Lecture 14. Ostinato Form in the Music of Purcell, Pachelbel, Elton John and Vitamin C

YaleCourses

7 Dec 201250:04

EducationalLearning

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TLDRThis university lecture analyzes musical forms and techniques. The professor discusses sonata allegro, fugue, rondo, ternary, theme and variation, and ostinato forms. He provides musical examples to illustrate each form, including works by Bach, Beethoven, Purcell, Pachelbel, pop songs, and Vitamin C. The professor draws comparisons across classical, baroque, and modern genres. He highlights musical elements like melody, rhythm, harmony, bass lines, and lyrics. The overall lecture aims to develop students' understanding of musical structure and ability to critically analyze compositions.

Takeaways

😀 The lecture covers 6 musical forms: sonata-allegro, fugue, rondo, ternary, theme and variations, and ostinato.
😊 Musical forms help organize pieces and aid listening comprehension.
🎵 Forms have distinct structures like expositions, episodes, themes, variations.
🎼 Form templates can be applied to analyze compositions.
🎹 Examples trace forms across classical, pop, and modern music.
🎻 Dido's Lament uses a descending ground bass, a lamentation motif.
🎸 Elton John's "Sorry" borrows Purcell's ground bass.
🎺 Pachelbel's Canon has a repeating bass line or ostinato.
🎵 Recognizing forms like rondo and sonata helps follow musical events.
🎶 Form analysis lets listeners understand composition structure.

Q & A

What is the topic of the lecture?
-The lecture covers musical forms and structures, focusing on sonata allegro form, fugue, rondo, ternary form, theme and variations, and ostinato.
What is a fugato?
-A fugato is when a fugue is inserted inside another musical form. In the lecture example, Beethoven inserts a fugue in the theme and variation finale of his Eroica Symphony.
What is a ground bass?
-A ground bass is another term for an ostinato bass - a repeating bassline that serves as the foundation or 'ground' for a composition.
What is the convention for how operas end?
-In opera, it is conventional for the soprano to die at the end of the opera.
What is lament bass?
-Lament bass refers to a descending chromatic bass line symbolic of sadness or death. It is used in laments by composers like Purcell and Elton John.
What is the irony of Pachelbel's Canon?
-The irony is that the canon is rarely audible in performances of Pachelbel's Canon because the canonic voices are all in the same range and timbre.
What are some examples of Pachelbel's bass line used in pop music?
-The Pachelbel bass line is widely used in pop music, for example in songs by Coolio, Blues Traveler, Vitamin C, and others.
How did the two recordings of Dido's Lament differ?
-The first recording aimed for an authentic Baroque performance with little vibrato, lower tuning, and faster tempo. The second had a more modern operatic approach with more vibrato, higher tuning, and slower tempo.
What are the four functional types of music discussed?
-Thematic, transitional, developmental, and cadential.
What are the six musical forms covered in the lecture?
-Sonata allegro, fugue, rondo, ternary, theme and variations, and ostinato.

Outlines

00:00

🎵 The professor sets the course agenda

The professor welcomes students to class and sets the agenda for the day, announcing an upcoming test next week. He provides details on upcoming review sessions and office hours, and says the test will focus on listening comprehension and musical form.

05:02

👂 Recapping theme and variation form

The professor recaps theme and variation form as a good bridge to other concepts, using the finale of Beethoven's Eroica symphony as an example. He explains how Beethoven uses two themes in variations and demonstrates with musical excerpts, also discussing orchestration and transition sections.

10:04

🎹 Demonstrating ostinato form

The professor introduces ostinato form, explaining its repetitive nature and giving examples like Ravel's Bolero. He traces its origins to the Baroque period and its prevalence in pop music bass lines. He plays examples of ostinato bass lines by Bach and Purcell.

15:04

😢 Exploring the lament bass in Purcell and Elton John

The professor analyzes Dido's Lament by Purcell, which uses a descending chromatic ground bass as an emblem of grief. He notes how Elton John borrowed this musical symbol in his song Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word.

20:08

🎻 Unpacking Pachelbel's famous Canon

The professor dissects Pachelbel's Canon, focusing on its repetitive bass line. He notes that the canon itself is obscured, and traces its influence across genres from classical to pop music.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡ostinato

An ostinato is a short musical phrase or pattern that repeats over and over throughout a composition. The professor discusses ostinato form as one of the key musical forms covered in the course. He provides examples of ostinato bass lines used by composers like Bach, Purcell and Pachelbel to ground the harmony and provide repetitive structure in their music.

💡ground bass

Ground bass is the English term for ostinato bass. It refers to a bass line that repeats over and over to provide harmonic structure for the music built over it. The professor points out that Dido's Lament by Purcell is built on a famous descending ground bass that became an emblem for musical lamentation.

💡lament bass

A lament bass is a specific type of ostinato or ground bass used to represent sorrow or grief in music. It usually involves a descending chromatic line in the bass. Purcell's Dido's Lament contains a famous example that later inspired many other composers. The professor traces its influence to Bach, Mozart and even Elton John.

💡Pachelbel's Canon

Pachelbel's Canon refers to the Canon in D Major by Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It contains a very famous ostinato bass line that repeats under a three-part canon. Though named a canon, the upper voices are usually played on the same instrument, obscuring the canon. But the repetitive bass line is instantly recognizable and widely influential.

💡transition

In discussing the finale of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, the professor identifies a transitional passage that modulated from the tonic to the relative minor key. He relates this to the sonata form concept of transition as one of the key functional harmonic areas.

💡fugato

A fugato is a fugue inserted inside a larger non-fugal form. Beethoven inserts a fugato as one of the variations in the finale of the Eroica Symphony, demonstrating his mastery of imitative counterpoint.

💡augmentation

Augmentation is the process of lengthening note values while keeping the overall rhythmic structure constant. Beethoven uses augmentation in the finale of the Eroica, doubling the note values of the melody to give a broad, grand effect as the movement comes to a close.

💡Baroque

The Baroque period, roughly 1600-1750, was highlighted as a key era for ostinato basslines and ground bass forms. The professor provides examples from major Baroque composers like Bach and Purcell to illustrate the use of these techniques.

💡inversion

Inversion is the process of flipping melodic intervals around a central axis while keeping the original contour. Bach uses inversion in the bass line of the fugato variation in the Eroica finale, inverting the fugue subject when it appears in the bass voice.

💡chromatic

Chromatic refers to movement by half steps as opposed to whole steps within a key or scale. Many lament bass lines are chromatic, like Purcell's Dido bass, which descends chromatically to increase the mournful effect.

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Transcripts

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