area 2.2 Bernstein

area 2.2 Bernstein

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Intro

Bernstein:

  • American composer
  • of immigrant background
  • 1918-1990
  • You need to know one other musical and who it was written by:
    • Wizard of oz - Andrew Loyde Webber
  • it has jazz and Latin-American influences
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Structure

  • intro, a, b, b1, a1, outro (ABBA)
  • Sectional

(http://www.fakebands.co.uk/images/bands/fullsize/129-Platinum20ABBA20bow.jpg)

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Rhythm and metre

  • fast
  • beginning and end - 3/4 middle- 2/4
  • rhythmic ostinati
  • cross-rhythms
  • syncopation
  • push rhythms
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Melody

  • Falling 4th 
  • sustained blue notes -jazz
  • important declamatory phrase - "it may come cannon balling down through the sky"
  • contrasting lyrical theme from bar 73- large leaps and longer note values higher in the vocal range
  • accompanying riffs make important melodic additions
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Instrumentation

30 players - bigger than average...

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Texture

  • Melody dominated homophony
  • backing consists of several independent layers
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Tonality

  • intro= D major
  • section a = starts in d major but has bitonal c/g major effect
  • section b =starts in c major and moves back to d major.
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Harmony

  • jazz based
    • frequent use of 4th interval rather than 3rd
    • use of blue notes
    • chords often have extra notes
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Dynamics

Another dramatic piece- varied dramatic dynamics.

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