This category contains articles that discuss concepts and analyse the music of the 20th century (1900-1999). From late-Romantic into the fragmented modernist period and beyond, works by composers such as Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Berio, Lutosławski and Pärt can be found here (once we have covered them!). It also includes Film music written during this time.
Musical Moments is a new series where I focus on larger works—whether in orchestration, length, or complexity—and zoom in on small sections for detailed analysis. I will choose these pieces based on what grabs my attention while listening. Once I find an interesting moment, I isolate it and explore why it stands out to me, […]
Les Biches (RM25-6) – Francis Poulenc Read More »
An analysis that looks at modality (modulation & interchange), pedal points and chord voicing in RVW’s The Lark Ascending.
Unpicking the serenity of Pärt’s Spiegel I’m Spiegel: Tintinnabuli technique is recapped along with the identification of other creative constraints.
Spiegel im Spiegel – Arvo Pärt Read More »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RYl4GcKe5Y&ab_channel=AnyOldMusic Today, I thought we’d take a look at a piece that captured my eye, because it was recently uploaded by Cmaj7 as a score video, to YouTube, and score, to IMSLP. The piece is the opening Nocturne movement from Scènes de la Fôret (Forest Scenes) by French composer, Mélanie Bonis. A composer with a
Nocturne from Scénes de la Fôret – Mélanie Bonis Read More »
Late in 1932, Sergei Prokofiev was approached by the Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) based film studio Belgoskino Studios and commissioned to score their upcoming film Lieutenant Kijé. To be produced and released in 1933, it came at a time where Prokofiev, who lived in Paris and had been away from his native country for nearly a
Troika from Lieutenant Kijé (suite) (1934) – Sergei Prokofiev Read More »
It’s easy, when composing for something like a string orchestra to simply think of it as 5-parts: the 1st Violins, 2nd Violins, Violas, Cellos and Double Basses. Yet, these sections of a string orchestra are made up of several players. In his composition Dives and Lazarus, Vaughan Williams experiments with this fact, doubling solo lines,
In their 1976 composition, Für Alina, for solo piano, Arvo Pärt introduced the world to his algorithmic technique, tintinnabuli. At first glance, the technique’s use in Für Alina looks similar to a two-part first-species counterpoint exercise. On closer inspection, however, one can see the two voices move in similar or oblique motion. Using two types
Arvo Pärt – Für Alina (Bitesize Music Composition Analysis) Read More »
In his 1959 Twilight Zone score, for the episode “Walking Distance”, Bernard Herrmann underscores protagonist Martin Sloan’s return to his childhood hometown. Mind-bending, Sloan slowly realises he has also travelled back in time, to when he was a child. Pursuing his child self, and meeting his parents, who are a similar age to adult Sloan,
In his 1944 Ballet for Martha, also known as Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland uses the melody of the shaker song “Simple Gifts”. In the orchestral concert suite arrangement, Copland sets the melody six times. For the first two settings he places the theme against a pedal tone that oscillates between the fifth and first degrees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUPk1vKxQk&ab_channel=AnyOldMusic Witold Lutosławski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables is a song cycle for soprano voice and chamber orchestra, completed in 1991. Textually, the songs use the poetry of twentieth-century French surrealist Robert Desnos (1900 – 1944). A series of children’s poems, compiled and published posthumously in 1955, under the title Chantefables et Chantefleurs (Lutosławski reverses the title