After a prospective student played Maurice Ravel's "Alborada del gracioso," I asked the not-so-simple question: "What's the melody? Ravel: "Alborada del gracioso," (1905) from Miroirs The student did not have a ready answer; after a moment suggesting the opening melody might be the music played by the pianist's left hand: It seems to me that "Alborada" utilizes the technique (seen in Franz Liszt's piano music) of dividing a musical line between … [Read more...]
Poesie
During a presentation by James Parakilas concerning examples of ambiguous musical notation, I noticed something. Parakilas was discussing the metrical organization in Fauré's tenth barcarolle. A curious hovering syncopation pervades the music. Fauré: Tenth Barcarolle A detail of piano writing in measure 7 corresponds, in my opinion, to the practice of singing an audible final syllable for a French word like "rose." Normally spoken as one … [Read more...]
In one
After many years, I figured out what many eighteenth-century musicians must have known: 9/8 meter is in three. (There are three beats in each measure.) 9/16 meter is in one. … [Read more...]