FREE ESSAY ON LISTENING ASSIGNMENTS FOR BROOKLYN COLLEGE 2.2

LISTENING ASSIGNMENTS FOR BROOKLYN COLLEGE 2.2

Brooklyn College
Instructor R. Janssen
7/15 Listening Assignment # 1
Organ Fugue in G Minor, J.S. Bach, p109-110
A highness in the pitch is the frequency in the vibrations are getting faster. A second
tone is getting introduced, there is an interval between them. This second tone is low,
as it gets louder the vibrations increase. It is the same tone in the first part, but the
octave changes to low and high and the vibrations increase introducing other tones. In
Class: The pitches of the melody are high, there are many pitches from low to high. There
are three layers of pitches making every layer sound distinct. the music becomes more
intense and it is like my adrenaline increasing to an intense point.
Rite of Spring, I. Stravinsky
Dynamics is soft (piano) and crescendo to forte and return to piano and it creates a
sense of softness introducing the pure awakening of spring. There is a dynamic accent
that is a forte, it comes at different times and it makes me nervous as if a tribal
ritual will occur. The use of layers of soft and then loud creates a fore ground and
background that gives me a very frightening feeling. 
Loengrin, Wagner
Brass instruments but there is a back round of other instruments that are accompanying
the piece of music. There is a contrast between the beginning, middle, and end of the
song. It creates a mood that varies because of the dynamics. The brass instruments have a
different tone color. They are loud and dominant. The woodwind instruments have a
different effect then the brass instruments. When the brass comes in it changes our mood.
The end of the song sounds scary but truly ends off with a happy ending. The Dynamics
play a major role in the piece you hear, the pitch ranges in this song also the mood I
feel listening to this is romantic and having a good time. However towards the end I feel
a little tension and scared.
Take the A train, Stray horn
There seems to be a contrast in the rhythm and beat over and over. I hear the piano in
the beginning however at the middle I hear the sax and other instruments accompanying.
Then all at once all the instruments play. This type of music puts me in a dancing mood
however back in the 1960's it is. The duration seems to be changing from loud to soft but
it does end with a deep soft tone.
7/19 Listening Assignment #2
Britten, Young persons guide to the Orchestra
It is fun to hear the sound of timbre in the piece. It sounds like an intense happiness
or an awakening. The full orchestra was very exciting and the sounds separating on there
own sounded like the same tune but a different tone color. The mood changed each time the
instruments did. I think it was a full orchestra because all of them in the beginning and
then only the instruments in the groups would play together.
Ritual Melodies, Harvey
The tone color began with the sound f bells beginning to crescendo and it sounded like a
strong awakening. Another sound joined in and it sounded like a young child singing a
single tune in the back round as if he were begging for some forgiveness. The flute then
introduces the woodwind instruments that also begin to crescendo and it made the boys
crying vibrate.
Mara-Bihag
There were two sounds that had two different ranges of pitch and dynamics and they were
very pianissimo. It sounded like a person beginning to learn the string instruments for
the first time. A string instrument being plucked with percussion in the back round. The
string instrument is perhaps an electronic guitar. The percussion sounds like chimes are
going back and forth. The chimes also sound like Xylophone.
Song from Angola
There are two tone colors. The first introduced was Drums, which introduced a solo of a
mans voice, following a chorus and it made me feel like I was watching an African or
Caribbean tribal dance. Percussion-drums are being played as a male is talking and
another group is responding. We can clearly hear the drums being played. There was only
one instrument being played.
Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah,G.F. Handel
An orchestra is playing Hallelujah. It sounds like woodwind instruments. Very harsh more
like brass instruments. Perhaps a tuba or a timbre. I can't really tell how many
instruments are playing at one time. It's defiantly a lot of them. But they all sound
similar to me. However, I can point out that they are harsh and loud- seems to me like
this is played while in church. It gave me the feeling of joy, achievement, and
excitement.
7/20 Listening Assignment #3
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam, anonymous
IT sounded to me like it was a quadratic meter. There is a strong emphasis on the second
and fourth beat. The tempo was adagio and the piece made me feel contempt and relaxed.
The words in the song seem to be very stretched out. Definitely not an energetic song.
The word Alleluia is repetitive. The pace of the song is very slow.
La Primavera, A Vivaldi
This music is very lively and it sounded very exciting. I could not count the meter
because it kept on changing but I think that it is what made it so joyful. The tempo
doesn't change, it stays the same, but the rhythm changes and because of the speed of the
rhythm we think that the tempo changes. 
Symphony #40, W. A. Mozart
This piece was so beautiful. The rhythm varies from fast to slow and it made me feel like
it was very organized. There was a lot of emphasis on every other note and the strongest
accent on the last note of every meter. 
Nocturne, F. Chopin
What a simple, grave tempo that makes me feel like I'm falling in love or putting a baby
to sleep. The rhythm is a pull and pull feeling. It sounds like a triple meter beat with
a syncopation on the third beat. But truly this is a special piece. 
Five Pieces for Orchestra, A Webern
This piece is Adagio and calm, it starts with a layer with a duple beat meter overlapped
with the solo of a violin vibrating. It was a disturbing, uncertainty feeling. However,
because the rest of the piece doesn't use accent, it has a calm feeling. Uses a sense of
beat, but the music doesn't have a beat, period of silence that creates rhythm.
The pieces that used rhythm is similar ways were La primavera and Symphony.
I feel that Nocturne was very different from the other because it was played with only
one instrument, and it had such a strong push and pull emotion.
7/21 Listening Assignment #4
La Primavera, A Vivaldi
A very recognizable melody. It had an up and down movement of the pitches and it made me
feel tension and release. The tones were played in a short, detached style called
staccato and I enjoyed the short versus repeated themselves in different duration's of
pitches. It had four very distinct phases, one loud, one soft, one loud, and one soft. 
Five Pieces for Orchestra, A Webern
A very unusual melody. I could hear the piece ten times over and not be able to repeat it
correctly. It had a leaping gesture that makes the melody more expressive and dramatic. 
Nocturne, F. Chopin
Another unusual melody. There is a legato melody, smooth, flow of music. This song is
very relaxing. Something that you can possibly slow dance to in the older times. The
melody is repetitive throughout the song, but again I would never be able to repeat it
back correctly. It doesn't seem as if there a motive but there is theme.
7/22 Listening Assignment #5
Major Minor Neither 
Organ Fugue in G Minor, J.S. Bach
Rite of Spring, I. Stravinsky
Loengrin, Wagner
Take the A train, Stray horn
Britten, guide to the Orchestra
Ritual Melodies, Harvey
Major Minor Neither Mara-Bihag
Song from Angola
Hallelujah,G.F. Handel
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam
La Primavera, A Vivaldi
Symphony #40, W. A. Mozart
Nocturne, F. Chopin 
Five Pieces for Orchestra
7/26 Listening Assignment #6
Alleluia: Vidimus stellam
Monophonic male voices. Music flows out of a regular meter from beginning to end. This is
from the ancient middle ages where all music was monophonic.
Organ Fugue in G Minor, J.S. Bach
An example of Polyphonic texture, Starts with a monophonic, but continues polyphonic.
Nocturne, F. Chopin
Beginning to end has a homophonic texture. The end is monophonic for just a short while,
and continues homophonic because you have harmony there.
La Primavera, A Vivaldi
Homophonic because there are three layers.
Song from Angola
Monophonic when he sings by himself and the drums. Then when the group goes in the same
rhythm but different pitches leads to homophonic.
Ritual Melodies, Harvey
This is more timbre texture, there is no clear harmony or melody.
Take the A train, Stray horn
Can be both Homophonic and polyphonic texture. It is motion filled and has a melodic
movement.
7/27 Listening assignment#7
Bach, Gavotte from French Suite
The musical form is Repletion. The form can be written as AABB because each part is
repeated. The two parts differ in length and key, but are not related in melody. 
Tchaikovsky, Dance the Reed Pipes
The musical form is contrast. This form is a three-part example of ABA'. The first
section has flutes playing which is a staccato melody and has a light airy feeling, and
is repeated several times. The B section contrast in tone color, melody, and keys. A' is
just a shorter version of A.
Concerto for Orchestra, Bartok
The musical form is in a duple meter of ABA' form. In A a pair of Bassoons. Oboes,
Clarinets, flutes, and muted trumpets play a chain of five melodies. The contrast in the
middle section is B, which is a hymn like melody played softly by brass instruments. The
A' has a more active accompaniment. 
A Little night Music, Mozart
The musical form is the three-part ABA form of the pull and push feeling of repetition
and contrast. The A section is stately , mostly loud staccato, with a clearly marked
beat. The contrast in B is a soft intimate and legato. 
La Primavera , Vivaldi
I found this Musical form to be Repetition of AABAA. The repetition helps recognize and
remember the melody. When the musical idea returns, the effect is not duplicated but
balance and symmetry. I wasn't in class to review and I'm not so sure about this one. 
String Quartet, Beethoven
The musical form in this piece was a little confusing, ABACABA. It had the triple meter
and between each was a contrast. The main theme is in minor, contrast with other themes,
which are major. The B is a legato melody, while the C is a playful, with quick upward
rushes.
8/3 Listening Assignment #8
Ave Maria, Desprez
Motet, Religious and it's in Latin
As Vesta was descending, Weelkes
Madrigal- English, Polyphonic, religious running, fast rhythm. Tempo, pitch -descending ,
All- thick texture.
Tenor horale from Cantata
Instruments, religious text, voices with orchestra. More on a theme, played in church
based on bible being religious wars.
Hallelujah Chorus from the Massiah, Handel
Oratorio, because a religious story is told. 
The Earl King, Schubert
Solo piano with singer-there's only one genre that fits this family which is art song.
Galloping rhythm of the horses- creates tension. Earl King -image of death and comes to
take a boy that's sick-night gallery- image . He tries to entice the boy to come with
him. Change in dynamics to a smooth one more like a dance like accompaniment.
A Survivor from Warsaw, Schoenberg
Cantata- composition in several movements, usually written for a chorus, one or more
vocal soloists, and orchestra written for the 6 million Jews that died in the camps.
Twelve tone composition. The music gets faster and louder to prepare us for the chorus. A
solo male is speaking here. It paints running when the rhythm gets faster and pain when
his tone of voice changes. 
8/4 Listening Assignment # 9
Don Giovanni, Mozart
Leporelo is on a lookout to make sure nobody bothers DonGiovanni. Leporelo thinks he's a
Don Juan having a nice romantic affair. However, his master was doing something bad
because he was really rapping her. But the servant claimed he didn't know anything. In
the beginning there is a pace. The servant is pacing and wasting time and waiting. Then
he actually starts to sing. He wants to be a gentleman, and he says it in Laggato style,
while the rest was in Staccato. There is change when Donna Anna and Don Giovanni come
down. The dynamics gets louder and the rhythm gets faster. There is a chase in the music
between the two. There is a polyphonic texture. The chases is because she wants to know
his identity. When her father comes there is a dissonance in the harmony. There's a lot
of stopping and starting. When Commadant gets stabbed there is a minor harmony and a slow
pitch, while he is dying. 
La Boheme, Puccini
Mimi and Rudolfo fall in love. He helps her once her candle blows out, when she loses her
key, they both look for it. There are many mood changes and the tempo helps us
distinguish between them. There is an alternation between speech like and melodic phrases
within there dialogue. When Mimi enters we hear a lite orchestra and that shows her
fragility and tenderness. When Mimi faints I notice there is a solo by the oboe. When
Mimi comes back to get her keys there is a new melody in a faster tempo. Roddolfo's aria
has repeated tones and the melody becomes warmer and higher. 
Okalahoma! , Rodgers and Hammerstein
This song celebrates  The beauty and richness of the land that would soon become the 46th
state. It can be outlined in AA'BA. There is a very high tone on the first word Oklahoma.
There is also a dance like rhythm- bouncy syncopation's. It starts off with a male voice
and a orchestral background. Then a group of people join in. It is a major key and a
happy song. 
Hallelujah Chorus from the Massiah, Handel
There is word painting on the word Halleluya. The words are played on high pitches to
make things sound cheerful. Painted musical element of timbre with the use of full
orchestra, full choir and by the element of high pitch that gave a striking quality. For
ever and ever was stretched in the element of duration. Musical element was a polyphonic
texture. Repetition of the theme and melody. Lord God Omnipotent has a monophonic
texture. More staccato like a statement and Halleluya is accented. The kingdom of his
word was a large, fast feeling in a homophonic texture. The kingdom of the lord has no
timbre and when  The Christ comes back the trumpets and drums return. Every time the name
Lord or He is mentioned there is a monophonic texture.