Music Reflections

Reflections 2

Composer and name of work: Anonymous, In paradisum

Musical Elements: The piece consists of a classic gregorian recitation with strong stopping points, helping the listener to more easily understand what is being said/sung. This, of course, assumes that you speak the language in the first place. Very little instances of melisma are found, leaving only a few tones per syllable employed in the piece.

Style: Plainchant

Comments: Morose, somber, and mildly hopeful. All by design considering it's first primary use in seeing off a member of the church to the great beyond. It's not much of a stretch to visualize stained glass in a church nowadays, or an overcast sky in Europe as the voices would echo across the hillsides until finally reaching the gravesite. It's personally all a bit depressing for myself, and I'm glad this doesn't denote the majority of music's diversity.

Composer and name of work: Hildegard of Bingen, Columba aspexit

Musical Elements: Leaving behind the lower tones of a song like In paradisum, Columba aspexit climbs much higher in register and gives many examples of long, strung out notes. The entire piece is given a subliminal foundation with the use of an instrument droning on in one consistent tone in the background that fills in even the gaps that give the singers a moment to breath. Polyphonic singing is used every time the choir reappears.

Style: Plainchant

Comments: Sounding like a combination of the Scottland hills (I get this feeling possibly due to the bellows-type instrument that drones for the piece) and walking into the glassy gates of heaven, the tune sees more twists of tone per syllable (Melismatic even?) as the piece proceeds along.

Composer and name of work: Bernart de Ventadorn, La dousa votz

Musical Elements: This medieval troubador song consists of a single plucking style on what sounds something like a vihuela with a rapid tempo and a soaring soulful voice keep a fairly high tone for the majority of the piece. The voice keeps it's singing roughly in half-time from the plucking itself. Partly due to how often Bernart was imitated, this song has the same melody for each stanza giving a node to the strophic form.

Style: Troubadour song

Comments: Positively joyful and triumphant, the vocalist sounds like he'd be right at home in a market square in the 12th century if he could just get away from performing in front of the more regal individuals of the time. The song puts a spring in your step, making you want to hop and skip and pick up a percussion instrument just to join in.

Composer and name of work: Perotin, Alleluia. Diffusa est gratia

Musical Elements: Many pieces of music were created to express an affinity (putting it mildly) for the Virgin Mary. Here we find the song being presented in monophonic Gregorian chant style. The chanted syllables are stretched to extremely long lengths giving abundant and generous use of melismas all over the place.

Style: Organum

Comments: Not as dark or weary in nature as, say, In paradisum, Alleluia. Diffusa est gratia gives a brighter more joyful sensation in it's tonal color. Sitting in a pew at church while the organum starts would be a rather uplifting experience and leaves one feeling almost spiritually fulfilled.

Composer and name of work: Anonymous, Round, Summer Is Icumen in

Musical Elements: It's not hyperbole to claim this piece was far ahead of it's time. A base foundation of chanting is set early in the piece allowing the other vocalists to zip back and forth on top of it. All of it unfolds moderato with a not much change in the dynamics of delivery. Written in a major mode, the song is a round but in a much more extended fashion.

Style: Round

Comments: Absolute whimsy. Extremely infectious in it's simple underpinnings but then paints no less than four vocalists all on top of it. Floating down a stream while these notes float past your ears, it keeps one relaxed for the entire duration of the trip while leaving you feeling lighter than air. Summer has come at last!

Composer and name of work: Guillaume de Machaut, Chanson, Dame, De Qui Toute Ma Joie Vient

Musical Elements: Starting in straight away with all four voices overlapping each other in non-imitative polyphonic fashion, with each singer given many opportunities to interject melismas in their words. All singers come to a close at the same spot giving obvious stops.

Style: Chanson

Comments: Even with the words directly in front of me, they nearly unidentifiable due to how stretched out they are, but this would be the intentional point of it all. The user is left with the mood of the words rather than being set up to draw specific meaning from them. Soothing and likeable, it makes me wonder about the total piece. I'll need to seek it out.

Composer and name of work: Global perspectives 1, Qur'anic Recitation, "Ya Sin"

Musical Elements: The piece is sung a cappella, with a single voice and no instrumental accompaniment. The pitch of the reciter starts in lower tones and then builds to higher pitches until finding itself in the middle. Still silence is allowed between each phrase to give clear separation of meaning.

Style: Recitation

Comments: Cool hard stone in sunlit courtyards could see hundreds singing this, or even a sole person in the middle of nowhere. But the meaning remains. The musical quality gives it all a spiritual meditative quality that focuses the singer and listener to focus directly on the meaning of the words. An almost exact contrast to a piece such as Dame, De Qui Toute Ma Joie Vient. Impressive if not exactly my preference.

Composer and name of work: Guillaume de Machaut, Chanson, Hawai'ian Chant, Mele Pule

Musical Elements: Nearly sterile and non-ornamental in delivery, this monophonic chant, is plaintive and direct. Not much can be found in a strong meter structure. The emotion that is there is found in the wavering (warbling) delivery of the longer tones.

Style: chant

Comments: This paints a vivid picture of an elder of a community allowing others to gather around as the delivery is meant to give some sort of validity to the gods that