The first movement of Beethoven’s sonata “Moonlight” has a triple meter. The movement begins softly with an octave in the left hand and smooth triplets in the right hand. As well, there is dissonance in this piece, the melody played by the right hand, is played against the accompanying triplet rhythm.
Also, the first movement of the Moonlight sonata is played in the C# minor scale. It is a mysterious, melancholic melody with a strong piano timbre. It is played in adagio sostenuto which means play in a slow walking manner and each note is given a full value. Also, as I was searching for the definition of sostenuto, I found out that it also refers to the use of the sustain pedal of the piano. The dynamic of this piece is pianissimo or very quietly.
This particular sonata doesn’t follow the usual classical sonata arrangement. Instead of the classical three-part form “fast, slow, fast, fast”, it’s more like “slow, medium, fast”. I’m not sure but this piece seem to have a homophonic texture.Moonlight sonata begins with a low pitch and then at (0:22) he presents the main melody, and repeats this pattern throughout the whole first movement.
Here’s a song I recently discovered that I’ve been really enjoying; cool music video too!
Rhythm: The song is in a duple meter and the downbeat is created by the snare drum. Not only does the snare drum keep the “pulse” of the song but the bass line is very easy to follow and allows the listener to follow the downbeat.
Melody: The main melody in this song, akin to many other pop songs, is in the vocals of the song as opposed to a specific instrument. The main meoldy of the verse is different from that of the chorus. Listen for yourself…the first vocal verse begins at 0:27 and the first chorus begins at 1:22. The song is in a major scale, will explain in further detail below.
Accompanying Harmony: The bass and vocals in the verse and chorus blend wonderfully together creating consonance In addition, the chorus has a synthesizer playing a melody that accompany the main melody of the chorus.
Instrumentation/Timbre: As previously mentioned, this song is in a majore scale due to the overall feel/mood of the song. It feels very hopeful and dreamy and this is emphasized not only by the vocal style but by the harmonies relationship between the many different instruments in the song.
Form: A very simple ABA form is heard in this song. It does not go digress into any parts that are separate to the main verse and chorus.The first part (A) ends at 1:22 and the second part (B) is from 1:22 to 1:47 (i.e. the chorus)
Timbre : This song gives a very calm and soothing feeling. It is very different from the original version by Rihanna. In the original version, Rihanna includes a more techno feeling rather than peaceful.
Instruments : This song contains mainly the violin that Lindsey Stirling is playing but there is also drums from time to time. In this cover from Rihanna’s “We Found Love”, it has a less futuristic melody. There is also a maraca that plays along with the singer. Also, the instruments that are in this video plays along with the singer’s voice. The drum solo part starts on (2:18) and ends at (3:04) when the violin appears.
Texture: The texture of this cover is homophony (homophonic).
Harmony: The violin plays along with the maraca. The drums also plays along with the violin from (1:03-1:49). The harmony of this song is very smooth.
Rhythm: This song is in duple meter. The tempo alternates between moderato (Roger Daltry singing), and andante (Keith Moon singing). Melody: Both vocalists sing with a medium-pitch, without much variation, with the exception of the vocal harmonization during the “Bell Boy” section. The majority of song is in major key, because of the upbeat feeling, but goes into minor key during the Keith Moon sections. The melodic structure is broken into two main, repetitive phrases: the first is when Roger Daltry is singing with instrumental accompaniment (see timbre), and the second is when Keith Moon is singing, with less prominent instrumental accompaniment (see timbre). Harmony: The harmony is found in the instrumental accompaniment. Some sections sound dissonant, probably because of the theatric qualities intermixed with classic rock ones, but for the most part, the song remains consonant. Timbre: The musical instruments accompanying the tenor voices are: electric guitar, electric bass guitar, drums and synthesizer. The timbre is specifically: cheery, bright, playful, theatric, and happy. Dynamics: The song is forte (f), or loud, mainly because of the electric instruments, and it is The Who…one of the loudest rock bands in history. Form: The song is in ternary form (ABA’). A = instrumentation, without vocals, B = Roger Daltry vocal section, A’ = Keith Moon vocal section. This pattern repeats itself throughout the entire song. Texture: There is only one main melody occurring with backing instrumentation, therefore the song is monophonic.
Following the professor’s example, I picked a chart topper as well. “Someone Like You” is in duple meter, with four beats per measure. The tempo is moderate to slow. This song only consists of a piano, a lead voice (Adele), and backup voices. The rhythm is provided by the piano playing in a major key, even though it is a somber song. You can hear the main bass piano melody, of three different notes, the fourth and second being the same pitch, clearly in the opening until Adele’s voice come is at 0:14 and the piano becomes the accompaniment. This creates a homophonic melody. Adele starts off with very low pitches and a soft timbre. However as she keeps going, the intensity builds, the piano and her voice both gets louder, until it fades at 1:11 to give the indication that the verse is ending and the chorus is about to begin.
As soon as the chorus begins, the dynamics pick up again. Also, I believe the tempo speeds up a little as well. The biggest change is Adele’s voice, as she singing at higher pitch and the tone of her voice goes from soft and sad to angry and sharp.
In verse two, it repeats the same dynamics, timbre, tempo, and chords as verse one opened with, but towards the end of the verse at 2:19, the tempo picks up until the chorus at 2:37. The chorus this time is also not the same as the first one. At the end of chorus two, the line “Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead” stays in the same octave as the rest of the chorus, where in chorus one she jumped up an octave when she sang that line. Also, unlike chorus one, it is not repeated a second time.
In the third verse, a backup vocal is introduced and accompany Adele until right before the chorus, but Adele and the backup don’t stay in unison through the whole verse. Then in the third chorus at 3:21, everything slows down and the piano begins to change. The piano starts to just play the individual notes instead of chords on the downbeat of each measure. The tone of Adele’s voice returns to how she opened the song. Then at 3:37, the piano returns to playing the melody from the previous verse. Finally the entire chorus lyrics gets repeated again, and the piano goes back to the original main bass melody. As both vocals and piano become the loudest it has been in entire song. Then the volume quickly drops after “instead,” with the “yeah, yeah, yeah” the song fades to just the soft piano melody.
This song has a duple meter with an andante to moderato tempo. There is syncopation used with a quick saxophone note played between beats.
When it comes to the melody and dynamics of this song, Sister Nancy starts at a low pitch with a soft dynamic. She sings at a high pitch at 0:50 with a loud dynamic and then sings the rest of the song at different pitches with a louder dynamic.
The harmony seems to have consonance. The key is minor.
The instruments used in this song sound like a saxophone, a guitar or two, and drums. Sister Nancy voice is also echoed.
The texture is homophonic and the form is ternary. The second statement which starts at 0:50 is contrasting and then repetition brings us back at the third section at 1:04.
This song is a duple meter with an andante tempo to fast at the end. The main melody is given by the drums. The timbre is happy, lively and sensual. Masculine voice starts with a low pitch(0.10), then feminine voice higher pitch(0.19) and masculine voice goes to a higher pitch after(0.39). At (1:57) clapping incorporates with various voices no instrumentation.
A lot of dissonance towards the end and song is done with major key. The songs texture is homophonic. The song starts with trumpets and (3:24) the trumpets enters to end the song. The melodic contour is flat up to the middle of the song, then becomes volatile. The verses are made up of 4 lines, 4 measures. The chorus is made up of 8 lines, grouped in 2 sections.The line “And I’m on tonight ” is more intense. The dynamics is moderately loud to forte.
This song starts with 4 instruments playing all at once which are the strings (acoustic guitar, bass, and electric guitar) and a percussion (drums). At the 0:11 mark, the main melody starts, being the vocals, and the second acoustic guitar comes in as well.
Although there is a second vocal at the background when the chorus is sang (at 0:39, 1:49, 2:47) the main melody is still there and no new main melody is introduced, hence the texture of this song is homophonic. The harmony of the song is simple; there are a couple of chords that are played repetitive throughout the song but a different chord is played at 0:06-0:09, 1:16-1:19 and 2:26-2:29 but still it goes together (consonant).
The vocal melody does not change much with the exceptions of the second vocal coming into play in the background when the chorus is sang and a slightly high pitch can be heard when the lyrics “All the trouble I’ve seen” is sang. The dynamics of this song is quite soft.
The measure of this song is in a duple meter. The rhythm is centered by the first acoustic guitar and the tempo is between andante and moderato since there are no big changes in the speed of the beats. At mark 2:31, there is a slight accent on the drums but still the song is in binary form.
yanni-“nightingale” is a duple meter. The tempo of the piece remains constant and moderato. The rhythm is played with piano, flute, and strings.
The flute solos the introduction of piece (0:02-0:056) with a bright tone, and in high pitch. Then, the piano is introduced(0:57), and starts playing the main melody. The strings are introduced at 1:06, playing together with the piano. Sometimes they play all together, sometimes they take turns to solo, sometimes they become each others’ accompaniments.
The texture of the piece is homophonic since there is only one main melody, the the rest are repetitions and accompaniments.
The form of the piece can be described as binary Form. Although there is an obvious change in way they perform from 3:40- 4:30, it is still playing the B section since it is still about the main melody. In the A section(0:02-0:56), the bright tone of the flute leads us to a wonderland. Then, at the beginning of section B, the Piano seems drags me back to reality and start hearing them telling the mystic story.
Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix is a duple meter song. The song has a moderate to a bit faster tempo, and I would describe it as andante. More precisely, there are 4 beats per measure, and each line has 4 measures. The dynamics of the song is moderate, and can be called mezzo-forte, and it doesn’t really change through the duration of the song.
The intro of the song is rather long, which is about 1/5 of the song (around 35 seconds) that’s already relatively short in duration. There is only one repetition throughout the song and from here the two verses are similar to each other (from 00:35 to 1:08, then 1:09 to 1:40). The rest of the song are pretty much dominated by the guitar solo.
There are several instruments present in this song: electronic guitar, bass guitar, drums and xylophone-like instrument called glockenspiel. Glockenspiel sound gives the song a dreamy feeling that the song tries to convey. Another thing that can be mentioned is that while the vocals starts, the main guitar stops, and as soon as vocal ends, the guitar plays again.
The texture of the song is homophonic throughout; the main melody, which is the vocal, and the guitar, which is the main melody when without the vocal, fades away to become an accompaniment. Lastly, the song has major key; although the song itself is not of high pitch, the general mood of the song is upbeat and bright