Esperenza Spalding: Samba em Preludio

Question 1

Which styles is it a fusion of?

Answer 1

Jazz and South American music

Question 2

What is the key?

Answer 2

B minor

Question 3

What are the parts and what is their order?

Answer 3

Intro, verse 1, guitar solo, verse 2, coda

Question 4

What is the rhythm from bar 19 onwards?

Answer 4

Bossanova rhythm

Question 5

Which instruments play the melody in the first two verses?

Answer 5

Voice and acoustic bass guitar

Question 6

How do the melodic phrases often start in the first verse?

Answer 6

Triadically

Question 7

Describe the melodic phrases of the first verse

Answer 7

Descending chromatic sequences

Question 8

Describe the music of verse 2

Answer 8

Stepwise movements and repeated melodies, typical flattened 5th (jazz style)

Question 9

Describe the harmony

Answer 9

Contrary motion, many chord extensions, chromatic chords, diminished intervals

Question 10

Describe the texture

Answer 10

Start with monophony in acoustic bass guitar, then mostly polyphonic

Question 11

What is the metre?

Answer 11

4/4

Question 12

What tempo does it open with?

Answer 12

Free tempo, lots of rubato in verse 1

Question 13

What is the tempo in verse 2?

Answer 13

Fixed bossa nova tempo, about 140

Question 14

What is the tempo in the coda?

Answer 14

Free tempo

Question 15

Describe the rhythms

Answer 15

Complex rhythms - syncopation, triplets, cross rhythms

Question 16

Describe the sonority

Answer 16

Female voice with a low tessitura

Question 17

What ornamentation/playing techniques are used in the acoustic bass guitar?

Answer 17

Mordent, double stopping, harmonic, glissando

Question 18

Describe the dynamics

Answer 18

Non written, quite quiet though

Question 19

When was the piece written?

Answer 19

1962