entry of the subject. As the rest of the movement is not a fugue,
however, this first part is best described as being fugal in style.
Corelli explores plenty of variety within this contrapuntal texture:
• Monophony (bars 1 – 2)
• 2-parts in parallel 3rds (bar 3)
• Stretto imitation where the parts enter in quick succession (bars 11 – 13)
• Inverted pedal (violins bars 15 – 17)
• Polarised texture (violins close together, but widely separated from the violone,
as in bars 18 – 19)
• Parallel 10ths (bars 8 – 9, Violin II and violone)
The violone part drops out of the imitation after bar 23 and provides a more distinct
bass line for the rest of the movement. It is worth noting also how Corelli draws the
movement (and the whole sonata) to a close by dropping all three parts down an octave
for the final three bars.
Structure and Tonality
This movement is in binary form: A (repeated) B (repeated). As the movement is
broadly monothematic the structure is defined by the repeat marks and the tonality.
• The A section (bars 1 – 19) starts in D major and modulates to the dominant (A
major).
• The B section (bars 20 – 43) begins on the dominant with the same melodic
material (inverted) and modulates through various related keys before returning
to the tonic at the end. Bars 41 – 43 could be regarded as a Codetta.
Phrase structure and keys:
Bars 1 – 2 Subject in D major (tonic).
Bars 3 – 4 Answer in A major (dominant).
Bars 5 – 11 Inversion of subject in upper parts, with third entry of subject in bar 6 starting
in the tonic and modulating to the dominant.
Bars 11 – 19 Further entries in A major.
Bars 20 - 22 Entries on the dominant.
Bars 23 – 28 Entries on the tonic modulating to the relative minor (B minor).
Bars 28 – 32 A 4 bar contrasting section in E minor (subdominant of the relative minor).
Bars 32 – 41 Imitative entries of a modified subject passing through A, D and G majors
before returning to the tonic.
Bars 41 – 43 A short codetta phrase emphasising the tonic key.
Harmony
This movement is entirely diatonic. That is all the accidentals in the music are related to
a change of key. The harmony is largely consonant and uses mostly root position
chords and first inversion chords (shown by a 6 in the figuring).
Dissonance occurs through carefully prepared suspensions (a 7-6 on the first beats of
bar 10, for example, and a 4-3 on the second beat of bar 40) and double suspensions
(9-8 and 7-6 simultaneously on the second beats of bars 29 and 30). Suspensions also
occur in the organ part alone (notice the figuring for bar 23) and as part of a IIb7 – V
progression (bar 18). Usually, all suspensions resolve downwards by step, but the first
violin leaves the dissonance occurring on the first beat of bar 39 unresolved with a leap
upwards.
There are frequent perfect cadences which define the phrase structure (bars 4, 10-11,
18-19) and the changes of key (B minor in bars 27-28, E minor in bars 31 – 32). These
latter examples are masculine cadences (finishing on strong beats) whereas the earlier
ones (bar 4) are feminine cadences (finishing on weak beats). The strongly functional
harmony is also evident in the cycle of fifths progression (bars 32 – 35) and the pedal
points heralding the ends of sections (bars 15 – 18 and 39 – 40).
Melody
As already stated, this movement is monothematic with all the melodic invention
deriving from the opening three-note motif based on a rising 3rd. Corelli develops this
apparently simple motif in the following ways:
• As a rising sequence with added passing notes (second half of bar 1).
• A further sequence of this embellished version (first half of bar 2).
• In inversion (bar 5).
• As a falling one-bar sequence with the embellishments removed (2nd violin and
violone bars 8 – 10).
• Juxtaposition of the opening motif and its inversion in rising sequence (bar 11
and subsequent entries).
• Extended falling sequence in violone (bars 15 – 17).
• Addition of an anacrucis to the motif for the entries starting in bar 32.
As a consequence of this development of the motif, almost all of the melody is based on
the interval of a 3rd and stepwise movement. Occasionally an octave leap (e.g. 1st violin
in bar 7) will break the chains of characteristic descending sequences.
Rhythm and Metre
This movement is written in the style of a gigue which is a lively dance in compound
time and more usually found in the Sonata da Camera. There are two main beats per bar
and the strongly rhythmical character of the music is enhanced by the phrasing in dotted
crotchet beats in the opening subject (bars 1-2) and the cadence points in bars 2 and 4.
Corelli plays around with this regularity of metre to add interest and buoyancy to the
movement:
• Violone entry in bar 6 starts half way through the bar (all subsequent entries are
at one-bar’s distance – bars 11-12, 21-22 etc).
• Syncopation in the 1st violin part in bars 26 – 27.
• Hemiolas in bars 27 and 31 with the harmony changing on the 1st, 3rd and 5th
quavers of the bar giving a feel of 3/4 time.
23. Schumann
Kinderscenen, Op. 15: Nos 1. 3 and 11 (For Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background information
and performance circumstances
Robert Schumann wrote Kinderscenen in 1838 at the age of 28. It was one of a number
of imaginatively titled and unusually constructed sets of piano miniatures which he
composed around that time. Kinderscenen (commonly translated as “Scenes from
Childhood” although more accurately as “Children’s Scenes”) is a collection of 13 short
pieces of which we study three in Anthology No. 23 (Nos. 1, 3, and 11).
The Romantic Period, to which Schumann and these pieces very firmly belong, was a
period of fundamental change in music. As well as being a time of innovation and daring,
there was a shift to music that looked outward and had extra-musical influences,
perhaps a programmatic purpose, a poetic connection, a literary theme or a
representation of national identity. Schumann’s music typifies this; in particular he had a
deep love of contemporary Romantic poetry and his music communicates a vivid poetic
spirit (the final piece in Kinderscenen is even entitled “The Poet Speaks”). It’s also
interesting to note that Schumann’s compositional output does seem to steer a path
from large-scale earlier works to these short miniatures and then, soon afterwards, to an
amazing outpouring of German Lieder whose piano accompaniments owe so much to
Kinderscenen and its like.
Sometimes a link between a composer’s life experiences and his music is a less than
convincing analytical path to follow (for instance, some of Mozart’s jolliest music was
written at times of deep despair) but in the case of Schumann there is plenty of
evidence, even to the extent of specific titles, to prove that his music was often a
reflection of his personal life. By 1838 Schumann had settled on the career of composer;
any thoughts of the virtuoso performing career he had yearned for had been dashed. He
was deeply in love with Clara Wieck and, a year before, had asked her father (who had
been his piano teacher) for her hand in marriage. This was refused and a legal battle had
commenced. A letter to Clara at this time shows his feelings at the time when he says
despairingly, “all these nights of anguish, sleepless with the thought of you, and all this
tearless grief”. Schumann eventually prevailed in his law suit and he married Clara in
1840. Of course three short piano pieces cannot possibly contain all of Schumann’s
conflicting emotions of the time, and we will never know his precise thoughts at the
moment of composition, but there are perhaps hints of the combination of joy and
anger, expectation and frustration which his personal life clearly contained. Even more
tellingly, in the highly adventurous and individual compositional style of Kinderscenen, a
sense of the dual personalities Schumann invented, Florestan and Eusebius, the
reflective and the impetuous, emerge. There are also clear signs of Schumann’s inherent
instability of character, something which would eventually lead to madness and death.
Performing forces and their handling
The Early-Romantic period was a time of great change in piano construction. In the time
between Schumann’s birth and the composition of Kinderscenen some major
developments had taken place. Two are very relevant to us here, the invention of the
iron frame, along with the use of felt to cover hammers rather than leather. The former
would allow for greater resonance and sustaining power and the latter altered the tone
of the instrument to have a mellower and less strident quality. Some aspects of these
three pieces reflect these changes, for instance, the gentle melodic lyricism of No. 1 and,
to a lesser extent, No. 11, as well as the vibrant sustained bass open fifths in No. 3
(Bars 13 & 14) would not have had the same effect on an earlier instrument. It is also
worth remembering that the modern day instrument on which we now hear these pieces
is different again. The sheer power and volume of today’s grand pianos would probably
have seemed quite shocking (or thrilling!) to Schumann - something worth bearing in
mind in any performance.
In terms of general piano writing, there are features which place these pieces stylistically
in the Romantic period:
• In No. 1 the two hands generate three clearly identifiable textural layers.
• The importance of the sustaining pedal, especially in the first of the pieces.
• The accompaniment of No. 3 leaps in dramatic fashion between bass notes and
chords rather in the manner of the later jazz “stride bass” style.
• Bars 15-16 of No. 3 contain the unusual effect of a sustained chord within which a
chromatic melodic ascent is placed.
• No. 11 commences with both hands very close together and in treble clef.
• The section in No. 11 starting at Bar 9 places the melody in the bass and has off-
beat semiquaver chords as a right hand accompaniment.
General Comments
Before commencing an analysis of each piece in turn there are some features which
relate to and appear in all of the pieces; to avoid unnecessary repetition later on, they
can be mentioned here. These general features are:
• Functional Harmony and Tonality.
• Melody dominated homophony.
• Simple rhythms.
• Diatonic melodies.
• Balanced phrasing.
• Clearly defined cadences.
• Modulation to related keys.
• Mainly diatonic harmony with occasional chromatic chords.
• Use of simple duple time throughout.
Any exceptions to the above will be commented on when analysing individual pieces.
No. 1 – Von Fremden Ländern Und Menschen
Structure
• Rounded Binary Form (A:BA) with repeats.
Tonality
• G major.
• Modulation to E minor at bar 12 but resolution to tonic is surprisingly avoided.
Harmony
• Perfect cadences, e.g. bars 21-22.
• Chord V usually has a 7th added.
• Dim. 7th chord in bar 12.
• Unusual progression in bars 112-12: instead of II-V (in E minor) being followed by
the expected tonic chord the harmony shifts unexpectedly to a G major triad
which initially is missing its third.
• 4-3 suspension in the inner part writing of bar 7.
Melody
• Combination of steps and leaps, including thematic feature of rising minor 6th leap
followed by stepwise descent in bars 1-2 and elsewhere.
• Melodic sequence in bars 9-12.
• Bass line in bars 9-12 borrows features of the opening melody.
Texture
• Three textural layers in A sections consisting of upper melody, inner quaver
triplets and an independent bass line.
• B section (Bars 9-14) differs; the melody is played mainly in thirds and the bass
line acts as a countermelody.
Rhythm
• Triplets are used in the inner accompaniment.
• Melody features use of dotted rhythms (N.B., the limitations of contemporary
notation mean that they could have sounded as a “crotchet-quaver” triplet).
No. 3 – Hasch-Mann
Structure
• Rounded Binary Form (A: BA) with written out repeat of opening four bars but
conventional notated repeat of the ensuing BA section.
Tonality
• B minor.
• Modulation to G major at bar 9.
• Lengthy dominant preparation at bars 152-16.
Harmony
• Perfect cadences, e.g. bar 20.
• Appoggiaturas in bar 2 (the accented semi-quavers).
• Use of 7th chords, mainly dominant 7ths but II7-V7 progression is used in bar 10.
• Striking use of prolonged ‘Neapolitan’ chord in root position in bars 13-151 with
dissonant harmony on the second beat also creating a pedal effect.
• Because the Neapolitan chord is, unusually, in root position the natural move to
Dominant 7th in bar 16 involves a leap of a tritone in the bass.
Melody
• Combination of steps and leaps with much scalic passagework.
• Descending sequence in bar 2.
• Unusual descent of a minor 7th in bar 9.
Texture
• Generally, right hand melody is accompanied by the aforementioned “stride bass”
patterns in left hand.
• The exceptions to this are the open 5th double pedal in bars 132-151 and the
sustained chord with inner ascending scale in Bar 152.
Rhythm
• Much use of semi-quavers.
• The same 2-bar rhythmic pattern occurs in the melody throughout the piece,
apart from brief deviations and use of more sustained notes in Bars 13-16.
No. 11 – Fürchtenmachen
Structure
• Symmetrical Rondo Form (A B A C A B A) with some sections repeated.
Tonality
• E minor is clearly suggested by initial I-Vb progression at the start
• G major is established as the key of the piece by bar 4.
• Modulation to E minor in bar 10 and, sequentially, C major in bar 12.
• Brief excursions to the keys of A minor in bar 22 and B minor in bar 24.
Harmony
• Cadences are common but traditionally placed root position perfect cadences are
rare – the best example comes at the end but even it is diluted by feminine
cadence treatment.
• Most perfect cadences close on weaker beats (e.g., bars 10 and 12 and even
more dramatically in bar 242).
• A secondary dominant chord is used in bar 281.
• Imperfect cadences are frequent (e.g., Ic-V in bars 4 and 8).
• Chromatic harmony - the opening two bars are highly chromatic and include
diminished triads on 2nd and 4th quavers of bar 2 (the former including a 7th).
Melody
• Mostly diatonic apart from chromaticism in the 2nd bar of the A section.
• B section (bar 9) has a very disjunct bass melody which is treated in sequence.
• The second half of the C section (bars 25-28) has a 2 bar phrase with semitone
movement which spans a diminished 4th and is then treated in sequence, with one
semitone expanding to a tone.
Texture
• The opening feels almost feels like three-part counterpoint with the lower two
parts descending in thirds.
• By bar 4 four reasonably independent parts have emerged.
• Bar 5 establishes melody dominated homophony with the tune in the lowest part.
• The B section (bars 9-12) has a bass tune with short off beat chords
accompanying above.
• At the start of the C section (bars 21-24) three contrasting textural elements
alternate – rapid semiquaver movement in 6ths, single bass notes and full 5-part
chords.
• The melody dominated homophony texture at bars 25-28 uses a stride-like
accompaniment pattern reminiscent of No.3.
Rhythm
• Dotted rhythms appear regularly in the A section.
• Elsewhere semiquavers are either used in pairs (B section) or in groups of four (C
section).
• Offbeat rhythms feature (on every second semiquaver in the B section and on
every second quaver in the first half of the C section).
31. Stravinsky
Symphony of Psalms: movement III (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background Information and
Performance Circumstances In 1910 the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky burst onto the Western European
musical scene with his ballet score for The Firebird. An immediate celebrity, he became
notorious three years later with the music of his latest ballet The Rite of Spring. This
often harsh, dissonant music for a huge orchestra caused a riot at the first
performance, but many now regard it as the most important composition of the 20th
Century. The First World War put a stop to these large-scale Parisian performances and
Stravinsky turned at first to works for much smaller ensembles. His style changed too
as he became a prominent figure in the new neo-classical style. His reworking of 18th
Century music in Pulcinella (NAM 7), composed in 1920 was one of the first neo-
classical masterpieces.
Symphony of Psalms was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in
America for its 50th anniversary celebrations, though its first performance actually took
place in Brussels. The style of the piece defies easy classification, as it contains
elements of Baroque, jazz and traditional Russian church music features, synthesised
with other 20th Century elements in a purely Stravinsky manner.
Neo-classical elements include:
• Many tonal characteristics, such as the frequent return to a C major chord, for
instance on the word Dominum in bar 7
• The short imitative section at bar 150 evoking the age of Handel.
Jazz influences include:
• Instrumentation dominated by wind, with no upper strings, (typical of jazz
bands).
• The pizzicato double bass ostinatos sounding like the walking bass lines of jazz.
• Frequent syncopation, especially in the faster sections (e.g. from bar 25).
Russian orthodox church influences include:
• The chanting effect of the beginning.
• The emphasis on choral sound.
• The often slow, static music evoking ancient church rituals, e.g. from bar 163.
Other 20th Century influences include:
• Frequent dissonance, e.g. opening vocal chords.
• Use of bitonality. The choral music at the beginning suggests E flat major, but
the piano and harp parts simultaneously outline the tonic chord of C.
Instruments and Voices
• Large symphony orchestra but with no violins, violas or clarinets.
• 5 trumpets, including high pitched trumpet in D.
• Quintuple woodwind including 5 flutes.
• Double bass plays pizzicato frequently, in the manner of a jazz walking bass.
• The instrumentation includes 2 pianos and harp.
• Voices are arranged in the traditional four voice grouping of Soprano, Alto,
Tenor and Bass. Stravinsky originally intended the work to be sung by all male
voices, including boy trebles, but this didn’t happen at the first performances.
Text Setting
• The psalm text in Latin is generally sung syllabically, like the opening Alleluia.
• Stravinsky often does a kind of reverse word painting, so at the mention of
trumpets, they are hardly audible in the score. The word cymbals is not
accompanied by cymbals in the orchestra, indeed it is sometimes set to very
quiet choral music.
• Words and phrases are constantly repeated, e.g. laudate eum.
• Sometimes words are broken up by rests in the manner of the French
mediaeval hocket, e.g. from bar 65.
• Individual syllables are often accented for rhythmic effect, rather than for any
intended meaning, e.g. bar 104.
Texture
• The opening section includes homophonic music for voices, e.g. on the word
Dominum.
• At the first laudate words, tenors and basses sing in octaves.
• There is two part vocal texture for sopranos and altos at bar 53.
• The imitative section for four voice parts beginning at bar 150 is sometimes
(loosely) double by instruments. Notice how the third and fourth voices enter
together.
Structure
• This is the third and final movement of the work.
• The movement begins and ends with the same music, the slow moving Alleluia
section. The Alleluia also occurs briefly in the middle of the movement
(bars 99-103).
• A faster section dominated by a 6 repeated note idea starts at bar 24. This
repeated note idea dominates the movement as a whole.
• Sopranos have a new theme at bar 53 based on the Laudate theme of bar 4.
This is extended and developed until the music eventually reaches a tutti climax
at bar 144, leading to the imitations at bar 150 (see notes on texture).
• A slow chanted section, marked molto meno mosso has all voices singing
together, interrupted by a series of repeated notes in octaves in tenor and bass,
before the final Alleluia section taken from the beginning of the movement.
Tonality
• As mentioned earlier, the music has tonal elements, for instance the C major
chord in the final three bars.
• The section at bar 150 starts by emphasising the tonality of D major, before
outlining chords of G major, E minor and A minor.
• Bitonality is also a feature, with the opening choral music in E flat major, but
the simultaneous piano music in C major.
Harmony
• The harmony is non-functional. There is no sense of building towards cadences.
7th chords, as on the second beat of bar 3, don’t suggest a need to ‘resolve’
onto another chord.
• Dissonance is an important feature of the music. On the third syllable of the
word Alleluia in bar 3, the G bass clashes against A flats.
• Nevertheless, there are many simple consonant chords, such as the C major
root position chords at the end.
• Many harmonic effects are the result of ostinatos, such as the seemingly
endlessly repeated four notes, each a fourth apart towards the end of the
movement (from bar 163). These produce a variety of chordal sounds above.
Melody
• One of the most distinctive melodic features is the use of repeated notes, as at
the start of the second section (bar 24).
• Many other passages have smooth flowing, conjunct music, as in the opening
Alleluia.
• Sometimes a melody line is made up of only two notes, as at the section where
the sopranos sing with the altos at bar 53.
• The altos here have a very narrow range melodic line.
• As this music builds to a climax the sopranos sing part of a whole tone scale
(bars 62-3).
• On other occasions the voices outline chords, like the D major chord in bar 150.
• At climax points, intervals sometimes become much larger, like the diminished
7th and diminished 8ve at bar 161, soprano part.
Rhythm and Metre
• At times the music is very static, moving in minims and crotchets at a slow
tempo.
• At other times the music is intensely rhythmic, as at the beginning of the
second section at bar 24 with repeated quavers and ‘walking’ bass line in
crotchets.
• Syncopation is frequent, as in the same section, where weak beats and off
beats are accentuated.
• As this section builds up there are many triplet quavers in the orchestra music
(e.g. bar 41).
• There are occasional changes of time signature.
37. Haydn
My mother bids me bind my hair (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background Information and Performance Circumstances
By the time Haydn published this piece in 1794, he was the most famous composer in
Europe. He was on his second trip to England from his home city of Vienna, this time
staying for a year and a half. He was treated like a superstar and his ‘London’
symphonies in particular were performed to triumphant acclaim. The ‘public’ style of
these new works was a world away from the much more personal nervous tension of the
Sturm und Drang works of the late 1760s, such as Symphony no. 26 in D minor
(Anthology no. 2).
This second trip was even more of a success than the first one, not least in financial
terms. One of the most lucrative ventures was the writing of songs for the amateur
market in England. Young ladies were expected to be able to sing as well as accompany
themselves - and others - on the piano. They were in constant need of new material and
publishers were prepared to pay handsomely for Haydn’s name on the title page. The
music would usually be performed at home rather than in a concert hall.
This song comes from the first set of six canzonettas (short songs). As well as a second
set a year later, Haydn went on to arrange no fewer than 450 British folk songs, many of
them after his return to Vienna (though it is thought that his pupils may well have
written many of these). My mother bids me bind my hair was so popular, particularly in
the 19th Century, that it achieved the status of a treasured national folk song. The text
was given to Haydn by its author, the English poetess, Anne Hunter, the widow of the
celebrated Scottish surgeon, John Hunter. In return, Haydn dedicated the set of songs
to her.
Many of the features of the song are typical of the High Classical ‘public’ style:
• Predominantly in the major key (A major).
• Balanced phrases – the vocal tune begins with an antecedent - a four bar phrase
ending on the dominant (with an imperfect cadence), answered by another four
bar phrase – the consequent – though this ends with a perfect cadence in the
dominant key (E major), instead of the more usual tonic.
• Mainly simple diatonic music with no chromatic notes in the first 8 bars of the
melody. The piano introduction does, however, include some subtle chromaticism,
and there is a chromatic section later in the song.
• Modulations to closely related keys. In this piece Haydn only modulates to the
dominant (bar 15). This is only to be expected in such a short, relatively simple
piece. In the string quartets he composed at this time he modulated much more
widely.
• Use of the new fortepiano. In the second half of the 18th Century the piano had
rapidly supplanted the harpsichord to become the instrument well-off families had
to have in their home. Its volume could easily be adapted by pressure of touch.
• Melody dominated homophony was the standard texture in this type of piece as
when the voice first enters, though in this song there are slightly more elaborate
passages, involving heterophony (see bars 23-26). The density (number of notes)
in the piano varies throughout the song.
• A typical Classical feature of the harmony was the second inversion cadence, as
at the end of the piano introduction, when the progression is Ic-V7-I, with the
final tonic chord lasting for a whole bar.
Vocal Style and Instrumentation
• Both the piano part and the vocal line were designed to be playable by amateur
performers – often the same person performing both.
• The voice part has a narrow range (only an octave), to suit the limited technique
of an amateur. The top note is only E, a 10th above middle C.
• The text-setting is a mixture of syllabic and short slurs.
• The only passage presenting any difficulty for the vocalist is the tuning of the
brief chromatic section at bar 23.
• The vocal part is made easier by moving mainly in conjunct (stepwise) motion or
outlining simple chords (e.g. 1st bar of vocal entry).
• The right hand of the piano part mainly doubles the voice part, to add support to
the amateur singer. Exceptions occur in passages for solo piano in the
introduction and between vocal phrases, and here the keyboard writing is more
elaborate. Bar 3, for instance, has a more complex rhythm, including
demisemiquavers, and is melodically more adventurous than the equivalent music
in the vocal sections e.g. the chromatic D# passing note in bar 3.
• There are occasional moments of heterophony, when the piano has a more
elaborate version of the soprano music, e.g. on the word ‘sleeves’ in bar 18, and
the passage from bar 23 to 26.
• See the notes on texture for more information about the piano music style.
Texture
• As mentioned earlier, the piano right hand part doubles the voice for most of the
time, with occasional moments of heterophony (see previous section)
• The piano texture is actually quite varied. Simple melody dominated homophony
(as at the very beginning) is comparatively rare.
• Quite often there is four part texture, almost in the manner of a string quartet
(e.g. bars 1-2). Here the music includes a tonic pedal. There is a dominant pedal
immediately afterwards, in bars 3-4.
• Occasionally the left hand has simple alternating broken chordal notes, e.g. bar 5.
Sometimes there are broken chords in the right hand (bar 23).
• Further textures in the piano part include octaves (bars 24-6) and 3rds (bar 12).
Structure
• The song is in simple strophic form, that it has a second verse which exactly
repeats the music of the first verse (even when the mood of the words doesn’t
entirely fit since the chromatic music is much more appropriate for the first verse
than the second).
• There is an 8 bar piano introduction, which begins with an elaborate statement of
the opening four bar vocal phrase, before moving to a second phrase which
foreshadows the chromaticism from later in the song.
• Anne Hunter’s original text had four verses, which Haydn compresses into two.
Each verse modulates to the dominant in the middle and then returns to the
tonic.
• The vocal phrase structure starts with simple balanced four bar phrases,
modulating to the dominant in the second, but from then the phrase lengths
become more uneven.
Tonality
• Haydn uses functional tonality with only one modulation, moving to the dominant,
A major at the end of the second vocal phrase (bar 16). The whole of the middle
section of the song is in the dominant, before returning to the tonic at the words
‘Alas I scarce can go or creep’.
• Much of the music is diatonic in the major key – the first vocal phrase and its
piano accompaniment contains no notes foreign to the home key.
• There are occasional moments of chromaticism which cloud the key. This is
especially noticeable in the middle section of the song (‘For why she cries’) and in
the elaborated chromatic descent in the piano part in the second phrase of the
introduction (bars 5-6).
• The key is emphasised by tonic and dominant pedal points, as in the first four
bars.
Harmony
• The functional harmony emphasises tonic and dominant chords, mainly using root
and first inversion chords. Perfect cadences, such as the one at the end of the
piano introduction, often use carefully controlled 2nd inversion chords. The
cadence here is Ic (tonic 2nd inversion), V7 (dominant 7th root position) and then
a whole bar of tonic chord.
• For the most part there is simple diatonic harmony, with dissonance provided by
pedal points as at the beginning and suspensions (4-3 over tonic chord in bar 2).
• The rare chromatic chords include the outline of a diminished 7th at the beginning
of bar 6.
• Appoggiaturas (e.g. end of first vocal phrase) and double appoggiaturas
(beginning of bar 10) enliven the harmony.
Melody
• The simple diatonic style of much of the melody (e.g. first phrase) has already
been mentioned, as has the occasional chromaticism, e.g. ‘For why, she cries, sit
still and weep’, the frequent stepwise progression (‘Alas I scarce can go or
creep’), and the outlining of chords, e.g. tonic at the beginning.
• Other points to mention include the ornaments at the end of phrases, including
acciaccaturas and gruppetti (groups of grace notes) – both occurring at the end of
the second vocal phrase.
• The melodic line also features frequent appoggiaturas, either notated as small
note ornaments, as at the end of the first vocal phrase, or incorporated within the
standard vocal line, such as the prepared appoggiatura G# at the beginning of
bar 10.
Rhythm and Metre
• The metre is compound duple.
• Every single phrase begins with an anacrusis of a quaver.
• Most of the rhythm consists of simple groupings of quavers and semiquavers with the
occasional dotted rhythm (e.g. second vocal note).
• There is a passage of triplets, then demisemiquavers at the end of the piano
introduction.
• Rests are used to illustrate sighs (‘For why, she cries’) in the middle section of each
verse.
Text Setting
Most of these points have been made in earlier sections, but merit repetition now:
• Haydn compresses the four verses of Anne Hunter’s text into two verses in his song.
• There is some word painting in the first verse, with simple diatonic music for the
dressing up at the beginning, then chromatic music at the words ‘For why, she cries,
sit still and weep’.
• The strophic setting works less well for the second verse, as Haydn sets the words
‘and sigh, and sigh where none can hear’ to light-hearted music and ‘while I spin my
flaxen thread’ to inappropriately mournful chromatic music.
• The vocal music is a mixture of syllabic and short slurs. Rests are used to break up
the vocal line at the end of each verse.
• Most phrases begin with an anacrusis.
52. Carl Perkins
Honey Don’t (for unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background • The number was recorded in1955 at Sun Studios, Memphis (also used by Elvis
Presley).
• It was a mono recording made without access to multi-tracking and so
requiring several complete takes.
• It was released in January 1956 as the B side to Blue Suede Shoes, which went
to number 1, selling over a million copies.
• It was released on both 7” vinyl ‘45’ and 10” shellac 78!
• Blue Suede Shoes eventually became more famous in the version by Presley,
while Honey Don’t was covered by others, including the Beatles in 1964.
Rockabilly
• In style, Honey Don’t is an example of Rockabilly, an early and commercially
successful form of Rock and Roll in which elements of Rhythm and Blues were
combined with country-music.
• It became popular when used by white musicians in films such as The
Blackboard Jungle with Rock around the Clock performed by Bill Haley and the
Comets.
• It is in fast 4/4 tempo derived from Jazz and some country styles.
• It uses country instrumentation of double bass, electric and acoustic guitars,
drums and vocals, helping to establish the shape of Rock groups for decades to
come.
• The singing style is derived from R & B and is hoarse and declamatory, in
contrast to the ‘smoothness’ of contemporary popular ‘crooners’.
• It used 12 bar blues patterns as its basis, abandoning the 19th century derived
harmonisations of Tin Pan Alley and 32-bar AABA ballad forms.
Biographical Details
• Carl Perkins (1932-1998) was a singer/guitarist/composer of Rockabilly music.
• He was born in Jackson, 90 miles from Memphis, Tennessee.
• He began by ‘jiving up’ country classic and using a rhythmic drive that was
uncharacteristic of country or blues.
• He formed a group with his two brothers - James (rhythm guitar) and Clayton
(upright bass) - and W.S Holland (drums). Holland was drafted in two weeks
before the recording was made, and had never played before!
• The group was shattered in March 1956 after a car accident which left Carl
seriously injured and in which his brother Jay broke his neck.
Performing instruments and their handling
The song was performed by:
Carl Perkins voice, lead (electric) guitar
Jay Perkins rhythm guitar
Clayton Perkins double bass
WS Holland drums
Rock and Roll pioneered the use of small, amplified groups ( ‘combos’) which could
fill a Dance Hall with sound every bit as much as the Big Bands that were still
popular at the time. These early groups were basically little more than a Jazz
rhythm section, without the piano, but with vocals. The use of two guitars had
been common in country music for some years.
The chief characteristics of the vocal part are:
• Syllabic word-setting
• Improvisatory elements
• Limited number of notes
• Some nonsense syllables (‘ba,ba’) in choruses 3 and 4
• Some half-spoken notes
• Deliberately poor diction
• Sometimes harsh and declamatory blues vocal timbre
• The vocal line is in a higher register in the Choruses and in Verse 3
Lead Guitar
• It is played with plectrum rather than with fingers to get a cleaner and
punchier attack.
• It begins with a typical chromatically descending line with some double
stopping. This passage is enhanced by tape echo, that is by feeding the sound
back through a tape delay to get a repetition of the sound.
• It plays a varied version of the bass’s walking bass in choruses – this idea
also provides the only melodic focus in bars 40-50.
• The ‘solos’/breaks in bars 30-40 and 74-80, consist largely of double-stopped
parallel fourths on the top two strings, emulating an early solo style for
guitarists which is more rhythmic and chordal than melodic.
Rhythm guitar
• It provides strummed crotchet chords based on Blues progressions in the
choruses.
• It plays damped punctuating chords in vv. 1 and 2, and sustained chords in v3.
Bass
• This is provided by a plucked (pizzicato) double bass.
• In the verses, it plays the roots of chords in time with guitars.
• In choruses, it plays the traditional walking bass patterns common in
rockabilly/rock ‘n’roll, sometimes involving minor 7th (D) - a cliché of 1950s
popular music.
• Bars 38-45 have an entirely triadic bass line.
• Slap timbre is used to emphasise the off beats in bars 32-36.
Drums
• Shuffle type rhythm is heard on cymbals with swung quavers on beats 2 and 4.
• The snare drum provides a backbeat on beats 2 and 4.
• The bass drum marks beats 1 and 3.
• In the verses, the bass drum also doubles the guitars’ pickup rhythms.
Texture • The texture is best described as being mostly melody-dominated
homophony (instruments supporting vocals).
• The verses have a variant of stop time, where the voice continues while
guitars and bass play only punctuating chords.
• A heterophonic texture occurs when the walking bass accompaniment in
bass is doubled and embellished by guitar.
• Parallel fourths appear in the two guitar breaks.
Structure • Honey don’t keeps to a verse and chorus structure with Guitar/instrumental
breaks.
• An 8 bar verse is followed by the 16 bar chorus, incorporating 2 X 12 bar blues
progressions (the first slightly altered).
1-5: Introduction Centres on B and E with descending chromatic
guitar line (1-3), followed by walking bass +strummed E chord (4-5).
6-13 Verse 1 Alternating E and C chords. 14-29 Chorus Chords V7-V7-I-I followed by ‘conventional’ 12 bar
pattern. Short vocal phrases with repeated words: ‘Honey Don’t’.
6-13 Verse 2 Changes to words and some details of vocal melody.
14-29 Chorus Text repeated; minor changes in 2nd time bar). 30-37 Instrumental
(Guitar Solo)
38-49
Guitar ‘solo’ in parallel 4ths over verse chord pattern but with a B7 substituted for C in bar 38. First 4 bars of Chorus sequence omitted.
Blues sequence (last 12 bars of Chorus).
49-57 Verse 3 Vocal line centred an octave higher than before with some other changes to fit the chord sequence.
57-73 Chorus Gaps between ‘Honey Don’t’ filled with syncopated ‘ba, ba’ scat syllables based on rhythm of guitar solo.
74-83 Instrumental
(Guitar Solo)
83-96 Final chorus and
Coda
Parallel 4ths idea reused over altered Verse chords (8th bar altered to B7). Bar 83 extended to 6 beats to allow lengthened vocal anacrusis figure. Twelve bar pattern extended with use of chromatic descending line and a plagal cadence (94-95) involving E major 6th chord.
Tonality • In the tonic key of E major throughout with no use of modulation
Harmony • Diatonic, functional harmony is used throughout.
• A limited range of chords is used, dominated by the primary chords of E major-
E,A,B7.
• Substitution of non-diatonic C major (flattened submediant) chord in verses,
where chord IV might have appeared. This chord also fits nicely with the ‘blue’
3rd sung in these bars and this kind of progression was often found in Country
songs. (This caused a heated dispute amongst members of the band at the
recording session, but it later proved to be one of the most remarkable
features of the song.)
• The chord sequence of the chorus is a slightly altered version of the
‘conventional’ 12 bar blues progression, with two V7 chords replacing the usual
V-IV progression in bars 9 and 10 of the sequence.
• Hints of a more sophisticated harmonic language are found in the chromatic
descending lines of the Introduction and at the end of the Coda, although both
of these figures were blues clichés by this time.
• The piece ends on an E major chord with added C#.
Melody • The melody is limited in both range and the numbers of note used.
• It is very much centred around the tonic E.
• It uses ‘blue’ (flattened) 3rds and 7ths (D and G naturals).
• It is mainly disjunct, favouring intervals of a third up and down to chord notes.
Octave leaps from E to E are common.
• Verses consist of four two bar phrases.
• Choruses consist mainly of one bar patterns separated by rests (filled by scat
syllables in choruses 3 and 4).
• The chorus melody is almost on a monotone but dips down to C# (substitute
dominant note) D natural (flattened 7th) and up to G natural (blue 3rd).
• The melody is highly improvisatory in nature, which may account for the small
but telling differences between verses and between the repetitions of choruses.
• Excitement increases at each chorus as the line shifts up in register to the
higher tonic, and this technique is also used in Verse 3, where the vocal line is
consistently based an octave higher than before.
Rhythm and Metre • Honey don’t is in fast quadruple time (4/4) reinforced by guitar strums.
• Internal subdivisions of the crotchet beats create a feeling of 12/8, with
‘shuffle’ and ‘swung’ rhythms requiring a ‘relaxed’ performance style for the
transcribed dotted quaver–semiquaver rhythms.
• Punctuating stop time-like chords in the verse use a characteristic ‘pickup’
rhythm.
•
• The vocal line uses syncopation frequently against the strong pulse of the
accompaniment.
• The guitar solo breaks also use syncopated rhythms.
• Snare drum emphasises beats 2 and 4 – the back beats.
• The opening guitar break uses subdivisions of 3+3+2 quavers.
54. The Beatles
A Day in the Life (for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background Information and performance circumstances
• A Day in the Life is the concluding track of the Beatles’ 1967 album, Sergeant
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• The songs on the album were designed for studio rather than live performance.
• Four track tape technology used in Revolver (1965) and Rubber Soul (1966)
was further developed in this album.
• It was a ‘concept’ album, following the example of Pet Sounds (1966) by the
American group the Beach Boys.
• It is a set of songs exploring the theme of loneliness.
• Its format is that of a ‘show within a show’, in which all but one of the songs
are ‘performed’ by a fictitious band.
• The impression of ‘live’ performance is created by the addition of crowd noise,
applause and tuning-up sounds at the beginning of the album and by a ‘locked
groove’ (endless looped recording) featuring noises from the post-recording
party, at the end.
• The musical and stylistic range of the album is huge, ranging from rock songs
(With a little help), pseudo-vaudeville (When I’m sixty-four) to experimental
(Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, For the benefit of Mr Kite).
• The musical resources used on the album far exceeded those of the original two
guitars, bass, drums and vocals of the Beatles’ early recordings, including
keyboards, Indian classical instruments, sound and tape effects, a brass section
and a 40-piece orchestra in A Day in the Life.
• A Day in the Life stands ‘outside’ the Sergeant Pepper ‘performances’ on the
album, following immediately after the reprise of the title song. The Beatles –
not the Club Band - are clearly performing it. As such it has the function of a
kind of ‘epilogue’ to the album.
• The song is an assembly of two separate units, one by John Lennon with bleak
and sardonic material, and the other, more upbeat section by Paul McCartney.
• These two sections are connected by an orchestral link, and form a loose ABA
(Ternary) shape overall.
Performing forces and their handling
As a studio produced track, A Day in the Life was conceived as a rich mixture of
timbres and textures, unlike earlier Beatles songs, which focused on what could be
done with two guitars, bass, drums and vocals.
Vocal lines
Verses were sung by Lennon and are typified by
• Generally syllabic setting of words…
• except for semitonal melismas on ’turn you on’
• Mid-to-high range of the voice in phrases 1 and 3 alternating with lower tessitura in
phrases 2 and 4.
• Overall range of a 10th (E to G).
• Highest note (G) occurs at the close of verses 2 and 3.
• There are repeated melodic motives (see melody).
Transition 2 (58-67) is also sung by Lennon
• wordless vocalise, again in high register.
The middle section is sung by McCartney:
• It is lower in tessitura, gravitating more towards the lower E.
• It spans a range of an octave (B to B).
• It has a less reflective quality.
Piano and Acoustic guitar
• Simple chordal patterns in the Introduction and throughout Lennon’s verses (Guitar
with strummed quaver chords while those on piano vary in length).
• There is little melodic interest in the parts for these instruments…
• But the piano plays ‘concerto-like’ chords after the words ‘Albert Hall’.
Bass guitar
• Its part is a more elaborate version of that in the piano left hand, so creating a
heterophonic texture.
• Verses are dominated by downward scale motion.
• Plays pedal E in quavers during orchestral link passages (although these quickly
become inaudible).
• More active part in middle section with some chromaticism.
• Arpeggio shapes in Transition 2 passage (e.g. bar 58).
• Notable for its avoidance of walking bass patterns.
Drums/percussion
• Verse 1 and 1st phrase of Verse 2 accompanied only by maracas.
• Full Kit enters with a fill into phrase 2 in verse 2.
• Frequent tom-tom fills.
• Quaver rhythms on hi-hat and snare create double time feeling during middle
section.
Orchestral sections
• These were introduced quite late in the process as a way of filling the gaps between
Lennon’s verse 3 and McCartney’s middle section and between verse 4 and the
end.
• This section is type of aleatoric (chance) writing, although the performers were
given reference points throughout to indicate the rate of progression.
• The result is an atonal slide, made more powerful by the overdubbing of four takes
into the finished mix.
Recording /production
• Four track technology created a sound that could not easily be reproduced live,
with …
• Use of panning.
• Addition of Alarm clock sound before McCartney’s ‘woke up, got out of bed’.
• Overdubbing of three Pianos and Harmonium on the final E major chord, enhancing
the sound to last approximately 40 seconds.
Texture • Mainly melody–dominated homophony.
• Variety is created by aleatoric orchestral sections and stylistic differences between
Lennon and McCartney’s material.
• Bass and Piano Left hand play the same basic line throughout (both played by Paul
McCartney), but the bass part plays an embellished version, creating an
heterophonic texture.
Structure • Strophic (verse) structure of Lennon’s material (G major).
• Asymmetrical verse lengths.
• McCartney’s (E major) middle section creates an overall feeling of Ternary form.
• Orchestral and vocal links provide transitions between the different ideas and keys.
Introduction 1-4 Overlaps final chord of previous track (Sergeant
Pepper reprise). Acoustic guitar strums opening
sequence of verse with piano joining in.
Verse 1 5-14 5 two bar phrases; tonality G major, but with hints
of modal E minor.
Verse 2 15-23 5 phrases lasting 9 bars.
Verse 3 24-34 5 phrases lasting 11 bars.
Transition 1 35-46 Orchestral slide, merging with end of Verse 3. Pedal
E, closing with E major chord at Bars 45/46.
Bridge/Middle 47-57 Contrasting section; E major; tighter tempo.
Interpolated 2/4 bars (creating 2 ½ bar phrase
lengths). 4 phrases.
Transition 2 58-67 Wordless vocalise and orchestral octaves in cycle of
fifths in opposite direction to the usual progression
(C/G/D/A/E), heard twice.
Verse 4 68-78 6 phrases with semitonal material from end of V2
and V3.
Coda 79-89 Repeat of Orchestral slide with more active drum
part. Ends with overdubbed E major chord.
Tonality
• Verses are in G major, but with more focus on the submediant (E) than is usual
and with no use of the dominant chord (D).
• The flattened seventh chord (F) major is employed.
• Orchestral transitions begin on a trill on B (the mediant of G and the dominant of
E) and work through an atonal slide to a chord of E major.
• McCartney’s bridge/middle section is in E major (parallel major of the relative
minor), with strong hints of the mixolydian mode (nb. D major chords), though the
dominant ninth chord is used in a more functional manner.
• The second transition travels around the cycle of fifths twice before returning
through a conventional IV-V progression to G major for:
• Verse 4 (G major at start).
• Coda – Orchestral slide again works its way up from B to E major.
Harmony • The chords used in the introduction form a I-III-VI-IV (G Bm Em C) progression
which is repeated and decorated to form the first part of the verse, arriving on II9
(Am9) by use of a passing Cmaj7 chord (IV-IV7-II9).
• The second half of the verse begins as the first, but then heads flatwards by a fifth
from the C chord to the flattened VII chord (F major) a common modal inflection in
rock music.
• A plagal cadence leads back into verse 2.
• The stepwise, descending bass line, spanning a minor seventh from tonic to
supertonic, creates some unusual inversions – IIIc (2nd inversion) in bar 5 (beat 2)
and seventh chords in third inversions in bar 6 (beat 3) and bar 7 (beat 3), that is
VI7d and IV7d respectively.
• The bridge/middle section also uses the chord of the flattened seventh (D).
• Otherwise, the bridge alternates between tonic and dominant ninth (B9).
• The second transition section, outlines a cycle of fifths (the bassline descending by
fourths) from C to E twice (C-G-D-A-E).
• There are few (and no perfect) conventional cadences in this song.
Melody • The melodic style is diatonic/major/pentatonic by turns, but with little or no sign of
Blues influence (flattened thirds/sevenths).
• Most of the melodic shapes are disjunct, favouring leaps between harmony notes
(3rds/4ths).
• Verses are made up of elaborations and variations on three ideas presented in the
first two phrases of Verse 1:
a Bars 5-6: alternating upward thirds and fourths from a central B.
Ambiguous tonality/pentatonic feel created.
b 7: upward third from G to B, followed by stepwise 4-3-2-1 shape, in G
major.
c 8: strong upwards fifth (for word setting –‘made the grade’).
The second half of Verse 1 uses the ideas in the pattern a, b, b, a pattern that allows
the verse to end on the tonic G, perhaps in agreement with the definite statement of
the words ‘I saw the photograph’.
• At the end of verse 2 two new ideas are introduced:
d Bar 22: Semiquaver downwards semitone using a lower chromatic
auxilary note (B-A#).
e 22 beat3: ‘aspirational’ rising second inversion arpeggio shape,
ascending to the highest note of the vocal line (G).
• Motif ‘e’ allows verse 2 to finish an octave higher than Verse 1 – by an octave (for
‘House of Lords’).
• Motif ‘d’ becomes important later, as it is inverted and repeated to form both the
melismatic ‘turn you on’ and the overlapping slow orchestral trill that begins the
transitional sections.
• Motif ‘e’ precedes motif ‘d’ in Verse 3 (bar 31) and is rhythmically augmented and
inverted.
• Verse 4 uses elements of the endings of verse 2 and 3 one after the other.
• The middle section consists of two 2½ bar phrases, which are then repeated in the
pattern x,y,x,y.
• The main interval here is the third, both major and minor, which creates both a
triadic and a pentatonic feel in the first phrase.
• Sequence is used in the second.
Rhythm, metre and tempo
• Two tempi are used: around 77bpm for the verse, changing to 82bpm for the
Bridge/middle section, where the predominantly quaver pulse gives the feel of a
much faster 164bpm.
• The accompanying piano and acoustic guitar present a very clear 4/4 pulse in the
verses, using mostly crotchets and quavers with very few syncopations.
• This allows the vocal line to ‘push and pull’ the beat with both anticipatory and
retarding syncopations.
• The majority of vocal phrases in the verses begin on the second quaver of the bar
(see bars 5,7,9,11,13).
• The solidity of the chordal accompaniment allows the drummer considerable
freedom in his fills, which are often syncopated and use smaller subdivisions of the
beat, such as triplet and sextuplet semiquavers.
• The most ‘conventional’ rock rhythms (bass drum on beats 1 and 3, snare on
‘backbeats’ 2 and 4) occur sometimes in the verses, and are also present in the
first orchestral transition section.
• The accompaniment to the bridge section is enlivened by the use of the
cross/additive rhythm . . . in bars 48-49 and 54-55.
References
For more background detail consult numerous websites, listed on the Wikipedia entry
for A Day in the Life.
There is also much useful material in various Rhinegold study guides for AS and A2 for
the Edexcel specification.
A definitive monograph is: The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by Allan
F Moore (Cambridge Music Handbooks 1997).
3. Berlioz Harold in Italy: movement III
(for Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)
Background information
Biography
• Berlioz was born in 1803 in La Côte Saint-André, a small town between Lyon
and Grenoble in France.
• In 1821 he moved to Paris to study medicine.
• In 1822 he started to study music, abandoning his medical studies in 1824.
• Unusually, he lacked the traditional keyboard skills of his contemporaries and
famous composers of the Classical and Baroque eras.
• In 1830 he wrote his early masterpiece, Symphonie fantastique.
• In 1830 he won the Prix de Rome composition prize on his fourth attempt,
allowing him to spend two years in Italy.
• In 1834, he composed Harold in Italy - a symphony in four movements with a
part for solo viola.
• He established a reputation as an orchestral conductor and was the author of
an important Treatise on Instrumentation.
• He died in his Paris home in 1869.
• He was strongly influenced by Beethoven, who “opened up a new world of
music, as Shakespeare had revealed a new universe of poetry.”
Influence He exerted a strong influence on the new Romantic movement:
• Use of literary themes as the basis of composition (programme music).
• The use of a recurring theme (idée fixe), representing a character or important
item in the musical programme (similar to Wagnerian leitmotif).
• He expanded the size of his orchestra, broadening the range of instrumental
colours available to composers.
Harold in Italy was inspired by:
• Byron’s ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, a ‘childe’ here signifying a candidate for
knighthood.
• The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world weary young man
looking for distractions in foreign lands.
• He does not tell the story of Harold in the music but merely captures the mood
of the traveller.
Concerto or Symphony?
• A concerto is a composition with a solo part, usually virtuosic, accompanied by
orchestra.
• Berlioz, however, wrote a non-virtuosic solo viola part, even though it was
intended for Paganini, the leading virtuoso of the time.
• Consequently, Paganini refused to perform the piece as he felt the solo part did
not have enough for him to play.
• In fact, the work is really a symphony rather than a concerto.
• This is the third of four movements, and in place of the Beethovenian Scherzo,
Berlioz wrote a Serenade, a song by a mountaineer in honour of his mistress.
• The influence of folk music from the Abruzzi mountains is clear in parts of this
movement, e.g. use of drones, modal inflections and saltarello rhythms.
Idée fixe This theme is announced in the first movement.
Unlike the idée fixe in Symphonie fantastique, it does not go through any formal
transformations but recurs superimposed over various orchestral textures.
Performing forces and their handling In this movement, Berlioz uses an unusual combination of instruments from the
Romantic era symphony orchestra such as piccolo, cor anglais, harp and four horns but
he does not use trumpets, cornets, trombones and percussion.
The horns are in different keys to enable both transposition and chromatic chords (e.g.
the diminished chord in the horns at b. 103):
• first and second in C (sounding an octave lower than written)
• third in F (sounding a fifth below)
• fourth in E (sounding a minor 6th below).
Violas are divided at the opening to enable the lower part to play open string drones
with the upper part playing melodic material.
Piccolo and oboe at the opening represent pifferi (rustic oboes). These instruments can
still be heard in Italian folk bands today.
At the Allegretto the violins and cellos play pizzicato (plucking the string) with double
stopping (playing two strings at the same time) in the second violin. This simulates the
sound of plucked instrumental accompaniment (guitar-style) in the serenade.
The clarinet uses the (low) chalumeaux register with broken chord figures at b. 48.
At b. 53 all the strings return to “arco” (playing with the bow).
For the final section the strings also play with mutes (con sordini).
Here the harp plays harmonics indicated by the circles above the notes.
The solo viola does not play till b. 65 when it plays the idée fixe in longer note values.
Overall, the technical demands of the solo viola part are relatively simple, the octave
passages from b. 99 being the most demanding feature.
Texture The prevailing texture is melody-dominated homophony, with variations in layout:
• The opening of the piece starts with a drone (double pedal) on C and G in long
notes in 2nd oboe, clarinets and bassoon. The violas play the same notes with a
rhythmic figure. The main melodic material is played in octaves by the 1st oboe
and the piccolo (the piccolo transposes/sounds an octave higher then written).
A counter melody is played by the 1st violas. There are minor changes within
the other parts but the bassoon maintains a pedal C throughout this section.
• At the Allegretto (b. 32) the strings play a homophonic accompaniment to the
cor anglais solo/serenade theme. The violins and cellos play pizzicato (plucked)
while the violas maintain a broken chord figure.
• At b. 53 the strings play in octaves a chromatic counter melody to the
woodwind, while a third part appears in clarinet and horn.
• At b. 60 the two horns in C play a horn call version of part of the Serenade
theme in 3rds and 6ths .
• The idée fixe in long notes on viola provides an additional strand from b. 65.
• At b. 71 the harp takes over from the violin pizzicato in providing a chordal
accompaniment while the strings all play sustained chords with semiquaver
figures in the cellos.
• At b 79-80 there is brief dialogue between cor anglais/oboe, clarinet, flute/picc
and bassoons, playing in octaves
• At b. 166, the main themes are layered above the continuing saltarello rhythm,
but without the pifferi melody. Upper strings and cello sustained chordal with
occasional supporting notes on double bass.
• At bars 202-206, there is a monophonic statement of the serenade theme on
the solo viola.
Structure The movement replaces the traditional Scherzo movement in the standard symphony
(which in turn had evolved from the Minuet and Trio). The scherzo usually had an
overall structure of ABA with subdivisions of A = ABA, B(trio) = CDC.
Berlioz’s movement has a broad ABA structure, with the addition of a coda in which
elements of both sections are combined. so expanding on the traditional structure.
The overall structure is as follows:-
Bars 1-31 Section A: Allegro assai
Drone, saltarello rhythm and ‘pifferi’ melody in C major
Bars 32-135 Section B: Allegretto
(Serenade)
32: Melody with irregular phrase structure of 7, 7, 4 and 7 bars.
Though still based in C, there is a broader harmonic and tonal range
than previously.
65: Harold theme (idée fixe) superimposed on Serenade material. The
phrase originally in b. 48-52 is loosely developed at b. 72 and hints at C
minor in passing. There is here increased rhythmic elaboration involving
triplets and semiquavers.
100: the serenade theme in d minor again played by horns with the
answering phrase now played by oboe, flute and piccolo.
111: further use of motif from b. 48, leading to restatement of material
from b. 53 closing with V7 of C, ready for
122: final references in this section to serenade theme in C major)
Bars 136-165 Section A
An exact repetition of the opening Allegro assai.
Bars 166-208 Extended coda: Allegretto
A combination of various elements:
• The saltarello rhythm of the Allegro assai is maintained in violas
throughout.
• The viola plays the opening of the serenade theme
• The idée fixe is now played by the flute, doubled by harp
harmonics, again with long note values.
• The serenade theme is broken up with the first two bars repeated
in a different part of the bar starting a tone higher.
• Then he uses the second half of the theme, broken into short
phrases, before using the contrasting material from b. 48.
• 193: the texture is reduced to violas playing saltarello rhythms
then, at b. 197, the drone with acciaccaturas.
• 202: final statement of the serenade theme on solo viola.
Tonality The overall tonality of the movement is the key of C. There are clearly defined
cadences throughout the movement with comparatively limited modulation, reflecting
the folk character of the piece.
• The tonality of the Allegro assai is clearly defined by the constant tonic pedal C
in the bassoon.
• There are modal inflections (B flat)
• The serenade theme is also in C.
• The only strong modulation occurs with the return of the serenade theme at
b100 in D minor.
• From the return of the saltarello material in bar 136 to the end, the music
remains in C major.
Harmony
• The harmonic language is essentially diatonic throughout with some chromatic
inflections largely through the use of diminished chords.
• Chords are used in all inversions with some stock progressions involving V7d,
e.g. b78/9 with V7d moving to Ib.
• The harmony of the opening Allegro assai is built on a tonic pedal C with brief
references to the chords of G7 (e.g. b. 19) and F (e.g. b. 14).
• In the Serenade section, the harmonic vocabulary expands to include an
imperfect cadence in A minor, with 4-3 suspension (b. 39-40).
• The E major chord moves chromatically through a diminished chord on D to G7
in b 41 bringing the melody back to C major tonic harmony.
• The theme rounds off with a clear perfect cadence in C at b. 46-7.
• The second part of the serenade material is more chromatic, e.g. a change
from A minor to A major harmony in b. 51.
• At b. 53-54, the key seems briefly to be G minor, with a chord progression of
VIb, Vb, I.
• A G dim chord on the last quaver of b. 54 seems to take the music to A flat, but
the progression moves unexpectedly to F# dim (first inversion), F# major (first
inversion), and B dim, paving the way for the imperfect cadence in C at b59.
Melody The opening Allegro assai (Saltarello) is based on a folk-like melody characterized by:
• Repeated notes.
• Conjunct movement.
• Range of a 9th, but with no interval greater than a third within phrases.
• grace notes colour the repeated Gs.
• The melody is largely centered around the note E.
• The B flat can be regarded as a modal inflection.
• One-bar cells, leading to irregular phrasing.
• Some inversion of basic material.
The melody of the serenade (Allegretto) is in the cor anglais (sounding a fifth below
written pitch)
• It opens with an arpeggio figure on the tonic C major chord with the added
auxiliary note A.
• This is followed by a falling third reminiscent of the idée fixe, which opens with
a falling 3rd and falling 6th.
• Here the falling 6th is delayed by the E (sounding A) resolving to the D#
(sounding G#)
• A clear falling sixth occurs in the second phrase at b. 45.
• Chromaticism occurs at b. 49.
The viola introduces the idée fixe at b. 65:
• The long note values of the Harold theme do not match the rhythm of the
original theme but the pitch is exactly the same as that of the original’s first
three bars.
• This is then repeated a 4th higher with upper strings doubling the viola with a
complete use of the first four bars of the Harold theme.
• The second section of the idée fixe is then presented at b. 85, characterized by
falling third and then falling fifth starting on G.
In the final Allegretto (coda):
• The Harold theme (idée fixe) is heard complete in C played by the flute and
harp in long notes.
• The serenade theme is fragmented with the broken chord opening isolated,
then repeated in D minor.
• After two bars rest the falling 3rd is played twice, and the falling 6th once.
• Material based on b. 48 is then played but the final bar is further developed,
with the viola playing a descending sequence based on the motif of b. 52 (b.
182-185).
• The saltarello theme is then fragmented, with the figure in b. 194-195 repeated
an octave lower in b. 195-196.
Rhythm and metre Handling of rhythm in this movement is most innovative. The metre throughout is
compound duple (6/8). However, the tempo of the Allegro assai introduction is double
that of the Allegretto. It is important that this is maintained as the final Allegretto has
both tempi running simultaneously. Here the violas play the opening rhythmic ideas in
two bars against one bar of the slower Serenade theme.
The rhythm of the opening Allegro assai is a contrast of long note values in the lower
woodwind (a pedal C in the bassoon) against the energetic dance rhythms in the viola.
The melodic ideas of the piccolo and oboe have marked accents on the second beat of
the bar.
The Serenade theme exploits the possibilities of mixing 3/4 and 6/8, evident in the
third bar of the melody where two quavers are followed by a minim. As the theme
recurs many times this is a strong characteristic of the whole movement.
In b. 132 this idea is ornamented with semiquavers. Semiquavers are also used to
provide a lively accompaniment in the cello at b. 71 – 95, and in the clarinet
accompaniment at b. 48.
Triplet semiquavers also appear (e.g. b. 77).
The most dramatic moments for the soloist involve the repeated semiquaver octave
leaps (b. 99) which also hint at simple triple 3/4 metre.
There is a hint of rhythmic augmentation in b. 192 as the final motif is turned from
semiquavers to quavers to complete the phrase.
15. Corelli
Trio Sonata in D, Op. 3 No. 2: Movement IV (for Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)
Background information and
Performance Circumstances
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) is one of the most important and influential composers
of the late baroque period. This is all the more remarkable for the fact that his output
was very small, being just four sets of twelve trio sonatas, twelve solo sonatas and
twelve concerti grossi, plus a handful of other works. All of his music was written for
instrumental forces (almost entirely string ensemble) and the form and style of these
works were highly regarded by the later generation of baroque composers such as
Handel and Bach. His music was widely recognised and circulated through publishing
with as many as 35 different editions of his Op.1 Trio sonatas being published during
the 18th century alone. The compositional techniques Corelli employed are frequently
cited as a model for students of baroque counterpoint and harmony today.
Corelli was born into a prosperous landowning family in Fusignano in Northern Italy,
although sadly his father died before Arcangelo was born. He studied for four years at
nearby Bologna at a time when Italians reigned as the best instrument makers,
teachers and performers of string music in the whole of Europe. In 1675 he moved to
Rome where he remained for the rest of his life earning his living as a violinist and
composer. Queen Christine of Sweden was an early patron of Corelli (he dedicated his
Op.1 Trio Sonatas to her) but the Op.3 Trio Sonatas were dedicated in 1689 to Duke
Francesco II of Modena. At the time, Corelli was employed by Cardinal Pamphili as his
music master, living in the Cardinal’s palace and organising and directing the regular
academies (Sunday concerts) there. Corelli was notable for being a strict disciplinarian
with his orchestra, being one of the first directors to insist that violinists within a
section achieve unanimity in their bowing.
These Op.1 and Op.3 Trio Sonatas are known as Sonata da Chiesa (or Church Sonatas)
and were designed to be played either in church or for sacred concerts. Typically there
are four movements in the order slow – fast – slow – fast and the style is broadly
contrapuntal in character. Op. 2 and Op.4 Trio Sonatas were called Sonata da Camera
and are more secular in style, usually also in four movements with an opening Prelude
followed by three dances (Sarabanda, Corrente, Gavotta etc.) and are generally more
homophonic in texture.
Op.3 consists of 12 such Sonata da Chiesa (six in major keys and six in minor keys).
The keys use no more than two sharps or flats except for one which is in F minor. No.2
is in D major and all four movements Grave – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro are in that
key. There is no melodic link between the movements although they are clearly
designed to be played as a whole (the third movement, for instance, finishes with an
inconclusive Phrygian cadence).
Performing forces and their handling
Although called Trio Sonatas this work requires four performers:
• Violin 1
• Violin 2
• Violone
• Organ
The first violin part (probably designed to be played by Corelli himself) and the second
violin part (possibly played by Matteo Fornari, one of Corelli’s pupils) are broadly equal
partners in that they share a similar tessitura (range of pitch), with Violin I covering
two octaves and a semitone and Violin II a 14th. They frequently imitate each other at
the unison and are constantly crossing parts and exchanging ideas. Although the first
violin always states the material first in this (and other) movements, the second violin
finishes the whole sonata on top. The parts are not difficult to play, only twice (in bars
11 – 13 and again in bar 34) requiring either player to venture beyond first position,
and not using the bottom G string except for the penultimate note in the first violin
part. It is possible that performers would embellish the repeated sections with some
ornamentation (although this is not heard on the CD).
The violone is a low pitched bowed string instrument similar to the bass viol, often with
five or six strings. However, the term is used loosely and may simply refer to any bass
string instrument such as the violoncello. Certainly, Corelli often performed with the
Spanish ‘cellist G.B. Lulier who was referred to as Giovannino del violone. The pitch
range is two octaves, and fits comfortably within the range of the modern ‘cello.
The continuo part is provided by the organ which would probably have been a single
manual pipe organ without pedals. The player would have been expected to improvise
the inner harmonies by providing suitable chords above the bass line according to the
figured bass. Corelli’s original figuring is likely to have been somewhat sparser than
that provided by this edition, but it is interesting to note the passages where the organ
is given a simplified version of the bass part (bars 7 and 22).
Texture
The movement is typically contrapuntal. It is in a three–part texture with the violone
part joining in the counterpoint for most of the movement.
The opening section is fugal in style. The first violin states the subject (monophonic
texture) and the second violin provides the answer a 4th lower (called a real answer as
it is exactly the same). In bar 5 the two violins start an inverted version of the subject
in parallel 3rds before the violone completes the entries of the original subject starting
midway through bar 6. Stretto entries (where the parts come in more closely) in bars
11 – 13 are followed by a closing passage where the violins sustain an inverted pedal
point (briefly doubled in bars 16 – 17) above the moving bass line.
Corelli achieves much variety within this three-part texture. Often the parts are
polarised with the two violins close together above a bass much lower in pitch (eg bars
18 – 19), but they are more evenly spaced at the start of bar 27. Violin 2 and Violone
sometimes work together in parallel 10ths (bars 8 – 9) although in the later part of the
movement the imitation is largely confined to the violins with the violone providing a
more distinct bass line (bars 28 – end). The texture is more obviously homophonic at
cadence points (bars 26 – 27, 42 – 43). An interesting effect occurs in bars 32 – 34
where the two violins leapfrog over each other with successive entries of imitation a 4th
higher. It is worth noting also how Corelli draws the movement (and the whole sonata)
to a close by dropping all three parts down an octave for the final three bars.
Structure and Tonality
This movement is in binary form: A (repeated) B (repeated). As the movement is
broadly monothematic the structure is defined by the repeat marks and the tonality.
• The A section (bars 1 – 19) starts in D major and modulates to the dominant (A
major).
• The B section (bars 20 – 43) begins on the dominant with the same melodic
material (inverted) and modulates through various related keys before
returning to the tonic at the end. Bars 41 – 43 could be regarded as a Codetta.
Phrase structure and keys:
Bars 1 – 2 Subject in D major (tonic).
Bars 3 – 4 Answer in A major (dominant).
Bars 5 – 11 Inversion of main theme, with third entry of subject starting in bar 6 in
the tonic and modulating to the dominant.
Bars 11 – 19 Further entries in A major.
Bars 20 - 22 Entries on the dominant.
Bars 23 – 28 Entries on the tonic modulating to the relative minor (B minor).
Bars 28 – 32 A 4 bar contrasting section in E minor (subdominant of the relative
minor).
Bars 32 – 41 Imitative entries of a modified subject passing through A, D and G
majors before returning to the tonic.
Bars 41 – 43 A short codetta phrase emphasising the tonic key.
Harmony
This movement is entirely diatonic, that is, all the accidentals in the music are related
to a change of key. The harmony is largely consonant and uses mostly root position
chords and first inversion chords (shown by a 6 in the figuring).
Dissonance occurs through carefully prepared suspensions (a 7-6 on the first beats of
bars 9 and 10 for example, and a 4-3 on the second beat of bar 40) and double
suspensions (9-8 and 7-6 simultaneously on the second beats of bars 29 and 30).
Suspensions also occur in the organ part alone (notice the figures at bar 23) and as
part of a IIb7 – V progression (bar 18). Usually, all suspensions resolve downwards by
step, but the first violin leaves the dissonance occurring on the first beat of bar 39
unresolved with a leap upwards.
There are frequent perfect cadences which define the phrase structure (bars 4, 10-11,
18-19) and the changes of key (B minor in bars 27-28, E minor in bars 31 – 32).
These latter examples are masculine cadences (finishing on strong beats) whereas the
earlier ones (e.g. bar 4) are feminine cadences (finishing on weak beats). The strongly
functional harmony is also evident in the cycle of fifths progression (bars 32 – 35) and
the pedal points heralding the ends of sections (bars 15 – 18 and 39 – 40).
Melody As already stated, this movement is monothematic with all the melodic invention
deriving from the opening three-note motif based on a rising 3rd. Corelli develops this
apparently simple motif in the following ways:
• As a rising sequence with added passing notes (second half of bar 1).
• A further sequence of this embellished version (first half of bar 2).
• In inversion (bar 5).
• As a falling one-bar sequence with the embellishments removed (2nd violin and
violone bars 8 – 10).
• Juxtaposition of the opening motif and its inversion in rising sequence (bar 11
and subsequent entries).
• Extended falling sequence in violone (bars 15 – 17).
• Addition of an anacrucis to the motif for the entries starting in bar 32.
As a consequence of this development of the motif, almost all of the melody is based
on the interval of a 3rd and stepwise movement. Occasionally an octave leap (eg 1st
violin in bar 7) will break the chains of characteristic descending sequences.
Rhythm and Metre
This movement is written in the style of a gigue, which is a lively dance in compound
time, more usually found in the Sonata da Camera. There are two main beats per bar
and the strongly rhythmical character of the music is enhanced by the phrasing in
dotted crotchet beats in the opening subject (bars 1-2) and the cadence points in bars
2 and 4. Corelli plays around with this regularity of metre to add interest and buoyancy
to the movement:
• Violone entry in bar 6 starts half way through the bar (all subsequent entries
are at one-bar’s distance – bars 11-12, 21-22 etc).
• Syncopation in the 1st violin part in bars 26 – 27.
• Hemiolas in bars 27 and 31 with the harmony changing on the 1st, 3rd and 5th
quavers of the bar giving a feel of 3/4 time.
20. Sweelinck
Pavana Lachrimae (for Unit 6 Further Musical Understanding)
Background information and
performance circumstances
Composition of popular music today sometimes involves collaboration between two or
more people. With most ‘classical’ music, on the other hand, one composer is
responsible, except where he or she deliberately borrows or adapts material from a
pre-existing classical work or from the anonymous heritage of chorales, folk melodies,
etc. Thus Stravinsky, in another set work for 2012 (movements from the Pulcinella
suite, Anthology no. 7), borrows from 18th-century originals, recomposing his models
in his own 20th-century style.
In Pavana Lachrimae Sweelinck at times does little more than transcribe for a different
instrument material borrowed from John Dowland, elsewhere embellishing and
elaborating the original in the manner of one composing variations. While it’s natural
to speak of Sweelinck as the composer, this is an exaggerated view of his contribution.
He is essentially an arranger – in fact, people have been known to refer to Anthology
no. 20 as the ‘Dowland/Sweelinck Pavana Lachrimae’.
The ‘composer’
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562(?)–1621) lived and worked in the Netherlands,
chiefly in Amsterdam. He was born into a family of organists, and one of his sons
carried on the tradition. He composed much vocal music, both sacred and secular, a
little music for lute, and a good deal for keyboard. Some of his keyboard music shows
the influence of English composers for the virginals – he apparently knew John Bull
and Peter Philips – and his fantasias in particular point ahead to the later German
tradition of organ music that culminated in the work of J.S. Bach.
Pavana Lachrimae
Three of the six sections of Pavana Lachrimae are varied and embellished versions for
keyboard of music by Sweelinck’s almost exact contemporary, the Englishman John
Dowland (1563–1626). Each of the others is a variation on one of the ‘arranged’
sections, with much more elaboration.
Users of the Edexcel anthology may assume that the model was Dowland’s ayre Flow
my tears for voice and lute (Anthology no. 33), but Sweelinck probably also knew the
Lachrimae pavan, Dowland’s own version for lute. He may well have worked from a
kind of outline derived from both pre-existing pieces (see P. Dirksen, The Keyboard
Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, page 309). Sweelinck shows no knowledge, by the
way, of William Byrd’s keyboard Pavana Lachrimae.
The date of Sweelinck’s Pavana is not known: it is preserved, in keyboard tablature, in
only one rather corrupt manuscript, which originated in the second half of the 17th
century. The date of Dowland’s Flow my tears is not known either, but it is likely to have
been composed shortly before its publication in his Second Booke of Songs and Ayres
(1600). Perhaps a date of ‘circa 1600’ is the best we can hope for in respect of
Sweelinck’s Pavana Lachrimae.
NB: The preceding two paragraphs are included for general interest and information. It is
not necessary to study the precise relationship between Dowland’s original(s) and
Sweelinck’s arrangement.
Performance
The performance of Sweelinck’s Pavana on the anthology CD is for harpsichord, which
suits the style and secular character of the music well, and is historically appropriate.
Nowadays the piece is sometimes played on the organ; this works particularly well in
passages with long sustained notes (e.g. bars 65–66).
Pavana Lachrimae was probably intended for domestic or for educational use
(Sweelinck was a renowned teacher). A pavan (or pavane) was a slow dance, but
Sweelinck’s piece, like Dowland’s originals, is very unlikely to have been used for
dancing. In fact, some 16th- and 17th-century references exist to pavans being for
listening and not for dancing.
Performing forces and their handling
Pavana Lachrimae was probably composed for single-manual harpsichord. (If it was
ever played on the organ in Sweelinck’s time, use of pedals was unnecessary and
unlikely.)
The range is three octaves, from G (bottom line of bass stave) to G (an octave and a
half above middle C). Contemporary Dutch harpsichords generally had a four-octave
range, from C below the bass stave. Sweelinck used top G only once, in bar 96, with
climactic intent in a passage featuring rising scalic passages that reach successively E
(bar 94), F (bar 95) and G.
The limited range reflects the derivation of Pavana Lachrimae from original(s) with
limited range, and the need for a texture that is sometimes quite complex to be
manageable by one pair of hands. Comparison with Dowland’s Flow my tears shows
that Sweelinck’s bass is sometimes an octave higher – notably in bars 39–42 and 44–
48 (compare Anthology no. 33, bars 12–16). Sweelinck puts the borrowed melody in
the octave above middle C (notes higher than ‘top’ C being embellishment) – this is an
octave higher than it sounded in the lute transcription or in the ayre if, as highly likely,
that were sung by a voice of baritone range.
Texture
Most of the piece is in four parts, and the texture is often similar to four-part vocal
writing. But, as in much other keyboard music, the number of parts is not constant.
Florid passages are sometimes in three parts, for practicality in playing. At the
beginnings and ends of some sections a fifth part provides additional weight, but only
with ‘tonic’ chords of A (minor and, with tierce de Picardie, major).
The melody borrowed from Dowland is in the top part, and for the most part the
texture is essentially homophonic.
The following are brief comments on particular passages:
• In bars 1–4 the melody is supported by a bass in semibreves. The inner parts
have some contrapuntal interest – notably where the higher of the two (the ‘alto’)
echoes or anticipates the melody’s descending quavers.
• At bar 17, where this material is varied, the melody is elaborated with a figure
that uses quavers and semiquavers; this is taken up by the bass in bar 18, before
returning to the top part in bar 19. The exchange between these two parts is not
really imitation, which generally involves some overlapping of successive entries.
• There are further exchanges between parts in bars 23 and 24, in bars 34–35 and
in the variation of this passage in bars 49–50 (the repetition in the bass of bar 50
prolonging this exchange).
• In bars 39–41 pairs of parts in parallel 3rds or 6ths engage in rapid dialogue
(again there is scarcely any audible overlap). This may invite comparison with
Sweelinck’s echo effects in pieces such as Fantasia in echo (in Historical Anthology
of Music, ed. A. Davison and W. Apel (Cambridge, MA, 1946–49), vol. 1, pages
209–211).
• This dialogue subtly shades into the imitation of bars 42–45 (Example 1, below).
• Bars 55–60 are broadly similar texturally to bars 39–44 (of which they are the
variation), although bar 55 begins without the original doubling at the 6th. In bars
56–57 the dialogue between pairs of parts is more emphatic, not least because
the bass abandons the dotted rhythm it had in bars 40 and 41 and is rhythmically
identical to the tenor.
Structure
The piece is in three sections, which we can conveniently label A, B and C, each of
them repeated (compare other pavans, including Anthony Holborne’s ‘The Image of
Melancholy’, Anthology no. 13). Thomas Morley, writing in 1597, said that a section
or ‘strain’ of a pavan normally had ‘eight, twelve or sixteen semibreves’ and was
‘played or sung twice’ (see Thomas Morley: A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical
Music, ed. R.A. Harman (London, 1952), page 296).
Sweelinck, unlike Holborne (or Dowland in Flow my tears) provides a varied repeat of
each section rather than being content with ‘straight’ repetition. In the table below,
each varied repeat is marked v. (Incidentally, in his lute pavan, Dowland also has
varied repeats, but Sweelinck composed his own rather than reusing these.)
Bars Final cadence
A 1–16 A minor perfect
Av 17–32 ditto
B 33–48 A minor imperfect (Phrygian)
Bv 49–64 ditto
C 65–81 A minor perfect
Cv 82–98 ditto
Morley’s semibreve (or bar) counts of eight, twelve or sixteen are all divisible by two
and four, and therefore seem to imply some regularity of phrase lengths similar to later
‘periodic phrasing’, as might indeed befit a piece derived from the dance.
Sweelinck, like Dowland, began section A with a clearly-defined four-bar phrase. After
this a balanced phrase structure based on multiples of two and four bars may underlie
the structure, but we can claim nothing more. For example, the final chord of the
cadence that ends section A starts in bar 15 rather than 16, as one might expect with
fully ‘regular’ phrasing. In section B the third phrase begins in the seventh bar (39),
while section C has 17 bars (not the 16 which is four times four). Its second phrase
(694–71), leading up to the most important internal cadence, is short, ending in the
seventh bar. A more expansive phrase follows, in which contrapuntal writing in the
lower parts anticipates the entry of the melody part at bar 733.
Tonality
Sweelinck lived before the major-minor key system with its ‘functional’ harmony had
evolved, and it is not clear exactly how he and his contemporaries would have described
the tonal and harmonic processes of their music.
The following three interpretations of the tonality of Pavana Lachrimae all have some
justification, and will be accepted in examinations:
• We can speak of A minor – after all, the piece begins and ends on A, has no key
signature, and mostly sounds minor – but this is anachronistic and not entirely
satisfactory.
• We can think of the piece as in A minor with some modal (Aeolian) elements. G
naturals (standard in the Aeolian scale of A–B–C–D–E–F–G–A) are more plentiful than
in music which is genuinely in A minor with its regular use of G sharps.
• We can account for the G naturals simply by saying that the piece is in the Aeolian
mode. The G sharps can then be explained as conventional chromatic alterations
designed to provide smoother melodic outlines and E major chords in cadences.
The uncertainty over tonality arises chiefly because G sharps and G naturals are mixed in
a manner alien to most music with major and minor keys and functional harmony. The
prominent G naturals in bar 6, for example, come soon after the emphatic G sharps in
bar 4 and not long before the reiterated G sharps of bar 8.
Sometimes there are false relations, where two different chromatic forms of the same
note (here G sharp and G natural) occur
• simultaneously, as at bar 963, or
• successively in different parts, as in bar 101–3.
The G sharps and G naturals in bars 66-671 and 771–3 are not successive, but are close
and there are no changes of chord in between. Many listeners are likely still to hear a
false relation.
The music stays very largely in the original minor key, as befits the ‘tears’ of the title
(and the very dark text of Dowland’s ayre). There is some tonal contrast, however.
• This occurs principally in the B section which, in modern parlance, begins in C major.
This excursion into the major does not, however, reflect more cheerful content in
Dowland’s text – even the ‘highest spire of contentment’ at the repeat is the place
from which ‘My fortune is throwne’: the tonal change appears to be intended purely to
create musical contrast.
• Present-day ears may hear the bass C sharp in bar 38, along with the preceding
and following D minor chords, as signifying D minor. However, this note is best
thought of just as a matching answer to the G sharp in the top part of the previous
bar (Example 2, below).
• Bars 39–44, initially with chords rising by 3rds, is somewhat ambiguous tonally,
but provides continuing contrast and relief.
Harmony
Most chords are 5/3s or 6/3s (triads in root position or first inversion).
Non-chord notes include passing notes and auxiliary notes (especially in rapid scalic
passages) and occasional suspensions. The handling of dissonance is not aggressive, but
non-chord notes are much more in evidence than for example in Weelkes’s Sing we at
pleasure, a light madrigal (or ballett) contemporary with Dowland’s original (and a set
work for Unit 3 in 2012). But whereas Weelkes’s ballett is uniformly cheerful, the theme
for Sweelinck and Dowland is ‘tears’.
The following annotated passage (Example 3) and the commentary that follows will
demonstrate a few details of Sweelinck’s handling of non-chord notes more clearly than
extended verbal description.
Unmarked notes are chord (harmony) notes
P = passing note
A = auxiliary note
(1) The A might appear to imply VIb, but is better heard as part of a 6–5 movement
over a continuing chord I, the 6th ‘resolving’ to the chord note 5th. Such 6–5 ‘mild
dissonances’ were common in Renaissance music (compare the E flat–D over G and D–
C over F in bars 15–16 of Taverner’s O Wilhelme, pastor bone (Anthology no. 26)).
(2) This A resolves to G rather as did the A at (1) above: beat 1 is not therefore a true
6/4 chord of A minor.
(3) This quaver B shows the true moment of the suspension's resolution, each step in
the suspension process lasting essentially for a minim. The first B in bar 35 anticipates
the resolution, thereby (along with the tie between bars 34 and 35) minimising the
dissonant effect of the suspension.
Cadences are imperfect and perfect. At the ends of sections, the final chord of a cadence
is extended over two bars and considerably embellished during the first of these.
Section A (in A minor) has three imperfect cadences (bars 3–4, 73–8 and 11–12) before
the final perfect cadence (14–15/16).
• The perfect cadence ends with a tierce de Picardie (chord I having a major not minor
3rd above the bass). In Sweelinck’s time this was customary in minor keys, a final
minor chord being considered somewhat too rough and sour.
• The imperfect cadences are all phrygian, chord V being preceded by IVb.
o Phrygian cadences were originally associated with the Phrygian mode (whose
scale was E–F–G–A–B–C–D–E). There they served as substitute perfect
cadences, with chords VIIb (F–A–D) to I (with E, G sharp (tierce de Picardie)
and B). It is possible to consider those passages in Pavana Lachrimae that
cadence on E as having ended in the Phrygian mode, but it is conventional to
consider such endings as imperfect cadences in Aeolian A minor.
Melody
(Including reference to variation technique)
Although Pavana Lachrimae is instrumental, Sweelinck’s melodic writing is frequently
vocal in character, with much stepwise (conjunct) writing. Occasional leaps in the
melody are the more effective, given this restraint. The rising minor 6th in bar 2 is very
striking, especially after the initial stepwise descent of a perfect 4th A–G–F–E, and
before a similar descent C–B–A–G sharp in bars 3–4.
The distinctive quality of the falling 4th A–G–F–E, representing tears, had done much
to make Dowland’s original so widely known. Falling-4th outlines were used more
extensively in Sweelinck’s opening five bars than by Dowland himself, and are most
effective in underlining and intensifying the melancholy mood.
The top part is predominantly conjunct even in the variation sections, and most florid
passages cover quite a small range. Some passages are similar to trills starting on the
upper note and ending with a lower auxiliary note, as in section A at bar 14 and (at
twice the speed) in Av at bar 30. The figuration generally may have been influenced by
contemporary fingering practice, which was different from present-day systems, and
more limiting; in particular, longer fingers often passed over shorter ones, and the thumb
was little used (especially in the right hand).
Sweelinck sometimes repeated short patterns in sequence. In bar 17, at the start of Av,
for instance, there is sequential treatment of a three-note descending scalic figure,
beginning E–D–C, C–B–A. There are two statements of a longer (eight-semiquaver)
figure in bar 23. The boldest use of sequence comes near the end of section Cv, with
climactic effect. In bar 94 a scalic ascent of seven notes (F sharp to E) is followed by
an ascent from G. In bars 95–96 longer ascents, each of a 10th, followed by shorter
balancing descents, were no doubt seen as more dazzling in Sweelinck’s time than
they would be today.
Despite the examples just given, systematic melodic patterning is not widespread in
the way that it frequently was in late Baroque keyboard music, or in Classical writing
such as Mozart’s in Anthology no. 22 (Sonata in B flat, K.333: movement I).
Sweelinck’s variation technique is essentially melodic – he retains the harmony of
sections A, B and C in the varied sections Av, Bv and Cv while embellishing (sometimes
quite intensely) the melody borrowed from Dowland and the lower parts.
Variation technique may include:
• inserting additional notes between pairs of notes borrowed from Dowland’s melody
o on a small scale, note the insertion of D and C passing notes in bar 91
between the E and B derived from bar 74.
o on a more ambitious scale, note how the F and D minims in bar 7 have been
embellished with semiquaver runs in bar 23 (the pitches F F and D D still
standing out at the start of each crotchet beat).
o ‘insertions’ may involve rhythmic changes such as we find when the G–F
quavers at the end of bar 1 are replaced by the G–F semiquavers at the end
of bar 17.
• more substantial changes
o such as the substitution of a distinctive new quaver pattern in bar 49 in place
of the dotted minim and crotchet C–B from bar 33, and
o the addition to the three-note scalic ascents in bars 39–41 of preliminary
upbeats (D–E–F becoming F–D–E–F in bar 55, for example).
In some places, a melodic passage is repeated unvaried in order that embellishment
may be added in a lower part – compare for example bars 37–38 and 53–54.
Rhythm and metre
There is much rhythmic diversity in Pavana Lachrimae. Passages and sections generally
begin with semibreves, minims, crotchets and a few quavers. (Where numerous long
notes are used, tone could not be sustained on a harpsichord – perhaps chords were
spread or additional ornamentation was improvised.) Elsewhere, especially in the variation
sections, there are often continuous semiquavers in one part (not always the highest) for
display and decoration with slower supporting parts. Cadential ‘trills’ involving eight
demisemiquavers occur twice, in bars 30 and 45 (as in Example 1 above).
NB: All note values referred to above are those actually written by Sweelinck, whose
signature was C. In Dowland’s Flow my tears (Anthology, no. 33) the note values have
been halved editorially.
The metre is simple quadruple. Syncopation is not very widespread, but note the
prominent minim A that generates a suspension in bar 37 and the corresponding bass
D in bar 38 (Example 2 above). Compare the corresponding bars in the variation, 53–
54, where the minim A is retained, but the bass line is decorated and the suspension
is eliminated.
Further reading
(for general interest and information – not essential reading)
The New Grove (2001), available by subscription online, has (for example) much more
on Sweelinck’s biography.
P. Dirksen, The Keyboard Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Its Style, Significance
and Influence (Utrecht, 1997).
D. Poulton, John Dowland (London, 2/1982).
For Dowland’s Pavan, see The Collected Lute Music of John Dowland, ed. D. Poulton and
B. Lam (London, 3/1981), page 67.
27. G. Gabrieli
In Ecclesiis (For Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)
Background Information and Performance Circumstances
Giovanni Gabrieli was born in Venice in 1555 and died in 1612. He was one of a line of
major musical figures to serve as organist of St. Mark’s, Venice, taking up his position
there in 1585. Previous holders of the post included Adrian Willaert (c1480-1562) and
Giovanni’s uncle, Andrea Gabrieli (c1510-86), and he was succeeded by Claudio
Monteverdi (1567-1643).
The music originating at St. Mark’s often had special characteristics. An instrumental
ensemble was established there in 1568, and it often participated on equal terms with
vocal performers. The architecture of St Mark’s, with its various separate galleries for
the different groups of performers, encouraged the development of polychoral textures
(i.e. composition for contrasting, spatially separated groups) and the exploitation of
antiphony (See also Sonata pian e’ forte by Gabrieli [NAM 14]). Giovanni, like his
uncle, studied in Munich, and was also open to many of the newer techniques
developed in the final years of the 16th century, more characteristic of the early
Baroque than the Renaissance:
• The use of the basso continuo.
• Increased use of chromaticism.
• More elaborate writing for solo voices.
• More idiomatic writing for instruments.
• A tendency to write more homophonically than contrapuntally.
Many of these aspects are evident in In Ecclesiis. For another example of Gabrieli’s
approach, see also Timor et tremor.
The date of composition of 'In Ecclesiis' is uncertain but it was published posthumously
in 1615.
Performing Forces and their handling In Ecclesiis is scored for two four-part choral groups, one of which was for soloists,
instrumental ensemble for six players and basso continuo, realised on organ and
perhaps also with plucked string instrument, such as the lute or theorbo. The first
choral group is scored for countertenor, alto, tenor and bass, its soloistic qualities
shown by the florid nature of the writing.
The other choral group consists of two alto parts, tenor and bass. Its texture is mainly
chordal, though a few bars have a more polyphonic character. Apart from the final
section, this group is restricted to a seven-bar refrain repeated between the various
solo and instrumental sections.
The instrumental group consists of three cornetts, a violino (in reality a viola because
of the range of the part) and two trombones. The cornett, not to be confused with the
later brass cornet, consisted of a slightly bent tube made of wood, with six finger holes
and cup-shaped mouthpiece. It was relatively quiet compared with modern brass
instruments.
The instrumental ensemble is first heard at bar 31 in a short section for instruments
only. Thereafter it plays with the voices except for a passage from bar 68 to bar 101, a
duet for countertenor and baritone soloist and choral refrain, accompanied by organ
only.
There were two organs in St Mark’s at this time. The larger of them had only nine
stops, a remarkably small number by comparison with organs in large churches in
other continental countries, particularly in northern Europe. These nine stops included
a 16-foot stop, giving a sound an octave lower than the notes played, two 8-foots,
giving a unison sound, and five stops at higher pitches.
The composer provides only the bass line for the organ part, and so the organist would
have to provide a suitable harmonisation. (In other words, the realisation in NAM is
merely an editorial suggestion.) For the first thirty bars of In Ecclesiis, the continuo
instruments are the only accompaniment.
Texture The texture of this music is highly varied, involving monody (the early Baroque texture
of melody and continuo accompaniment), polyphony, with some imitative counterpoint,
homophony and antiphony. The refrain in particular is subject to many ingenious
variations in textural composition.
Bars
1-5 Monody: Countertenor solo with organ continuo.
6-12 Countertenor solo in antiphony with initially homophonic chorus II,
giving way to imitation from bar 10.
13-24 Monody: caritone solo with organ continuo.
25-31 Baritone solo in antiphony with homophonic chorus II, then imitation
from b. 29.
31-39 6-part instrumental ensemble with continuo; begins homophonically but
becomes more contrapuntal, with imitation.
39-61 Alto and tenor duet, with freely contrapuntal 6-part instrumental and
continuo accompaniment.
62-68 Refrain now scored for alto and tenor solo with chorus II, 6-part
instrumental and continuo accompaniment.
68-94 Countertenor and baritone solo with organ continuo.
95-101 Countertenor and Baritone solo with Chorus II and organ continuo.
102-129 Chorus I (soloists), Chorus II, 6-part instrumental and continuo tutti:
Chordal passages at bb 102-3.
Increasingly polyphonic, with two canons combined at b. 114:
(i) between chorus alto and tenor
(ii) between soloists
Structure
The overall structure of the piece is rondo-like, with a refrain between each section and
an instrumental sinfonia interpolated after the second refrain.
It may be summarized as A-B-C-B-Sinfonia-D-B-E-B-F-B with extension.
The refrains are subject to variation in use of resources. This elaborate structure has
far outgrown the typical format of the sixteenth-century motet and points the way
instead to the baroque cantata with its succession of short movements.
1-5 Bars 1 – 3 present the first important melodic shape – a phrase in the
countertenor solo falling from A to E, or from tonic to dominant (though
when using these terms it should be noted that there is still a strong
modal element here rather than a clear cut use of major and minor
modes).
Bars 3 – 5: two short ‘answering’ phrases falling from higher dominant
to tonic.
6-12 Refrain. Bars 6 – 10: two 2-bar phrases in ¾ time, Chorus 2 leading
with countertenor soloist having overlapping two-bar antiphonal
response.
Bars 10 – 12: return to 4/2 time; soloist has a stepwise falling phrase,
supported by a more polyphonic texture, with tenors imitating sopranos.
13-24 Bars 13 – 17: Baritone soloist has two 2-bar phrases which taken
together have the same melodic shape as bars 3-4, though using longer
notes.
Bars 17 – 18: a new, more rhythmic, rising figure (note that its rhythmic
attern is anticipated in the basso continuo half a bar earlier.
Bars 18 – 19: rising sequence of preceding figure.
Bars 19 – 20: contrasting 1-bar figure.
Bars 20 – 21: exact repeat of preceding bars.
Bars 21 – 22: a falling figure partly echoing bars 3-4 in overall shape but
with arpeggio decoration at bar 21.
Bars 22 – 24: exact repeat of the final phrase of the refrain (bars 10-
12).
25-31 Refrain (now with baritone soloist instead of countertenor).
31-39 Sinfonia, an instrumental interlude:
Bars 31 – 32: Imposing, long-note chords.
Bars 32 – 34: shorter note-values involving dotted rhythms and
imitation between instruments, e.g. cornetts I and II in canon as well as
trombones I and II.
Bars 34 – 36: begins with the same rhythmic figure as 31-32.
A contrasting rising quaver figure is introduced in bar 35 and a
descending semiquaver scalic pattern at the end of bar 36.
39-61 Alto/tenor duet with 6-part instrumental accompaniment. The interval of
the fourth (bar 40 in tenor) becomes increasingly important, as well as
florid ornamentations of the descending line of the opening section (see
bars 51-53):
The whole of the section is marked by a gradual increase in rhythmic
complexity, as well as an intensification of contrapuntal writing.
62-68 Refrain (now with alto and tenor soloists and instrumental ensemble)
68-94 Further echoes of the original material exist in this countertenor/baritone
duet, e.g. bars 70-71, but there are also some new figures, e.g. 71 – 72.
There is much imitative writing for the two solo voice parts,
accompanied here by just the organ continuo
and ‘vivificamus nos’ (‘grant us life’).
95-101 Refrain (now with countertenor and baritone soloists and just organ
continuo).
102-118 All forces used together for the first time.
Initially imposing block chords, latterly dense counterpoint and florid
solo parts over a dominant pedal in bars 115-117.
119-129 Refrain (now for full ensemble, with repetitions of the second, more
polyphonic section of the refrain and an additional ‘Alleluia’ based on the
opening bars, so providing a plagal cadence after the many preceding
perfect cadences).
Tonality The general tonality of the piece is A minor but most cadences end with a major chord
(i.e. Tierce de Picardie on tonic chords) and there are strong (Aeolian) modal elements
in the melodic lines. There are transitory references to other key centres, usually
defined by perfect cadences.
Notice the following features:
• The fleeting sequential shifts through C and D majors in the Alleluia sections of
the refrain.
• Shift to C (bar 14).
• Shift to G (bar 17).
• Shift to E minor with imperfect cadences (bars19-21).
• Passing references to G minor (43 and 46).
• The more distant key of B minor is heard in bars 48-49.
• Some ambiguity created by sets of unrelated chords, i.e., F major/D (b. 102),
G major/E major (b. 103) B flat/G major (b. 108), G major/E major (b.109).
• Dominant pedal in A minor (bb. 115-117) leading to A major chord 118.
• Plagal cadence at close.
Harmony The range of chords used in this piece is almost exclusively confined to I, IV and V in
root position or first inversion, with occasional use of the supertonic chord or VIIb.
Much use is made of suspensions, consonant fourths and passing notes to create
points of tension. In a few places, there are examples of secondary sevenths and, even
more rarely, one or two other dissonances.
Note that the use of II7b at b. 3 (beat 4) may be editorial, although a similar chord is
produced by the movement of the parts in b. 33 (beat 4).
Other points to note in the harmony are:
• The surprising use of 6/4s, with no preparation or resolution of the fourth, at b.
6 (beat 3).
• The switch from major to minor after a perfect cadence, e.g. b. 34 (beat 2).
• The surprising augmented chord with secondary seventh at b. 31 (beat 3), or
perhaps it better understood as A major with a dissonant F natural above,
anticipating the chord of D minor that follows.
• The juxtaposition of unrelated root position triads, with bass notes moving by
thirds (bars 102-3 and 108-9).
• The unprepared dominant sevenths in bars 104, 105, 110, 111 and 113.
• Variable harmonic rhythm, with chord changes fastest in homophonic passages
such as the refrain, and slowest during dense contrapuntal sections.
Melody The basic melodic shapes that Gabrieli employs are often not far removed from
melodic lines characteristic of 16th century polyphony, with sometimes a hint of
plainsong about them. The ‘new’ elements are the use of short motifs or figures, and
the florid ornamentations..
Notice the following features:
• Conjunct lines, as at the opening, but with an escape note (echappée) at the
end of b. 2.
• Aeolian mode.
• Repetition of short motif (bars 3-5).
• Sequential repetitions (Descending in bars 13-17; ascending in 17-19).
• Some unusual, passing angularity in alto line at bars 43-44.
• Florid ornamentation, e.g. bars 68-69 which is arguably a decorated version of
the opening line inverted.
Rhythm and Metre There is enormous rhythmic variety within this piece, which uses a range of note
lengths from breve (b 129) to demisemiquavers (bb116-117). There is also much use
of dotted rhythms, tied notes and syncopation. It is a feature of this work that widely
contrasting note-lengths and rhythmic patterns are freely juxtaposed.
The principal feature of rhythmic interest is the juxtaposition of quadruple (or duple)
time passages with triple time. The latter is mainly confined to the first four bars of the
refrain but also appears in the section for countertenor and baritone duet from bar 79
to bar 90.
A question arises as to how these two metres should be related in performance. On the
NAM CD, the crotchet remains constant. Alternatively, the dotted minim of the triple
time sections could be made equal in length to the minim of the quadruple sections, so
making them move a little faster.
An interesting feature occurs at the opening of the Sinfonia in bar 31. Here a pattern of
minim - two crotchets is used which fleetingly recalls similar figures in the Canzona
type of composition (instrumental pieces for keyboard or ensemble). It seems here
that for a moment Gabrieli was adopting a more secular approach.
Text and Word-setting
The text appears to be anonymous and in all probability was a compilation, either by
the composer or perhaps by one of the clergy with whom he worked at St Mark’s. It
would have been suitable for a festival connected with an ecclesiastical building, for
example a Patronal Festival, although it could just as well have been for general use.
There are a number of notable features:
• The chorus is restricted to singing the word ‘Alleluia’, except for ‘Deus adjutor
noster in Aeternum’ (‘God is our helper for evermore’) at bars 102-118, the
climax of the work.
• The main part of the text is sung by the soloists, perhaps for the sake of
clarity.
• The word-setting generally respects the natural stresses of the Latin language,
with accented syllables falling on the stronger beats, e.g. bars 17-19
(‘dominationis’), bars 41-46 (‘salutari’) and b. 51 (‘auxilium’).
• There is a mixture of syllabic and melismatic writing, melismatic writing being
applied to Alleluias in the refrain and in more florid solo passages.
• The text does not offer many opportunities for word-painting but it is
nonetheless clear that the composer matches his musical ideas to the words
with the intention of projecting their emotional force, e.g. the lengthy notes for
‘Deus’ at b. 102, the change to triple time and the use of melisma on ‘vivifica
nos’ (bars 85-91).
Bibliography Giovanni Gabrieli (Oxford Studies of Composers No. 12) – Denis Arnold (London 1974)
Historical Anthology of Music, revised edition – Archibald T Davidson and Willi Apel
(Cambridge, Massachusetts 1948)
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, ed. Stanley Sadie
(London 2001)
42. Georges Auric
Passport to Pimlico: The Siege of Burgundy (for Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)
Background Information and
Performance Circumstances Auric composed this music in 1948 for a film made by the Ealing Studios, known
principally for their comedies. The plot concerns the discovery of buried treasure in
Pimlico, an area of Central London. The treasure belonged to the long dead Duke of
Burgundy. A document found with it announces that Pimlico is part of Burgundy. The
local inhabitants promptly declare an independent dukedom in the middle of London.
The British authorities close the ‘border’ with barbed wire. At the point at which the
musical score is used, sympathisers are throwing in food parcels to break the blockade.
Georges Auric (1899-1983) was a French pianist and composer, known in his early
years as a child prodigy. By the age of 15 he had met many of the greatest artists and
musicians of the age, including Picasso and the Russian composer Stravinsky. He is
often grouped with five other French composers of the time, including Milhaud and
Poulenc, as a member of Les Six. To a certain extent they were united in their sense of
humour and anti-Romantic, avant-garde ideas. There was an element of nationalism in
their desire to distance themselves from German dominated music styles. Not only did
they move away from Romanticism but also from the post-Romantic expressionism of
central European composers like Schoenberg. Their influences came more from the
world of circus music and jazz.
Performing Forces and their Handling
• Auric uses a standard sized symphony orchestra with extra tuned percussion.
• The tuned percussion instruments are often used to double melody lines e.g.
celeste (bar 55) doubling piccolo. A glockenspiel doubles flutes in bar 5.
• Tubular bells are used to represent church bells in bar 31.
• Timpani and clash cymbals are reserved for climax points, e.g. bar 49.
• Full use is made of strings, typical more of this period than recent times, e.g. bar
7, violins, ‘cellos and basses.
• Strings are often used for ‘chugging’ chords e.g. bar 31, or repeated octave notes,
e.g. bar 13.
• Pizzicato (plucked) strings are used in bar 11.
• Brass instruments often alternate with strings, e.g. trombones answered
antiphonally by strings in bars 36-7.
• He often misses out lower instruments e.g. bar 31 and sometimes uses lower
instruments on their own, e.g. bar 15.
• There are woodwind and string trills in bar 1 and woodwind grace notes in bar 9.
• There are trumpet fanfare figures in bar 1 and muted trumpet is used in bar 41.
Texture
• The texture often changes rapidly. There are several different main textures on the
first page of the score alone:
• Bars 1-4: Brass fanfares with trills in strings and woodwind, and descending
scale figures in horns, in 3rds from bar 2.
• Bars 5-8: Theme in consecutive 5ths and 8ths in flutes and glockenspiel
with 3rds continuing in the strings below, later replaced by octaves in bar 7
and contrary motion scales in bar 8, with parallel 6ths at the top of the
homophonic texture.
• Bars 9-10: Ostinato-like figures in ‘cellos with octave leaps and trills in the
clarinets in conjunction with two melodic lines in flutes and piccolo produce
a polyphonic texture.
• Auric often misses out lower instruments to give a high pitched texture, e.g. bar 11.
• He sometimes uses only lower instruments e.g. bar 15 to give a low pitched
texture.
• There is bass dominated homophony at bars 21-2 with the tune in bassoon and
pizzicato ‘cellos and basses accompanied by repeated chords in upper strings.
• More conventional melody dominated homophony is used at bar 55.
• The tutti music at the end is clearly homophonic.
• There is antiphonal writing at bar 27 with brass alternating with upper strings and
woodwind.
Tonality
• The music is tonal – mainly in the major key.
• There are frequent abrupt changes of key. These keys are often tertiary related
(keys a 3rd apart), so the music begins in E major and then in bar 9 moves
suddenly (without any sense of modulation) to G major (tonally, a minor 3rd
distance away).
• At bar 15 there is a brief appearance of minor key music (B minor) before the 3rd of
the scale is raised a bar later to move the music to B major, after which there is a
return to E major in bar 21.
• A further tertiary relationship is established in bar 33 when the key changes to C
major (tonally down a major 3rd from E). Notice the many chromatic notes here
and elsewhere.
• In bar 39 we have the music from bar 9, now in the key of E flat (another tertiary
connection); at the end of bar 42 we are in E major and in bars 55 to the end in C.
Structure
The structure of the music is governed by the events on screen. The short sections
each describe a new occurrence in the story. So:
• Important sounding fanfares and trills in bar 1 are used to announce the
newspaper headline: Burgundy bombarded with buns. This acts like an
introduction.
• The first thematic material is heard in E at bar 5.
• The theme is then repeated in G major in bar 9 with new accompaniments and
countermelodies.
• More loud fanfare like music in bar 13 accompanies another newspaper headline.
• A new 2nd theme, based on scalic material heard earlier starts in bar 15, its low
bass texture used to illustrate the seriousness of the political meetings.
• A third idea, again in the bass instruments starts at the upbeat to bar 22 in
pizzicato strings and bassoon.
• After a dramatic forte chordal intervention at bar 27, a new version of the bassoon
tune starts in bar 33.
• The chordal music returns briefly at the upbeat to bar 37.
• At bar 39 the music from bar 9 returns, this time in E flat major before abruptly
side-stepping into E major.
• This leads to a dramatic, fanfare-like fortissimo at bar 49, interrupted in bar 52
with ‘suspense music’ with trills and tremolos and an altered version of the motif
from bar 5 in the bass.
• Finally a jaunty tune in piccolo and celeste over pizzicato strings leads to the
conclusion of the episode.
Harmony
• There is some straightforward tonal harmony, such as the G major root position
tonic chords in bar 9.
• These are quickly complicated by dissonant notes in the next bar, such as the C
appoggiatura at the beginning of the bar.
• The chromatic notes in the semiquaver bassoon and clarinet accompaniment in
bars 10 and 11 further cloud the harmony.
• Parallel 5ths and octaves are a feature of much of the music, as at bar 5 in the
flutes and glockenspiel.
• Added note harmony is also a feature of the style. The chords in bar 7 show this
technique, e.g. the added B in the first chord.
• The powerful main chords in bar 49 are essentially 9th chords, with an A added to
the G 7th chord.
• There are occasional perfect cadences, as at the end of bar 8.
• The final cadence is complicated by the addition of the dissonant F# in what might
otherwise have been the dominant G chord.
• There is an inverted tonic pedal at bars 13 to 14.
Melody
• Most of the melodic ideas are in the major key, e.g. bars 5-8. Only the phrase in
bar 15 briefly hints at the minor.
• There is occasional chromaticism, as in the bassoon and pizzicato ‘cello idea from
the end of bar 21. There are chromatic F double sharp and A sharp appoggiaturas
here.
• Some melody lines are purely diatonic, e.g. the piccolo and celeste melody in C
from bar 55 to the end.
• The four note, bell-chime motif from the upbeat to bar 7 is repeated in descending
sequence.
• This motif like many of the others is essentially triadic in style, with the 2nd to 4th
notes outlining chords.
• The opening phrase at bar 5 outlines the notes of the chord of E, filling in with
passing notes and upper and lower auxiliaries.
• Scalic music is found frequently, e.g. bar 1 in the horns.
• The final tune from bar 55 is ornamental in character with many grace notes.
Rhythm and Metre
• The music opens in typical fanfare style with long dotted notes followed by pairs of
demisemiquavers.
• Most of the melodic lines are based on series of quavers and semiquavers.
• Auric presents the opening descending scale in rhythmic diminution in bar 3.
• In bar 48, in the build-up to the main climax there is a brief passage of triplet
rhythm.
• Many of the melodies begin on the first beat of the bar, e.g. bar 15, though some
begin on the anacrusis, e.g. upbeat to 22.
• Rests are sometimes added to produce a staccato feel, as at bar 35.
• There is a single bar of triple time (51), timed to fit in with the events on screen.
34. Weelkes
Sing we at pleasure
(for Unit 3: Developing Musical Understanding)
Background information and performance circumstances
Thomas Weelkes
• was probably born in Sussex in 1576.
• died in 1623 (London).
• was a leading English composer of madrigals (and also an important composer of
English church music).
• was organist of Winchester College (1598), singer and organist at Chichester
Cathedral (c.1602).
Sing we at pleasure
• The verse text is anonymous.
• Published London, 1598 – when Weelkes was still in his early twenties – in Balletts
and Madrigals to Five Voyces. This volume was dedicated to the courtier Edward
Darcy, which suggests that the contents may have been sung at the court of Queen
Elizabeth I .
• The original singers sang from separate part-books (rather as orchestral players do
today) not from a score. Typically for the late 16th century there were no bar lines.
As well as listening to the anthology recording, try the performance of Sing we at
pleasure by Pro Cantione Antiqua under Philip Ledger (item 17 of English Madrigals…Sing
We at Pleasure). This is available from iTunes.
The music of Sing we at pleasure is Renaissance in style. There are no hints of the
Baroque seconda pratica that was beginning to be in vogue in Italy (see for example
Monteverdi’s Ohimè, se tanto amate [NAM 35], published just five years after Weelkes’
piece).
Sing we at pleasure can be termed a madrigal, but a more accurate term is ballett.
• A madrigal is usually a secular song about love, particularly in a rural setting.
Madrigals are mostly for unaccompanied voices, and can be substantial and serious in
tone (e.g. Weelkes’s own My tears do not avail me (1597)).
• A ballett is essentially a lighter madrigal, with two main sections, each ending with a
passage based on the syllables ‘fa-la’. (‘Ballett’ with two t’s is Weelkes’s own spelling,
and avoids any possible confusion with ‘ballet’.)
o The ballett was of late 16th-century Italian origin, where it was mostly
homophonic and could accompany dancing.
o Thomas Morley played a major part in introducing the ballett into England,
where it was often developed into something longer and more sophisticated
than the earliest Italian type. Note the plentiful use of counterpoint in Sing we
at pleasure.
Performing forces and their handling
Sing we at pleasure is in five parts, and Weelkes probably expected performance by five
soloists rather than a choir with several singers on each part. As a secular piece it was
almost certainly sung by a mixed ensemble of women and men (not by men and boys as
in the manner of church music).
In the anthology the five voices are labelled:
• Soprano 1 (Cantus)
o ‘Cantus’ – as in the 1598 publication – is Latin for ‘song’. Often the cantus is
the highest part, but here cantus and quintus take it in turns to be on top.
o Range: from F sharp to G a 9th above (see the note heads after the treble clef
in bar 1).
• Soprano 2 (Quintus)
o ‘Quintus’ is Latin for ‘fifth part’. Five-part writing was common in Weelkes’s
day, but four types of voice were often involved, broadly corresponding to
present-day soprano/treble, alto/contralto, tenor and bass. So…
o …here soprano 2 has exactly the same overall range as soprano 1 and (as
noted above) often crosses above it.
When the third line of the poem is repeated (at bar 53: ‘Sweet Love shall keep the
ground…’), the two soprano parts are swapped round for sake of variety, with soprano 1
singing what soprano 2 sang at bar 22, and vice versa.
• Alto
o Probably for a woman’s voice rather than a male alto or countertenor.
o Range: middle C to C an octave above (the lower note head in bar 1
should be C).
• Tenor
o Range: from D below middle C to G an 11th above
• Bass
o Range: from low G to D a 12th above
o Top D is reserved for places where Bass imitates Tenor at the unison.
Texture
Number of parts:
• Five, which sing together all the time (except for occasional rests in individual parts)
Relationship of parts:
• Occasionally all voices have the same rhythm – i.e. chordal (or homorhythmic)
texture in the manner of the simplest balletts:
o at ‘Sweet love shall keep’ and ‘All shepherds in a ring’.
• Generally parts have different rhythms:
o employing a freer homophonic style than in chordal or homorhythmic writing,
as at the end of the first ‘fa-la’
o but more frequently in counterpoint.
• Counterpoint commonly involves imitation, usually in sopranos 1 and 2 and/or tenor
and bass.
• The two sopranos usually imitate at the unison – i.e. both parts are at the same pitch
– as at the start of the piece…
• …but Tenor and Bass are sometimes an octave apart (again as at the start).
• The alto ‘fills in’ except at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ and at the end of the first fa-
la.
• Imitation can be sufficiently prolonged and exact to allow the term canon – or
canonic imitation – to be used. See for example ‘Shall, dancing, ever sing’ (from b.
34) and ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ (from b. 56).
• The time interval between entries is sometimes one whole bar (as at the beginning),
but some other entries are separated by a single crotchet beat, with more lively
effect, at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ (from bar 25).
• Parts frequently work in pairs:
o Sometimes one pair repeats what another has just sung, as Example 1
(below) shows.
o In such cases the pairs consist of
� one soprano plus tenor, and
� the other soprano plus bass.
o This is not the same as antiphony, as the ‘answering’ pairs are embedded in a
full five-voice texture rather than singing alone, the other parts having rests.
o The immediate repetitions in the passage at ‘Shall, dancing, ever sing’ involve
ostinato (with the same phrase, alternating between the two sopranos, heard
four times straight off – bars 343–432).
Structure
SECTION 1: Bars 1–22 (first-time bar)
Sing we at pleasure,
Content is our treasure.
Fa la.
Bars 1–82 a single rhyming couplet – with imitation, but enough
straight crotchets for there to be some feeling of homophony.
Bars 83–22 the fa-la – mostly contrapuntal.
SECTION 1 again: Bars 1–22 repeated exactly.
SECTION 2: Bars 22 (second-time bar) –53
Sweet Love shall keep the ground,
Whilst we his praises sound.
All shepherds in a ring
Shall, dancing, ever sing.
Fa la.
Bars 223–432 the two new rhyming couplets quoted above. The setting of the
first line is homophonic; the setting of the second line is
contrapuntal.
Bars 43–53 the fa la (contrapuntal). Shorter than the fa la of Section 1,
presumably so that Section 2, with its two rhyming couplets, can
be considerably longer than Section 1, but not too long?
SECTION 2 again: Bars 533–742 = bars 223–532, but with soprano parts reversed.
The overall structure might be described as binary, with its two sections, each repeated,
but it lacks the tonal contrast of most binary structures in the Baroque period and later,
because Section 1 does not close outside the G major in which the whole piece begins
and ends.
Tonality
Sing we at pleasure predates the type of ‘functional’ tonality which governed so much
music from the late Baroque onwards. The latter was based on:
• two types of diatonic scale – major and minor
• pre-eminence of primary triads, especially tonic (I) and dominant (V)
• systematic use of modulation as an important structural device.
For Weelkes several types of diatonic scale, called modes, were available.
In Sing we at pleasure it is customary to speak of the mixolydian mode on G (without
key signature) with the basic set of notes G A B C D E F (natural) G. Nevertheless, as in
much other music composed c.1600, the transition from modes to major and minor
scales and keys was already under way. In particular:
• F sharp, the principal sign of G major as opposed to G mixolydian, is prominent in
the opening bars (as in Example 1) and from time to time elsewhere, notably in the
final cadence.
• the tonic and dominant notes of G major (G and D) are sometimes emphasised in
melodic patterns (as in bar 1 of the tenor and bars 2–3 of the bass).
• chords I and V (G major and D major) are prominent at some cadence points (e.g. at
the end) and sometimes elsewhere.
Weelkes was also aware in a fairly limited way of the value of tonal contrast. (There is,
however, nothing similar to the immensely purposeful tonal architecture of e.g. much
music by J.S. Bach.)
• He cadences away from G at ‘keep the ground’ with the perfect cadence in D major
(note the C sharps).
• At the start of the first fa-la (bars 83–17) a phrase in D major (following the ‘VIIb–I’
cadence in G at ‘treasure’) is repeated transposed to G and then to C. All this is
balanced and resolved by the firm cadence in G with which the first fa-la concludes.
• The final perfect cadence of the second fa-la (in G major, with F sharp in the alto)
sounds remarkably fresh after the preceding eight-bar C major alternation of G major
and C major chords.
Harmony
Weelkes uses:
• Root-position triads (53 chords)
o e.g. at ‘Sing we at pleasure’: in terms of roman numerals in G major the
chords are: I I V | I I V | I I
o on the last beats of bars 10, 13 and 16, the chords are diminished (C sharp–
E–G, F sharp–A–C and B–D–F).
• First-inversion triads (63 chords)
o e.g. at ‘Content is our treasure’ each of bars 5–7 begins with B in the lowest-
sounding part, the chord in full being B–D–G (G major, first inversion).
There are various dissonant (non-chord) notes, chiefly suspensions and passing notes,
but they do not greatly disturb the generally consonant quality of the harmony.
Suspensions:
• provide extra rhythmic movement and mild harmonic tension, mainly on penultimate
chords of some important cadences, e.g. the 7–6 with the G major chord VIIb at the
end of the first rhyming couplet (bar 73).
• here have no expressive purpose (as can happen, for example, where dissonance is
used in the depiction of dark text in a serious madrigal).
Unaccented passing notes:
• are quavers that fill in intervals of a 3rd between two harmony notes and keep the
music flowing.
• are numerous in the descending scalic patterns used at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’.
Sometimes two parts have passing notes simultaneously in 3rds or 6ths, as at bar
25, beat 3.
Cadences are almost all perfect (V–I). The first rhyming couplet ends with VIIb–I, but
this is really just a substitute for an ‘ordinary’ perfect cadence. The first line of the third
couplet (‘All shepherds in a ring’) ends with chords of G and D major (imperfect in G
major).
Melody
Weelkes uses:
• much conjunct (stepwise) movement
o including scalic passages, especially at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’)
• leaps of a 3rd
o in particular the descending 3rds first heard at ‘Content is our treasure’.
• leaps of a 4th or 5th
o notably where the bass outlines perfect cadences and other chord successions
with roots a 4th or 5th apart.
• a few larger leaps (almost all octaves)
o e.g. the falling octave in soprano 1 at ‘Sing we at pleasure’ – which would be
even more striking if it were not obscured by the entry of soprano 2.
o rapid octaves in the bass of the second fa-la add to the liveliness and vigour
of this closing passage.
Other points:
• As typical of so many styles of music, Weelkes carefully balances ascending and
descending movement: for example, a leap in one direction is often countered by
stepwise movement in the other.
• As previously explained, the alto part has much less melodic interest than the other
four parts.
• The three-note figure first heard at ‘Content is our treasure’ reappears prominently in
the first fa-la and in the second, and contributes to a degree of melodic unity and
concentration fairly unusual in music of this period. Note also that the opening
soprano 1 phrase ‘Sing we at pleasure, at pleasure’ consists of two balancing
stepwise ascents a 5th apart (see Example 1). This phrase is the basis of soprano 1’s
closing phrase in the first fa-la – and perhaps suggested the more vigorous ascents
in the soprano parts at ‘Shall, dancing, ever sing’.
• Word setting is syllabic throughout, both where the rhyming couplets are set and in
the fa-las. The syllable ‘fa’ comes only on the first note of a new phrase: other notes
have ‘la’.
Rhythm and metre
• In the 1598 edition the time signature is C3 (the C having a dot in the middle).
Barlines are editorial, and the music is, in modern parlance, in simple triple time or 34.
• Sing we at pleasure relies greatly on the dotted crotchet, quaver, crotchet rhythm
heard in soprano 1 at the start. This rhythm is present in one or more parts in the
majority of bars, but contrast and variety are achieved by, for example, the
alternation of crotchets and minims at the start of each couplet in Section 2.
• The frequent quavers at ‘Whilst we his praises sound’ may be intended to reflect joy
and praise.
• Strings of quavers in the second fa-la (in tenor and bass) bring Section 2 to a lively
conclusion.
• Syncopation (with relatively long notes starting on weak beats and thereby receiving
special stress) features in more contrapuntal passages and where a cadence has a
suspension or the type of unprepared dissonant 4th found at the end of Section 1
(bar 21, alto).
• There is hemiola at the end of each fa-la (that is, two bars of 34 are divided into three
sets of two beats rather than the usual two sets of three) (Example 2).
• Generally Weelkes use straightforward triple-time rhythms with an obvious beat
often with a dance-like quality (after all, the ballett originated in the dance).
Further reading
(For general interest and information – not essential reading)
The New Grove (2001), available by subscription online, has (for example) more on
Weelkes’ biography.
D.Brown, Thomas Weelkes: a Biographical and Critical Study (New York and Washington,
Praeger, 1969).
L. Pike, Pills to Purge Melancholy: The Evolution of the English Ballett (Aldershot and
Burlington, Vt., Ashgate, 2004).
10. Cage
Sonatas and Interludes for
Prepared Piano: Sonatas I-III (for Unit 6: Further Musical Understanding)
Background information and
performance circumstances
John Cage (1912-92) is now recognised as one of the most influential figures in
twentieth century music, his principal achievements being:
• development of the use of percussion.
• exploitation of elements of chance and indeterminacy in performance.
• exploration of new sound sources (including the prepared piano).
• use of new forms of graphic notation.
• awareness of eastern philosophy, shown in both his music and writings.
During the late 1930s, Cage moved towards composition of music for percussion
instruments and with it, the development of a compositional system in which duration
was the most significant of the musical elements. His system depended on the use of
mathematical proportions to govern both the large–scale and small-scale dimensions
of a work. Cage described his technique of rhythmic structure as ‘micro-macrocosmic’,
and it was first used significantly in First Construction (in Metal) for six percussionists
(1939).
Composition for percussion and for modern dance led to the invention of the prepared
piano. From the late 1930s Cage was the musical director for a number of dance
companies, eventually working for Merce Cunningham among others. In 1940 he was
asked to compose music for a new work, Bacchanale, evocative of African culture, by
Syvilla Fort. Finding that there was no room for a percussion ensemble, Cage turned to
the piano as his sound source. He had encountered plucked and strummed sounds in
the music of Henry Cowell, but here he extended the idea by placing bolts, screws and
fibrous weather stripping between the strings. Cage subsequently wrote many works
for the prepared piano, exploring the effects of different materials, different
placements, the use of pedals, the changing of pitch and timbre and various
combinations of these effects.
Sonata and Interludes
The culmination of Cage’s early career was Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48), which
brought together many aspects of music and philosophy that were pre-occupying him
up to the end of the 1940s. Cage referred to the Sonatas and Interludes as
intentionally expressive compositions, because they have an extra-musical inspiration,
depicting the spiritual and emotional states described in Ananda Coomaraswamy’s
work The Transformation of Nature in Art: the Dance of Shiva. The content refers to
the permanent emotions of Indian aesthetics: heroic, erotic, wonder, rejoicing,
anxiety, fear, anger, loathing and the tendency of all of these emotions to resolve
towards one other emotion, a state of tranquility. Cage did not specify how he had
represented these emotions, but it has been suggested that each movement
represents a single emotion and that towards the end of the cycle the movements
become increasingly calm and tranquil.
Performing forces and their handling
When Cage first developed the prepared piano he expected the sounds he was
devising to be repeated in successive performances. As time went by, he came to
the realisation that not only pianists, but also pianos, are unique and that every
performance would have its own characteristics; he appreciated that he would be
unable to ‘possess’ the sounds he had created. This acceptance was in line with
his interest in Zen philosophy and his later view that life is not intended to consist
of repetitive actions and experiences, and that events are to be enjoyed as they
happen. This attitude led to the adoption of indeterminacy in his compositions.
With the development of the prepared piano, Cage created a percussion ensemble
for one player. It could sound as an ensemble of highly original timbres, with an
extraordinarily subtle range of dynamics and nuances. It could also produce
melodic lines as well as percussive effects.
In an interview given in 1949, Cage outlined four ways in which preparation of the
piano affected the sound:
• It quietens it.
• It changes its timbre.
• It splits it into two or three sounds.
• It shortens its duration.
Full details of the way the instrument is to be prepared are provided on p. 167 of the
Anthology. Cage emphasised that the alteration to the sound must be complete,
otherwise, like a well-known person appearing in costume, there's something clownish
about it. Despite such detailed instructions, Cage also suggested that there is no
absolutely strict plan which has to be followed - if you enjoy playing the Sonatas and
Interludes then do it so that it seems right to you.
Texture The prepared piano is an intimate instrument designed to convey a subtly-coloured
world. The textures in these sonatas are often sparse, and typically involve:
• Chords (Sonata I, bar 1).
• Monophony (Sonata II, bar 1).
• two part homorhythm (Sonata II, bar 10).
• treble movement over static or ostinato accompaniment (Sonata II, bar 17;
Sonata III, bar 1).
• Layered textures (Sonata II, bar 30).
Structure
The 20 movements forming the Sonatas and Interludes cycle were not composed in
sequence but were later organised symmetrically; every group of 4 sonatas is
separated by an interlude, with the centre marked by two interludes. The term
‘sonata’ refers back to Baroque sonatas such as those composed by Scarlatti, which
consist of a single movement in binary form. Most, but not all, of the Sonatas and
Interludes are in binary form (including Sonatas I-III).
The technique, which he referred to as micro-macrocosmic rhythmic structure, built
relationships between numbers which then governed every aspect of the duration of
his music. It produced a perfect symmetry which related the large-scale to the small
and the small-scale to the large, in the same way as fractals do in mathematics,
nature and art. Fractals occur when a large shape can be broken down into fragments
that have exactly the same shape (as in snow crystals and ferns). Cage found this a
particularly satisfying way of structuring his music because in doing so his art reflected
nature - a key feature of Coomaraswamy’s teaching.
In practice this meant that for each movement Cage would select a different number
as a basic unit and divide this into several varied proportions. These figures would
then govern the length of the whole movement, its sections and its phrases, and
therefore each level of duration related to all the others.
Other aspects of the structure are less easy to define as there is little thematic or
motivic repetition, neither is there much contrast within each movement.
Micro-macrostructure in Sonatas I-III
Note that all three sonatas work on identical principles, but with different basic
units and structural proportions. The basic arithmetical proportions are given below.
Sonata I
• The ‘micro’ pattern lasts 28 crotchets.
• It is composed of rhythmic groupings with the following crotchet durations:
4-1-3 (repeated); 4-2 (repeated).
• The ‘macro’ scheme reflects these proportions:
Bars 1-7 4 x 7 crotchets 28 crotchets
Bar 8 1 x 7 crotchets 7 crotchets
Bars 9-12 3 x 7 crotchets 21 crotchets
Bars 13-18 4 x 7 crotchets 28 crotchets
Bars 20-26 2 x 7 crotchets 14 crotchets
Sonata II
• The ‘micro’ pattern lasts 31 crotchets.
• It is composed of rhythmic groupings proportioned as follows:
1-½ (repeated); 1-1- 3/8 (repeated).
• The ‘macro’ scheme reflects these proportions:
Bars 1-9 1 x 31 crotchets 31 crotchets
Bars 10-14 ½ x 31 crotchets 15 ½ crotchets
Bars 15-23 1 x 31 crotchets 31 crotchets
Bars 24-32 1 x 31 crotchets 31 crotchets
Bars 33-37 3/8 x 31 crotchets 11 ½ crotchets
Note the frequent presence of 3/8 bars, many of them silent, which punctuate the
phrases, and the departure from the underlying pattern at the close.
SONATA III
• The ‘micro’ pattern lasts 34 crotchets.
• It is composed of rhythmic groupings proportioned as follows:
1-1-3 ¼ -3 ¼.
• The ‘macro’ scheme reflects these proportions:
Bars 1-8 1 x 34 crotchets 34 crotchets
Repeat 1 x 34 crotchets 34 crotchets
Bars 9-32 3 ¼ x 34 crotchets 110½ crotchets
Repeat 3 ¼ x 34 crotchets 110½ crotchets
Tonality
A major result of preparation is that the tonal relationships of scale or key are absent.
On a broad scale this means that because the prepared piano does not lend itself
to conventional tonality the music cannot be expected to explore contrasts of key
and modulation. In practice, though, there are vestiges of tonality: passages
repeat themselves, thereby giving emphasis to certain pitches, phrases approach
cadence points with a sense of closure given by rhythm and stepwise movement,
and the pitched notes that do exist often form pentatonic patterns that are
exploited melodically and suggest a tonal centre. One feature of conventional
tonality that is completely avoided, however, is the marking out of cadences by
harmonic progression.
Harmony
In 1946 Cage dismissed harmony as a tool of western commercialism, observing that
it had become a device used in Western music to make music impressive and grand,
but noting that simple cultures avoided it, preferring to focus on the more natural
elements of music: pitch, volume, timbre and duration.
The very nature of the Sonatas and Interludes negates the value of harmony as a
functional resource in the traditional sense. The idea of a continuous flow of harmonic
progressions between hierarchical chords is entirely foreign in an environment in
which it is the colours of percussive sounds and their interaction that dominate the
musical effect.
There are, however, some primarily “harmonic” moments in Sonata I:
• G 7 chords at the opening.
• Parallel chords at bar 20.
Melody
Melody is a prominent feature in Sonatas and Interludes, involving:
• Some immediate repetition of patterns.
• Short statements with defined shapes and phrases separated by rests.
• Arch-shaped melodies are common. See Sonata I bars 15-16; Sonata II, bars
1-2.
• Limited number of pitches, sometimes suggesting pentatonicism. See Sonata
II, bars 1-8.
• A tendency to use conjunct movement. See Sonata III.
• Decorative use of grace notes and rhythmic embellishment
• In Sonata III in particular treatment of motifs involves repetition, sequence,
inversion, augmentation.
Rhythm and metre
Durations have been discussed in the section on structure. This section concerns more
basic rhythmic features:
• Rhythmic ideas may be repeated immediately but not referred back to as the
music progresses.
• Patterns are placed unpredictably against the metre.
• Irregular rhythmic groupings are common and sometimes obscure the natural
pulse.
• In each sonata there is considerable variety in the types of rhythm pattern
used.
• Expected stresses are often displaced, causing strong beats to be unclear and
the metre to be vague.
• Metre changes frequently, usually prompted by the demands of structural
rhythm.
• Irregular metres are used freely.
• Significant periods of silence punctuate each sonata.
Select Bibliography
Richard Kostelantz (ed.), John Cage Writer (Previously Uncollected Pieces) (Limelight
Editions, New York 1993)
David Revill, The Roaring Silence (John Cage – a life) (Bloomsbury 1992)
James Pritchett, The Music of John Cage (Cambridge University Press 1994)
James Pritchett, Six Views of the Sonatas and Interludes (Princeton 1995)
David Nicholls (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (Cambridge University
Press 2002)
Recordings
John Cage Sonatas and Interludes Markus Hinterhauser (col legno 1996)
John Cage Sonatas and Interludes Maro Ajemian (NWCRI 2007)
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