music portfolio

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Schubert’s Death and the Maiden String Quartet 2nd Mvt. (Andante con Moto)

Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, also known as Death and the Maiden was composed in 1824 as a testament to death during which Schubert was fatally ill and was dying. The name was derived from a lied he previously composed of a similar title that was based on one of Matthias Claudius’ poems and was most likely influence by the idea of it. The theme of death is very apparent in all four movements. 

The Poem: Das Mädchen:                                                The Maiden: Vorüber! Ach, vorüber!                                   Pass me by! Oh, pass me by! Geh, wilder Knochenmann!                           Go, fierce man of bones! Ich bin noch jung! Geh, lieber,                       I am still young! Go, rather, Und rühre mich nicht an.                               And do not touch me. Und rühre mich nicht an.                               And do not touch me. Der Tod:                                                         Death: Gib deine Hand,                                            Give me your hand,  du schön und zart Gebild!                             you beautiful and tender form! Bin Freund,                                                    I am a friend, und komme nicht, zu strafen.                        and come not to punish. Sei gutes Muts! ich bin nicht wild,                 Be of good cheer! I am not fierce, Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen!          Softly shall you sleep in my arms!

Musical Analysis Structure: 1 theme, 5 variations repeated once, and all 6 lasts for 24 bars. The phrases are 8 bars long. The contrast between the variations could portray the idea of the conversation between death and the maiden.

Tonality: The introductory theme is in G minor brings about a sorrowful and tense timbre. At bar 16, the music modulates to Bb major (the relative major key), but immediately after, modulates to Eb major which after 4 bars modulates again to D major and in bar 24 it modulates to G major. The first variation then begins, but however, it returns to G minor which can be seen in the example below.

(example 1, bars 14-25)

In the fourth variation, the piece modulates to the parallel major key of G minor, G major. This represents death’s tenderness towards the maiden and attempt to comfort the maiden.

The series of modulations could represent the contrast between the begging maiden and the consoling death, where the major key represents death due to its calming timbre, and the minor key represents the maiden.

Harmony: In the first variation, functional harmony such as V, V7, i6, IV was more or less utilised by Schubert. He also uses chords such as diminished ii6 and iii6/4.

Texture: in the introductory theme, the texture is rather light as all the instruments plays simple crotchets and minims. The first and second variation are rather light and airy as well, with the violin playing a lilting melody that seemingly floats over the rest of the instruments. In the third variation, the texture became denser and thicker when all 4 instruments play simultaneously with a similar motif and at fortissimo with sudden forzandoes. After 4 bars of a very thick texture, the texture becomes somewhat lighter when the first violin and cello playing lighter lines while the second violin and viola continues with the motif. 

(example 2, bars 72-79 whereby variation 3 begins at bar 74)

Right after the dense and muddiness of variation 3 comes variation 4, with an extremely light texture, significantly different from the other variations. The fifth variation is relatively denser then the 4th.

Accompaniment The accompaniment is often passed around between instruments. For example, the first violin plays the melody in the introductory them and the first and second variation with the second violin, viola and cello accompanying. In the third variation, the melodic line moves to the bass which the cello plays while the rest of the instrument accompanies.

Melodic & Rhythmic Organisation The movement is in simple quadruple time (4/4) with an Andante tempo. In the introductory theme, the instruments play similar rhythms, with the first violin playing the melody. In the first variation, the rhythm became more complex, with dotted crotchets in the second violin and viola. Quavers and semiquavers mostly are played on the first violin. This could be where the maiden feverishly begs death to spare her life. 

wip

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Chopin’s Prelude No. 15 for Solo Piano Recordings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmXjrkdQatw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_6APTb3RNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gV9gUeFHIw

Personally, I liked Valentina Igoshina’s recording. She brought out the timbre  of the piece extremely well and her body movements indicate she was rather expressive, and the way she expressed the dynamics and played the notes so gently at during the quieter parts gave me goosebumps. Her intuition on when to slow down and speed up was pretty accurate as well. 

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Chopin’s Prelude No. 15 for Solo Piano

Full score   ||  Recordings

Chopin’s Prelude No. 15 also known as the Raindrop Prelude  is a prelude from Opus 28 which was composed around 1835 and 1839, partly in Valldemossa, Majorca while recovering from tuberculosis. He dedicated the preludes to German pianist & composer Joseph Christoph Kessler. This particular prelude is the most well-known out of the other 23 preludes in the same opus, and is noted for it’s repeating A-flat which sounds like raindrops. However, it was argued that it was not an imitation of raindrops, but simply a translation, or interpretation of nature. This idea came from George Sand who told of the sound of dripping water falling on the roof during their stay together in Majorca.

“It casts the soul into a terrible dejection. Maurice and I had left [Chopin] in good health one morning to go shopping in Palma for things we needed at our "encampment." The rain came in overflowing torrents. We made three leagues in six hours, only to return in the middle of a flood. We got back in absolute dark, shoeless, having been abandoned by our driver to cross unheard of perils. We hurried, knowing how our sick one would worry. Indeed he had, but now was as though congealed in a kind of quiet desperation, and, weeping, he was playing his wonderful prelude. Seeing us come in, he got up with a cry, then said with a bewildered air and a strange tone, "Ah, I was sure that you were dead." When he recovered his spirits and saw the state we were in, he was ill, picturing the dangers we had been through, but he confessed to me that while waiting for us he had seen it all in a dream, and no longer distinguishing the dream from reality, he became calm and drowsy. While playing the piano, persuaded that he was dead himself, he saw himself drown in a lake. Heavy drops of icy water fell in a regular rhythm on his breast, and when I made him listen to the sound of the drops of water indeed falling in rhythm on the roof, he denied having heard it. He was even angry that I should interpret this in terms of imitative sounds. He protested with all his might—and he was right to—against the childishness of such aural imitations. His genius was filled with the mysterious sounds of nature, but transformed into sublime equivalents in musical thought, and not through slavish imitation of the actual external sounds. His composition of that night was surely filled with raindrops, resounding clearly on the tiles of the Charterhouse, but it had been transformed in his imagination and in his song into tears falling upon his heart from the sky."

Structure This piece is in tenary form (A B Av) and the phrasing is very irregular. Section A could be heard again in the third section, but the piece ends on a coda. A whole phrase was repeated in section B before going on to Section Av.

Tonality Db Major, lighter timbre could show that the rain is not very heavy yet, modulates to C# minor in Section B signifying that the rain has gotten heavier. Time signature 4/4, simple time and the constant rhythm used to play the Ab/G# notes could portray the idea that the rain is very persistent.

Melody Extremely lyrical and mostly played on the right hand and are often decorated with ornaments such as acciaccaturas and turns. The melody moves to the left hand in section B and has a narrower range of notes that lasts for a longer period of time. This could signify that the rain has gotten heavier and denser, and could be approaching a rainstorm.

Section A (bars 1-27, main theme) This section is in Db major, and the main theme could be heard in this section which has a soft and delicate timbre with a very bittersweet feel to it. The repeating Ab note could be found in the left hand. The first melodic phrase lasts for 4 bars, and the first three notes are descending, very much like raindrops.

The texture of this piece is homophonic, for the melody is accompanied by broken chords which were mostly part of the tonic and dominant chords (functional harmony) and the repeating Ab notes. To keep the cantabile style, the sustain pedal was used, a feature of romantic music. This section ended on an imperfect cadence. Dotted quavers and chromaticism could be found in the melody, also feature of the romantic period. 

Section B (bars 28-75) There’s a sudden change in timbre, from the gentle timbre to a dark and heavy one which had two climaxes where the dynamics built up to fortissimo and there are many dramatic harmonies. The piece also modulates to C# minor, the enharmonic minor of Db major. The exaggerated dynamics contributes to the character of the piece. The repeating Ab note changes to G# and is played on the right hand much more insistently while the melody is played on the left hand. The low pitch used gives the piece a dark timbre. G#, being the dominant key of C# minor brings about an unresolved feeling which built up tension. In bar 35, the “raindrop notes” are played in octaves which builds up the texture and contributes to the heaviness of this section. This could portray the rain getting heavier, leading to a rainstorm.

This section ended on an imperfect cadence as well.

Section Av (bars 76-end) The piece modulated back to Db major and the first four bars are rather similar to section A’s but in place of the septuplets of section A are 10 semi-quavers. The phrase is cut short which is followed after by a brief coda and ends on a perfect cadence. This section is somewhat like the calm after the storm as it was relatively soft and quiet.

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Fruhlingstraum

Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6xvdXLQHNw                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6bOTvuJwk                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXYegntX8s

Personally, I preferred María Verónica Julio’s recording. The accompanist, Mercedes Juan Musotto had good pedalling and both the accompaniment and voice compliment each other well. Maria was also very expressive while she was singing, which seems very sincere and seems to be connecting with the composer and that she understood the piece well. Since this piece was composed in the romantic style, the expressiveness she conveys befit the piece very well. Also, having a soprano to perform it is rather refreshing, since this piece was originally composed for tenor voice.

Score (tba)

German text and English translation

Ich träumte von bunten Blumen,                  I dreamed of many-colored flowers, So wie sie wohl blühen im Mai;                    The way they bloom in May Ich träumte von grünen Wiesen,                  I dreamed of green meadows Von lustigem Vogelgeschrei.                        Of merry bird calls.

Und als die Hähne krähten,                          And when the roosters crowed, Da ward mein Auge wach;                           My eye awakened; Da war es kalt und finster,                            It was cold and dark, ​Es schrien die Raben vom Dach.                 The ravens shrieked on the roof.

Doch an den Fensterscheiben,                    ​But on the window panes Wer malte die Blätter da?                            Who painted the leaves there? Ihr lacht wohl über den Träumer,                 I suppose you’ll laugh at the dreamer Der Blumen im Winter sah?                         Who saw flowers in winter?

Ich träumte von Lieb um Liebe,                   ​I dreamed of love reciprocated, Von einer schönen Maid,                             Of a beautiful maiden, Von Herzen und von Küssen,                      Of embracing and kissing, Von Wonne und Seligkeit.                            Of joy and delight.

Und als die Hähne krähten,                          And when the roosters crowed, Da ward mein Herze wach;                          My heart awakened; Nun sitz’ ich hier alleine                               Now I sit here alone Und denke dem Traume nach.                    And reflect on the dream.

​Die Augen schließ’ ich wieder,                     ​I close my eyes again, Noch schlägt das herz so warm.                 My heart still beats so warmly. Wann grünt ihr Blätter am Fenste?              When will the leaves on the window                                                                      turn green? Wann halt’ ich mein Liebchen im Arm?       When will I hold my love in my arms?

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No. 11 Frühlingstraum from Winterreise by Schubert

Recordings, Score and text

Winterreise was composed some time in February 1827 one year prior to his death by Franz Schubert while he was suffering from depression which he depicted in his music. Winterreise comes from a collection of poems by Wilhelm Müller, which tells a story through the eyes of a young man who was rejected by his fiancée, flees from civilisation and travels through the winter wilderness. As he got farther and farther from civilisation, his anguish and the surroundings he was in, or the lack thereof triggered hallucinations and past memories, which caused him to lose track of time and reality and lead him closer to death, just like how Schubert himself was slowly dying.

Frühlingstraum describes a dream of spring and young love, but awoke to find himself alone in the cold winter. The first verse mainly tells us about the dream and the second verse tells us that the dreamer disturbed by rooster and raven crows and has woken up. The state of consciousness in the third verse is somewhere in between being awake and dreaming while sleeping.

Meter: 6/8, changed to 2/4 but went back to 6/8 in section C Tonality: A major, modulates to A minor Form: Strophic

Section A (bars 1-14) A lilting waltz-like accompaniment with a simple harmony portrays the childhood naiveté and bliss. The timbre of the major key (A major) and the melody also contributes to the idea of how the happiness and the dream-like state is portrayed. This is where the wanderer is dreaming of his past. The harmony uses tonic, predominant and dominant functions which are basic chords, can also represent the happiness and simplicity in his past.

Section B (bars 15-26) The wanderer awaken from his dream, and the music gradually shifts into A minor, the parallel key of A major. The 16th notes triplets symbolises the rooster crowing. The numerous tonicizations could represent the confusion and disorientation the wanderer felt from waking up from the dreams. The shift from major to minor could represent the anger and yearning to live in the past, where everything was alright and nothing hurt.

Section C (bars 27-43) The wanderer recalls his dream and craved living in his past again and the piece modulates back to A major. During his lament, the music switches back to A minor. The original theme returned and the cycle of him dreaming and waking up in deep longing repeats, except the piece ended on A minor.

The changes in tonality (from major to minor and so on) indicates the difference between the wanderer’s dreams and the reality he’s in. When it’s in A major, it conveys the idea that the wanderer is dreaming, while in A minor it conveys the fact that he is brought back to reality. 

rhythm : dotted crotchets that lifting feeling melody: the intervals like at the start the major 6 tonality: modulations and things

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Chamber Music

During Percussion Ensemble (my chamber group) I was paired with a junior to play a duet percussion piece. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out the rhythm despite most of it being relatively simple. I always had to keep trying and slow down our progress as a duo and I felt extremely bad for it. The teacher told me to practice with a metronome and I decided to do just that at home since slowing our progress any further would cause as to be unprepared during our actual performance, which is sometime in August and I don’t want that to happen.

I practice at home rather irregularly as I could not properly find time to practice it but I managed to pull through. During our last few practice sessions, we managed to play relatively smoothly together up to the 3rd page and tried playing the 4th page together which actually surprisingly went quite okay. I felt proud for the fact that I made myself practice the piece at home, and pulled through. So far, our practice sessions have been pretty okay and we’re progressing at a faster pace then the previous ones. 

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Der Müller und der Bach - Franz Schubert (T1W8) 

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Lied - German Literature pt. 3 (T1W6)

After the discussion, we played Charades and it was extremely hilarious. However, I felt that playing Charades was not exactly very helpful, as everyone was using words that had no relation whatsoever to the word that the guesser has to guess. Nonetheless, I had fun and did learnt a few things about Lied when reading through the article.

I think that lied is rather heartfelt, as the Romantic poets wrote poetry with ”intense nostalgia” to seek out “fulfillment and consolation in love, in music, in re-uniting with Nature, and in spiritual aspiration”. Furthermore, after the failed revolutions in 1848, artists saw art as a “refuge”, which shows that they resort to art to "get away”, and the romantic poets are most likely sincere while writing. This captured my attention as some artists art for the sake of doing it and does not wholly put their heart into doing it. What’s the point of doing something if you’re not dedicated to it?

Another thing that captured my attention was the fact that Beethoven himself also dabbled in lied which he took seriously and wrote 80 songs. I kind of pity him, since these 80 songs were never really recognized as they’ve been overshadowed by his instrumental works. It’s rather sad not being recognized for something you put lots of effort into, like when he found himself having difficulties in writing for voice and the setting of the poetry, Beethoven even sought out Salieri (a rather famous Italian classical composer and teacher) to teach him. 

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Lied - German Literature pt. 2

Words highlighted with my group members (last few paragraphs) Group members: Emlyn, Ruth, Vennese, Arkar, Michael

German literature

Strophic

Simplicity

Folk song

North German creation

Anacreontic

Stylistic developments

Dramatic expressiveness

We chose those words as we felt that it summarized phrases in a paragraphs relatively well. We also felt that it influenced the lied in general or could be a feature of lied. For example, “Anacreontic” shows that the poetry or verse used could be rather pleasant, or about love and depicts Arcadian pastoral settings. 

We did have some minor disagreements. One of them was when we were calmly arguing about whether to include composers’ names such as Friedrich Reichardt’s and Carl Friedrich Zelter’s   in. In the end, we decided not to as we found what we felt were more important words, such as the phrase “folk song” which can remind us of Reichardt, as most of his lied embodied such a style. 

Mostly, we were in mutual agreement as we all felt somewhat the same way towards which phrases/words were much more significant. 

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Lied - German Literature

Words/phrases/sentences that I highlighted from the article:

“a song in German”

“most often applied to German and Austrian settings of mid-18th through 19th century poetry for solo voice and piano”

“Romantic poets saw society as having become estranged from Nature”

“Intensely nostalgic”

“looked for fulfillment and consolation”

“fascinated by remote subjects, whether exotic foreign lands and cultures, myths, or fairy tales”

“Art more as a refuge, and escape from the depressing reality of industrialized, urban life, rather than as a transformative influence”

“highly emotional poems”

“Liederwere [were] usually quite short”

“played in the homes of the growing middle class which prized the arts and cultivated domesticity”

“expressivity was increased by the growing popularity of the piano”

“yearn for increased simplicity, balance and above all, naturalness”

“intended to be accessible in all homes”

“It was intended for amateur individuals to sing in their homes, with the words set strophically, in a narrow range, and with the barest self-effacing accompaniment, which usually doubled the melody, and could even be played by the singer”

“Christian Gottfried Krause, Telemann, Johann Gottlieb Goerner, and most importantly, C. P. E. Bach”

“often dealt with love and song, and depicted Arcadian, pastoral settings”

“Anacreontic”

“Lied through the 1770′s was primarily a North German creation”

“Beethoven”

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Composition class reflection

In the past few weeks during composition class, we were all supposed to be working on our self-composed piece, with the bass and all. I had trouble  coming up with a new melody and the chords, but I decided to so a simple one first and start expanding the chords from there. In all the composition classes so far, I learned that if we do not experiment with the range of the notes (pitch), rhythm, dynamics, and other aspects of music, I will never make my piece any interesting and the piece will be quite boring. For example, repeating a motif one too many times gets boring. However, I find that coming up with a different motif/theme is rather difficult as I had trouble making the piece “flow”. I felt that if I was more open-minded and experimented around much more, I’ll be able to (hopefully) successfully make better music.

We were also taught that if needed, we should remove parts that we do not want no matter regardless of how much time and effort that was invested in it. This encouraged me to completely re-compose my piece as I was extremely unsatisfied with it. The image below is the first draft that I originally composed.

The image below is an extract on the piece I’m currently working on.

I have yet to fill up bars 36-41 (my piece is 48 bars long). I am currently a little stuck on what to put for the bass since I want this portion to stand out as well. I’m currently discussing with my composition class teacher, Dr Kelly Tang if he has free time for consultation so that he could help me improve my piece and possibly, inspire me so that I can finish composing my piece.

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Neapolitan 6th

Around week 6, we learnt about a new chord called the Neapolitan 6th. We used an example from the piece, Der Müller und der Bach by Franz Schubert, where the chord could be found in bar 8 (sixth bar in the picture)

We learnt that’s it’s a predominant chord (appears before a dominant chord) and that it has a major like quality. A Neapolitan 6th is a lowered 2nd scale degree built on notes not in the key (chromatic harmony) and is always in first inversion. It has a dark, gloomy tone that sounds somewhat dramatic, which is a part of the romantic period characteristics.

I had a relatively easy time learning about the Neapolitan 6 as I had a good friend (Natalie) who had already learned this previously helped me when I had trouble understanding.

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Neapolitan 6th (worksheet) (T1W6)

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Chromatic Harmony: Augmented Chords (reflection)

There are 3 types of chromatic harmony; It+6 (Italian 6th), Fr+6 (French 6th) and Gr+6 (German 6th). Their similarities lie in the fact that the outer voices of the chords are an augmented 6 apart and is also a predominant chord (like the Neapolitan 6th chords) and can also appear before a cadential 6/4. They are all built on the submediant of a minor key while in major key, they’re built on a flattened 6th of the key.

An Italian chord is formed when it’s built on the submediant of the key, a major 3rd apart from the submediant note and an augmented 6th between the outer voices. This chord can resolve to a V. This chord can be rather hard to identify, as it usually looks like a first inversion of a chord.  A French chord intervals are as follow: Major 3rd, Augmented 4th and Augmented 6th. This chord can also resolved to a V. A German chord intervals are Major 3rd, Perfect 5th and Augmented 6. However, this chord can only resolve to i 6/4. A German chords can also (at times) sound like a dominant 7, but there’s a difference. A German chord will resolve upwards, while a dominant 7 will resolve downwards so I took a mental note that for it to easier identify German chords, I have to listen (or mentally hear) the resolution of the chord.

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Chromatic Harmony: Neapolitan Chords (T1Wk7)

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Der Lindenbaum, 2nd draft

- added daynamic markings - changed elizabeth & natalie’s part         ▪ added more layers to thicken the texture - expanded the last few bars

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Der Lindenbaum, Draft 1