Composition

See instructions on previous week for completion of composition at least up until the recapitulation of the first subject. Please remember to label  sections.

Preparation for Monday 13th

Prepare written notes as follows:

• Brief composer biography and details on the piece.
• Listening notes on a particularly evocative short passage and how it achieves its effect

Table 1: Strauss – Don Juan [youtube link]

Table 2: Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique (Movements 2 and 4) [youtube link]

Table 3: Liszt – Prometheus [youtube link]

Table 4: Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 (Movements 2 and 4) [youtube link]

Symphony (before the beginning of the lesson on Wednesday)
Update your ‘Development of the Symphony’ notes (under ‘Your Notes’ at the top of AoS A on Moodle). Delete the old file and replace it please with your new one. You need to add as follows. (location of files to help you in brackets)

• Update your Stamitz notes with his Op. 3 No. 2 first movement (annotated score on ‘Allegro scores ..’) as a featured work
• Add C. P .E. Bach and his E minor symphony as a featured work (annotated score on ‘Allegro scores ..’)
• Add Beethoven and his Symphonies 3 and 5 (in ‘WCT Listening Exercises’)

Composition (for end of Friday)

1. Make corrections to your Allegro Theme 1 and resubmit with ‘corrected’ in the filename in the same place. Add at least a couple of secondary chords (e.g. ii-V, vii6-I, vi-ii, IV or V). You can read some notes on secondary chords here or on the Composition Moodle.
2. Write two fragments of development in two different closely related keys to the key of your Allegro theme and using a motivic fragment from that theme. You should use at least two of the following development ideas: sequence, inversion, augmented sixth, pedal, imitation, call and response repetition. The two fragments do not have to follow on but they can and you can either write for string quartet or add some wind and brass. The Haydn development from Symphony 104 is our model and you can follow it quite closely if you wish.

Composition (for the end of Tuesday 15th November)

1. Write a period of 8 bars for the beginning of a minuet. Have a brisk minuet tempo and keep everything really simple. You should write for string quartet and just have chords in the lower parts and a melody in the first violin.

2. Do a new version of 1. in which the consequent modulates to the dominant. EITHER use a diminished seventh onto the new tonic OR a secondary dominant onto ii of the new key.

Symphony (in lesson on Wednesday 16th November)

Write a short essay (about 500 words) explaining the development of the orchestra as seen from the perspective of the minuet. Start with the Corelli Concerto (just briefly as context) to the early Classical orchestra (Filtz, Stamitz then Haydn) through to the later Romantic orchestra (i.e. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms). You should illustrate your explanation with at least five references to pieces we have studied in class, making specific reference to these pieces and the features of their orchestration.

Before you start, you should read at least the first three pages of “Classical Style 2 (HAM)” in the General Readings folder on Moodle and the link below the folder: Development of the Orchestra (BBC)