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Programme 8: Patterns
The pieces of music in this programme are:
1. 'Sumer is icumin in', trad English
This English 'rondellus' (or 'round') is one of the best known examples of secular medieval vocal music. It is a particularly fine and advanced version of a form that was very popular with performers and listeners alike. It is written as a four part cannon sung over a two part bass line (or 'foot'), which is itself a cannon in two parts. Thus, this polyphonic composition is in six parts at a time, when most music was in two or three.
An instrumental introduction is followed by a verse using solo voice with instrumental accompaniment. Unison male voices join in Verse Two, then the instruments begin a cannon verse. This is followed by a vocal canon accompanied by instrumental drone. As the cannon develops, the melody weaves around itself to create a rich and complex rhythmic and harmonic pattern.
Weblinks:
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/traditional_music.html
2. 'Tahmila Rast', trad Egyptian
This instrumental piece is written using a four beat dance rhythm called a 'wahda'. The piece consists of an opening theme followed by a series of improvisations between members of the group or 'takht'. Each soloist explores the 'maqam' and includes a precise melodic pattern which is then taken up by the group in response to his variations. When the first musician has finished, the takht replays the initial theme, after which the next musician takes over, and so on.
Weblinks:
http://www.ancientnile.co.uk/downloads.php
3. ' Brandenburg Concerto No 3', J.S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750), widely regarded today as one of the world's greatest composers, was one of a long line of family musicians. He spent his early career mainly as an organist, for wealthy noblemen including the Grand Duke of Weimar and eventually Prince Leopold in Cothen. He finally settled in Leipzig where he wrote a vast amount of choral music, cycles of cantatas for use throughout the church year and settings of the Latin Mass.
This movement from the Brandenburg Concerto is written for harpsichord and strings. It has a strong pulse arranged in a metre of three and a vigorous rhythmic quality. The melody is passed across the instruments in fugue style (rather like a round), with the melodic lines almost tumbling over one another in their eagerness to join in. It makes frequent use of sequences where short melodic patterns are moved to start on a higher or lower pitch. The overall effect is that of terrific energy and focus.
Weblinks:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/bachjs.shtml
http://www.jsbach.org/
4. 'Kapi Raja', Anak Agung Gede Mandera
This piece for Gamelan orchestra was written to be performed on a European tour in 1951. The orchestra consists of metal gongs, cymbals and drums of different sizes and pitches. Traditionally, the larger, lower-pitched gongs play patterns with longer notes which underpin faster patterns on the higher-pitched ones.
The piece begins with the whole group performing rapid melodic patterns with a complex irregular rhythm, followed by solo call and group response. A rapid rolling pattern from higher pitched solo gong is later augmented by the drum in more call and response. Then ensemble picks up again and there is further call and response as ideas are explored on drums. It finishes with a fast and furious flourish from the orchestra.
Weblinks:
http://www.gamelan.co.uk/gallery.html
5. 'Sonata No 2', John Cage
John Cage (1912 - 1992), regarded as a seminal figure of the American 20th Century avant-garde, believed there was no distinction between musical and non-musical sounds. He experimented with unusual percussion instruments, electronics, strange notation and even silence as well as introducing the element of chance into the performance of his music. He also invented the 'prepared piano', where various objects are inserted between the strings - weather stripping, bolts, screws, even bamboo!
This extract on prepared piano clearly demonstrates his lack of interest in conventional harmony. In such 'music of noises', the structure of duration - time - is much more important to him and a complex, predetermined numerical sequence determines the number of phrases in the sonata. The piano sounds are varied and strange, like unusual gongs, bells or bongos drums for example.
Weblinks:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/cage.shtml
http://newalbion.com/artists/cagej/
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Additional Resources
 Teacher's Notes -
Summer 2010
To follow
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