Analysis of the work of musical literature

In the last article, we talked about how to sort the plays before bringing them to work in the class in their specialty. Link to this material is located at the end of this post. Today, the focus of our attention will also be the analysis of a musical work, but we will only be preparing for lessons in musical literature.

First, we highlight some general points of principle, and then consider the features of the analysis of certain types of musical compositions - for example, operas, symphonies, vocal cycle, etc.

So, each time we parse a musical work, we must prepare answers for at least the following points:

• the exact full name of the musical composition (plus here: is there a program in the form of a title or literary explanation?);
• the names of the authors of the music (the composer may be one, and there may be several if the composition is collective);
• the names of the authors of the texts (in operas several people often work on the libretto, sometimes the composer himself can act as the author of the text);
• in what musical genre is the work written (opera or ballet, or symphony or what?);
• the place of this work on the scale of the composer’s entire work (does the author have other works in the same genre, and how does the work in question relate to these others - can it be innovative or is it the top of creativity?);
• whether the given work is based on some non-music original source (for example, it is written according to the plot of a book, poem, picture or impressed by any events of history, etc.);
• how many parts in the work and how each part is built;
• performing staff (for what instruments or voices it is written - for orchestra, for ensemble, for clarinet solo, for voice and piano, etc.);
• main musical images (or characters, heroes) and their themes (musical, of course, the same).

We now turn to the features that relate to the analysis of musical works of individual types. In order not to be strongly dispersed, let us dwell on two cases - opera and symphony.

Features of the analysis of the opera

Opera is a theatrical work, and therefore it is largely subject to the laws of the theatrical scene. In the opera, there is almost always a plot, at least in the minimum quantity there is a dramatic action (sometimes far from the minimum, but in a very decent). The opera is staged as a performance in which there are actors, the performance itself is divided into actions, pictures and scenes.

So, this is what needs to be considered when analyzing an opera composition:

1. the connection of the operatic libretto with the literary source (if there is one) - sometimes they differ, and quite strongly, and sometimes the text of the original source enters the opera in unchanged form in whole or in fragments;
2. the division into actions and pictures (the number of those and others), the presence of such parts as the prologue or epilogue;
3. the structure of each action is dominated by traditional opera forms (arias, duets, choirs, etc.), like consecutive numbers, or actions and paintings are cross-cutting scenes that cannot be divided into separate numbers in principle;
4. actors and their singing voices - it just needs to know;
5. how the images of the main actors are revealed - where, in what actions and pictures they participate and what they sing, how they are depicted musically;
6. the dramaturgic basis of the opera - where and how the plot of the plot takes place, what are the stages of development, in what action and how the outcome occurs;
7. opera orchestra numbers - whether there is an overture or an introduction, as well as intermissions, intermezzo and other orchestral purely instrumental episodes - what role do they play (often these are musical pictures that bring into action - for example, a musical landscape, a holiday picture, a soldier or a mourning march and etc.);
8. what role does the chorus play in the opera (for example, comments on the action or appears only as a means of showing the domestic way of life, or the choir artists utter important remarks that strongly influence the general outcome of the action, or the choir constantly praises something, or choral scenes in general there is no opera, etc.);
9. are there any dance performances in the opera, in what actions and what is the reason for introducing ballet into the opera;
10. are there any leitmotifs in the opera - what are they and what characterize (any hero, some object, some feeling or state, some natural phenomenon or something else?).

This is not a complete list of what needs to be found out in order for the analysis of a musical work in this case to be complete. Where do you get the answers to all these questions? First of all in the clavier of the opera, that is, in its musical text. Secondly, you can read a brief statement of the opera libretto, well, and thirdly, a lot can be easily found in the books - read textbooks on musical literature!

Features of the symphony parsing

Compared to opera, the symphony is simpler in some respects. Here, the musical material itself is several times smaller (the opera lasts 2-3 hours, and the symphony is 20-50 minutes), and there are no actors with their numerous leitmotifs, which need to be tried to distinguish them from each other. But the analysis of symphonic music still has its own characteristics.

As a rule, a symphony consists of four parts. There are two variants of the sequence of parts in the symphonic cycle: according to the classical type and according to the romantic type. They differ in the position of the slow part and the so-called genre part (in the classical symphonies of the minuet or scherzo, in the romantic - the scherzo, sometimes the waltz). Look at the scheme:

The brackets in the diagram indicate typical musical forms for each of these parts. Since, for a complete analysis of a musical work, it is necessary to determine its form, familiarize yourself with the article “Basic forms of musical works,” the information of which should help you in this matter.

Sometimes the number of parts may be different (for example, 5 parts in Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony, 3 parts in Scriabin's Divine Poem, 2 parts in Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, there are single-part symphonies - for example, Myaskovsky's 21st symphony) . These are, of course, non-standard cycles and the change in the number of parts in them caused by some peculiarities of the composer’s artistic intention (for example, program content).

What is important for parsing the symphony:

1. determine the type of symphonic cycle (classical, romantic, or even some kind of peculiar);
2. to determine the basic tonality of the symphony (according to the first part) and the tonality of each part separately;
3. to characterize the figurative and musical content of each of the main themes of the work;
4. determine the shape of each part;
5. in sonata form, determine the tonalities of the main and side parts in the exposition and reprise, and look for differences in the sound of these parts in the same sections (for example, the main part can change its appearance to unrecognizability by unrecognizability);
6. find and be able to show thematic links between the parts, if they exist (are there topics that go from one part to another, how do they change?);
7. analyze the orchestration (are the leading timbres - string, woodwind or copper instruments?);
8. determine the role of each part in the development of the whole cycle (which part is the most dramatic, which part is presented as lyrics or meditations, in which parts there is a distraction to other topics, which result is summed up at the end?);
9. if there are musical quotations in the piece, then determine what kind of quotations are; etc.

Of course, you can continue this list indefinitely. It is necessary to be able to tell about a work at least the most simple, basic information - this is better than nothing. And the most important task that you have to set for yourself, regardless of whether you are going to do a detailed analysis of a piece of music or not, is a direct acquaintance with music.

In conclusion, as promised, we give a link to the previous material, where it was a question of performing an analysis. Here is the article - "Analysis of musical works in the specialty"