Analysis of Contemporary Music - Admission/Application Essay Example

Analysis of music Introduction: This essay undertakes a comparison of a modern piece of Japanese music d Chidori no kyoku (Song of the plover) and compares it to a French impressionist piece of music titled Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ( The prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), a French Impressionist piece by Claude Debussy. Chidori no Kyoku: This piece is also based upon the concept of nature, but its subject is the beautiful plovers as they soar in the sky. These are rare birds and there is a spiritual aspect in their rarity that shines through the music which is almost like a prayer and a celebration of the divinity of nature. Two major instruments used are the Shamisen, an instrument similar to the lute without frets and with three strings and the koto, which is a long zither with 13 strings. Through the use of the Shamisen an interesting buzzing sound can be produced by setting the lowest string below the bridge. The sound of rippling waters is an interesting effect produced in the music , while running across the strings conveys the impression of a bird’s wings. It rises and falls, maintaining pure clear tones that are simple yet evocative and striking in the rendition of the stringed melody. The Afternoon of the Faun: This piece of music by Claude Debussy was completed in 1894 and was also premiered in the same year. The theme of this piece of music is the dreamy midday dance of the faun and its music is fresh and different and does not conform to any set patterns. The instruments used are primarily stringed instruments such as the oboe and the piece starts on the plaintive notes of the flute. This is a unique kind of musical composition because it stays in the flute theme and then builds variations of it, building in volume during the middle section of the piece when it builds to a fortissimo, only to return again to the slow and sweet notes of the flute. The music does not keep to any particular key throughout, it keeps varying. The music is delicate and soft, in tune with the character of the faun, its light leaping and graceful movements portrayed through the medium of the music, which is unusual and different from other pieces that existed during that time, defying classification into any category. Timbre and texture: Houtsma (1997) highlights the difficulties inherent in attempting to define the concept of timbre. However in general, the timbre of the music may be said to represent the quality of its tone, or how full bodied it is, in analyzing the timbre of an individual piece. When several instruments are used, they may all be playing at the same pitch, yet the timbre of the piece will reveal the different instruments that are playing and help a listener to distinguish one from the other. However, as identified by Keith Martin et al (1998), who have analyzed musical appreciation in terms of appreciation of timbre and aspects, a listener to grasp the overall effect and feel of the piece and it is often difficult to identify the various instruments used within a particular piece with any meaningful generality. Therefore in understanding the concept of timbre, they performed a study which revealed the following in respect to timbre: (a) Acoustic considerations play a role and the speed of energy build up as a function of frequency helps to set it apart from those notes in the steady state and enhance recognition of listeners (b) when frequencies of tome of different instruments is closer together than one third of an octave, then it is not picked up by the human ear and (c) tones are identified at a genera level first before moving to a more detailed level. (Martin et al, 1998). The texture of a piece of music is different from its timbre in that it does not refer to the tone or the identification of the instruments that are used but rather concerns the layers of sound that a listener can hear and perceive. There are three different kinds of textures that a piece of music may have (a) monophonic texture, in which only a single layer of sound is heard, such as for example a single, unaccompanied line in a vocal. (b) homophonic texture in which there may be one predominant layer of sound however, this single melody is also accompanied by a harmony of other instruments (c) polyphonic texture, in which case there may be several different melodic lines all playing at the same time. Texture and timbre of the two pieces: The texture of the two pieces do not fit the monophonic texture. Although there are instances in both pieces, notably at the beginning of the Faun piece and intermittently throughout the Japanese piece, when only one musical instrument plays, but there are still multiple levels of sound to be heard in the accompaniment. The Japanese piece never moves into the full orchestra mode, rather it persists with the lovely melody with the soft accompaniment of strings, conveying the impression of more than one layer of sound. Therefore, chidori no kyoku best fits the homophonic texture mode. However, the faun piece is more full bodied and there are multiple layers of sound that may be heard even at the beginning when the music is slow and sweet in onset with the notes of the flute. The Japanese piece achieves unity of tone and the two stringed instruments play together at such close frequencies in some instances that it is difficult to distinguish, yet a listener perceives from the full bodied tone, the presence of more than one stringed instrument. Therefore while the texture is not as rich as the faun piece, it is nevertheless a piece with rich tone quality and tone color. Conclusion: In conclusion, it may be stated that both the pieces of music deal with nature. Debussy’s music presents the slow, dreamy cavorting of a faun in the middle of the day and employs mostly stringed instruments. The modern Japanese musical piece also deals with the elements of nature using a stringed instrument, but these are the natural elements such as the wind and the movement of birds. While the Japanese piece primarily uses a homophonic texture that becomes monophonic at some places, the French impressionist piece is predominantly of a polyphonic texture. However the effort in the French piece is to maintain the single timbre of all the instruments, although it moves into a fortissimo around the middle of the piece. The modern Japanese piece however uses a united timbre but the number of instruments are considerably less and mostly stringed instruments, so that the music overall has a light rippling effect. References: * Houtsma, A. J. M. (1997). “Pitch and Timbre: Definition, Meaning and Use.” Journal of New Music Research 26:104-115. * Keith D, Martin, Eric D, Scheirer and Vercoe, Barry L, 1998. Music Content analysis through models of audition MIT Media Laboratory Machine Listening Group. { k dm , ed s, bv }@ me di a. mi t. ed u * World Music Selection: Chidori no kyoku * Debussy, Claude: “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” Read More