- Contribute to the more pentatonic nature of the work – creating a perfect 4th (a very characteristic interval found in Chinese classical music) instead of a tritone with ‘B’
- Due to the anhemitonic scale used, to avoid creating a semitone with note ‘E’ (linear thinking). Because it seems that throughout section A, the composer consciously avoids consecutive semitonal movement within the same voice.
- F# increases the note tendency to go to a G, which finally came at bar 5.
As mentioned above, the composer seemed to avoid successive semitonal movement within the same voice in section A. When chromatic movement is used, there are also notes in between to separate it. (see below for the chromatic voice leading)
I notice that there is abundance of open 5ths and octaves (e.g. bs. 9, 43) apart from 4ths, which would have caused the piece to sound very bare, like The Sunken Cathedral by Debussy. Although both pieces are pentatonic in nature and filled with such open intervals, the atmosphere created is quite different – This concerto (esp. section A) do not sound as hollow as that felt in The Sunken Cathedral and it is interesting that we as listeners do not feel the awkwardness such bareness in this piece. Perhaps it is how the composer managed to ‘mask’ the bare sounding chords through the choice of registers..? Notice how the spacing between L.H. and R.H. were very close together (e.g. b. 117, 338 – R.H. octave is like an ‘echo’ of the L.H.).
Sometimes even though the instruments are playing octaves in unison, for instance at bar 274 – 284, with range that spanned 3 octaves, the texture created is dense, not thin and empty. The spacing of chords, fortissimo and the quick tempo might be some contributing factors.
3 comments:
JR: You are right to draw attention to the soundscape as opposed to chordal progressions in the conventional sense. And certainly, 4ths and 5ths have a major part to play in creating this soundscape. Examine more closely the various 4ths and 5ths used, what do you notice?
Since we don't have functional progressions here, consider more carefully any voice-leading tendencies involving chromatic motion. For example, do you really hear a tendency of the opening F# moving towards the G at bar 5?
Hey JR!
Yes i realised that the open 4ths and 5ths in your piece will be potential sins in classical music esp if this were Bach's chorales.
Dr Chong, are you imlying that the 5ths and 4ths are neighbour notes in bar 43?
And the the chords move step wise of chromatically to mask the bare sounds. Implying that when this piece is played a tempo, it is difficult for the ear to pick out these open intervals because the step wise motions and neighbouring motions blur the sounds. And as JR mentioned, the spacing does play an important factor.
Indeed, YiF, the use of open and parallel 4ths and 5ths here drives home the leitmotif remark in our class that compositional rules are never absolute but dependent on the style (with its underlying aesthetic) in question.
You are correct in observing the neighbouring motion at b. 43, but I was also thinking of their derivation from the opening bars--how the LH and RH collection of 4 notes have been continually reconfigured throughout this piece (see JR's test answers later if you are interested).
Post a Comment