Set Works -- Set B
The Beatles
The Beatles songs on our course this year are from the Album 'Sgt Peppers Lonely hearts Club Band'
Three tracks include
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Mozart
The Mozart work we are covering is Piano Concerto K488 in A major
Here are some resources to help you! |
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Berlioz
Berlioz was a French composer, born right at the cusp of the Romantic Era. One of the first Symphonies he composed is Symphonie Fantastique. He set a new standard for orchestration, creating new timbres and incorporating instruments that were not standard to the orchestra - such as the oboe.
Symphonie Fantastique is a 5 movement plan, inspired in part by a book 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater' written by Thomas De Quincy. More importantly however it portrays Berlioz's infatuation with one irish actress Harriet Smithson. it is important that each listener follows the story behind the music, and Berlioz ensured that at each performance of the Symphonie, a programme was handed out to guide the listener in their understanding and enjoyment of the work. This is why Symphonie Fantastique is known as Programme music.
Typical features of Romantic music:
Emotionalism - feelings and emotions were freely expressed through the music.
Texture - As romantic music emphasied Dramatic expression, textures often changed quickly from section to section. Large scale doubling of parts added to the texture of compositions.
Melody - long expansive melodies, with unusual modulations / wide ranges / dramatic leaps / chromatic movement
Instruments - a larger orchestra with more brass and percussion. Interesting combinations of instruments creating new timbres and tonal colours.
Form - Symhony, Concerto, and Sonata from the classical era continued, however, the number of movements increased and extended. Also the importance of the story being told led to the development of Programme music and the symphonic poem.
Modulation - to unrelated keys
Leitmotiv - a recurring theme said to represent a particular idea, mood or character.
Symphony
A piece of music for orchestra in three movements - fast, slow, fast.
Some composers added a fourth movement - typically after the slow movement in the form of minuet and trio. Form wise, the first movement in Sonata form and the last in Sonata rondo form. In the romantic era the minuet and trio became a livelier Scherzo and composers continued to expand the form.
The Idee fixe
The 5 movements of Symphonie fantastique are unified by a recurring theme - the idee fixe.
Symphonie Fantastique is a 5 movement plan, inspired in part by a book 'Confessions of an English Opium Eater' written by Thomas De Quincy. More importantly however it portrays Berlioz's infatuation with one irish actress Harriet Smithson. it is important that each listener follows the story behind the music, and Berlioz ensured that at each performance of the Symphonie, a programme was handed out to guide the listener in their understanding and enjoyment of the work. This is why Symphonie Fantastique is known as Programme music.
Typical features of Romantic music:
Emotionalism - feelings and emotions were freely expressed through the music.
Texture - As romantic music emphasied Dramatic expression, textures often changed quickly from section to section. Large scale doubling of parts added to the texture of compositions.
Melody - long expansive melodies, with unusual modulations / wide ranges / dramatic leaps / chromatic movement
Instruments - a larger orchestra with more brass and percussion. Interesting combinations of instruments creating new timbres and tonal colours.
Form - Symhony, Concerto, and Sonata from the classical era continued, however, the number of movements increased and extended. Also the importance of the story being told led to the development of Programme music and the symphonic poem.
Modulation - to unrelated keys
Leitmotiv - a recurring theme said to represent a particular idea, mood or character.
Symphony
A piece of music for orchestra in three movements - fast, slow, fast.
Some composers added a fourth movement - typically after the slow movement in the form of minuet and trio. Form wise, the first movement in Sonata form and the last in Sonata rondo form. In the romantic era the minuet and trio became a livelier Scherzo and composers continued to expand the form.
The Idee fixe
The 5 movements of Symphonie fantastique are unified by a recurring theme - the idee fixe.
The movements
Part One: Reveries - Dreams - Passions
'The Author imagines that a young musician.... sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperatly in love with her. Ay a strange anomoly, the beloved image never presents itself to the artists mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognises a certain quality of passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.'
Part Two: Un bal - A ball
He meets again his beloved in a ball during a glittering fete
'The Author imagines that a young musician.... sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperatly in love with her. Ay a strange anomoly, the beloved image never presents itself to the artists mind without being associated with a musical idea, in which he recognises a certain quality of passion, but endowed with the nobility and shyness which he credits to the object of his love.'
Part Two: Un bal - A ball
He meets again his beloved in a ball during a glittering fete
Click on the Main Themes link on the left to listen to all the main themes from Un Bal, and see them written out. Or, watch the video below to listen to the whole movement
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Part Three: Scene aux champs - Scene in the countryside
One summer evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds dialoging with their 'rangez des vaches'; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the light wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring; but she reappears, he feels a pang of anguish, and painful thoughts disturb them: what if she betrayed him? One of the shepherds resumes his simple melody, the other one no longer answers. the sun sets....distant sound of thunder...solitude...silence...
Part Four: Marche au supplice - March to the scaffold
He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and lead to execution. The procesion advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which the muffled noise of heavy footsteps gives way without transition to the noisiest clamour. At the end, the idee fixe reappears for a moment like a final thought of love interrupted by the final blow.
One summer evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds dialoging with their 'rangez des vaches'; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the light wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring; but she reappears, he feels a pang of anguish, and painful thoughts disturb them: what if she betrayed him? One of the shepherds resumes his simple melody, the other one no longer answers. the sun sets....distant sound of thunder...solitude...silence...
Part Four: Marche au supplice - March to the scaffold
He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and lead to execution. The procesion advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which the muffled noise of heavy footsteps gives way without transition to the noisiest clamour. At the end, the idee fixe reappears for a moment like a final thought of love interrupted by the final blow.
Part Five: Songe d'une nuit de sabbat - Dream of a Witches Sabbath
He sees himself at a witches Sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter, distant cries which other cries seem to amswer. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost it's noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance-tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the Sabbath...Roars of delight at her arrival...She joins in the diabolical orgy...The Funersl knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies Irae. The dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies Irae.
He sees himself at a witches Sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter, distant cries which other cries seem to amswer. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost it's noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance-tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the Sabbath...Roars of delight at her arrival...She joins in the diabolical orgy...The Funersl knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies Irae. The dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies Irae.