bflatjeff
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 93
Registered: 04-04-2006
IP: Logged
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Re: Symphony (+1)
I like the hold. Spent a good chunk of Monday morning on it, now on level 2. Definitely some challenging stuff here, but not too brain-twistingly hard.
Just a few comments regarding the level names. This could easily get long-winded, so feel free to skip if you don't care so much. I must tell you, as a musician, that they don't fit anything we would normally call a symphony. An overture is most often a piece of wordless music that precedes a dramatic work, such as an opera or stage play. They are often performed separately from the dramatic works, often as concert openers, and for this reason some pieces written to fill that role are also called overtures. The Baroque period had a different definition of overture, but let's just leave that alone, since they also had a very different definition of symphony (symphonie, sinfonia). A prelude is usually the first movement of an instrumental suite (see Bach's partitas, partita being another name for a suite), or else any piece with a rather free character (see Chopin or Debussy's preludes, which aren't meant to precede anything in particular). Toccata and Fugue: fine, although these are traditionally thought of as Baroque forms and wouldn't often appear in a symphony, apart from some neo-classical or neo-Baroque ones (William Schuman's Symphony no. 3 from 1941 has both a Toccata and a Fugue). The Grand Finale is closest to how symphony movements are usually labeled. Your prototypical Classical- or Romantic-period symphony has four movements: A first movement in sonata allegro form (a complicated definition you really don't want me going into) most often titled by its tempo marking 'Allegro', or 'Adagio - Allego' if it has a slower introduction; a slow second movement, just called 'Andante', 'Adagio' or some similarly slow tempo marking; a faster third movement in triple time, a 'Minuet and Trio' if Classical and a 'Scherzo' if Romantic; and a final movement, often 'Allegro' again, although you can term it a 'Finale' if you please. I know: the names are boring.
Also, your key scheme is quite irregular, particularly having four movements in major, only to end in A minor! But I'll stop, I've already gone on far too long. The pedantic musicologist in me couldn't resist.
BbJ
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"Stupid, stupid roach creatures!"
- Beethro Bonekin
[Last edited by bflatjeff at 05-07-2008 05:17 AM]
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