Due Apr 13
Enlightenment: Classical Music
The orchestral sound we know as “Classical Music” coalesced in the 18th century. Of particular interest to us: the symphony and sonata form. Both are musical structures, not unlike the Petrarchan sonnet, with sonata form nested inside the symphony. Today we will focus on two early and prolific symphonic masters, Mozart and Haydn. Some of you are already students of classical music, but for those who are not trained musicians, the following exercises will likely prove somewhat challenging.
Sonata Form
Listen: the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony 40, (make sure to stop the video at 8:15, or you’ll end up listening to the whole symphony).
Watch and learn: Inside the Score, “How to Listen to Music: Sonata Form” (link)
Apply the lesson: here you get two options, depending on how confident you are in your skills. Note: because this assignment is unique, it is REQUIRED of everyone. It is separate from written HW, which as usual asks you to respond to one of my prompts and to one of your peers each week.
- Easier: anatomize movement 1 of Mozart’s Symphony 40, which you just heard analyzed.
- Harder: anatomize movement 1 of Haydn’s Symphony 88.
Symphonic Structure
Watch and learn: Enjoy Classical Music, “The Symphony—Explained in under 5 mins” (link)
Listen: Haydn Symphony 45, “Farewell.”
Writing: After listening to Haydn’s Symphony 45, “Farewell,” respond to ONE of the following prompts. To quote from the music, you can opt to specify the time signature or, better, paste in a YouTube URL that points to just before the moment you want us to hear. Either way, give a rich verbal paraphrase of what you want us to hear when we listen:
- Dynamics: point to a moment when Symphony 45 surprises the listener with a sudden shift from loud to soft or from soft to loud. What’s the emotional impact of this change?
- Instrumentation: point to a moment when Symphony 45 shifts instruments. What’s the emotional impact of this change?
- Key: point to a moment when Symphony 45 shifts musical key. What’s the emotional impact of this change? In your response, keep in mind that many of your peers don’t know much about Classical music, so help us understand why the musical key matters, and how it functions in this particular instance to produce an emotional response.
Dynamics
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I noticed during the Haydn Symphony at the timestamp 3:18, it went from extremely short and energetic notes to a slow and methodical piece. Additionally, the transition was also very interesting because it completely stopped for a second before restarting again. I feel that it went from super vibrant to really slow, and somber, almost. Then again, at the timestamp 4:03, it bursts out with energy and becomes super lively again. I feel that this might be used almost like a reset, and reintroducing the piece by catching the audience off guard, while also highlighting the changes in mood within the piece. The emotional aspect is a bit confusing because the piece has so much nuance to it. Perhaps it is meant to invoke a sense of drama, so you have no idea how the piece’s theme will move.
At about 01:39, Symphony 45 shifts from softer sounding music to a more loud sound. This creates a lot of tension to the listener. The louder sound feels almost stressful due to its sudden intensity. When I first listened to it, I was startled by the shift. The music then fluctuates every few seconds from loud to soft, forming anticipation. I feel like the continuous shifts in volume makes the symphony more interesting since it is altering the listener’s level of alertness.
At around 4:01 in this Symphony, the music transitions from very smooth, fluid, and quiet, to a much louder, quicker pace and broader notes. The notes seemed to have greater gravity in the way they were played. They did not flow melodically as the previous section did, but the notes were powerful and placed alongside one another, giving this moment of breaking through the silence seem very important. Emotionally, I think the section before this time stamp felt tentative- almost like a feeling of cautiousness and confusion. In contrast, this change of dynamic increased the pace, and I felt very confident, structured, and determined.
I agree with 04:01 being a shift from a slow pace to a faster pace. What I noticed was the person (I think he is called the orchestrator) went from making slow hand movements to dramatically jerking his hands up and down. This represents the shift from slow to fast really well, and reflects the liveliness of the fast pacing of the music.
Frankly, I’m not sure if this is goes here, but here goes. As mentioned by Skylar, the 1:39 shift goes from this loud melody to this mysterious one that insinuates possible action. Then at 1:46 there’s another shift that drew me, in not just because of the dramatic shift in melody, because its literally punctuated by the conductor stomping the ground. It’s after this stomp that you transition from this mysterious melody to something dramatic that tells me that something has happened in step, literally, with the stomp. The stomp is (let’s say) the knife being plunged and the shift to a louder and more dramatic melody is the moment following this where the audience is left to reflect on the consequences of this mysterious. That’s how I choose to view this part.
Instrumentation
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At 7:51 theres a shift from string to wind instruments. Now, I never listen to classical music, so it’s really hard for me to gauge what emotion the music is trying to get across unless it’s incredibly explicit. My gut instinct when I listen to this is that with the string instruments the song sounds really depressing around 7:00. The music contains long, slow thrums of a violin, which, to me, seems despairing, sad, and hopeless. Then at 7:51 the wind instruments come in and all of a sudden it seems like theres hope. Wind instruments don’t make a despairing thrum, they make higher notes, and they’re really airy, which conveys a lightness of feeling. String instruments have weight, like a weight on your chest, you can feel that when you listen to the music, it can be a bad feeling. Wind instruments are generally lighter, no weight felt. Also, (I think…) the song returns to some melody heard before with the wind instruments, so it sounds like life returning to normal, there’s some hope on the horizon, everything’s going to be okay. So, the shift from string to wind instruments is a shift from despair to hope. I think.
I agree Emily!! Have some confidence! The shift in instrumentation at 7:51 does feel like moving from despair to hope. It’s a key change that Haydn has pronounced with a switch in instruments.
At 6:32 we switch out of the main Adagio theme so far (which I’ll call section A) and into the slower, mournful long tones (which I’ll call section B). Section B switches keys to something that sounds “more minor” (ie, emphasizes the dissonance between the flat 6th and the flat/natural 7th). Then, at 7:45, we go back to the theme from Section A and back to the “more major” key. Haydn chooses the winds to come in there to signal this key change to the audience more directly. Also, at 8:00, we get a resolution chord, which we’ve been waiting for during the entirety of Section B!! It really gives that feeling of completeness that we were lacking beforehand and screams: solid, grounded, and major to me.
(on a related note, I LOVE Haydn’s work. If you haven’t listened yet, his Trumpet Concerto in Eb Major is beautiful! I have the third movement linked but I just love to play the whole thing. Haydn was truly inspirational.)
Musical Key
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A moment in Symphony 45 shifts in a musical key is 5:13 of the video. I did not know the name of the key, but the shift in tone is very apparent. From research, the shift is from F minor to A major. The Symphony starts giving the listeners a sense of panic, drama, and tension. The note is on the deeper end of most keys, giving it an ominous, dark feel as well. Then, there is a shift to the note key that gives the feelings of calm and peace. It feels emotionally like the drama presented at the beginning gets resolved or goes away. With the shift of keys, we can feel different emotions within us, even if we consciously think about it or not, much like we determine emotions from someone’s voice.