Musical Analysis

Explain the programmatic elements present in the last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

The last movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, also known as the “Dream of the Witches’ Sabbath” is the fifth movement in what is arguably Berlioz’s most famous symphony. The work is an orchestral one, and apparently called for the biggest orchestral gathering of its time, particularly when it came to the brass and woodwind sections. The Witches’ Sabbath is meant to represent a gathering of all the hideous creatures that Berlioz’s imagination could conjure up, such as witches and ghosts, and since it is all done through the guise of a young man suffering from opium-induced hallucinations, the music makes for some interesting listening. The entire movement is supposedly based on these shades attending the funeral of the young man, so the music jumps between sublime and, at times, ridiculous – going from funeral bells tolling to an almost happy sounding string section which gives the impression of fairies dancing!

The music makes great use of the different string sections as a background to the brass and woodwind instruments – having them play music that fits together thematically and yet grates on the ear ever so slightly because all the sections are playing in slightly different keys makes for a wonderfully evocative sound. Listening to the entire orchestra in full spate with different instruments using keys that are out of tune with each other just enough to be noticeable definitely gives the impression of utter chaos that Berlioz seems to have been going for.

The programmatic elements in this piece are also shown through use of both tempo and dynamics – the funeral is represented by slow and solemn music (most notably the two-toned bells) and while the brass instruments (primarily a tuba, going by the mournful tone not commonly heard among brass instruments) do step up the tempo a little, the light and airy string motif mentioned above takes the piece back from andante to allegro.

Interestingly, while the respective tempos in this section are what you would expect for a funeral attended by witches and warlocks, the dynamics are reversed. At first, as would be expected for the scenario this piece is depicting, the somewhat disjointed woodwind and brass sections are loud and jarring, showing the chaos of cackling witches and gibbering ghouls, with the strings being soft and unobtrusive. This changes around completely, however, when the funeral bells start to toll – the bells and brass take center stage, I think in a literal sense (the funeral is now the focus) as well as a metaphorical one, while the strings and woodwind which denote the witches are now soft and in the background.

I would have said that this piece of music used a theme and variations form, with the short dance-like motif that denotes the witches Sabbath occurring again and again, and being passed around among the instruments, from strings to woodwind and brass and back again. The meter does sometimes change, most notably in the funeral bells section, but for the most part, it is a triple meter.

Explain the musical elements of the 1812 overture in detail, how Tchaikovsky achieved this and the results in performance.

The Festival Overture in E flat, more commonly known as the 1812 overture, was written by Tchaikovsky to commemorate the defense of the Russian Homeland against Napoleon and his invading army. The start of the piece is quite pensive, which is not what one would normally associate with a martial triumph, but it was actually based on a type of hymn which is commonly used in the Russian Orthodox Church, which is what gives it its nostalgic, almost pastoral, feel.

Tchaikovsky used a lot of strings and percussion in his overture. It is an orchestral work, though curiously, as well as having additional percussion and strings, it is one which is scored for brass band. The strings are what make up the bulk of the sound in the first half of the excerpt, with the percussion playing the bigger part in the second half. We are used to the triumphant finale which includes bells and cannons, but this particular section is quite gentle and introspective, with some folk song elements coming into play around the three-minute mark, before the final build-up to the cannon finale. As you might expect, the piece is one long build-up in terms of dynamics – it starts out quite soft up until about the middle of the piece, and then builds and builds along with the instruments until the finale with the cannons is very loud indeed.

The tempo does change slightly over the course of the excerpt, but for the most part, it retains a medium pace, slowing slightly during the moments that are reminiscent of Russian folk songs, and speeding up slightly for the heroic finale. The Overture overall has a conjunct melody in that there isn’t any discordance – all the instruments are there to create and augment a single line of music, and not to detract from it, which has the added effect of a texture which is very deep and layered, but manages to remain homophonic, with all the instruments adding to one single line of music. The Overture is, I think, a combination of meters because of all the different elements involved; the church inspired beginning and the Russian folk song are duple time, while the appropriately martial ending is faster.

I would say that this piece has a ternary form; the shift between essentially peaceful and martial may trick you into thinking it is a binary formed piece, with the mid-point of the piece being the transition between the two forms, but in fact, I would say that it is a ternary form, with the church inspired start being the first, which then leads into the Russian folk music as a separate part of the form, before finally moving into the martial cannon-firing triumph of the end. The reason I would hold the folk song apart as a separate part of the form is that it seems to me to represent an entirely separate tempo from both the preceding church-inspired part and the last section. I think that this was a deliberate choice on Piotr Tchaikovsky’s part, perhaps to show all the different aspects of Russia – the church and the folk history, as well as the military – or perhaps to show, since he did make use of France’s banned national anthem in the last section of the overture, that Napoleon would not beat his enemies.

Explain the use, purpose, and importance of leitmotifs in Wagner’s Die Walkure.

This excerpt from Wagner’s Die Walkure is from act III of the opera when the Valkyries have come to take the dead soldiers away. The Valkyries have a leitmotif of airy strings, which sound vaguely heroic – perhaps as a nod to their function of deciding who will die in a battle, and then carrying those dead soldiers off after the fact. Leitmotifs are supposed to be constructed specifically so that they can be changed and still be recognizable – they are there as a musical representation of a certain character or event, and so should be able to morph through different instruments and different musical constructions while still being recognizable enough that people listening can connect the music to the character\event it is depicting. So in this excerpt from Die Walkure, the Valkyrie’s leitmotif goes through various permutations, with one of the Valkyries even singing to the tune of her leitmotif at one point.

There are some strings that are not part of the original leitmotif, leading me to class this music as polyphonic, since there are multiple musical lines, especially once the percussion starts to come to prominence. Interestingly, this does not lead to the melody being disjunctive since all of the instruments are there to add texture to the Valkyrie’s leitmotif as it changes according to their actions and the scenes of the opera. The music is loud, perhaps going back to the heroic tinges to the Valkyries work mentioned at the start of this question, except when the Valkyries are singing to one another when it quietens down to allow them to be heard, and the strings are also quite fast, lending them an airy feel which adds to the etherealness of the Valkyries and what they do.

While the opera itself has an orchestra playing the score, in this excerpt the strings predominate, as the Valkyries leitmotif is played near constantly, which means that we can classify this excerpt of the opera as having a theme and variations as its form – which is perhaps why Wagner used leitmotifs so extensively in his own works. The basic leitmotif is heard at the start of the act, which is then played continually while the Valkyries are seen arriving to do their work. Then, as the scene continues, the strings begin to branch out from the basic leitmotif, and more percussion comes in throughout the act, coinciding with the singing of the Valkyries, and perhaps also with their realization of who has been fighting and dying. The Valkyries themselves are all in the soprano range, with most being generic sopranos, and some being mezzo-sopranos.

Describe in detail how Leonard Bernstein combines jazz, Latin, and classical musical elements to achieve balance and unity in West Side Story’s musical structure.

West Side Story is a musical that tells the story of two rival gangs in New York (The Polish-American Jets and the Puerto-Rican Sharks). The story is inspired by Romeo and Juliet, with Maria, a Puerto Rican girl, and Tony, a Polish-American boy, falling in love, with predictably tragic consequences. This particular excerpt is the mambo from the dance scene, which I think is a particularly good example of how Bernstein manages to meld three such different musical styles.

The clip starts with a fairly sedate orchestral (mainly strings) dance number, perhaps to show the chaperone-approved nature of the dance that is going on, but it is quickly interrupted by the start of the Mambo, which is heralded by a whistle and then Latin music. This music has the traditional beat and instruments found in Latin music, and it continues on its own until around the minute and a half mark, when certain jazz elements begin to find their way in – there is a slight change in the instruments used, with more brass instruments coming into the music though the beat and timing remain Latin in nature. This continues throughout the scene, with the jazz music become more and more prominent until finally, by the meet-cute between Tony and Maria, the music is entirely jazz-like in nature, with brass instruments and drums replacing the earlier stringed instruments and woodwind.

The change in music very cleverly follows the interactions between the gangs – when the Sharks are dancing, the music is noticeably Latin in terms of beat and instruments, but when the Jets are dancing, the music takes on a jazz flavor, with the jazz music eventually winning out over the Latin music as the Jets start to win the dance-off. The form of the music is also very identifiable from this pattern – it takes a binary form, with the Latin music forming the A section, and the Jazz music forming the B section. It is an interesting variation on the traditional AB form because one style segues into the other without any discernable break between them – it is very neatly done, and actually is probably hardly noticeable unless you’re looking for it. It could also maybe be called an AB form for a different reason – namely that the instruments all change completely over the course of the song. I suppose it isn’t a true AB form because the instruments change over so gradually that it is easy to miss, but it is an interesting way of looking at the idea of forms.

This music is very fast during this song – it is most definitely a mambo, regardless of the instruments involved, using a quick triple time all the way through, even through the change from Latin music to Jazz music. It gives off a feeling of energy that is perhaps to do with the energy of the people on the screen, and that feeling is heightened by the dynamics of the song – the dance music is predictably loud, to go along with the tempo, only becoming quiet at the end when the two lovers see each other across the room. As said before, the change from Latin to Jazz music is handled very well indeed, creating a situation where the melody is distinctly conjunctive in nature, since the instruments are all following the same line of music regardless of what type of instrument they are.

Works Cited

Berlioz, Hector. “Dream of a Witches Sabbath” Symphonie Fantastique. Unknown, 2011. Web.

Bernstein, Leonard. “Mambo!” West Side Story. Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, 1961. Web.

Tchaikovsky, Piotr. 1812 Overture. University of Minnesota Brass Band, 2007. Web.

Wagner, Richard. “Act III” Die Walkure. Unknown, 2007. Web.