Analysis Assignment: Putting Things Together
The principles of Unity and Variety apply to all music, regardless of composition style or historical period.
Now that you are familiar with the concepts in the first section of the course (Basic Musical Concepts), and you have seen how they work on different pieces of music, try your hand, mouse, and ears, at finding how they operate in a piece you haven’t heard yet in this course (although you may have elsewhere).
To do this, I will ask you to listen to the Hungarian Dance No. 6 in D Major by Johannes Brahms.
Johannes Brahms
Hungarian Dance No. 6
Born: 1833
Died: 1897
Country: Germany
Your analysis should include:
- The number of different musical ideas in the piece (can we say, for example, that there are two ideas A, and B? Or is there only one? Or are there more?)
- The timings (start and stop times) of the different sections of the piece. (Hint: Listen for changes in musical ideas and timbre, e.g. points where different instruments come in or give way to others)
- How unity and variety are exemplified in those sections through the use of:
- Dynamics
- Timbre
- Pitch
- Whether, although there are sections that feature one instrument over others, you think this is this is a piece for solo performer or for an ensemble.
- A list of the characteristics of the musical style closest to the one this piece exemplifies.
- Whether you think this piece serves, or could serve a specific purpose.
- Whether or not it has any specific connotation/s for you.
