WL: Vocal Music

Question 1

Vaughan Williams: OWE

Schumann: “Vogel als Prophet”, 1848

Answer 1

SIM: Undulating melodies, representing a natural subject (bird vs. wind)
DIF: Rolled chords, representing a bird

Question 2

Vaughan Williams: OWE/IMTP?

Elgar: “Piano Quinet in A minor”, 1918

Answer 2

SIM:
- Piano Quintet (no tenor!)
- Begins with homorhythmic strings
DIF:
- Piano accentuates the beats the strings don’t play -> ominous atmosphere created

Question 3

Vaughan Williams: OWE (/BH)

1. Ravel: “Le Trombeau de Couperin”, 1915
2. Debussy: “Voiles”, 1909

Answer 3

SIM:
1. First inversion chords
2. Parallelism -> BH!!
-> VW taught by Ravel, leading to his fusion of English folk and French Impressionism
eg. “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”, 1910

Question 4

Vaughan Williams: ALL

1. Butterworth: “When I was One-and-Twenty”, 1911
2. Saint-Saens: “La Brise”, 1870

Answer 4

SIM:
- Tonal ambiguity
DIF:
- OWE: Written in Bb, feels Eb + moments of bitonality

• IMPT?: Dorian mode
  -> 2. Saint-Saens: Dorian, but on E
• BH: Mixolydian mode
  -> 1. Butterworth: Dorian mode

Question 5

Vaughan Williams: OWE

Bartok: “Romanian Folk Dances”, 1915

Answer 5

SIM:
- Folk inspired
DIF:
- Bartok used actual transcribed folk melodies

Question 6

Vaughan Williams: IMTP?

Schubert: “Der Elrkönig”, 1815
vs.
Butterworth: IMTP?, 1911

(+ Standford: “Beati Quorum Via”, 1892)

Answer 6

SIM:
- Musically creates different characters/atmospheric juxtapositions:
Sch:
-> High register = Erlkönig - tempting, disconcerting
VW:
-> Soft, lower = dead
-> High, louder = living

+ highest pitches at the climax (eg. BH)
-> Standford: “Beati Quorum Via”
- SATB choir

Question 7

Vaughan Williams: IMTP?

Vaughan Williams: “Whither Must I Wander?”, 1895

Answer 7

SIM:
- Disjunct intervals
DIF:
- IMTP: Fear of the man
- WWIW: Word painting on “de-parted”

Question 8

Vaughan Williams: IMTP?

vs.
Butterworth: IMTP?, 1911

Answer 8

VW: Tenor + Piano Quintet
-> Soft, lower = dead
-> High, louder = living
vs.
B: Baritone + Piano
-> Higher, softer = dead -> sense of ghostly airiness
-> Lower, louder = alive

VW: Melody transposed up a 4th as it builds to climax
B: Melody kept the same throughout

Question 9

Vaughan Williams: IMTP?/BH

Vaughan Williams: “The Lark Ascending”, 1914

Answer 9

SIM
- Rhythmic stillness/calm
DIF
TLA: Emphasise this beautiful emergence of the lark (solo violin)
IMTP: Sense of eeriness around the entry of the ghost
BH: Sense of despondency/melancholy

Question 10

Vaughan Williams: ALL

Finzi: “Rollicum Rorum” from Earth and Air and Rain, 1936

Answer 10

English art song, song cycle

Question 11

Vaughan Williams: BH

Debussy: “Submerged Cathedral”

Answer 11

SIM
- Conveying bells
DIF:
1.
VW: Parallel 4ths
D: Open 5ths
2.
VW: Pizz + arco for sense of ‘ringing’
D: Piano pedal
3.
VW: Stacked 4ths/5ths
D: Repeated ‘E’ in octaves

Question 12

Bach: EFB 1

1. Lotti: “Cruxifixus”, 1717
2. Purcell: “Hear my prayer, O Lord”
3. Bach: “Lobert den Herrn, alle Heiden”

Answer 12

SIM
- Layered vocal entries
DIF:
1. Not fugal - used to create repeated dissonance
2. Different sections finish off phrases
vs.
3. SIM: Fugal with a tonal answer

Question 13

Bach: EFB 1

Handel: “Messiah” - “And the Glory of the Lord”

Answer 13

SIM:
- Strings double the voices
- Contrapuntal
- Sacred

Question 14

Bach: EFB 1

Zelenka: “Laetatus sum”, 1726

Answer 14

SIM:
- Extended melismas (“Laetatus”)
- Layered entries, imitative texture
DIF:
- Soprano enters up a 4th, not a 5th
- Voices enter independently, then join in polyphony
- Duet for Soprano and Countertenor

Question 15

Bach: EFB 1/2

Mozart: “Piano Concerto in C minor”, 1786

Answer 15

SIM:
Heterophony
DIF:
- Violin melody, piano ornamented above
- Classical, Piano + Orchestra

Question 16

Bach: EFB 1/2

Vivaldi: “Gloria”, 1715

Answer 16

1.
SIM:
- Tonal answer in the altos
DIF:
- The answer starts a 5th down from the soprano line, on the first degree of the scale

2
SIM:
- Moto perpetuo strings
DIF:
- SATB + Orchestra

Question 17

Bach: EFB 1

Albioni: “Adagio for Strings and Organ in G minor”

Answer 17

SIM:
- Similar bass line played by violone
DIF:
- Slower and pizz.

Question 18

Bach: EFB 1

Bach: “Christ ist erstanden”, 1714

Answer 18

SIM:
- Chromaticism
DIF:
- Chromatically ascending passing notes -> a sense of rising: Christ is risen (vs. the tension of “der alte böse Feind)
- From his “Little Organ Book”

Question 19

Bach: EFB 2

Finzi: “My Spirit Sang all Day”

Answer 19

SIM:
Rapid harmonic movement
DIF:
Often unexpected cadences, vs. V-I

Question 20

Bach: EFB 2/8

1. Bach: “Ich Hatte Viel Bekümmernis”, 1713
   +
2. Bach: “Jesu, meine Freude”, 1720s

Answer 20

SIM:
- Soprano and oboe create a heterophonic texture
-> Sometimes they double each other
- Cantata (2, not 8)

2.
SIM:
- 4-3 suspension
-> Tenor, over V-I (B-Em)
- SATB Chorale (8, not 2)