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ARTD 242: Dance Composition II (BMC): Home

Elements of Music

When listening to music, think about the elements that you hear:

Rhythm - fast, slow, symmetrical, consistent

Texture - one "voice" only (monophony), one melodic "voice" with accompaniment (homophony & melody-driven homophony), many "voices" in the same rhythm or "hymn-like" (homorhythmic), more than one "voice" sounding in different melodies and rhythms (polyphony)

Timbre (Color) - nasal, hollow, deep, etc. (different instruments have different timbres, hence why they can play the same note yet sound different)

Line - is the musical line jagged (predominantly made of skip-wise motion), connected (predominantly made of step-wise motion), or both

Streaming Music Resources

(The first two are available at Bryn Mawr, the latter three are available at Haverford)

Instruments of the Orchestra

Each instrument has it's own timbre and "feel"--try listening to a few to see what you think.

Click Here to Listen

The Classical Music Navigator

The Classical Music Navigator is a database which allows you to browse by "points of interest"--in other words, if you find a composer you like, it will help you find others with simliar sensibilities.

Connect to the Classical Music Navigator

Music Matrix

Instrumental only Vocal only Both (instrumental & vocal) Other
Medieval Estampie real (ca. 1250) Alfonso X - Cantiga 207, "Se ome fezer de grado" (ca. 1250)
     Gregorian Dies irae (ca. 1200)
Renaissance Cabezón - Diferencias sobre el canto de La Dama le demanda (ca. 1550) Janequin - La guerre (ca. 1500) Dowland - Flow my tears, fall from your springs (ca. 1600)
Baroque Bach - Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, BWV 552 (1735) Purcell - "When I am Laid" from Dido and Aeneas (ca. 1688)
Classical Mozart - Symphony No. 40 (1788) Haydn - The Creation (1798)
Early Romantic

Beethoven - String Quartet No. 11 (1810)

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 29 ("Hammerklavier") (1818)

Schubert - Winterreise (1828)
Late Romantic Brahms - Symphony No. 3 (1883) Wagner - "Der Augen leuchtendes Paar" from Die Walküre (1870)
20th Century

     Expressionism 

Schoenberg - Verklarte Nacht (1899)

Berg - "Augenblicke" (1908)

Schoenberg - Pierrot lunaire (1912)

     Impressionism Debussy - Prelude à l'apres-midi d'un faune (1894) Ravel - 3 Chansons de Stephane Mallarmé (1913)
     Exoticism Cowell - The Aeolian Harp (1923) Harrison - May Rain (1941)
     Serialism Babbitt - My Ends Are my Beginnings (1978)
     Avant-Garde Feldman - Patterns in a Chromatic Field (1981) Ligeti - Nonsense Madrigals (1991) Scelsi - Pranam I (1972)
     Neoclassicism Britten - Passacaglia from Cello Symphony (1963) Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms (1930)
     Neoromanticism Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet (1938) Schnittke - Choir Concerto (1982) Barber - Vanessa (1953)
     Mysticism

Pärt - Stabat Mater (1985)

Gubaidulina - Sieben Worte (1982)

     Minimalism Glass - Metamorphosis V (1988)
     Microtonalism Partch - 11 Intrusions (ca. 1960s)
     Aleatory Xenakis - Pithoprakta (1956)
     Electronic Varèse - Poème electronique (1958)

Subject Guide

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Guillermo Gómez
Contact:
610-896-1169
Subjects: Music