Debussy - Pour le piano: Sarabande.

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Information from the first line.

  • 3/4 - 3 crotchets in a bar.
  • With slow and solemn elegance.
  • Key - C# minor/E major - ambiguous.
  • Parallel movement.
  • Homophonic.
  • Lots of octaves and 5ths.
  • Imperfect cadences in bar 2.
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Sarabande.

  • Emphasised 2nd beat.
    • Tenuto - emphasised and sustained.
    • Longer half notes on the 2nd beat.
    • 2nd beat is the end of most melodic phrases.
  • Sarabandes are always in 3/4.
  • A dance that everyone knew.
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Diatonic/Modal

  • Piece is in C# minor.
  • The Aeolian mode (starts on A)
    • no sharpened B.
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Facts.

  • B chord in bar 8 - still ambiguous, use of VII.
  • D major triad with 7th and 9th in bar 12 beat 2.
  • Bars 11 and 12 are exactly the same - all dominant 7th chords.
  • Parallel dominant 7th chords DON'T RESOLVE.
  • Bar 23-28 and 67-70 (quartal harmony) built on superimposed 4ths.
  • Biggest chord in the piece - bar 53, 10 notes.
  • Range C# - E.
  • Regular phrasing for the first 22 bars.
  • Bars 39-40, irregular.
    • Start of the next phrase starts on the last beat of the bar.
    • Accented.
  • Device in bars 67-68 is a HEMIOLA.
  • Using old techniques from 17th century but also uses huge ranges which wouldn't have been used.
  • Mainly homophonic texture.
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Structure.

  • Binary?
    • Section A = bars 1-22
    • Section B = bars 23-27.
  • Ternary?
    • Section A = bars 1-22
    • Section B = bars 23-41
    • Section A = bars 42-47.
  • Rondo?
    • ABACAD.. until bar 53 - CODA/
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