Toccata and Fugue in D – minor
- Composer: J.S.Bach
- Year of composition: ~1700
- Arrangement: Jaques Loussier
- Instruments: Piano, Percussion, Bass
- Performed by: Jaques Loussier, André Arpino, Vincent Charbonnier
- Listened to: 17.02.2022
Probably one of the most popular pieces from Bach. Loussier started the intro in its original form, although just before the major resolution, the percussion can be heard for the first time. Within the following jumpier part for the piano, the drum set seems to sneak in more and more, although, keeping the mood light by only using cymbals. As the piano gets louder, the drums follows along until they reach a small peak point which seems to lead to the essential part of the piece. The tempo suddenly increasing and with the double bass playing its own solo line, the atmosphere shifted to a lighter, jazzy – character.
Further along, the tempo changes again to a more swinging character and even though the pianist mainly stays with the structural outline of the original, he sometimes seems to wander of and includes short improvised parts.Whilst the percussion is, in my opinions, mandatory to keep the swinging character it stays in the background for most of the piece, whereas the double bass partially seemed to “communicate” on an even basis with the piano.
The longer the piece, the more the pianist seems to move away from the original pattern, although the outline of melodic movement can still easily be followed.
I have played some of Bach’s work’s from Das Wohltempertierte Klavier myself and am personally not really keen on them. Especially fugues are interesting to analyse, although, in my opinion a more mathematically based construct instead of passionate written music, which I find hard to identify with. Nonetheless, the added jazz – character, seemed to give the piece more life, and I found myself really enjoying listening to it.
Air on a A String
- Composer: J.S.Bach
- Year of composition: ~1700
- Arrangement: Jaques Loussier
- Instruments: Piano, Percussion, Bass
- Performed by: Jaques Loussier, André Arpino, Vincent Charbonnier
- Listened to: 18.02.2022
Also a great cover originally from Bach. This time, all three instruments start at the same time. Whilst the piano is again in the foreground, the double bass only plays a slow bass line underlining the melody of the piano. Again, to create and keep a jazzier character, the drum set didn’t fall in too heavy and played mainly cymbals. The original melody is altered by a swinging rhythm, trills and other rather short probably improvised parts. Whilst I also enjoyed listening to this piece, I found it much more difficult to pick out the melodic line at the beginning. Nonetheless, after the first few bars, it was rather easy to recognise, I had the impression that Loussier stuck even more to Bach’s original construct than he did in the previous piece. (Toccata and Fugue in D – minor)
Arietta
- Composer: Edward Grieg
- Year of composition:
- Arrangement: David Rees – Williams Trio
- Instruments: Piano, (Synth) strings, percussion
- Performed by: David Rees – Williams Trio
- Listened to: 18.02.2022
One can already notice at the short piano – intro, that the swinging rhythm doesn’t directly copy Griegs version. During the whole piece, the piano has the leading role. Again, the drums are kept really light, mainly using simbals and high toms. Instead of a double bass (which in my opinion would have fit well to this piece), synthetic strings were used to underline the piano’s harmony and melodies. The arranger seemed to have created a completely new piece, the original version is barely recognisable. I was impressed by the huge amount of major 7th chords used. I personally really enjoy Grieg’s music, and was even more delighted listening to this version
Sonatine 3rd movement
- Composer: Maurice Ravel
- Year of composition:
- Arrangement: David Rees – Williams Trio
- Instruments: Piano, Organ, Double Bass, percussion
- Performed by: David Rees – Williams Trio
- Listened to: 18.02.2022
This cover of Ravel’s 3rd movement of a sonatine has initially a more groovy-blues sounding character. This is probably caused by the rapid tempo and also the sound of an electrical organ constantly imitating or echoing the sound of the piano in the background. Furthermore, instead of freely improvising in parts, the piano seemed to mainly stick to the blues scale. Only within the centre part of the piece, the double bass starts to stick out more by playing an underlying bass line with increased dynamics. The drum sets involvement seems to get stronger as the piece progresses, with more added fills and generally increasing volume. Nonetheless, even with those alterations, the piano still stays in the focus of the piece. Towards the end the tempo increases again, and the last chord fades away after having reached a small peak point.
Poor old Horse
- Composer: Cecil J. Sharp
- Year of composition: 1987
- Instruments: male voice, piano
- Performed by: Shura Gehrman; Adrian Farmer
- Listened to: 20.02.2022
The piece starts with a short introduction by the piano, playing a continuous wavy pattern. Even though the male singing voice in this recording is rather quiet and soft, the piano always stays in the background.The whole stanza seems to be working to the conclusion at the end of the line, coming to the words “Poor old Horse”, here the accompanying pattern of the piano also becomes slower and plays at the same time as the voice. As in the most folk songs, the structure of the stanzas are always similar to one another, only varying slightly, depending on the rhythm and placing of the sung words.
As I’ve already set some texts to music myself, I know that it can be quite difficult to find suitable accompaniment, especially when the original text doesn’t rhyme. Thus, I’m quite impressed how effective such rather simple kept accompanying patterns can be.
Scarborough Fair
- Composer: Cecil J. Sharp
- Year of composition: 1987
- Instruments: male voice, piano
- Performed by: Shura Gehrman; Adrian Farmer
- Listened to: 20.02.2022
Even though this piece had a similar structure, beginning with a short intro played on the piano and a rather short kept stanza. I personally thought that this melodic line wasn’t as easy to keep in mind as the previous one, as it seemed jumpier and less consistent. Even though the piano accompaniment stayed in the background it seemed to be moving more independently instead of supporting the melodic line.
I purposely chose this piece, as I didn’t know most of the other folk – songs this one has been arranged in several ways, and I wanted to explore how Cecil Sharp processed the piece. I was initially slightly surprised, that he didn’t use this well – known version, originally created by Simon & Garfunkel. As I like the song, I’ve personally already listened to several covers, which were all based on this version, thus I was really surprised to be listening to a completely new version.
Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, O!
- Composer: Cecil J. Sharp
- Year of composition: 1987
- Instruments: male voice, piano
- Performed by: Shura Gehrman; Adrian Farmer
- Listened to: 20.02.2022
This piece had a sharper mood in comparison to the previous ones. I personally enjoyed the piano accompaniment, consisting of simple chords, introduced by a strong bass note at the beginning of each bar. Nonetheless, as the stanzas were quite short, and always seemed to stay completely the same, the song became slightly monotonous to me after a while.
Due to the chord movement, the piano stayed more in the background, although at the end of each phrase, the right hand of the piano always echoed the last part of the phrase.
Bushes and Briars
- Composer: Vaughan Williams
- Year of composition: 1908
- Instruments: Choir (TTBB)
- Performed by: The Gentlemen of St.John’s
- Listened to: 21.02.2022
This is a piece written for a choir consisting of TTBB. It had a really gentle tune. Due to the often used overlapping of notes, and the therefore created suspensions, some incredibly soft resolutions were created. Nonetheless, I think that the piece had most of its smooth character from the slow pace and the choice of only male voices. With every phrase, another voice was in the foreground, starting with the tenor, followed by the basses within the centre, both voices sung equally loud. Afterwards the leading voice structure moved backwards again, as the basses followed, and the piece was ended by the tenors. In comparison to the previous folk songs I’ve listened to (all written by Cecil J. Sharp), this one had a less brisk, yet much more calming character, I genuinely enjoyed listening to it.
The Rich, old Lady
- Composer: Vaughan Williams
- Year of composition: 1967
- Instruments: Piano, Tenor voice
- Performed by: Nicky Spence, William Vann
- Listened to: 21.02.2022
This piece was a single male voice accompanied by a piano again. The pace is faster than it was for the previous few pieces. The piano imitated the short staccato notes of the tenor by playing staccato notes as well. A feature which seems to be very effective rather often, as I’ve already noticed it several times, is that the piano imitates short parts of phrases from the singer. This probably also has the effect, that the Interestingly, I personally had the impression that the “refrain” had a more Celtic sounding melodic line, which may not only be caused by the frequent repetition but also the modal up and down movement on the letter “O”. It should also be mentioned, that the piano accompaniment stayed stylistically similar, although with each verse, it slightly changed in texture.
We sail the ocean blue (From the opera Pinafore)
- Composer: Gilbert and Sullivan
- Year of composition: 1878
- Instruments: Voices, Choir, Orchestra
- Performed by: Welsh National Opera
- Listened to: 03.03.2022
The piece starts with a strong rhythmic entry from the bass drum, followed by almost all other orchestral instruments with a heroic sounding theme led by the strings. Rather suddenly the instruments, and mood changes, more woodwinds move in the foreground playing a soft melody. Just before a choir of only male voices join in, the character switches back to the original theme. The word setting is mostly syllabic and due to the rapid tempo sung rather fast. Furthermore most of the piece is sung unison, the voices only separate more towards the end. The theme from the beginning comes up once again, this time also with a word setting, which is also the title of the piece We sail the ocean blue. Overall a short, yet really enjoyable piece with an overall heroic and warm character.
None shall part us from each other (From the opera Lolanthe)
- Composer: Gilbert and Sullivan
- Year of composition: 1882
- Instruments: Voices, Choir, Orchestra
- Performed by: New symphony orchestra of London
- Listened to: 03.0302022
The piece starts with a slow hopeful melody played over a pedal point. A young sounding female voice starts to sing. In comparison to the last piece, the instruments in the background didn’t always follow the melody alongside the singer but focused more on accompanying the melody. One exception that stands out is the cello playing a melody which seems to move contrasting, or even mirrored into the other direction. After a while a second voice, male, can be heard joining in to a duet. Following is a solo part from the male voice, which follows similar features as the first female solo part. Here the composers mainly worked again with syllabic movement, although, the music was generally much slower this time, thus the words could be understood really easily.
Nice work if you can get it
- Composer: George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
- Year of composition: 1937
- Performed by: Matthew Broderick
- Listened to: 04.03.2022
Starting out with simple chords played by the woodwinds to accompany the singer, the piece seems to really start once the percussion joins in. The song is in A – A – B – A” form. The A – parts are all in a major scale whilst the B – part is in minor, creating a small yet creative contrast. Similar to the previous pieces, the word setting for this one is also solely in syllabic form, again, the text can be understood very easily.
Night and Day
- Composer: Cole Porter
- Year of composition: 1932
- Performed by: Cole Porter
- Listened to: 06.03.2022
The piece starts with a dark sounding instrumental part, which slowly seems to light up before a singing voice can be heard. The voice starts very rhythmic with the words Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom tom. The main part of the melody mainly consists of a note – repetition and a descending triad. The form of the song is ABA’BCB’, which is rather unusual.
Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
- Composer: W.A.Mozart
- Year of composition:
- Performed by: Diana Damrau
- Listened to: 06.03.2022
The aria can be separated in two parts. The first one starts in d – minor with the first motif and after a few bars modulates to f – major. The coloratura creates a second motif. Afterwards the second part starts, also in F – major. For a more dramatic effect, Mozart used a frequent alternating between forte and piano. The high pitched part at the beginning already seems to build up tension for the end of the piece. Even though the piece has only a few melismatic parts, in terms of the singing they seem to mostly contribute to the character and dark nature of the piece.
Dianas Learning Log 