Page 65 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

Needless to say, memory plays an important role in hearing musical form. We live forward but we understand backward. Whether in history or in music, our memory puts the pieces together to help us understand the whole. To simplify this pattern processing, musicians have developed a system to visualize forms by using letters to represent musical units—seeing is usually easier than hearing. The first statement of a musical idea is designated A. Subsequent contrasting sections are la- beled B, C, D, and so on. If the first of any other musical unit returns in varied form, then that variation is indicated by a superscript number—A1 and B2, for example. Subdivisions of each large musical unit are shown by lowercase letters a, b, and so on. How this works will become clear in the examples used throughout this book.
Strophic Form
This is the most familiar of all musical forms because our hymns, carols, folk- songs, and pop tunes invariably make use of it. In strophic form the composer sets the words of the first poetic stanza (strophe) and then uses the same entire melody for all subsequent stanzas. Moreover, in many pop songs each strophe begins with a verse of text and ends with a chorus—a textual refrain that repeats. (A chorus is so called because early on, in the Middle Ages, a group entered at that point to sing the refrain along with the soloist.) In Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind,” he raps the verse, and she then sings the refrain. The strophe (verse and chorus) is then repeated two more times, with the music al- ways the same for each strophe. But we can’t provide the lyrics of “Empire State of Mind” owing to “explicit content,” so let’s move back to the 1860s to the first strophe of a hymn text that served as a rallying point for the Union (Northern) forces during the American Civil War: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” text by Julia Ward Howe, 1862.
Strophe 1
(Verse) Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus) Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
Now listen to the first two strophes of the equally well known Wiegenlied (Lullaby) of Johannes Brahms (see Listening Cue). Each strophe, again, is sung to the same music, but here there is no chorus.
Listening Cue
Johannes Brahms, Wiegenlied (Lullaby; 1868) Download 5 what to listen for: An exact repeat of the music of strophe 1 for strophe 2, which creates strophic form
what not to listen for: A chorus—there is none!
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