MUSIC 361 W14 - Final Study Notes

Minghua Guo

Gabriel Faur
e
Poetry / Text
Attracted to short poems of symbolists (in pattern / thoughts).
Rarely chose dramatic scene.
Tinged with melancholy, wistful.
Not interested in humour or irony
Enjoys tenderness of poetry.
More subtle settings of poetry.

Melody / Vocal line

Less obvious melodic structures
Not extreme in range
Rising scale passages (3-4 notes)
Not big jumps in melody.
Text dictates the tune, uses triplets
Lyrical melodies (Aprts un reve)

Harmonic idioms / devices

Anticipates usual resolution or lack of.
Employed new techniques but didnt take it as far as later composers. (Eau vivante: 16-note pattren,
pushing the boundary of composition, lots of chromaticism.)
Strong classical techniques
Contrapuntal, return to medieval.
Unexpected modulations to distant keys.
Return to home key
Moves in/out of keys unexpectedly, disturbance of tonality. (Clair de lune)

Accompaniment
Use of triplets (Aprts un reve)
Singer-piano challenges
Chord spacing - required large hand span.
Unexpected chord progression
Chordal accompaniment with wide spreads.
Accompaniment often a mood poem, its function is to create the proper atmosphere, sometimes giving
a counter-melody to the voice. (Les berceaux, Clair de lune)
Few and far intro and interlude.

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Not much sequencing or imitation
Short songs in general.
Early songs generally strophic. (Aprts un reve)
Later modified strophic, ABA, through-composed
Text dictates form

Claude Debussy
Poetry / Text
Symbolist poets, best works used Verlaine.
Responsive to translate poetic nuance to musical expression.
Text underscored and highlighted by the music (Cest lextase)
No specific emphasis, song speaks for itself. (La chevelure)

Melody / Vocal line

No routine intervals or accentuations.
Temperate dynamics.
Not based on normal western scales. (Cest lextase: descending oriental scale)
Specific tonal colour - shouldnt be transposed.
Uses melody to coordinate the harmony and other musical elements (Cest lextase, Le fl
ute de Pan)
Connects sections by recurring melodic motifs and rhythmic patterns (Cest lextase)
Fragmented melodic vocal lines. (Chansons de Bilitis)
Manipulation of whole tone scale. (Le fl
ute de Pan: flute on first page)
Recitative passages build on small scale intervals. (Le fl
ute de Pan)

Harmonic idioms / devices

Moderately normal harmonies.
Dissonance, but not atonal.
Minor modes (Clair de lune: Pentatonic, Aeolian, Dorian)
Modal harmony (Le fl
ute de Pan)
Always a counter-balance on harmony that is dependent of the melody. (Le fl
ute de Pan)
Scale patterns of melody has parallel chords on harmony. (Le fl
ute de Pan)
Harmonic rhythm of song polarity (Le tombeau des Naades: absence of motion vs. fluid of the past)
Altered chords in modal harmony allow a natural movement between the mode of major and minor
scale on which the tonal scale is based.

Accompaniment
Untraditional accompaniments.
Weight and richness in accompaniment.

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Ariettes oubliees: Elegant and charming.
Trois melodies
Fetes galantes I
Fetes galantes II
Chansons de Bilitis

Francis Poulenc
Poetry / Text
Sensitive settings of great poems of 20th century.
Chose poems thats either: Obscure (Eluard) or Short and lacked innate lyricism (Apollinaire).
Must be inspired visually by the poem.
Must understand the poem completely

Melody / Vocal line

More lyrical than declamatory, in the form of extended arioso.
Melodies are diatonic, lots of accidentals and chromaticism because he modulates frequently. Songs
are overwhelmingly tonal. (Airs Chantes)
Often used 3rd, 4th, 5th intervals.
Portamento (H
otel )

Harmonic idioms / devices

Frequent and fluent modulation, rarely the same tonality for the entire song.
Songs are composed in disjunct ways, combining pieces.

Accompaniment
Piano are clear, no pianistic display. Becomes increasingly complex as he matures.
Some cases as lyrical as the vocal line, often doubling vocal line. (Le Dromedaire) Other cases have a
piano melody, some could stand alone.
Liberal use of arpeggios.
Frequent use of pedals.
Scarcely any ornamentation.
Wide stretch in one hand. (Voyage `
a Paris)
Long passages of unchanging rhythm.

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Uses melodie to refer to serious art songs. Specifically named 31 songs chanson, differentiated by degree
of liberty he took with the poetry and the overtone.
Three-quarters of all songs arranged in collections/cycles.
Greater use of musical repetition.
Typically ternary. Majority are through-composed with occasional vocal return.
Lighter and more accessible melodically and harmonically.

 Short in length, expresses his thoughts and feelings with conciseness.

Equivalent role of piano and voice. Numerous passages where piano is heard alone, but voice is rarely
alone.
Brief piano intro and conclusions, often non-existent.
Often opens and closes with the same motif to emphasize the unity of the song. Each song is unified
by rhythmic or melodic ideas. (Le Bestiare)
Simpler songs remain in one meters throughout, others have a lot of meter changes due to the French
language speech pattern and musicality.
Contrast (Le Bestiare: melancholy vs. nonchalant. serous vs. witty).
Le Bestiare
Airs Chantes
Banalites

Roger Quilter
Poetry / Text
Familiar poems of established poets: Shakespeare (most used), Blake, Shelly, Tennyson.
Not opposed to cutting poems if it suits his purpose.
Text phrasing with correct verbal emphasis.

Melody / Vocal line

The primary ingredient, decorative in Hubert Parry style.
Lyrical, sensitive vocal lines, gracefully shaped phrases. (Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal ).

Harmonic idioms / devices

Occasional harmonic twist, creating a moment without feeling particularly out-placed (To Daisies:
creative harmonies).

Accompaniment
Accompaniment never intrusive, always supporting vocal line (Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal : Extends
the line and the end of each vocal phrase, continues the phrase of the melody.).
Sometimes lots of octaves (To Daisies)

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Effective, sometimes sophisticated settings of the strophic form.
Strong sense of graceful form and melodic beauty, element of accessibility. Appeal to the popular crowd
of the day.

Benjamin Britten
Poetry / Text
Affinity to words in the tradition of Purcell.
Devoted much of his music to the English verse. Brought real notice to English texts.
Penetrate to the poetic feeling at the heart of the text. No direct word painting, but rather to capture
the essence of the poem.
Tended to choose poetry that/with:
Display intense concern and love for humanity.
Represent many situations of life with external conflicts that the person must face and resolve.
Themes of nature and nocturnal atmosphere.
Image of death and war (e.g. The War Requiem).
Circumstances of irony and satire.
Chose works of intellectual poets who thought about 20th century humanity, as well as poetry that
express his personal convictions.

Melody / Vocal line

Used melody to its full range.
Purely musical structures, largely an adjunct to meter and rhythm.
Frequently contain melismas and other melodic elaborations.
Frequently used melodic sequences.
Fondness for vocal cadenza.
Lies in normal range of a singer, no extremes.
Two important melodic expressions:
1. Development of recitative:
Basic element in his cycles.
Some categories:
Syllabic, constructed on single pitches: the message is more important than its musical
embodiment.
Parlando recitative, same speech rhythm as above but with more melodic design (not on
one single pitches).
Dramatic recitatives, like those found in opera.
(Most developed) Basic syllabic song, same speech pattern through entire song, still with
melismatic word-painting, (The Holy Sonnets of John Donne). Comparable to Purcell.
2. Melodies that employ musical ideas independent from any poetic consideration:
Songs that are both diatonic and chromatic.
Whole tones and melodies build on triadic and chordal harmonies. (Batter My Heart)

Rhythm
Dotted rhythm of many types and variations. (Oh My Blacke Soule: forceful dotted rhythm unison,
used as motif)
Frequent use of rhythmic sequences.
Even if the rhythm does not adhere to the poetic meter, it is certainly conditioned, influenced by it.
Augmentation and diminution, his favourite devices to extend a fragment of an initial phrase.
Sometimes different meter on vocal and accompaniment, but the song itself belongs in both meters.
Extensive use of syncopation (Batter My Heart), without regard for bar-lines, like Purcell.

Harmonic idioms / devices

Applies new techniques and devices to traditional harmony. (e.g. triad with added tone, two or more
triads simultaneously)
Non-traditional chords: those build on 4th , chord clusters, tri-tone chords, sometimes chords derived
from tones of the melodic line.
Uses chords without regard to their function, each chord independent and individual.
Like his contemporaries in France, used whole tones and modal melodies.
Non-functional gliding chords as static harmony that establishes a key center. Chords move in parallel
way, gliding up or down. (last section of Oh My Blacke Soule)
Lots of use of modulation, change in tonality.
Devices:
Harmonic sequence
Harmonic and rhythmic ostinato
Pedal points
Modal influences
Whole tone fragments
Chromatic scale passages
Harmonies are rich with emotional intensity.

Accompaniment
Vehicle for expression of text.
Sometimes independent melody, sometimes part of vocal line melody. (Sweet Polly Oliver : Duet
between voice and canonical accompaniment.)
At times comment on the text and enhance the mood of the text.
Functions in a subservient role to enhance or support the voice but is never obtrusive. (The Salley
Gardens)
Majority of his cycles use piano accompaniment.
Homophonic and polyphonic.

 Ideas of the poetry imitated on the piano to create overall mood without being specific.
Homophonic style (bulk of his songs)
Simple repeated and syncopated chords.
Broken chords and arpeggios.
Figure pattern on the right hand with chord on the left. (The Salley Gardens: right repeated
8th, left two eight and a half, straight fourth)
Use of ground bass, influenced by Purcell.
Motivic writing, influence both voice and piano.
Repeated chords, e.g. sustained rhythmic ostinato.
Get variety by using counter-melodies and changing density of the chord (in conjunction with
rhythmic ostinato and repeat chords). (O Waly, Waly)
Contrapuntal style appear much less frequent in song cycles, more in folk-songs.
Utilizes the full keyboard range.

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Very infuenced by Purcell, especially with the expansive nature of his style.
Also infuenced by Mahler and Stravinsky, and folk-song.
Most songs in sets or cycles, or else extended songs.
Six volumes of folk song arrangements, mostly of British isles.
Folk songs:
Combination of simplicity and sophistication.
Original in folk idioms, but more innovative and adventurous and enriches the folk melodies in
subtle ways. The combination is very cohesive. (The Salley Gardens, O Waly, Waly: nontraditional folk accompaniment on traditional melody, Sweet Polly Oliver : Canonic development)

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Charles Ives
Poetry / Text
Familiar with how text should flow.

Melody / Vocal line

Exhibit wit, inventiveness, melodic gift.
Unexpected use of usual melody.
Motivic development techniques: melodic inversion, inverted retrograde, found in early music (16th
century polyphony and counterpoint.), melodic augmentation and diminution.
Rapid change to key suggests atonality.
Rarely modal.

Rhythm
Irregular and fractional meters
Schematic accentuation.
8th note pulse underline all the unusual music.
Frequent syncopation.
Sometimes omits time signature & bar lines completely, sometimes use random bar lines to stress the
beat.
Change of rhythmic structure (At the River )

Harmonic idioms / devices

Polyphony:
Independence of melodic lines/blocked chords
Ground bass
Repeating tones either exactly or sequentially - changed rhythm
Consecutive extreme dissonances. Also took consonance to extremes.
Use of unusual chords, chords of his own invention, poly-chords (two or more chords put together
against each other), chords built on a particular intervals (e.g. 2nd, major and minor) that form tone
clusters.

Accompaniment
Forms. Song groupings / cycles
Sensitivity in rhythm
Shades of casual and formal expressions.

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 Unity out of many diverse element, established through relationships instead of exact repetition of
sections.

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Samuel Barber
Poetry / Text
Intensely important. He is well versed, wrote poems in French and German.
Lifelong passion for Celtic poetry: Stephens, Joyc and Yeats.

Melody / Vocal line

His great strength.
Swift change of mood.
Employment of the same theme in both the melody and the piano, provides structure cohesion (Sure
on this shining night: Interplay between piano and voice with canon at beginning and end, occasionally
piano and voice swap places.).

Harmonic idioms / devices

Rich, identifiable harmonic texture conveys prevailing melancholy and loneliness.
Mastery of polyphony and counterpoint through his study of Bach.
Canonical imitation.

Accompaniment
Pedal points everywhere, often disguised in the interior of a texture.
Arpeggiated chords. (A nun takes the veil )
Appoggiatura and grace notes suggesting Irish harps (Hermit Songs)
Repeated chords, lyrical vocal line on top with counter-melody on piano (Sure on this shining night)

Forms. Song groupings / cycles

Straight and simple style.
Rich sensuality balanced with good taste.
Flexible meters (Sure on this shining night)
Hermit Songs
Recitative and aria format.
Omits metrical/time signatures (St. Itas Vision)
Prevalence of quasi-archaic use of open 4th and 5th.
Union of melody and text.
Open recitatives and aria. (St. Itas Vision)
Random bar-lines (St. Itas Vision)

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