Music a leve; Flashcards
To help others to understand the musical elements.
Movement 1 - Instrumental forces
Four part chorus SATB
3 Oboes; a taille, violins 1 and 2, viola, cello and violone.
Continuo instruments; organ and cembalo.
Violins and Viola - double the SAT lines.
Cello - shadows the bass - elaborating in heterophony.
Movement 2 - Instrumental forces
Vocal duet for soprano and bass
soprano - doubled by oboe - sometimes in heterophony.
violins 1 + 2 and violas - provide obbligato line in unison - supported by Continuo.
Movement 8 - Instrumental forces
Chorale requires; SATB - each part doubled by instruments.
Soprano and Alto doubled by Oboe and Violins.
tenor - Taille and viola
Bass - continuo instruments.
M1 - R,M,T
Cut common time
type of time - brisk pace.
M2 - R,M,T
Moto perpetuo semiquavers
With walking bass quavers and florid shorter values in vocal parts.
Oboe - necessitates a relatively fast controlled tempo.
quadruple time
M8 - R,M,T
More moderate tempo
relies heavily on flowing quavers in the lower part.
Pause indicates - end of phrases.
Melody
Luther’s chorale provides the melodic basis for all 3 movements.
M1 - Melody
Each phrase - in turn
Very loose variation of the chorale melody in vocal parts .
Direct statement of theme - reserved for oboes in canon with violone.
Sequence - cello - bar 1
Chromaticism - word painting to underline guile of devil - bar 97-99.
Mixture of syllabic word setting.
Extended melisma’s in choral writing.
M2 - Melody
Heavy ornamentation
extended melismas and bass solo
Angular instrumental writing for the bass singer - bars 13-18
M8 - Melody
Powerful repeated notes
Mainly conjunct movement with occasional leaps.
forceful descending scales at end of first section and at final phrase.
Single note outside scale of D major.
Harmony
Clearly defined cadences. Triads and 7ths in various positions Pedal points - M1 - bars 27-30 Suspensions: 4-3 suspension in M8 - bar 2. 7-6 suspension in M8 - bar 8 9-8 suspension in M8 - bar 10 Dissonances arising from freely moving lines and passing notes. Diminished 7ths - M1 - Bar 71.
M1 - Tonality
Chorale dominates throughout - D major variety of keys are used throughout: E minor - bars 63-64 B minor - bars 65-66 F# ,minor - bars 67-68 A major - bar 90
M2 - Tonality
Also in D major
Modulation of keys:
A major - bar 27
B minor - bar 46
M8 - Tonality
Provides insights into Bach’s ingenious handling of a theme that could have been largely harmonised in D.
Perfect cadences in A major - 5-9
Imperfect cadence in E minor - bar 10.
M1 - Structure
Takes each phrase in turn.
Presented in a fugal working out in the vocal parts before rounding it off with a canonic version - Oboes and Violone.
M2 - Structure
Uses Ritornello form
A theme that recurs at various points throughout the movement - upper strings
Sometimes touching on different keys.
Statements of the chorale in soprano with different parallel text in bass.
M8 - Structure
A nine line chorale - with lots of repetitions.
This happens in phrase 4 where it uses same as phrase 2.
Phrase 9 has the same melodic line.
M1 - Texture
Contrapuntal
imitative writing in the vocal parts in fugal style.
Canon at the octave in oboes and violone, with half bar between the entries
Complicated more through heterophony in cello - bars 20-22
A more elaborate version of the vocal bass line.
M2 - Texture
Contrapuntal - with Ritornello theme in upper strings - supported by walking bass
Over this - can hear an embellished version of the chorale in the soprano
Independent line in the solo bass part.
M8 - Texture
Homophonic
Lower parts are rhythmically independent
Relative works
Wauchet AUF:
Uses cantus firmus
Taille in movement 1
Uses hymn by Phillip Nicoli forming basis for cantata melody.
Relative works - Structure
Vivaldi - Finale 4 - use of loose Ritornello form - where it is repeated a lot.
Relative works - Texture
Bach’s Brandenburg concerto - in D major - very contrapuntal throughout.
Sonority
Soloists:
Queen of the night - soprano
Tamino - tenor
Papageno - a baritone
three ladies - all soprano - have separate parts heard in homophony - 237
First and Second sopranos double at the unison.
Part of orchestra used; 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 horns in Bb and strings in No.4
Same forces used plus Clarinets in No.5
Pizzicato - in Adante in No.5 - bar 214+