In posthumously arranging Bizet’s Farandole [L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2], Ernest Guiraud takes half of the primary theme, Le Marche de Rois, and exposes it twice in D-minor.
First, the theme is heard in homophonic texture, then a two-part canon.
Modulating to the parallel D-major, Guiraud introduces part of the farandole melody, gradually increasing its intensity in the orchestration via several repeats and the exposure of its other half.
Suddenly, Le Marche de Rois returns in B-minor, imposing itself via an octave unison.
It is juxtaposed, one at a time, with the first part of the farandole theme and the other half of itself (for the first time).
The movement ends rousingly, with the two themes placed in counterpoint over a persistent tonic pedal in D-major.
This article is a short, supplemental article based on this long form piece where I analyse Bizet’s Farandole in greater depth. In a later article I also go onto make an arrangement of the nursery rhyme, London Bridge, for Orchestra, using Farandole as a model.
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