Composition/Analysis Assignments

Music 336

Frye

Theory 336

Comp/Analysis project #1

Option a:

On a separate typed page answer the following questions about the attached Chopin Nocturne, Op.9, no. 1.
1. Research Chopin and his music, know his birth and death dates, nationality, the pieces he composed and his style.
2. What is a Nocturne and who first used the term for a musical work?.
3. What type of mood does this piece create and how does Chopin create it?
4. Analyze the key and roman numerals of the harmonies in mss. 1-18. Be aware of pedal tones.
5. What is the form of the overall work?
6. What key does mss. 5-7 tonicize?.
7. What borrowd harmony is used in ms. 6?
8. What is the chord in bts. 1-3 in ms. 17?
9. What other chord is enharmonically the same?
10. There is a modulation to the ršelative major in ms. 19, does the texture change?
11. What is the Fb in ms. 19?
12. Why does Chopin change the Fb to E nat. in the next phrase in ms. 23?
13. The fully dim. 7th chord in ms. 25 is a good example of what?
14. What key does the harmony from ms. 51-58 imply?
15. Do we ever go to that key?
16. How does the chord in ms. 83 function?
17 Identify the measure and beat where one can find the following:

• Altered dominant
• MmM 9th
• Mmm 9th
• Neopolitan
• Enharmonic German in Db:

• V7b5 or French Aug. 6th
• Deceptive cadence
• Two different qualities of 9th chords
• A tonicization of the Neopolitan
• A descriptive title
• Tempo, dynamics and articulations

Comp/Analysis project #2

Option a:
Write a short (24-30 measures) impressionistic piece for piano or your instrument and piano in the mixolydian mode. Include sections of the following:

• diatonic planing
• chord-type planing
• 9th and 11th chords
• hemiola rhythms.

Analyze the Debussy prelude, Minstrels by answering the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What key is the piece in?
2. What kind of cadence is at the end of the piece?
3. What kind of scale is used in the melody in mss. 9-12 (and again in mss. 19-22)?
4. What key suddenly appears in ms. 18?
5. What key is implied in mss. 27-31?
6. What quality chords are used in the right hand in mss. 37-38?
7. What intervals are in the harmonies in Mss. 41-43 and what scale does this imply?
8. Mss. 41-43 are a good example of what impressionistic technique?
9. What key appears again in mss. 45-49
10. What technique and what keys are used in mss. 51-52 and 55-57?
11. The chords in ms. 57, beats 1-3 are a good example of what relationship?
12. What instrument is Debussy imitating in ms. 58-62?
13. Analyze on the music the harmonies in mss. 65 to the end. Be looking for added 6th chords and ninth chords.
14. How do you explain the harmonies in mss. 71-72? Would one want to analyze them in a functional sense?
15. The C#7 chord in ms. 73 (beat one) seems to be out of place. Where does it come from?
16. Indicate all aspects of this piece that convey the impression of the name (found on the last)?

Comp/Analysis project #3

Option a:
Compose a 1-2 minute piece using the 12 note row attached. This piece should be for your piano, your instrument and piano or an ensemble of instruments from the class. Use several different forms of the row and try to incorporate any unique features that are found in the row into the work (i.e. harmonic structures, invariance, etc.). As always, do not to forget to include tempo, dynamics and articulations or,
Compose a 1-2 minute minimalistic piece. This piece should have slowly changing melodic, rhythmic and dynamic aspects and should not be boring! Refer to Steve ReichÕs compositions such as Six Marimbas, or Vermont Counterpoint. for examples of this style.

Option b:
Analyze the Bartok Microcosmos piano work Subject and Reflection by answering the following questions.

1. What is the relationship between the top voice and the bottom voice of this piece?
2. What are the inner voices doing throughout the work?
3. Analyze the interval content of the pitch material of the top voice in mss. 1-14 using Hanson and set type analyses.
4. Analyze the interval content of the pitch material of the bottom voice in mss. 1-14 using Hanson and set type analyses.
5. What is the relationship of the pitch material in the top and bottom voices in mss 15-22 to the pitch material in mss.1-14?
6. Provide a linear analysis of this piece showing all of the pedal notes and the changes of the melodic material as middleground.
7. Notate the background pedal notes separately and describe what these notes form and also plot these pedal notes on graph paper representing each square as a measure of music.
8. What happens in ms 63?
9. How does mss. 59-62 prepare for what happens in ms. 63?
10. What pitches does Bartok add to the original pitch collection from the beginning (mss. 1-14) in mss. 63 to the end?
11. Find as many examples of (0, 1 ,4) set type in the pitch material in mss. 63 to the end.
12. What other pitch collection from this piece is based on this (0, 1, 4) trichord?
13. On Graph paper illustrate the keyboard ranges used in the piece. Make some comments on what you discover.
14. Describe all of the ways Bartok has unified this piece including pitch, meter, rhythm and register (range).