Choose a work of Bach: either (1) a prelude and fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, or (2) a Brandenburg Concerto, or (3) a sacred cantata. (Any one except those we covered in class.) Listen intently and repeatedly to the recording of the piece linked below.
Write a paper of about 1000 words discussing the musical features and gestures that you find most interesting, striking, or appealing about the work, focusing on one or two movements if you wish. (Be sure to specify the work and the movements clearly.)
Be imaginative, be original, be broad, and tie your ideas together in a coherent and engaging account. Nevertheless, be precise, and be musically literate: support your claims using terms and approaches from class, from Kelly, or from other sources. If you adopt ideas or quotations from another source, whether in print or online, be sure to cite them correctly.
The paper need not involve extensive research. You should check that you have used terminology correctly, but your main task is to record your personal response to, and analysis of, the music.
To specify a point in the music, state a timing (or the words being sung). Make sure the recording and the movement are clear. E.g. "at 1'47 in the fugue [Hewett recording]."
Post the paper as an entry on the Courseworks blog of the course by 11:59 pm on Sunday, February 22.
If you feel stuck, here are plenty of ideas to get you started. But please treat this as a source of inspiration, not a checklist. The best papers will raise ideas not on this list!
Is each movement in a major or a minor key? Within a major movement, are there significant passages or cadences in the minor -- or vice versa?
What is the meter of each movement? Triple or duple? Fast or slow? Free or strict? Does it change within a movement?
What instruments or voices appear in each movement, and which are most prominent? What kind of melodies or harmonies do they play or sing (in perpetual motion, dotted, rhythmically regular or irregular...?) In the choral movement of a cantata, is there a cantus firmus?
Where are there important cadences? How do they articulate the form of the work?
What can you say about the overall form? Do you note any symmetries or asymmetries? Are any passages repeated? If so, are there any changes the second time? What purpose might these changes serve?
Is there contrast within a movement? Between movements? If so, how? (Between the different instrumental parts? Between different passages? If so, on what time scale?) Or do the movements echo each other in any way?
Do the principal themes move by step? By skip? Do they repeat notes? Do they resemble or contrast with each other? How are they developed? For example, are they inverted, or fragmented, or augmented?
Are there ornaments such as trills or mordents? Do you hear other musical devices such as dotted rhythms, sequences, suspensions, syncopations, stretto, or pedal points? If so, what roles do they play in the music?
Are the harmonies consonant or dissonant? Thin or rich?
Which passages are polyphonic? Homophonic? Monophonic? What musical purpose does each serve?
To what degree are the conventions of the form (prelude & fugue, Baroque concerto, or cantata) upheld? To what degree are they broken? For example, a cantata usually begins with a polyphonic movement for chorus, continues with recitatives followed by arias or duets, and ends with a homophonic chorale. Is this the case with the work you chose?
In a fugue, where do you hear the subject and countersubject? Where do you hear episodes?
In a concerto, do you hear ritornellos? Do you hear solo passages or episodes; if so, for what instruments? Does it afford opportunities for them to show off in virtuoso passages? Are there fugal sections?
In a cantata, how does the musical setting reflect the meaning of the text? Also, is there any hymn tune or chorale tune that recurs? If so, how is it developed?
Is the music cheerful? Sad? Grandiose? Intimate? Playful? Somber? Reverent? How are these feelings conveyed by musical means?
Would any features of the work have been especially striking in the historical context of its original performances? What about performances today? Is anything distinctive about these particular recordings, or about the differences between them?
Brandenburg Concertos: Performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Catherine Mackintosh; or performed by The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner
The Well-Tempered Clavier: Performed by Angela Hewitt on piano; or by Robert Levin on clavichord, harpsichord, and organ
Sacred Cantatas: Conducted by Helmuth Rilling with various orchestras and soloists