stylistic analysis

[pianistimo]

was just reviewing some old notes and thought they might be helpful to anyone just wanting an overview of anlaysis.  especially if you are simply one of those people that just wants to listen/play a piece of music and put it into a place in history and, if you wish, then try to name the composer, piece, and form and style of the music.

stylistic analysis goes beyond the inital discovery of the form of the piece.  form including:   one part (A) or strophic; two part (AB AABB or ABAB) or binary, formes fixes (virelais, rondeau, ballade); three part (ABA) or minuet and trio, da capo form, or dal segno; rondo (ABACABA) additive forms (ABCDEFA) or open additive (where they don't end on A but conclude with contrasting material - ABCDEFG), ritornello form; variation form (passacaglia, chaconne); sonata form (exposition, development, recap); contrapuntal forms (canon, fugue); and formless patterns such as the fantasia, choral fantasia, toccata, prelude, impromptu, and etude.

after the form is established (according to the paper i have of Dr. Sterling Murray) - you need to go back and reconsider the work from the point of view of its musical materials (rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, and sound).  these are some questions he poses that i found very helpful:

Rhythm and Meter

1. is there a tempo written in or implied?
2. does the tempo change?
3. does the notated meter fit the music?
4. is there any evidence of 'rhythmic motives' that might help to organize the piece?
5. what can you say about the following rhythmic/metric techniques?  a. proportional meters b. shifts of meters  c. syncopation  d. hemiola  e. rhythmic ostinato  f. pfundnoten

[pianistimo]

Melody

1. is there a borrowed melody (cantus firmus)?
2. if so, what is the source of that melody?
3. how is the cantus firmus used?
4. what is the relationship between the original and its source (omission, addition, and alteration?)
5. what can you say about the following melodic factors?  a. range and tessitura  b. generally conjuct or disjunct  c. presence of evocative intervals  d. scalar vs. triadic  e. generally diatonic or chromatic (degree and use of chromaticism)  f. evidence of embellishment , ornamentation, and paraphrase  g. key/mode  h. frequency and strength of melodic cadences  i. use of sequence and variaion in melody  j. balance and symmetry of phrase units k. evidence for interrelationship between melody and text (reflection of speech patterns?) (text declamation= speech rhythm inflections  or text painting = mood painting with text expression.  l. repeated notes in the melody line

[pianistimo]

Harmony

1. is the harmonic system modal or tonal?
2. is the general approach chordal (vertical) or contrapuntal (horizontal)?
3. are chords complete?
4. is the harmonic language generally diatonic or chromatic?
5. what can you say about the following harmonic progressions?
a. cliched harmonic patterns or progressions  b. cadential types and their placement  c. dissonance and its use  d. evidence for relationship between harmony and text
e.  use of distinctive harmonic colors (seventh chords, diminished chords)

Texture

1. how would you describe in general the type or predominant type of texture used?
a. monophonic  b. homophonic  1. chordal 2. melody /accompaniment  c. polyphonic or contrapuntal 1. imitative counterpoint 2. non imitative counterpoint  d. cantus-firmus derived textures 1. some voices weaving free counterpoint around a single slow voice stating a cantus firmus (pfundnoten)  2. cantus firmus embellished and placed in the top voice with the other voices moving contraputally around it.

[pianistimo]

Sound

1. what is the instrumentation (written or implied?)
2. is there reason to believe/assume that instruments or voices other than or in addition to those written in the score were actually used in performance?
3. is the writing idiomatic for these voices (range/difficulty)
4. how will the choice of voices /instruments influence the general sound of this music?
5. what is the balance in parts (sonority)?
6. are dynamic levels indicated or implied?

this class helped me listen for 'points of articulation'  (where things suddenly change).  i started putting railroad marks (//) wherever i saw them.  the more items that change at one time, the stronger the articulation and the more important the unit that is being marked off in the music.  you can find them:

in melody:  changes in tessitura; range; density of melodic action; thematic module unit; contour; pitch; relationship between diatonic and chromatic

in harmony: changes of complexity of chord type; harmonic changes in key; chord or tonal rhythm; cadence type and frequency; dissonance density and type

in texture:  changes in types of texture or in texture density

in sound:  changes of combination and handling of factors such a timbre, dynamic patterns, and dynamic levels.


sorry to go on and on - but i found this study sheet helpful and hoping that someone else might!  especially when you come to a music appreciation course, or are just listening to music on the radio and trying to figure out more about it.

[rc]

Hey, thanks Pianistimo! I find this stuff very interesting. useful to help see where the composer was coming from, and maybe discover some little nuances that might've been missed.

Though a few of the questions I might have to educate myself on. I'll print it off and try the list out on my next few pieces.

[pianistimo]

yes.  i'm curious myself what makes a good sonority or balance of instrumentation in a composition.  how do composers know these?  suppose that it's a mix of trial and error - but they must have had a much harder time without the midi experimentation we can do today.  they'd have to get all the instruments actually together.

[paris]

i've just got assignment for my music forms class which i find quite interesting..well here it goes.
i have to analyze 1st movement of sonata, since we're studying classical sonata form. when i say ''analyze'' i mean anlyzing into deepest details.
i had pleasure to pick beethoven op.7 which i played a while ago so i'm familiar with it.
op.7, whole thing is very long and complexed, 1st movement has broad and interesting sonata structure...if you're interested just let me know. i can write it down here, if you could just take a look on what i'm doing cos its slightly awkward for analyzing, and it should be done till next thursday.

wish me luck cos this is gonna be for my final exam

[pianistimo]

the best i've found, so far, which is just a little bit - but quite interesting - is on this site:

www.alfred.com/samplepages/00-16743_02~112.pdf  (you have to scroll down)

you might have to zoom in to read it.  somewhere i read that this four movement sonata was beethoven's first great and complete masterpiece because of the balance and perfection in every movement.  despite being called the 'great' sonata by everyone, it was actually called 'die verliebte' or 'the maiden in love' during beethoven's time.  also, i read somewhere that because of it's hugeness - it might have been a symphonic idea - and later kept sonata form. (?) anyway.  hope this helps.

[paris]

thanks very much!

this looks very helpful cos i've got lost in exposition, while i was trying to figure out 2nd theme. and broken chords (after broken octaves) are confusing, cos they're obviously not theme, maybe codetta? although slightly long for codetta. what do you think?
here are things which i have to observe:

1. themes- how many of them are there, what about epilogue theme (between 2nd theme and codetta), does codetta use previous material, or brings new one, do existing themes variate (rhythmic for  example), and in which form are themes (i.e. period or sentence)

2. exposition- about transition between themes, are they formed as passages or use previous thema material, stuff about tonality hierarchy, modulations and complete harmonic structure, mention details about codetta

3. development- does development use theme material from exposition, codetta material, or has its own new theme, figure out if we can notice micro trifurcation (dunno english term for that, means can we notice mini ABA thing), tonalty structure of development, is it false development, is it on dominant..., then harmonic structures, describe type of modulation..

4. recap- can we notice part in development who announces near recap, is recap proportional with exposition, i.e. in material matter, tonalty

5. coda- is there just repeated codetta, or is after codetta added coda

well...thats pretty much it, in my crappy english. thanks again for that site!
op.7 is indeed masterpiece which fully deserves adjective ''grand''.  i've read somehwere it was written for his most talented student Babete von Keglevich, as one of his most virtuostic sonatas, even longer then appasionata.