Gershwin wrote “Summertime” in 1935 as a part of his self-titled “folk opera,” Porgy and Bess. He wanted the “opera” to reflect the folk spirituals of the African American south but still have its own consistent musical form. “Summertime” is an example of the blending of American jazz and spirituals with the classical “operatic” form.

The instrumental texture of the piece is influenced by the classical genre of music. It’s instrumentation is a classical orchestra, showcased in an introduction that features woodwinds that gradually add layers of texture. The vocal line however, mimics American folk spirituals. The melody is simple and repetitive and it works to express the emotional depth of the lyrics. The singer’s style also mimics the genre, with thin vibrato and a clear, soulful sound.  These elements are especially clear at the start of the song at 0:22, when the line rises and the singer crescendos through the lyric “summertime,” to depict the deep life of the season in one word.

These two seemingly contrasting lines work together, with the instrumental line adding emotional undercurrent to the steady melody of the vocal line. An example of this is at 1:43, when the instrumentation crescendos and grows in texture to express the depth of the lyrics. The vocal line remains steady, but the instrumental line moves quickly through its melody to express movement. The two lines work together to convey the depth of the spiritual and set the stage for the geographically specific story of the folk opera.

What struck me about Gershwin’s “Summertime” was how it was able to simultaneously blend a sense of musical drama and tension with the serenity required of a lullaby.  Like most arias we have encountered in the course thus far, this one, too, provides the audience with insight on the character who sings it. Here, as the mother sings to her child about the ease and peace of summertime, we can imagine the sense of protection and warmth she feels towards her child. However, what was interesting to me was how the soft and pleasant lyrics are not always complemented by sweet sounds, but accompanied by tense musical undertones instead.

For example, when the song opened, I felt the sense of calmness I would expect listening to a lullaby. The song begins with a low bass sound (0:00 to 0:05) that creates a soothing affect. However, this peace is fleeting due to the quick transition to the minor key (0:06 to 0:16). Moreover, the prominent repetition of a short, low tune at 0:10, 0:11, and 0:13 sounds ominous. However, before any substantial feeling of unease could really settle within me, I heard pleasant bell chimes (0:17, 0:19, 0:20). These bells softened any sense of foreboding I was beginning to feel. Just within the first twenty seconds, Gershwin’s lullaby is thus both sweet-sounding and slightly tense.

When the mother begins her aria, the instrumentation is soft and takes a subsidiary role to her singing. However, at 0:50, the instrumentation takes over, and there is a crescendo and repetition of a short, quick, ascending tune. The rapid repetition of this tune contrasts with the drawn out singing style that we hear from the mother just seconds before. Moreover, at 0:55, this tune repeats again, but is presented in a much lower, darker form. Yet, once the mother starts singing again, the content of her words are fully devoid of tension. The mother says, “Your daddy’s rich/ And your mamma’s good lookin.’” The apparent incongruity between what the mother sings and the music that precedes her could be due to the fact that Clara, the mother who sings this lullaby in Porgy and Bess, is actually married to a fisherman who does not make much money at all. My interpretation of this lyrical and instrumental incompatibility is that it conveys the discrepancy between what the mother wants her daughter to hear in this lullaby and what the nature of their actual life is. This could explain the duality in affect (tense, ominous vs. sweet, soft) that pervades the lullaby.

Perhaps the most striking moment of contrast for me was in the final twenty seconds of the song, once the mother has stopped singing. Her final words are “There’s a’nothing can harm you / With daddy and mamma standing by.” I expected these words to be followed by soft, mellifluous sounds, or even just to conclude the song themselves. Instead, the mood becomes extremely dark at 3:05. There is a crescendo that begins at 3:08, and the instrumentation takes on more complexity as the music loudens, with a trumpet adding to the mix at 3:12 and a cymbalic crash at 3:15. The notes that follow are rapid, like the footsteps of someone trying to escape, not like someone who is entering into a peaceful sleep. Whenever I felt a rise in tension in the earlier parts of the song, I was almost always quickly relieved, by the introduction of soft bells or vocals, for example, and I was somehow once again brought back to the mode of a lullaby. However, the very end of this song created a great deal of tension with no release, and I lost the sense of a lullaby by this point. Keeping in mind that this aria was part of a larger opera, it is possible that Gershwin intentionally did not provide a release of tension here in order to remove his audience from the mindset of a lullaby and transition them to the next scene in the program. Either way, I found his dualistic, complex musical depiction of a lullaby to be fascinating and useful as a plot device.

The Things our Fathers Loved starts out sounding like a few other short piano and vocal pieces or even a recitative. The voice sings lyrics and the piano seems to echo or at least mimic or enhance the mood of the vocals. At times, the duet even creates a monophonic feel. This is perhaps the introduction as the protagonist sings of a place ‘in the soul.’ This place happens to be long ago: probably a generation ago as his they were ‘the things our fathers loved.’

At about 52 seconds into the piece, the mood changes dramatically. This is due to the timbre of the singers voice, the tempo, and the shortness of the notes as opposed to long dragged out and mellow notes. The singer then sings about people singing and a band playing and it makes the listener think of a happy and better time. He sings mostly about song and music that was enjoyed during this period in his or maybe his father’s life. It sounds uplifting and joyful but then becomes a bit minor and tension starts to build up as he is singing ‘red white and blue.’ At this point, there also seems to be a lot going on with the piano. Much like in Ives’ other piece, Putnam’s Camp, it sounds like there could be multiple melodies being played at the same time creating some sort of dissonance with consonant melodies.

At 1’32 into the song, the tension is released and the mood goes back to that of the beginning. It sounds more sad and the interpretation could be that the singer realizes that the happy memories are of the past and only exist in his soul now.

This composition as a whole, although short, takes us through a brief story of a nostalgic musician who reminisces of a better time with music and singing, only to end on the same low note the piece started with.

Robert Schumann was one of the most-regarded Romantic composers of the 19th century, having quit a career in law to pursue his talents in piano. After a hand injury he switched to composing, where he wrote piano exclusively until 1840. Carnaval was composed in 1834-35 as a 21-piece set exclusively on piano representing various Carnival goers. The subtitles represent his friends, colleagues and characters from the Italian comedia dell’arte.

The music is remarkable because it is on four notes; Carnaval was subtitled Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes, or Little Scenes on four notes. These four notes are A, B, C and E, and Schumann hides three musical cryptograms, in german ASCH, AsCH, and SCHA, referring to the place of birth of his fiancée, the first day of Lent and his own name respectively. The most notable cryptogram is the BACH, or Bflat, A, C, B. The music itself is mostly very calming, uncrowded and aesthetically pleasant. The 4-note motif is reminiscent of Chopin’s études, and in fact Schumann dedicates one of his 21 pieces to Chopin.

Debussy was born in Paris, where he spent all of his life. According to Greenberg, the Frenchman “could not tolerate being anywhere else.” His deep love for the city and its language is embodied in his musical style. His Preludes demonstrate affinity through sophisticated delicacy. That is, he is able to portray the gracefulness of the French language without sacrificing emotion. More specifically, he is able to maintain technical precision transitioning from his prolonged pianos to his expressive crescendos.

His prelude, “La fille aux cheveux de lin,” adroitly exemplifies his Francocentric style. From the onset, Debussy induces calmness in the audience through his tight note range and repetitive theme. He makes the listener feel as if she were in a worriless world. In symbolic terms, he perfectly paints the innocence of the fille aux cheveux de lin. I cannot help but smile at the piece’s flawless dynamics. While one can argue that the piece in fact is fairly static, there are moments (1:36), which exemplify his compositional genius. He times the succession and pitches of notes in such way that mandates action from the listener, whether it’s acknowledging its beauty or placing the song on repeat –as I just did.

Chopin(1810-1849) lived during the Romantic period, and wrote four ballades for the solo piano. While the term ballade was associated with the French verse-form, Chopin ventured to create an abstract form without using words in his ballades. It is considered one of the most difficult pieces of the piano repertoire not only because of the technical aspects throughout the piece but also because a performance must try to encapsulate as much emotion and meaning that Chopin tried to insert into the piece. With that said, this piece is a reflection about Chopin’s loneliness during the war years.

Another remarkable element of this piece is that although written in the Romantic era, the piece is written in a sonata form. The first theme begins around 0:37 with the recurrent 6 notes that rise and fall. The recurrence of this theme almost appeared like an obsession about his lonely state. I also think that the sonata form helps to depict this return to loneliness because even though he shows variation in the middle, he always returns back to the 6 note phrase. After the first theme, he presents another theme at 2:15 (I think) and 3:10 seems to mark the end of the exposition. As the Classical musicians did, Chopin took theme 1 and developed it as you can hear in 4:02. The fun starts at 6:02 as Chopin, expectedly, defies our expectations of a classical sonata and introduces a passage that is dance-like and exciting. This seems to build up excitement and take us away from the brewed notes in the beginning. However, this fun doesn’t last long as in 7:34 you hear the return to the initial theme that depicts our lonely state.

I think the 6 note phrase is really powerful because for me, it had the power to isolate myself from the environment and make me think about the state I am in. In this way, although no lyrics have been said, Chopin almost compels me to think with just his music and his beautiful crafting of a theme.

Schubert’s “Erlkönig” is a lied ballad based off of the poem “Erlkönig” by Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe. A lied ballad is a type of miniature composition (Greenberg, 209) in which a narrative piece (usually a poem) serves as the fundamental subject matter for a song. Miniature compositions are composed for a solo voice and/or piano and usually do not last more than a few minutes. The poem “Erlkönig” tells the story of father who is riding through a forest on horseback carrying his son home. His son keeps complaining about the “Erlkönig“ or Elf King who is whispering to him and trying to take him away, but the father ignores him. The father attempts to save his son from the Elf king, but it is too late and his son dies in his arms.

A miniature composition is intended to invoke a single emotion or state of mind. The overwhelming affect created by this piece is one of suspenseful anticipation. This is created by the piano keys playing in a quick, almost continuous manner (0:01) along with the drawn out bass line that immediately follows it (0:03). The voices of the characters also have an eerie element to them, especially those of the Elf-King and the son. Throughout the piece tension is build up by the piano and vocal components and is not fully resolved until the ending when the continuous alternation of the piano keys stops (3:29) and the boy is announced dead with a final exit from the piano (3:38).  According to Greenberg, the continuous piano keys from 0:01 are meant to represent the gallops from the horse’s hoofs (Greenberg, 210).

There is one vocalist in this piece who portrays 4 distinct characters of the story: the narrator, the father, the child, and the Elf King. This is a huge task for the vocalist, as he must attempt to embody four sentiments. Since the same vocalist is singing, differences in character are denoted through slight pitch and stylistic variations. The narrator comes in at the very beginning and end of the story (0:22, 3:11) and his voice is low and melodic. The father first comes in at 0:51, his voice is much lower and oftentimes has a rough or angry sound to it (1:54). The son first appears at 0:58, his voice is higher than his father’s and has a timid and anxious quality to it (1:43). The Elf King first appears at 1:21 and has the most distinctive voice of the four characters. The Elf-King’s voice is low, but very smooth and soothing because he is trying to persuade the young boy to come with him. However, at 2:57 the voice of the Elf King changes quickly from piano to fortissimo, in order to demonstrate him becoming angry and leaping down to grab the child.

Personally, I was pleased to shift from large instrumental forms to small vocal and instrumental forms, because I felt that I was better able to grasp the musical content and focus more on how musical elements create affect. I also enjoy that miniature compositions are not absolute music and fall closer into the category of program music, or music that is meant to communicate emotion.

In one of the first Copland chapters we read, Copland states that music always conjures up certain affects, even if we can’t precisely say what a piece of music “means.” That’s definitely true for Claude Debussy’s “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun),” which was meant to be performed prior to a live reading of Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem “L’Après-midi d’un Faune” (source = http://www.carnegiehall.org/Golden_Age_of_Music_Debussy_Prelude_a_lapres-midi_dun_faune/). The poem seems to portray the dreams, memories, or imaginations of a faun lazing in the afternoon heat, and several clusters of the sensations it offers appear in Debussy’s musical interpretation: (1) heat, mirages, and sluggishness/sleepiness; (2) lust, flesh, and ripeness; and (3) flutes, music/melodies, breath, and wind.

In the opening theme (0:00-0:36), for example, the flute (a wind instrument that sounds light and airy) fixes on a note for a few seconds, then floats down a chromatic scale. This makes the key of the piece uncertain–contrasting strongly with Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, where the key is immediately obvious, and even with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which begins on the tonic note (even though whether the piece is minor or major is still ambiguous). This, combined with the free rhythm and the harp arpeggios (0:27-0:30, 0:40-0:43) make the overall affect magical & mysterious–which is fitting, since the poem’s speaker is a mythical creature. The flute’s carefree melody seems to mirror some of the flute references in the poem, too–“No water, but that which my flute pours, murmurs / To the grove sprinkled with melodies: and the sole breeze / Out of the twin pipes…”

Furthermore, just as the faun in the poem describes his pent-up sexual desire (he refers to “Girls sleeping in each other’s arms’ sole peril: / I seize them without untangling them and run / To this bank of roses… / All perfume”), Debussy’s piece is full of tension, which he creates through dynamics and extensive use of dissonance. With dynamics, the instruments frequently swell from piano to forte, only to subside to piano again; for example, from 0:58-1:10, the strings quiver underneath the flute, then swell briefly (1:10-1:13), subside, and then come back very loud with the woodwinds (1:37-1:48), only to subside again.

As an example of dissonance, at the beginning of the piece, the brass instruments layer several melodies over the flute (0:29-0:53) and do not harmonize until a very brief moment at 0:54. In general, consonance & harmony are fleeting–from 2:02-2:06, for example, we feel like we’re at “home base” musically, but then the music immediately becomes dissonant, and seems to fly to random melodies and chords until 2:34, where part of the opening theme returns. Yet another example is 3:04-3:30, where the clarinet runs up and down a chromatic scale while the strings play dissonant chords; again, there is no clear tonal center here. Perhaps the only lasting moment of consonance is the very end, where the music seems to finally reach an unambiguous key. (This final moment of harmony could point to the faun falling asleep at the end of the poem (“I / Must sleep, lying on the thirsty sand…”).) Thus, Debussy uses huge swings in volume, strange harmonies, and absence of an obvious key to mimic the faun’s “eternal swarm of desire,” and perhaps even to mirror his sluggishness and daydreaming in the heat (“…this heavy body, / Succumb[s] to noon’s proud silence slowly…” and “Inert, all things burn in the tawny hour”).

Just as the poem’s speaker is a mythical creature dreaming in the sweltering afternoon, describing his intense sexual desire and the music he makes with his flute, Debussy conveys these sensations musically through large changes in volume, consistent use of dissonance, a lack of an unambiguous key, and prominent use of woodwind instruments (especially the flute).

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique was an exceptional symphony that stood out for two main reasons: first was the idée fixe, and second was programme that Berlioz gave to the audience prior to  the performance.

We first hear the idée fixe in the first movement. It is played with the flute and violins with a lower register playing short staccato notes. The idée fixe is interesting because it involves a buildup of tension and some sort of release in itself. Because this is suppose to represent Heriott, we already get a sense that she is going to be mysterious and there will be many ups and downs regarding her relationship. This idée fixe will continue to be used throughout all five movements of the symphony but each time with a different emotion and feeling.

The programme that is handed out prior to the symphony has a strong effect on the listener. Throughout the first movement, we can easily hear the protagonist’s struggles described in the programme. This movement consists of floating, airy melodies, followed by grand buildups and drops that represent every emotion possibly felt. We have slow melodies, immediately followed by rushes of excitement and many short notes. This is especially evident towards the end starting at around 9 minutes. Within the last 4 minutes of the piece, we hear clean simple melodies, followed by minor sounds, and then fanfare like sections with a strong percussion. Then immediately, simple solos that are interrupted by grand fanfares once again. In this section, we can understand the barrage of feelings and emotions Berlioz has described in his programme.

The second movement is perhaps the most simple of the movements. After a short introduction, this movement sounds like a very typical waltz or some sort of ballroom dancing music played in a triple meter. Although it is often interrupted with idée fixe that seems to intrude and then join into the dancing. The music then starts to speed up and become a little more confusing as it strays from the typical waltz sound and bounces back and forth between two ideas.

In the third movement, we hear a duet or exchange between an flute and oboe or clarinet. This represents the two shepherds that Perlioz described. Other instruments slowly join in with various strings giving you a sense of the rustling trees. This peaceful state continues until about 7 minutes into the piece, where various instruments seem to have an exchange with different melodies. The minor sounds give you a sense of betrayal as the protagonist is once again overcome by his emotions and confusion regarding Heriott. We have a mix of solos and ideas until about 13 minutes, when the same soloist as in the beginning of the movement is interrupted by the timpani which represents thunder. Unlike the beginning though, there is no response from the other soloist, and the movement ends without a response.

In the fourth movement we can clearly hear the march that was described in the text. However, it doesn’t give off a sense of death until it is interrupted with other melodies and instruments. towards the end, the melodies once again interrupt each other and go up and down to enforce the sound of confusion. The idée fixe makes a brief appearance towards the end to be interrupted by a fanfare that represents the fatal blow.

In the last movement, the idée fixe appears in brief chunks again but is harder to uncover as it has changed sounds almost completely. We have various instruments that sound like they are conversing with each other as the different creatures and monsters followed by happy uplifting melodies that become chaotic and rise and fall constantly. Finally, a tuba melody introduces a mysterious dark feeling perhaps signaling the arrival of the witch. It seems like Berlioz ends the symphony as he did the first movement, with various instruments and sections playing different melodies and interrupting each other with buildups and than brief releases of tension.

Throughout this symphony we can clearly see the idée fixe changing and representing different emotions and feelings. However, I feel like Berlioz’s text had an even larger effect on the way we listened to and perceived his symphony. Along with the text, we could clearly understand the various melodies and instruments and what they were representing. This successfully created a sort of story with characters and a plot without actual actors or people performing. This plot and story made Berlioz’s symphony truly revolutionary and different.

In Symphonic Fantastique, Berlioz utilizes an idée fixe, a theme that appears in all five of his movements and lends unity to the piece as a whole. As I listened to Symphonic Fantastique, I saw Berlioz’s idée fixe as representing a combination of operatic leitmotifs and the ritornellos or thematic repetitions composers used in sonatas. While leitmotifs were a way to remind the audience of a particular person or object, sometimes prompting subtle connections or links between the action in the drama and the theme being played, the idée fixe was also a way for Berlioz to represent Harriet. Moreover, just like composers repeated themes (by variation, fugue, development) to unify the movements of their symphonies, Berlioz, too, repeated the idée fixe in his five movements.

Yet, Berlioz not only combines the operatic leitmotif with the symphony’s repetition of themes, but he takes these tools a step further by varying them and complicating them in each movement. Because there is no physical presence of Harriet for us to see on stage, he must mold her idée fixe in each movement to convey how she changes or how his feelings toward her changes. The change of the idée fixe is the means by which he communicates the plot to us.

When he initially presents the idée fixe in the first movement, he uses the flute and strings (5:08). The idée fixe sounds mellifluous and homophonic here, and our introduction to Harriet is soft and warm. Even within this movement, however, Berlioz experiences emotional change with respect to his feelings for this woman. At 7:41, the idée fixe is already presented differently. Here, I feel an escalation and tension, conveyed through a more dramatic crescendo than at 5:08. Moreover, while the staccato sound of a string instrument is present in between the first idée fixe melody at 5:11 and 5:17, it does not overlap with the main melody. In contrast, in the idée fixe at 7:41, this same strings sound overlaps with the idée fixe, and another texture is added on top of both of these at 7:58. The idée fixe here is polyphonic and busy, thus sounding more tense than its earlier counterpart.

At 2:04, in the second movement, we hear the idée fixe once again, and while it begins slowly and calmly as before, it is then quickly complicated by the addition of overlapping instruments at 2:17. A deeper wind instrument dominates the idée fixe melody here, as opposed to the softer sounds of the strings and flute in the first movement. Thus, while a tenderness does remain in Berlioz’s view of Harriet, I sense a tension through the deeper, overlapping sounds, as well.

In the third movement, the same idée fixe returns, but is punctuated by sounds of a dissonant, dark affect.  At 7:12, we hear a solo instrument gently produce the idée fixe, but this is quickly interrupted at 7:17. At 7:24, the soft idée fixe returns, but is interrupted once again at 7:30. This sort of back-and-forth between the soft idée fixe and the foreboding, harsh sounds that interrupt it continues until 7:37 when they both overlap, generating simultaneous, conflicting emotions in me. Finally, however, the dark sounds take over and drown out the pleasant idée fixe around 7:57. Berlioz hence creates a struggle between the idée fixe and a darker melody, and by allowing the darker melody to prevail, he communicates a plot to us through his music. We are able to tell that a darker side to his love has emerged.

In my opinion, the use of the idée fixe is most dramatic in the fourth movement. Here, we do not even hear the theme until the very end at 4:11, and it is almost immediately interrupted by a large, dramatic orchestra. This orchestra completely drowns out the solo instrument that was playing the idée fixe a split second before. While we see the idée fixe engage in a back-and-forth struggle with the darker sounds in the third movement, here, in the fourth movement, there is no struggle. The idée fixe does not “fight back.” It is as if all hope is lost.

After the crash that ends the fourth movement, the entire nature of the idée fixe is transformed. This manifests in the fifth movement. In this final movement, at 1:47, we hear the idée fixe again. However, it no longer flows seamlessly and gently as it does in the first movement. Instead, it presents as an odd, punctuated sound. Thus, by the time we get to the fifth movement, we have seen the melody of the idée fixe go from a pleasant sound to engaging in a struggle with darker, more dissonant sounds, to getting overpowered by these darker sounds, and then finally being forced to change form in the final movement. Through the idée fixe, Berlioz creates the plot of a love story and, for me, completely reinvents and revolutionizes the use of leitmotif and sonata-like devices.