Fawkes the Phoenix – John Williams (Music Composition Analysis – Arrangement, melody and melodic development)
How does John Williams create such compelling melodies? Let’s find out.
Composition
Nocturne from Scénes de la Fôret – Mélanie Bonis
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
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Troika from Lieutenant Kijé (suite) (1934) – Sergei Prokofiev
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
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J. S. Bach – Badinerie (Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B-minor) (Bitesize Composition Analysis)
A nifty way in which Bach modulates, particularly from a minor to a major mode, is by simply pivoting around the tonic of the previous minor key. In the final movement “Badinerie”, of his Orchestral Suite No. 3, for instance, he will often give the tonic chord a cape, turning it into a super-tonic chord
This is Berk – How To Train Your Dragon (Dreamworks) – John Powell (Music Analysis – Composition Technique)
https://youtu.be/2Rtlqm0nSU4 If someone were to ask me what my favourite film was, I think I would be hard-pressed to answer with something other than 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon. The reasoning is vast should reason be required for doing something like declaring a favourite film. However, in one sense, my choice boils down to how
Arvo Pärt – Für Alina (Bitesize Music Composition Analysis)
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
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Bizet – Guiraud – Farandole from L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2 (Bitesize Composition Analysis)
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
Bernard Herrmann “The Merry-go-round” from “Walking Distance” (Bitesize Music Composition Analysis)
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,
Aaron Copland – “Simple Gifts” (Appalachian Spring / Ballet for Martha) – Bitesize Music Composition Analysis
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
George Frideric Handel – Overture from Music for the Royal Fireworks – Bitesize Music Composition Analysis
George Friedrich Handel’s “Overture” to the Royal Fireworks Music boasts a majestic stately opening that presents a melody and homophonic texture. Repeating this melody immediately in a similar form, Handel provides a subtle but poignant reharmonisation of the melody. Where the first statement presents more triadic harmony, the second adds more extensions or tension notes