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- Coolsville - Laurie Anderson Wed, 2011-06-08 14:02
- Farewell - Apocalyptica Wed, 2011-06-08 13:57
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt Wed, 2011-06-08 13:51
- Ride of the Valkyries - Richard Wagner Wed, 2011-06-08 13:44
- Bubblehouse - Medeski, Martin and Wood Wed, 2011-06-08 13:42
Ride of the Valkyries - Richard Wagner
Lesson 1: Sound
Listen to this track and write down every different instrument you can identify. If there's something you can hear but you don't know what it is, try to describe the sound of it. Of all the sounds in this particular track, which one do you find the most interesting?
Lesson 2: Rhythm
Listen to this track and find the pulse. Without a drum set, how does Wagner use the different instruments of the orchestra to indicate the pulse of the music? Are there parts where you hear it stronger than others? What is the tempo of the song? What is the meter of the song? How do you know that? Are there any commonly recurring patterns in this song? Which instrument is playing them? What do you find rhythmically interesting about this track?
Lesson 3: Melody
Which instruments have the main melody? Describe the shape of the main melody? How does that reflect the title of the piece? Do you hear any motifs or melodic patterns? Are those motifs reflected only in the melody or in other instruments too?
Lesson 4: Harmony
Listen for the harmonic rhythm? How often does it change? Which instruments tell you the harmony is changing? Are there any significant harmonic changes that stand out to you? Try to describe the emotional color that the harmony provides in different places of the song.
Instruments:
Orchestral
String - Violin, Viola
Brass - Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba (?),
Percussion - Timpani, (something that sounds like drum-kit Toms), snare, Cymbals, triangle (?),
Woodwind - flute (?)
The most interesting sound I find is what I think is the flute - kind of hangs in the air, is high-pitched and suspenseful.
Strings - Lots of different string sounds going on here, the fast up and down scales played with the bows, or the plucked strings in the bass and cellos, or the fast trills with the bows sawing back and forth on a single not.
Woodwinds - I can't hear any of the other typical orchestral woodwinds, but the flutes and piccolos get a lot of attention with their trills in the opening section and the descending scales in the middle section of the piece.
Brass - this is like every brass players favorite piece. Trombones, french horns, trumpets, tuba... finally they get to be the unabashed stars of the show. I love the way a brass sound, when it reaches a certain loudness or force, starts to distort a little, letting you know that you've reached a point of intensity, especially in the french horns which have probably the most "regal" sound of all.
Percussion - Jessica is right with the tympani, though they're not as resonant as most modern tympani. I'll bet he's using real calfskin heads and maybe even wooden mallets in certain places. The triangle is a great way to raise the intensity. Cymbals and bass drum lend a little explosion to the big hits, plus some snare drum rolls.
everything: horns, drums, strings. big sound. full orchestra--sorry I'm lat on this...
Again with that opening section that seems to have no pulse. But it turns out we're wrong. He starts to layer different instruments on top of each other to create a rhythmic pattern so that by the time hte horns enter with the melody we can feel a pulse.
If you listen to the pattern of the strings cascading up and down in the introduction you'll here that the meter is in 3. The tempo is around 95 bpm. The horn melody is very strong, rhythmically speaking, as it basically sits on every single pulse, very fat and proud!
Notice how around 2:30 he softens things up by taking the drive out of the rhythm. The pulse is still there, and we're still in 3, so if you count the whole time you'll find that important things still happen every 3 beats, but you don't feel that drive on every pulse.