Listening Assignments For Brooklyn College 22 Essay

Listening Assignments For Brooklyn College 2.2 Essay, Research Paper

Brooklyn College

Instructor R. Janssen

7/15 Listening Assignment # 1

Organ Fugue in G Minor, J.S. Bach, p109-110

A highness in the pitch is the frequency in the vibrations are getting faster. A second tone is getting introduced, there is an interval between them. This second tone is low, as it gets louder the vibrations increase. It is the same tone in the first part, but the octave changes to low and high and the vibrations increase introducing other tones. In Class: The pitches of the melody are high, there are many pitches from low to high. There are three layers of pitches making every layer sound distinct. the music becomes more intense and it is like my adrenaline increasing to an intense point.

Rite of Spring, I. Stravinsky

Dynamics is soft (piano) and crescendo to forte and return to piano and it creates a sense of softness introducing the pure awakening of spring. There is a dynamic accent that is a forte, it comes at different times and it makes me nervous as if a tribal ritual will occur. The use of layers of soft and then loud creates a fore ground and background that gives me a very frightening feeling.

Loengrin, Wagner

Brass instruments but there is a back round of other instruments that are accompanying the piece of music. There is a contrast between the beginning, middle, and end of the song. It creates a mood that varies because of the dynamics. The brass instruments have a different tone color. They are loud and dominant. The woodwind instruments have a different effect then the brass instruments. When the brass comes in it changes our mood. The end of the song sounds scary but truly ends off with a happy ending. The Dynamics play a major role in the piece you hear, the pitch ranges in this song also the mood I feel listening to this is romantic and having a good time. However towards the end I feel a little tension and scared.

Take the “A” train, Stray horn

There seems to be a contrast in the rhythm and beat over and over. I hear the piano in the beginning however at the middle I hear the sax and other instruments accompanying. Then all at once all the instruments play. This type of music puts me in a dancing mood however back in the 1960’s it is. The duration seems to be changing from loud to soft but it does end with a deep soft tone.

7/19 Listening Assignment #2

Britten, Young persons guide to the Orchestra

It is fun to hear the sound of timbre in the piece. It sounds like an intense happiness or an awakening. The full orchestra was very exciting and the sounds separating on there own sounded like the same tune but a different tone color. The mood changed each time the instruments did. I think it was a full orchestra because all of them in the beginning and then only the instruments in the groups would play together.

Ritual Melodies, Harvey

The tone color began with the sound f bells beginning to crescendo and it sounded like a strong awakening. Another sound joined in and it sounded like a young child singing a single tune in the back round as if he were begging for some forgiveness. The flute then introduces the woodwind instruments that also begin to crescendo and it made the boys crying vibrate.

Mara-Bihag

There were two sounds that had two different ranges of pitch and dynamics and they were very pianissimo. It sounded like a person beginning to learn the string instruments for the first time. A string instrument being plucked with percussion in the back round. The string instrument is perhaps an electronic guitar. The percussion sounds like chimes are going back and forth. The chimes also sound like Xylophone.

Song from Angola

There are two tone colors. The first introduced was Drums, which introduced a solo of a mans voice, following a chorus and it made me feel like I was watching an African or Caribbean tribal dance. Percussion-drums are being played as a male is talking and another group is responding. We can clearly hear the drums being played. There was only one instrument being played.

Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah,G.F. Handel

An orchestra is playing Hallelujah. It sounds like woodwind instruments. Very harsh more like brass instruments. Perhaps a tuba or a timbre. I can’t really tell how many instruments are playing at one time. It’s defiantly a lot of them. But they all sound similar to me. However, I can point out that they are harsh and loud- seems to me like this is played while in church. It gave me the feeling of joy, achievement, and excitement.

7/20 Listening Assignment #3

Alleluia: Vidimus stellam, anonymous

IT sounded to me like it was a quadratic meter. There is a strong emphasis on the second and fourth beat. The tempo was adagio and the piece made me feel contempt and relaxed. The words in the song seem to be very stretched out. Definitely not an energetic song. The word Alleluia is repetitive. The pace of the song is very slow.

La Primavera, A Vivaldi

This music is very lively and it sounded very exciting. I could not count the meter because it kept on changing but I think that it is what made it so joyful. The tempo doesn’t change, it stays the same, but the rhythm changes and because of the speed of the rhythm we think that the tempo changes.

Symphony #40, W. A. Mozart

This piece was so beautiful. The rhythm varies from fast to slow and it made me feel like it was very organized. There was a lot of emphasis on every other note and the strongest accent on the last note of every meter.

Nocturne, F. Chopin

What a simple, grave tempo that makes me feel like I’m falling in love or putting a baby to sleep. The rhythm is a pull and pull feeling. It sounds like a triple meter beat with a syncopation on the third beat. But truly this is a special piece.

Five Pieces for Orchestra, A Webern

This piece is Adagio and calm, it starts with a layer with a duple beat meter overlapped with the solo of a violin vibrating. It was a disturbing, uncertainty feeling. However, because the rest of the piece doesn’t use accent, it has a calm feeling. Uses a sense of beat, but the music doesn’t have a beat, period of silence that creates rhythm.

The pieces that used rhythm is similar ways were La primavera and Symphony.

I feel that Nocturne was very different from the other because it was played with only one instrument, and it had such a strong push and pull emotion.

7/21 Listening Assignment #4

La Primavera, A Vivaldi

A very recognizable melody. It had an up and down movement of the pitches and it made me feel tension and release. The tones were played in a short, detached style called staccato and I enjoyed the short versus repeated themselves in different duration’s of pitches. It had four very distinct phases, one loud, one soft, one loud, and one soft.

Five Pieces for Orchestra, A Webern

A very unusual melody. I could hear the piece ten times over and not be able to repeat it correctly. It had a leaping gesture that makes the melody more expressive and dramatic.

Nocturne, F. Chopin

Another unusual melody. There is a legato melody, smooth, flow of music. This song is very relaxing. Something that you can possibly slow dance to in the older times. The melody is repetitive throughout the song, but again I would never be able to repeat it back correctly. It doesn’t seem as if there a motive but there is theme.