Glossary of Terms:
Senza vibrato – without vibrato
Light staccato –
8 ve – play an octave above or below
Sfz – Sforzando - sudden accent
Poco accel – a little acceleration
Triplets – 3 notes played in the time of 2
Subito – suddenly
Molto flautando – very flute-like (bow over the fingerboard)
Sim. – Similarly
Loco - Normal pitch
Vladimir Horowitz- Famous 20th century pianist.
Detaché - detached
Bouncing - light and detached ariculation of the notes
Espressivo - with expression
Hammered - play with force
Verve - lively
Jauntily - cheerfully
strike - attack
Roughly - harsh
Striding - loud or forceful
Soaring - rise suddenly (pitch)
Compositional Techniques
Canon at the octave
Canon at double octave
Canon at unison
Canon at a distance of a crotchet and a quaver
Altering intervals (wedge technique) “wedging” the intervals closer together or further apart, (splicing)
Use of Irish tunes
Retrograde
Inversion
Augmentation
Polymetre
Use of 5ths.
Doubling at the octave
Doubling at the unison
Doubling at a fifth (parallel)
Doubling
Doubling in octaves is very common, i.e. B1 (3rd time), C1 (7-part section), B2, (3rd , 4th, and 5th playing) and C4 (Hommage á Horowitz).
Doubling at unison occurs at D2-B3, and E2-D3, and C7.
Retrograde. (playing a tune backwards from Serialism)
The 2nd half of A is a retrograde inversion.
E1 is a retrograde of D. (Beidh Áonach Amárach). Therefore E2-D3 features theretrograde and original at the same time.
F features a new tune and its retrograde together, together with an augmented version of C.
Irish Tunes
A is Sí Beag Sí Mór.
All C s are The Last Rose of Summer.
D (and therefore E) is Beidh Áonach Amárach.
H is Lord Mayo’s Delight.
Other techniques
2 themes are used together at D2-B3, E2-D3, F-C8.(bi-thematic)
G is a juxtaposition (telescoping) of all themes which could be described as Polythematic.
Inversion occurs in A, and C7. (turning a tune upside-down)
Polymetre at F-C8. (different time signatures simultaneously)
Augmentation at C8. (A tune where all the note values are larger)
Wedging occurs C4 (Altering the pitch of notes)
Instrumental techniques:
Senza vibrato – without vibrato
Détaché – detached
Clusters – many notes played by the hand and / or arm on the piano
Drones – open strings, double stops
Flautando – literally like a flute – to bow near the finger board with the point of the bow.
Harmonics –
Tonality
The work is mainly atonal. Some sections are very loosely centred around a home note but not in the traditional sense of key.
Section A is pentatonic based around C.
Section B feels like C due to the repeated Cs and Gs on the lower strings, but the many C#s disrupt this.
Section C is based around Ab but is very dissonant. C2 and C3 contain wedging and splicing, making the intervals of the melody smaller and larger resulting in more dissonance.
Telescoping is where fragments of melodies are combined as in section G.
Senza vibrato – without vibrato
Light staccato –
8 ve – play an octave above or below
Sfz – Sforzando - sudden accent
Poco accel – a little acceleration
Triplets – 3 notes played in the time of 2
Subito – suddenly
Molto flautando – very flute-like (bow over the fingerboard)
Sim. – Similarly
Loco - Normal pitch
Vladimir Horowitz- Famous 20th century pianist.
Detaché - detached
Bouncing - light and detached ariculation of the notes
Espressivo - with expression
Hammered - play with force
Verve - lively
Jauntily - cheerfully
strike - attack
Roughly - harsh
Striding - loud or forceful
Soaring - rise suddenly (pitch)
Compositional Techniques
Canon at the octave
Canon at double octave
Canon at unison
Canon at a distance of a crotchet and a quaver
Altering intervals (wedge technique) “wedging” the intervals closer together or further apart, (splicing)
Use of Irish tunes
Retrograde
Inversion
Augmentation
Polymetre
Use of 5ths.
Doubling at the octave
Doubling at the unison
Doubling at a fifth (parallel)
Doubling
Doubling in octaves is very common, i.e. B1 (3rd time), C1 (7-part section), B2, (3rd , 4th, and 5th playing) and C4 (Hommage á Horowitz).
Doubling at unison occurs at D2-B3, and E2-D3, and C7.
Retrograde. (playing a tune backwards from Serialism)
The 2nd half of A is a retrograde inversion.
E1 is a retrograde of D. (Beidh Áonach Amárach). Therefore E2-D3 features theretrograde and original at the same time.
F features a new tune and its retrograde together, together with an augmented version of C.
Irish Tunes
A is Sí Beag Sí Mór.
All C s are The Last Rose of Summer.
D (and therefore E) is Beidh Áonach Amárach.
H is Lord Mayo’s Delight.
Other techniques
2 themes are used together at D2-B3, E2-D3, F-C8.(bi-thematic)
G is a juxtaposition (telescoping) of all themes which could be described as Polythematic.
Inversion occurs in A, and C7. (turning a tune upside-down)
Polymetre at F-C8. (different time signatures simultaneously)
Augmentation at C8. (A tune where all the note values are larger)
Wedging occurs C4 (Altering the pitch of notes)
Instrumental techniques:
Senza vibrato – without vibrato
Détaché – detached
Clusters – many notes played by the hand and / or arm on the piano
Drones – open strings, double stops
Flautando – literally like a flute – to bow near the finger board with the point of the bow.
Harmonics –
Tonality
The work is mainly atonal. Some sections are very loosely centred around a home note but not in the traditional sense of key.
Section A is pentatonic based around C.
Section B feels like C due to the repeated Cs and Gs on the lower strings, but the many C#s disrupt this.
Section C is based around Ab but is very dissonant. C2 and C3 contain wedging and splicing, making the intervals of the melody smaller and larger resulting in more dissonance.
Telescoping is where fragments of melodies are combined as in section G.