Analysis of arias by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini

Una Voce Poco Fa - Giachino Rossini

When the piece begins, it seems that the rhythmic pattern 16th - dotted 8th -16th is pretty important. But overall I think the introduction (before the vocal lines comes in) moves playfully, like skipping. The vocal line seems difficult because of recurring use of borrowed time and notated melismas (if 4 notes for one syllable is considered a melisma). I think the violins also have some difficult lines because aside from the small note values played quickly, they have to play triads, there are also lots of tied notes. At m44, the time signature changes from 3/4 to 4/4. At m68, the violins don’t play on the downbeats, so all of this further makes the music sound playful. At m90, the syllable “-dar” is very, very ornamented and it hits a very high note. At m112, it’s another new rhythmic pattern and I have no idea how that would be sang but the singer can do it and I find it astonishing because the rhythm so far (for the vocal line) has been really tough. Before the singer ends her part, she does another very ornamented, technically demanding thing to her 2nd to the last syllable. And the very last word ends with that rolling rrr that Italians do. 

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Una furtiva lagrima - Gaotono Donizetti

The instrumental accompaniment is arpeggiated and its lines are simple, nothing too attention-seeking as it really accompanies the singer’s vocal lines. Also the time signature is not strictly followed (I think it’s 3/4), which gives the singer space for expression. The singer’s lines tell his feelings for the person he loves, how he’s observant or sensitive about the person and how he wants to make it right for the person. At 3:15, the singer sings a prolonged high note and the instruments almost cease, letting the ending be a solo for the singer. The instruments return to accompany the singer’s facial expression of sad wonder.

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Vaga Luna - Vincenzo Bellini

The piano accompaniment begins the piece with soft-sounding and songlike melody and arpeggiated harmony, suggesting that the piece is gentle and sweet. The singer also performs her lines like that, so overall the piece is dreamlike and like a lullaby that makes me want to fall asleep and forget all the problems and just fall asleep knowing I’m loved by my dearest mother. The form seems to be A A at its most basic, because the 1st and 2nd half sound the same. There is also a main theme that is recurrent all throughout the piece and that theme was also played by the piano at the very beginning. There are some altered notes but it doesn’t take away that lullaby-ness. I take the altered notes as those moments of hardships that a mother willingly takes because she loves her child/ren. 

Analysis of a choral work by Berlioz

La mort d'Ophélie (The death of Ophelia) - Hector Berlioz

La mort d’Ophélie is the 2nd movement in Tristia, Op. 18. The audio in the video is an orchestral version but the score shown is for piano, soprano, and alto. The lyrics are French and is based on Ophelia’s drowning in Act IV of Hamlet. The piece was originally composed in 1842 for solo voice and piano in, but in 1848 Berlioz revised it for female choir and orchestra. 

Listening to the piece, it makes me imagine a character calmly floating away from all the misery, but leaving behind people devastated by it. I imagine this because the music started calmly until 1:02 when altered tones are presented, altering the mood into something a little more tragic. Having had a few semesters of French, I somewhat understood the lyrics in the part that’s more tragic. The lyrics “Et de ces fleurs d’un rose pale”, I believe translates to “the color of the flowers have turned pale”, followed by “mort”, meaning “death”. After this short sonority of tragedy, the piece once again finds moments of calm. The vocals stop and the instrumental part moves on. When the voices comes back, it sounds like a new theme is introduced (2:45). It’s as if the music now tells the story of a different person who can’t accept the death of Ophelia, even justified at the sudden silence at 3:28. Even if the last word sang was “tomb”, the sudden silence was like a heavy, regretful “Noooo!” to all that’s happening. Afterwards the story of the music sounds like being torn between regretting and accepting the death of Ophelia. At 6:39, it seems the resolution is reached. The vocal and instrumental lines play the same notes. 

Surprising to me, after writing all this and deciding to choose a photo to add, this is what shows up:

"Ophelia" (1851-1852) by John Everett

Millais "Hamlet’s jilted lover Ophelia drowns in a stream surrounded by the flowers she had held in her arms. Though Ophelia’s death can be parsed as an accident, her growing madness and the fact that she was, as Gertrude says, “incapable of her own distress.” And as far as we’re concerned, Gertrude’s monologue about Ophelia’s drowning is one of the most beautiful descriptions of death in Shakespeare." - Emily Temple

Matrix

Matrix explained: https://unitus.org/FULL/12tone.pdf

Analyzing the Form of Debussy's Beau Soir

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) 

I chose to analyze Beau Soir/Beautiful Evening (1883) because I l o v e it. It always gives me a glowy and warm kind of nostalgia. Well, it makes me feel both nostalgic (of the past) and sentimental (of the present). I like the violin and piano version of this most than any other version. 

"When the rivers are rosy in the setting sun, 

and a mild tremor runs over the [fields of wheat], 

an exhortation to be happy seems to emanate from things 

and rises towards the troubled heart. 

An exhortation to enjoy the charm of being alive 

while one is young and the evening is beautiful, 

for we go away, as this stream goes: 

the stream to the sea, we to the tomb."

Piano and violin

Piano and voice

The melody (the violin or voice) is full of expression. It comes really softly, like being so caring and delicate. It goes high, low, takes small steps first, then leaps. I think Debussy was a genius and I really, reeeaaaally like his works. The melody line is simple, as in it's not that ornamented which makes me find it so raw, like innocent and having such pure and powerful, deeply rooted emotions. The piano accompaniment rises up in every measure, making me feel like I'm being swayed to reach somewhere (more than something). In the 2nd half of the piece, for a few measures the accompaniment falls and then goes up again and then I can hear the same melody and accompaniment from the beginning of the piece except this one has fewer notes, because it seems like the note values had been compounded together. There are tons of altered notes, so it would be reaaallly hard for me to analyze this technically. I found another blog with an analysis of the piece: Mode Mixture in Debussy’s “Beau Soir”

With reference to the 2nd video, for me..

0:00-0:50 is A

0:50-1:12 is B

1:12-1:50 is C

1:50-end is A

On Learning and Performing Jean Sibelius' Granen/Le Sapin/The Spruce

Jean Sibelius - Granen / Le Sapin / The Spruce

The Spruce is the 5th and last of the tree cycle composed by Jean Sibelius. It was said he composed the tree cycle because of his fondness of trees and nature in general. “Sibelius’ ‘tree cycle’ is one of the finest examples of the composer’s sensitive, pantheistic way of feeling: ‘the trees speak’  to him.”

My experience studying the piece was that it was challenging because of the 32nd notes, and because I haven’t studied any piano piece for over a year, making me doubt that I’ll be able to study enough of it for the performance day. In the performance, I still wasn’t able to do the 32nd notes flowingly unlike how others in the videos I had watched had done. If I could play these notes as they're written, I think I still wouldn't stay strictly in the 3/4 time signature, because in doing so I feel like it hinders me from expressing what I feel from the piece. I can't really visualize a spruce tree because I don't think I've ever seen one in person, though I definitely have come across guitars made of spruce. I couldn't picture or connect with spruce trees unlike Sibelius. I did however picture a serene ocean. 

From measure 33

I chose to study and perform this piece because it was the one I was very interested in from the moment I heard it. My first thought was “I didn’t know 20th century music was like this. It’s completely different from the other music periods.” This is my reaction to pretty much every piece I had stumbled upon in youtube when I was searching for what to perform. I really like 20th century music. I wonder, if the music periods were introduced to me backwards, perhaps I’d then be interested in learning more about the other periods because I want to be able to connect all of them to 20th century music. 

Thoughts on Wagnerian Music Drama

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1833)

Ride of the Valkyries

My thoughts on Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, without knowing what a Wagnerian Music Drama is, is that it reminds me of fantasy films. Films with heroes, legends, glowing swords, flying creatures. And that's also because I think I already did come across this very piece while watching a fantasy film. The rise and fall of the strings and the percussion that accompanies it definitely makes me imagine a race happening in the skies, flying above and below clouds and sometimes doing long falls where the characters are then greeted by the vast ocean. The "Valkyrie" in the title reminds me of the fantasy games I played when I was younger. I first encountered the word in those games, only ever stumbling upon the word in games and never in literature, but that because I rarely decide to immerse myself in reading. The Valkyrie was always a very, very powerful female character in the games. She wore gold on her head and wrists, had a pretty, flowy, fairytale-like outfit, and would duel with other players to test their strengths. Wagner seems like a person who was very fond or fascinated of legends or fantasy. I think he believed in the supernatural. The scenes that this music has me picturing is never close to those the music in earlier periods do.

The Opera Reform and Analysis of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

The Opera Reform (also in the entry “Ch 21 Opera and Vocal Music in the Early Classic Period) of mid 18th century had composers, librettists, and patrons work to bring new ideas of music and drama, seeking to make it all more “natural”. Natural being having a flexible structure, more expressiveness, less ornamented with coloratura. To increase dramatic impact, they made greater use of accompanied recitative and ensembles, making the orchestra more important as a vehicle for depicting scenes, evoking moods. 

Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Gluck aspired to write music of “a beautiful simplicity” which he achieved in Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) which was based on the myth of Orpheus. The opera was the first of Gluck that showed signs of his desire to reform opera seria, known as the opera reform. 

My thoughts on Orfeo ed Euridice:

I enjoyed watching it more than La Serva Padrona because I find the story — its characters, the setting, the conflicts and resolution — more compelling. I still find that deeper voices are more suited for male characters because in the video, Orpheus had a somewhat high voice which, to me, felt like it took away the heaviness of the plot. I find the music really, really good. This one in the video below (which was also provided for the listening exam) really painted a scene fit for the opera, the underworld, for depicting sorrow and loss of hope, and then the rekindling of that hope.

Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice - Atto II, Scena I (Orfeo e le Furie)

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