M100: Music Appreciation Discussion Group

Ben Tibbetts, T.A.benjamintibbetts@yahoo.com

Welcome! Please sign the attendance at the front of the room.

Thursday February 14, 2013

Upcoming Events

• No class next Tuesday (Monday schedule)

Today’s Agenda

• Collect Baroque assignments• Timbre revisited• Pages 126-145

Collect Baroque assignments

Timbre (revisited for clarification)

Timbre refers to• Individual instrument• Individual section• Individual “voice”/“line”

Timbre can also be called “color” or, in the case of individual instruments, “tone quality”.

Fairly specific words include: reedy, brassy, clear, focused, unfocused, breathy, rounded, piercing, strident, harsh, warm, mellow, resonant, dark, bright, heavy, light, flat

(source: www.cnx.org/content/m11059/latest/)

Really general (food-derived) words include: acidic, biting, bitter, bland, bold, bubbly, buttery, chilly, course, crisp, dry, dull, fiery, greasy, gritty, heavenly, icy, liquid, mild, nasty, rich, robust, sharp, sizzling, smooth, smothered, snappy, sour, strong, sweet, syrupy, thick, tough, warm, watery, wild, zesty

(source: www.kathytemean.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/101-descriptive-words-for-foods/)

Feel free to use, but PLEASE USE SPARINGLY!!!Timbre is just one aspect of music.

(Moving too fast? These slides are online at www.bentibbetts.net/M100/spring2013/)

Timbre and Vibrato• Vibrato is a specific aspect of timbre.• Refers to the fluctuation of pitch in a held note• Most often refers to voice, but can also refer to instruments

Vibrato can be described:• Narrow or wide• Slow or fast

Example: excerpt from Tallis’ Miserere nostriperformed by Stile Antico (group of singers usually = more narrow vibrato)

Example: excerpt from “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandotperformed by Paul Potts (solo singer usually = wider vibrato)

Movements• Long pieces are often broken up into movements: smaller musical

pieces which are self-contained.• These movements are meant to be heard in a certain order (like

tracks on an album)• Between every movement, there’s usually a short period of silence• Etiquette tip: don’t clap until all the movements of a piece have been

played.

Example: Clementi’s Sonatina in C major, op. 36 no. 1(recording by pianist Cory Hall)

This four-minute piece has three movements. Each movement has a different tempo marking (which serves as a title for each movement):

1. Spiritoso2. Andante3. Vivace

Form

• “The structure of a musical work; the way in which its individual units are put together.” (p. 516)

Form

Common confusion:

• When applied to a multiple-movement piece, refers to each individual movement.

• When applied to a single-movement piece, refers to the entire piece.

Form

• Described using letters, like: “The form of that music is ‘AABA’.”

• Each letter refers to a different musical section. • Historically, each section is separated by some

kind of cadence (stopping point).• Describing the form of a pop song, the verse would

get a different letter than the chorus.

Example:California Gurls by Katy Perry / Snoop DoggThe form of this song is roughly “ABABCB”.

Binary Form

• Some forms are so common historically, they’ve been nicknamed

• Binary form is “a musical structure consisting of two repeated halves (AABB)” (p. 515)

Binary Form

Example(notice there’s repetition even within the sections)

George Frederic Handel

1685-1759

German/British composer

Suites

• A suite is one type of multiple-movement piece.

• “A series of individual dance movements, typically in a variety of types such as minuets, gavottes, and gigues, and a variety of characters such as fast vs. slow, lively vs. stately, duple vs. triple.” (p. 518)

Binary Form

The Hornpipe movement from Handel’s “Water Music” Suite No. 1 in F Major, HWV 348

• In “binary form”• Pattern happens 3 times:

(AABB, AABB, AABB)

• Each repeat utilizes different instruments

Antonio Vivaldi (again)

1678-1741

Italian composer

Concertos and the Ritornello Principle

Concerto - “An instrumental genre for a soloist (or sometimes more than one soloist) and a larger ensemble” (p. 515)

Ritornello – “Italian for ‘little return’; name for the statement and return of the full ensemble, in a work alternating between the orchestra and soloist(s)” (p. 518)

Ritornello principle – “The formal design of alternating ritornello and solo sections” (p. 518)

Example of the Ritornello Principle in concertos: the first movement of Winter from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

Recording featuring violinist Daniel Phillips.

Johann Sebastian Bach (again)

1685-1750

German composer/organist

Concerto Grosso

concerto grosso – “Italian for ‘big concerto’; a concerto with multiple soloists.”

Example: the first movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

(concerto for harpsichord,violin and flute)

Recording bythe Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Final Reminders / Homework

• No class next Tuesday (Monday schedule)• Reading for next Thursday: pp. 146-165• Questions? Email:benjamintibbetts@yahoo.com