| Sharp |
09-04-2013 05:08 PM |
sonic pretty easy tbh
Rawn, can i get your thoughts on my music history assignment? YOu can find recordings on youtube and sheet music on IMSLP
I. Schubert, “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (1814)
Background: The poem that Schubert sets here is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epic poem, Faust. The story, one of the most famous in Romantic literature, concerns a man, Faust, who is granted everything he wishes by the Devil, in exchange for his soul. At the climactic scene, after a lifetime of dissipation and self-gratification, Faust is saved from eternal damnation by his embrace of God and renunciation of the Devil. Gretchen (from Part I of the poem) is a beautiful maiden whom Faust has seduced—a baby results from the union—and subsequently abandoned. Gretchen’s song appears as here in the course of the epic poem.
Please list three DIFFERENT Romantic themes or subjects you detect in the poem, along the lines we have pursued in class while looking at other Lied texts. [Note you will need to look at the POEM, included with the score, to answer these questions.] Please also indicate in which stanza(s) these themes are most noticeable. Remember, Lied texts are notoriously subtle: the barest suggestion of a theme or idea is enough to warrant closer examination. (Just be sure your three choices do not strongly overlap!) [3 pts]
a) = in stanza # _____
b) = in stanza #_____
c) = in stanza #_____
2. List three ways that this text resembles a folk ballad in its formal arrangement. In answering, remember to look at the original German text. [1.5 pts]
3. Who were “the folk,” actually, and what do we mean by “folk culture”? Why were the Romantics so drawn to cultural artifacts of this culture? Our in-class discussion of this subject may help you to answer. [3]
4. The figuration in the piano accompaniment has extramusical significance. What physical object does it represent? Could it also be said to describe Gretchen’s state of mind? How so? [1 pt]
5. What musical purpose, in terms of the structure of the entire song, does the piano figuration also serve? [1 pt]
6. Is the musical setting of this poem strophic, through-composed, or modified strophic? Explain your choice, referring to bar numbers, stanza numbers, or even individual lines of text. (If through-composed, discuss important recurring passages ONLY, citing bar or stanza #s as you do so.) [3 pts]
7. The song begins in the key of ____and, by bar eleven, modulates to ____. [1 pt] This is an unusual key relationship, by Classical standards, and testifies to Schubert’s famous harmonic subtlety. But it is also important to realize that Schubert’s harmony is motivated here by the text. What is it about lines 3-4 of the first stanza that “justifies” this unusual harmonic movement? [2 pts]
8. Bars 51-60 start in F major and modulate by means of secondary dominants to three different keys in quick succession. Please list the three keys, giving bar location for each new arrival. [1.5 pts total]
II. Johannes Brahms, Johannes Brahms, “Feldsamkeit” (c. 1879)
9. Along the lines of question #1 above, please list two DIFFERENT Romantic themes or subjects you detect in the text. Again, be sure your choices do not overlap. [1 pt each]
a) = in line # _____
b) = in line #_____
10. Describe how ONE of the Romantic themes listed in Question No. 9, above, is reflected musically by Brahms. . Be specific in your discussion by making reference to precise musical details found in specific bars [1 pt]
11. Is the musical setting of this poem strophic, through-composed, or modified strophic? Explain your choice, referring to bar numbers, stanza numbers, or even individual lines of text. (If through-composed, discuss important recurring passages ONLY, citing bar or stanza #s as you do so.) [3 pts]
III. Clara Wieck Schumann, “Liebst du um Schonheit” (1841)
12. The anthology describes the form of this song as modified strophic (A A’ A A’). Is there a DIFFERENT way to perceive this song as modified strophic in form, one that better points up the text’s connections to traditional folk-ballad poetry? Please provide an alternative analysis, showing where in the text musical sections begin and end (provide bar and stanza/line numbers). [Note: it will help in answering this question to recall the typical characteristics of folk ballad texts and to consider different ways of grouping the text’s lines so that it better conforms to those characteristics.] [3 pts]
Just some light work, I'll have actual questions once I'm free
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