Prof: Now what I'd like
to do is something that you'll
probably cut out because of
copyright issues but it's a kind
of fun warm-up anyway,
so we're going to go ahead and
do this and then we'll actually
start.
I got about a one-minute
warm-up here,
ladies and gentlemen,
and we've got Lynda Paul who's
like a Vegas show act.
 
Okay?
 
She's going to warm us up and
we're going to get up and we're
going to get into it here right
off the bat in our exploration
of duple and triple meter so
here we go, Lynda Paul.
Lynda Paul:
All right.
Those of you in my section will
already be familiar with this.
Don't give the game away.
 
Everybody stand up.
 
Sorry.
 
 
 
Prof: It'll be worth it.
 
Lynda Paul:
It's worth it.
All right.
 
You have two moves.
 
For the duple meter,
you have the march.
You may have to turn to the
side.
Prof: It's okay.
 
They can march.
 
Lynda Paul:
And it just goes like this,
Feel the duple.
 
Prof: Which foot gets
the down beat,
right or left?
 
Lynda Paul:
Left.
Always left.
 
Prof: Okay.
 
Sorry.
 
Didn't know.
 
Lynda Paul:
And if you hear a triple,
your step is this:
down-up-up, down-up-up,
down- up-up,
down-up-up.
This is to get the feel of the
duple and the triple.
So see what you can do.
 
Prof: You can do this on
your test too.
>
 
They've got it.
 
>
 
Okay. We got that.
 
>
 
Okay.
 
So that's our warm-up for
today.
Now from the ridiculous to the
sublime, we're going to go to
our first slide.
 
And that takes us to the
question of sound.
We have never really nailed
this down, I don't think.
When an instrument--any
instrument--the piano,
plays a note >
what you hear is one
fundamental pitch.
You are also hearing very small
amounts of other pitches.
Usually, these get charted out
into the so-called overtones,
thirty-two partials or
overtones, and you can see them
playing out here .
 
The amount of force in each of
those partials--
we'll call it the amplitude--of
each of the partials,
varies according to the
acoustical properties of a
particular instrument,
so that each of these peaks
here represents a particular
partial,
but you can see that they do
not decline in any kind of
straight decline.
 
Some of them bump up from time
to time--more push there,
more volume there.
 
So when we hear any particular
sound,
again, we're hearing an amalgam
of many sounds,
and the importance of each of
these partials in the aggregate
of sound is what gives it its
particular color.
If you've ever worked with a
synthesizer: I think,
in very simple terms here,
what an electronic synthesizer
does is play with these.
 
They can push down the seventh
partial.
They can bring up the ninth
partial.
They can push down the^(
)thirteenth partial and bring up
the fifteenth and thereby change
the sound of a clarinet into a
French horn.
 
They play with these partials
on each of these notes,
but this is just >
one sound with all of these
other things mixed in to the
medley that produces the quality
or timbre of a particular
instrument.
 
Okay. That's that point.
 
Now we're going to go on and
review a few things that we
talked about last lecture.
 
Remember we were talking about
beat, which is the regular
pulse, the pulse of life,
the pulse of music,
that comes at regular
intervals.
We were talking about the
subdivision of that pulse,
the organizing of that pulse
into meters,
and that we had this capacity
to indicate what the meter was
by these numbers:
two-four,
and three-four for duple and
triple meter.
Remember we were just
demonstrating,
listening to the Ravel
Bolero.
Then we had rhythms
superimposed.
We had two prominent rhythms up
above.
Rhythm is simply these
patterns, usually repeating
patterns, of longs and short
that get superimposed as they
set up above the basic beat
underneath.
We also learned from Ravel's
Bolero that nobody
actually plays the beat--
that's too basic--but our mind,
hearing all of these complex
rhythms,
extrapolates the beat from this
complexity.
Okay, that by way of a quick
review.
Now two other terms that we
have touched on.
What's tempo in music?
 
Yes, gentleman?
 
Student: The pace or the
speed of the piece?
Prof: It's the pace or
speed of the--
Student: Piece.
 
Prof: --of the piece,
particularly the beat.
The beat will
do--control--that,
so it's the pace or speed of
the beat.
Thanks very much.
 
We can take a particular--Here
I'm conducting in three:
one,
two, three, one,
two, three, one,
two,
three, one, two,
three, one, two,
three,
and obviously I'm accelerating
there.
 
We use the fancy Italian term
"accelerando"
for that.
 
We could be going with a very
fast tempo, three,
one, two, three,
one, two, three,
one, two, three,
and slow it down.
Obviously, we would be
retarding the music,
ritardando or a retard
at that particular point.
All right.
 
With that by the way of
background, let's go on to
two--what we might call rhythmic
devices here--two rhythmic
devices.
 
The first is syncopation.
 
We worked a little bit with
this last time.
For syncopation,
let's go to the board over
here.
 
If we have a particular rhythm,
and this is a rhythm,
and here are the beats and the
meter underneath,
we would be coming along one,
two-and,
one, two,>.
 
Okay.
 
Obviously, this is the bar of
syncopation--we did this in
section last week--but you can
see >
this note is the syncopated
note.
It's jumping in too early.
 
We expect it to sound there.
 
So what syncopation is is
simply the insertion of an
impulse,
a "hit" if you will,
at a metrical place that we do
not expect it to be.
Usually, the metrical impulse
is on the beat.
With syncopation the impulse
can come suddenly off the beat,
and it gives it a little snap
or jazzy aspect to the music.
We talked about that in the
Cole Porter last time.
Here is one I remember.
 
A couple of years ago there was
a clothing store called TJ Maxx.
They had this little jingle out
there, >
, just a little bit of this,
and then you were supposed to
say, "TJ Maxx."
 
I'll remember TJ Maxx forever
because of this guy's little
syncopation.
 
It's in there.
 
We really remember these
musical .
Think about back in your
childhood, your nursery rhymes,
the capacity of aural material
to be retained.
Okay.
 
>
 
Here's beat two.
 
It jumps in too early.
 
This actually I think derives
from a Greek word,
"synkope,"
s-y-n-k-o-p-e,
synkope.
 
Is that how you pronounce it?
 
But it means to cut short,
to cut short and therefore get
in a little bit earlier.
 
Now the master of syncopation,
of course, in music was Scott
Joplin, African American
composer writing a lot around
the area of St.
 
Louis in the turn of the
twentieth century.
You know his music from pieces
such as "The
Entertainer,"
so let's play just a little bit
of "The Entertainer"
very slowly,
and my question to you is:
where is the syncopation?
Is it in the left hand of the
piano or in the right hand of
the piano?
 
Is it in the bass or the melody?
 
>
 
Where's the syncopation?
 
Left hand? Right hand?
 
Right hand.
 
Bass is just going--Well,
what is the bass going?
>
 
In that fashion,
one--It's playing eighth notes,
one-and, two-and;
it's subdividing the beat
whereas the syncopation
>
--it's there,
>
and so on.
 
So you're tapping your foot.
 
You're tapping the beat and a
lot of the music is coming off
the beat.
 
Let's see if we can do that.
 
Let's see if we can create our
own syncopated orchestra in
here.
 
We've got an example up here.
 
This is the conception of it.
 
Let's see if we can actually
execute it.
What I'd like you to do:
Everybody tap your foot.
We're going to do this in four,
just for--just because I think
it works out better so everybody
tap your foot with a four beat.
Here we go.
 
One, two, three,
four, one, two,
three, four,
nice and loud.
Come on. I want to hear it.
 
Okay.
 
Now take your hand on a chair
or your notebook,
your computer or whatever,
and do syncopation off of that
according to this pattern.
 
One, two, ready, go.
 
>
 
Okay. Good.
 
I see Daniel down here has got
this nailed.
Okay.
 
So that's what syncopation is
and it isn't much more difficult
than that.
 
The second rhythmic device that
we have to be aware of in music
we frequently encounter is this
concept of the triplet.
Now most music that we listen
to--and here's a good example
because it plays it out so
clearly in the melody--
most music that we listen to
takes the beat--
one, two, one,
two--and subdivides it into
two: one-and,
two-and--musicians like this
"and"
business--
one-and, two-and,
one-and, two-and--
So each quarter note has two
eighth notes.
We could also take the two
eighth notes and divide them
into two sixteenth notes and
then we get a-one-a-and,
a-two-a-and,
a-one-a-and,
a-two-a-and something like
that.
>
 
>
 
But of course most
music--although it operates that
way--not all music continues in
that fashion.
Oftentimes--occa
sionally--occasionally,
oftentimes, somewhere between
the two--the beat is divided
into three.
 
So what I've got here is an
example of that.
It's actually what we call
"My Country 'Tis Of
Thee" I think,
>
, so that's it.
 
I think it's been set by a
number of composers over the
years.
 
Beethoven set it under the
heading of "God Save the
King," George the Third or
somebody.
No, George the Third was
probably dead by then.
Who was the king of England,
let's say, in 1810?
Who knows that answer?
 
I don't know it.
 
George the Third would have
been dead.
Okay.
 
In any event,
we're coming along toward the
end of it.
 
>
 
So you can hear
>
, the triplet being inserted,
so a triplet is simply
insertion of three notes in the
place of two,
not more complicated than that.
 
Here is what we would expect,
>
, but we got
>.
The interesting thing here is
that the bass continues along
with the duple pattern.
 
The bass is going >
where the upper voice has
>.
Beethoven could have made that
bass go with triplets too.
Actually, it's all set up for
it.
>
 
Both melody and bass could have
had a triplet <<plays
piano>>
 
but he chose to have the duple
in the bass--the triple up
above.
 
>
 
Let's see if we can do that,
and it's a little bit of a
challenge for the performer.
 
Let's see if you can tap your
left hand to a duple pattern,
one, two, one,
two, and then take your right
hand and do a triplet against it
in a triplet pattern,
one, two, ready,
go, >
, one, two, one,
two.
It's harder than you think,
right, but that's the kind of
thing that musicians,
particularly percussion
players, have to be able to
execute.
All right.
 
Now an insertion,
sort of discursus.
We're going to talk a little
bit about musical texture.
This is discussed in your
textbook in chapter six.
Texture in music is the
dispositions of the musical
lines.
 
I was trying to think this
morning of an analogy and I
thought I came up with a good
one.
It has to do with tapestries
and carpets and things like that
where you weave different
strands in in different ways,
and somewhere in my deep
recesses I have these words
"wep"
(sic) and "warp"
or something like that.
 
Does that make any--does that
have any resonance to you?
No. All right.
 
I think it's out there in
weaving.
I've got to dig it out.
 
I tried to find it on Google
really quick and nothing came
up, but I think there is this
idea of how you organize a
tapestry in that fashion.
 
In any event,
in music we have different
strands and these strands can be
organized in different ways.
We simplify it by saying this:
that there are three
fundamental textures:
monophonic texture,
homophonic texture,
and polyphonic texture.
And, to exemplify this,
one day it occurred to me well,
why not take a tune that
everybody knows,
"Amazing Grace,"
and set it in different ways to
exemplify these three textures.
 
So that's what we've got on the
sheet for today.
Everybody's got the sheet there
and what I would like to do is
just have everyone,
all of this--We'll just sing
"la"
here.
We won't sing the text.
 
We'll just sing "Amazing
Grace" and we'll kind of
start it at pitch.
 
>
 
>
 
Hey, pretty good today.
 
Okay?
 
So we'll start it at pitch
there and I'll give you two and
then we'll sing "la"
and we will exemplify
monophonic texture.
 
Here we go, one, sing.
 
>
 
Okay. That's all we have to do.
 
You don't have to read the
notes 'cause you've got the
sound in your ears,
part of your aural memory.
So that's monophonic texture,
just one pitch.
Actually, was it just one pitch?
 
What do you think about that?
 
How many pitches?
 
Let's do this again.
 
We'll sing it again.
 
How many actual frequencies are
we generating here?
One, sing.
 
>
 
So how many pitches are we
generating?
Really, two.
 
The gentlemen are singing in
one octave.
We're singing below middle C
>
and the ladies are singing up
an octave <<plays
piano>>
 
but that's still monophonic
texture--those notes have the
same names.
 
I--We were going >
>
 
so as long as the notes have
the same names or it sounds the
same,
even though there may be octave
doubling in there we still think
of that as monophonic texture.
Lynda, come on up.
 
We're going to exemplify
homophonic texture here and we
want you to sing the melody and
we'll try to do the parts
underneath of it.
 
Homophonic texture is where it
all lines up pretty much
together;
all the parts are changing
together.
 
One, sing.
 
>
 
One more time and we need-
we're going to get our third in.
Ready, sing.
 
>
 
How sweet it is.
 
Okay.
 
So that's sweet-sounding
homophonic texture,
mostly just chords.
 
Thanks, Lynda.
 
Then we can take this and turn
it into something a lot more
complex with--singing a lot of
lines going their own way.
This we call polyphony.
 
We also use the word
"counterpoint"
sort of synonymous with it.
 
So part three down there at the
bottom we've got an example of
polyphony where I take in the
tune and set it against itself a
little bit.
 
>
 
So it's just a lot more
complex, a lot of independent
lines going on up above.
 
Think of one line.
 
Think of a group of lines.
 
Here's one sound.
 
>
 
Here's a group of sounds,
>
different pitches and actually
three different pitches in
there,
as opposed to just one
pitch--one pitch,
three pitches or three or four
pitches,
moving in different ways,
kind of independent rhythmic
chords,
so that's the difference
between monophonic,
homophonic and polyphonic
texture.
Now we're going to turn--focus
here just a bit more on
polyphonic texture because there
are two types of polyphonic
texture.
 
The first we'll call imitative
polyphonic texture,
and here in "Amazing
Grace" we really do have
imitative polyphonic texture
because you--
as you can see,
we have in the bass--
there in bar two--the bass
imitating the upper part
>
 
and then toward the end there
in bar thirteen <<plays
piano>>
 
the bass and I've added an
extra note.
It occurred to me here I could
take that theme and turn it
upside down against itself and
it would work.
>
 
Yeah.
 
So that's called musical
inversion.
Bach would like that.
 
He likes these kind of mind
games with music.
So it's complex stuff,
this polyphony or this
counterpoint.
 
So this is imitative
counterpoint because there's one
idea that keeps coming back and
back and back.
Now there's another kind of
counterpoint called "free
counterpoint"
where it's highly independent
lines are sounding but they're
not imitating one another.
Let's listen to just a section
of this.
We should have this.
 
It's Louis Armstrong and we'll
talk more about Louis Armstrong
as we proceed here.
 
So listen to a good example of
non-imitative texture,
polyphonic texture.
 
>
 
Pretty cool stuff, huh?
 
Where was Louis Armstrong from?
 
Student: Chicago.
 
Prof: Chicago?
 
Actually, he did his recordings
in Chicago, but he wasn't from
Chicago.
 
Where's the heart and soul of
jazz in America?
New Orleans. Right. Yeah.
 
That's why it's so important
culturally for the history of
the United States.
 
So what we want to do now is to
begin to think about counting
measures,
and we're going to do this by
staying with this piece of Louis
Armstrong here,
and we need to be able to count
measures so that we can figure
out the syntax of music.
 
Music is a language and it is
made up of a syntax,
and syntax, you know,
consists of phrases and the
order in which those phrases
occur.
But maybe even before we can
recognize the syntax of music,
we have to figure out what a
phrase is.
So to do that we've got to be
able to count measures.
How do we do this?
 
Well, musicians,
again, have developed the
following sort of process.
 
Let's say oftentimes orchestral
musicians, they're sitting there
and they're not playing so they
have to be able to count for a
long period of time.
 
So they'd be going along in
this fashion--let's say it's
duple--one-two,
two-two, three-two,
four-two.
 
They're just adding integers on
each down beat.
It's a very simple idea.
 
So that's what we're going to
do.
Think of these poor French horn
players in the orchestra.
They play so rarely,
and then it's so important when
they do play,
they'll be out there:
seventy-eight-two,
seventy-nine-two,
eighty-two, eighty-one-two--
You've got to count forever.
We won't have to count quite
that long,
but even before we count,
we've got to figure out what
the meter of the music is,
so let's start with that now.
What's the--Let's go back or I
guess we're going to go to the
beginning.
 
What's the meter of this piece?
 
And then we'll go ahead and
count some measures.
>
 
So it's duple meter.
 
Our brain has got all that
stuff coming in there and we're
probably focusing a lot on the
bass and "boom,
boom," the tuba that's
playing there.
So let's go on now.
 
We're going to hear Louis
Armstrong himself play.
What instrument did Louis
Armstrong play?
Student: Trumpet.
 
Prof: Trumpet,
yeah, and he had this wonderful
rich sound but boy,
it was a big,
huge sound, kind of the
ultimate in-your-face trumpet
player.
 
So we're going to hear a solo
by Louis Armstrong now and let's
count along once the phrase
begins.
I'll get you started and then
you count the measures.
Here we go.
 
>
 
Here we go. Ready.
 
>
 
One-two, two-two.
 
Go ahead.
 
And then he disappears.
 
So how many bars did you count
there?
How long was the phrase that
Louis Armstrong played?
Student: Eight measures.
 
Prof: Eight measures?
 
Everybody agree with that?
 
Anybody say seven?
 
Better say eight in music.
 
Asymmetry is not the norm in
music <<music
playing>>
 
so eight's a good bet there.
 
Let's go back and hear another
solo.
It's a wonderful clarinet solo
by someone named Johnny Dodds--
long dead of course--but it's
one of the most beautiful,
incredible clarinet solos
you'll ever want to hear.
How long is this solo?
 
How long is this phrase here by
Johnny Dodds?
>
 
Here we go: one-two, two-two.
 
>
 
Student: Sixteen.
 
Prof: Sixteen,
so twice as long,
but that's sort of good news.
 
A lot of music is made up of
these two-four and four-four
sorts of aggregates.
 
And then we'll just go on to
listen to the end of this where
everybody's in.
 
It's hard to know again what
the melody is or what the phrase
is here.
 
It's just everybody playing.
 
Remember: are they using music
here?
Could these gentlemen read
music?
It's not clear that this
particular group could.
It's--I'm sure that Louis
Armstrong would read some music,
but again it would just get in
the way of what he's doing.
All of this was aurally
transmitted and aurally taught.
So let's listen to the end of
it.
It's called "Willie the
Weeper."
You're going to have it as one
of your listening exercises.
Let's listen to the end of it
here.
>
 
Now here we go with our phrase.
 
>
 
We used to call that
in--remember when--anybody in
high school band here?
 
What do you call that
"boom"
at the end?
 
Do you still call it that,
"stinger"
at the end, sort of a
syncopated bounce at the end of
the thing?
 
How long was that particular
phrase?
Sixteen bars there,
again, and a perfect example of
free counterpoint.
 
You've got the trombone,
the clarinet,
the trumpet.
 
They're all just doing their
own thing in the context of the
harmonies that are playing out
here, and it's just magical I
think.
 
What happy music. Right?
 
How could you possibly be sad
when listening to that kind of
music?
 
And then they play this kind of
music coming back from funerals.
You're dancing in to heaven.
 
It's that kind of thing, yeah.
 
I bet there's heavenly music of
that sort.
Okay.
 
Now let's go on to another
thing that we'll want to be
doing here and that I guess is
taking a little bit of rhythmic
dictation,
writing down some simple
rhythms.
 
How are we going to do this?
 
Why do we want to do this?
 
Because we want to remember
things.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a
very good musical memory.
There are lots of stories about
Mozart's musical memory.
In 1777, he was in the town of
Mannheim.
He heard a string quartet by a
man named Cambini.
It was never published.
 
There are no recordings of it.
 
Mozart goes to Paris.
 
About six months later he bumps
into Cambini.
He says, "Oh, Cambini.
 
I remember you.
 
We--I heard your string quartet
in Mannheim."
And he sits down at the piano
and plays the thing.
He didn't have-he wasn't
studying this thing.
He wasn't trying to memorize it.
 
He heard it just once.
 
Six months later he could
remember the whole movement of a
string quartet.
 
Another famous story:
In 1770, he goes in to Rome,
into the Sistine Chapel.
 
It's Holy Week.
 
He goes to hear the well-known
Miserere of Allegri,
Gregorio Allegri.
 
You're not supposed to copy
this piece because it's supposed
to be only performed in the
Sistine Chapel.
Mozart goes in.
 
He hears it.
 
He and his father walk back to
the inn where they are staying.
He writes down this four- to
five-minute composition note for
note in just one sitting.
 
That's pretty scary.
 
Wouldn't it be?
 
I--You're just off on a
different planet in terms of
your capacity to process aural
material, but we--I can't do
that.
 
I couldn't begin to do that.
 
How much can I hear?
 
Two seconds,
three seconds,
four seconds.
 
I could probably remember that.
 
And he's hearing multiple
parts, not just melody.
So we have to come up--we
mortals--
have to come up with some other
device,
and our device to remember
things is to try to write it
down because my premise here is,
if you can write music down
clearly you are hearing it,
clearly, and you would have a
better chance of remembering it
if you could write it down.
So it just helps us focus on
these isolated events.
We're not going to try to
remember everything in
music--too complex.
 
We're going to focus on the
simple, salient things--could be
an instrument,
could be an important rhythm.
So let's listen to some more
music of Musorgsky here,
Modest Musorgsky.
 
We had that very interesting
piece last time,
"Polish Oxcart"
where he used this principle of
low sounds produce sound waves
that stay forever and we hear
those low sounds first and last.
 
So here we're going to hear
another piece from that
Pictures at an
Exhibition.
It's called "Great Gate of
Kiev" so let's listen to a
little of this,
1874, I believe,
or 1870s surely,
and let's listen to a bit of it
and then we're going to focus
just on the rhythm.
>
 
Okay. Start conducting.
 
>
 
All right. Good.
 
Very interesting.
 
There are two possible
explanations to this.
Some of you are going with a
very slow tempo:
one-two, one-two.
 
Others are a bit uncomfortable
with that,
>.
 
They're going twice as fast.
 
Which is correct?
 
Well, for our purposes,
both are correct and we'll know
how to figure this out on tests.
 
If you say--you've got two
measures here and you're writing
particular symbols,
we'll know that you heard this
with the slower possibility.
 
If you've got four measures and
different symbols,
you're clearly subdividing the
beat but hearing that as the
beat.
 
So all I'm really interested in
here is the idea that we have a
duple meter.
 
Having said that,
let's assume that we do have
the slower tempo here,
one--Let me play a little bit
at the piano.
 
>
 
So your hand should be moving
rather slowly.
Let's all sing it.
 
>
 
Okay.
 
So that's the music.
 
Now having done this setup,
if you think about it,
and think about the fact
that--what note symbol gets the
beat in our course--quarter
note, okay.
>
 
So every gesture of the hand is
going to be the equivalent of a
quarter note.
 
What's going to be my first
note symbol?
>
 
The half note.
 
Here's one gesture;
here's another gesture.
>
 
Okay?
 
So I've got you going there.
 
You take your piece of paper
now.
If you want to hum the piece
quietly to yourself,
that's fine;
that's good.
If I hear lots of buzzing out
there,
that means you're into it,
so hum the piece a little bit
to yourself,
Musorgsky's "Great Gate of
Kiev" here and Pictures
at an Exhibition and see if
you can write down those
particular symbols.
>
 
 
 
Okay. Let's sing it again.
 
Here we go.
 
Ready, go.
 
>
 
Let's focus
>
just on that unit, that measure.
 
>
 
Having trouble with this?
 
Look at this.
 
>
 
One gesture,
two notes, two pitches.
>
 
What should those--what should
the rhythmic value of those two
pitches be?
 
>
 
Yeah, two within one beat would
give us eighth notes.
Okay.
 
So let's finish it off one more
time.
Here we go. Ready, go.
 
>
 
So what should we write up here?
 
I lost my black marker but that
doesn't matter.
>
 
What should I write next?
 
Well, those are the two eighth
notes we were talking about.
>
 
Then what?
 
>
 
One note for each gesture and
we've just done a rhythmic
dictation of the beginning of
Musorgsky's "Great Gate of
Kiev" from Pictures at
an Exhibition.
So you're not going to forget
this particular melody and it's
because it sounds so grand.
 
There's another reason we're
not going to forget it,
if you've focused on it in that
way.
So when later on we're dealing
with symphonies and things like
that you may be sketching little
motivic snippets,
little rhythmic snippets,
that you'll file away.
All right.
 
Let's listen a little bit more
to the Musorgsky and then we're
going to go on,
just a bit more to the next
excerpt, and here's my question
for you.
You're going to hear the
violins play a running scale,
>.
 
If our beat is this,
>
what note values are in the
music of the violinists at this
particular moment?
 
You don't even have to see the
score.
You can figure it out.
 
>
 
So what note value are they
playing there?
Student: Sixteenth.
 
Prof: Sixteenth because
we've got four impulses
>
 
for each beat.
 
Let's go on to the next here
now--a couple of questions we
could ask.
 
The theme comes back.
 
We're going to listen to it
again.
What string technique are the
violins using at this particular
moment and then >
what rhythmic device does the
trumpet insert?
So let's focus on the strings
first.
We may hear this twice.
 
>
 
Okay. What are they doing there?
 
What are they playing there?
 
Student: Tremolo?
 
Prof: Tremolo,
just kind of filler.
Right?
 
We need a big sound here.
 
Let's get the violins to fill
in sonic space.
It's kind of--there must be
something in cooking like
that--use cornstarch or
something, a filler--I don't
know--just to make--give
something body.
So this is kind of giving the
music body here.
It's not of particular interest
melodically.
Now when the trumpet enters
something of interest happens.
What rhythmic device is the
trumpet inserting?
So let's go back to the same
spot.
We'll hear the tremolo and then
the trumpet.
Here we go.
 
Notice the tempo is slowed down
a bit here also.
 
 
>
 
So what did the trumpet insert,
what rhythmic device?
Student: Triplets..
 
Prof: Triplets.
 
>
 
So focusing on rhythm can tell
us a lot about the detail going
on in pop music or in classical
music in particular.
Now I'd like to end--I think I
have a few minutes here--I'd
like to end with a particular
piece.
We've talked about Mozart
before and we're going to go on
now to talk about Mozart's
Requiem.
It's a Requiem mass.
 
What's a mass?
 
Well, a mass is a genre of
music.
Obviously, it's a religious
service as well,
but it's a genre of music like
the symphony or the concerto.
Bach wrote a mass,
Mozart wrote many masses,
Beethoven wrote two important
masses and so on.
So it's a genre of music.
 
The Requiem mass is a
particular kind of mass.
It's a mass,
obviously, for death and burial
and the commemoration of those
who have died.
Unlike the regular mass,
the Requiem mass has a very
special movement associated with
it.
It's called the "Dies
irae"--the "Day of
Wrath."
 
It's just a long,
long text that's set to music
but that text is drawn from
"Apocalypse,"
the images of
"Apocalypse."
If you ever read the Book of
Apocalypse--
or Revelation--you know it's
hellfire and brimstone,
the day of judgment,
damnation--election into the
group of the blessed,
and so on.
So it's a very vivid kind of
text.
Now I was going to put that
text up on the board and,
to be honest with you,
I forgot to do that,
so I'm going to have to see if
I can remember this text:
We're going to focus now on two
sections of this work:
the "Confutatis"
and the "Lacrimosa dies
illa."
 
They are both subsets of the
"Dies irae."
The "Confutatis" go--
The text is as follows:
"Confutatis maledictis,
voca--voca--me cum
benedictis."
 
So on one side here we've got
the "confutatis
maledictis."
 
These are the damned.
 
On the other side,
we've got "voca--voca me
cum benedictis."
 
These are the blessed. Okay?
 
Ever been to a medieval
cathedral?
You walk in the front door,
Christ in majesty--
on the left side are the damned
writhing and on the right side
are the blessed looking a good
deal happier.
So Mozart may have had this
image in mind of the damned and
the left,
but he sure was able to set
it--this text--
through music by using a couple
of devices.
 
The first of these is rhythmic,
so we're going to turn now--I
guess we'll turn off the lights
and we're going to go to a
couple of slides here.
 
Let's take a look at the rhythm
he associates with the damned.
What kind of rhythm do we get
with the damned?
Well, where would you expect to
find the damned?
In the high register or the low
registers?
The low registers,
and they're way down in the
twenty-ninth canto of hell or
somewhere.
So here's what we find,
and as you can see there--is
this bass rhythm moving slowly
or quickly?
Very quickly.
 
It's going like this
>
and so on.
 
It's also doing what?
 
Going up or down?
 
Student: Up..
 
Prof: Up.
 
It keeps rising up.
 
This builds tension.
 
Okay?
 
Are these happy folks singing
there?
Well, they've got this kind of
music.
>
 
Is this conjunct
music--step-wise music--or
jumpy, skippy music?
 
Pretty skippy.
 
And is it consonant music or
dissonant music?
>
 
Very dissonant music.
 
Is it major or minor?
 
>
 
Minor.
 
Okay, so I'd say he's got about
four things he's working with
here.
 
The rhythm is very important.
 
Now eventually the elect come
in.
And their rhythm--what do they
have?
Are they high or low?
 
Well, they're way up high.
 
You can see them in the
sopranos and altos up there
>
 
and they just sit there on that
pitch--a long note:
one, two, three,
four.
>
 
I don't have the next page.
 
>
 
That's what they do.
 
It's consonant,
it's in major,
it's high and,
most important,
the rhythm is very
uncomplicated.
The notes are long and slow.
 
So let's listen to Mozart's
depiction of hell and heaven
here.
 
>
 
Heaven.
 
>
 
And then he goes back to hell
and then back up to heaven--goes
back and forth between these two
rhythmically very different
concepts.
 
Now Mozart died in December,
1791.
He wasn't planning on dying.
 
Actually, his death came rather
suddenly and he was working on a
requiem that someone had
commissioned from him under
rather mysterious circumstances
and he began to think of it as
his own requiem,
and indeed, he didn't actually
finish it.
 
Here, from the Austrian
National Library where I was
last summer photographing and
having a wonderful time,
is the last page of the
Mozart--that Mozart ever wrote
here.
 
This is the
"Lacrimosa,"
and sort of breaking off--and
he doesn't finish this
particular movement.
 
It's the last movement that he
was working on,
but he has a student there,
Franz Xaver Suessmayr,
and Suessmayr was given
instructions and probably
sketched pages as well,
as to how to finish this.
So Mozart was able to finish it
and it looks--or--excuse me.
Suessmayr was able to finish
it, and it looks like this.
Here we have a score of it--of
the complete piece,
and there are just a couple of
details that I want to point out
here.
 
It begins with what I always
hear as a kind of funeral
cortege idea.
 
Of course, it's in minor
>
and the voices will come in,
but the bass is going,
>
 
sort of plodding along in a
basic duple but with a triple
subdivision underneath of that.
 
And then at the words you can
see--
well, maybe you can't see--but
the text is "On that
terrible sorrowful day"--
we have the words--where is
it?--"Qua resurget ex
favilla"--
"on which resurgent will
come forth--
resurgent, will come up out of
the ashes."
"Homo reus,"--
"the just person to be
judged,"
and notice how it's like the
coffin's opening up and here
comes Mozart's soprano line up
here.
 
>
 
Wow.
 
What a run, but it's all kind
of text depiction here.
And then in the next page he's
going to take that same rising
line and assign it to the
basses.
Then we have a change of text
here.
"Huic ergo parce,
Deus," "Therefore
save, God."
 
"Parce"
;--imperative--"save
us."
 
"Pie Jesu,
Jesu Domine,"
and at that text what he does
is shift from this dark minor
>
 
right over the words
"Jesu,"
he's already >
in a sweet major,
and then he'll work his way
back to >
the minor as the funeral
cortege continues,
and this time the line will go
down instead of rising up.
So this goes on for a while.
 
We're going to start--we're
going to listen to the entire
movement.
 
It runs about our minutes so
bear with me here.
We'll run about thirty seconds
over as we listen to the
"Lacrimosa"
out of the "Dies
irae" out of the Requiem
Mass of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart written in Vienna
seventeen 1791.
>
 
Okay, cortege.
 
>
 
Now the basses.
 
>
 
Now the quiet prayer.
 
>
 
Change to major.
 
>
 
Now the modulation--change of
key from major to--back to minor
as the cortege will start up
again and then we--
>
 
A nice clarinet sound there and
here comes our cortege with the
bass.
 
>
 
Now just a final close,
a cadence.
>
 
So that's the last music of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his
pupil,
Suessmayr, and--not to leave
you in a somber mood--
let's listen to Louis Armstrong
as we go out.
 
Okay?
 
>
 
Dancing to heaven.
 
 
 
