Sample Music Appraisal

Music Appraisal

The two areas of study I have chosen are Texture and Melody and Rhythm and Metre. The strand is Popular Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries and my chosen link to this is the blues scale.

I have chosen melody and texture because I think that it can add character to a piece and I have strengths that lie in this area. There is also a wide range of techniques that I can use to enhance the piece including sequences and articulation. I believe that rhythm and metre makes a piece sound exciting and it also adds contrast to different sections in my piece by changing the metre. I think that a range of rhythms are essential for any successful piece of music.

The link to the strand within my piece is the blues scale. I chose this because

To overcome this difficulty, I thought about what chords were both in C minor and G major. So, the chord I used was D major which modulated the piece nicely into G major as it created an imperfect cadence.

My composition successfully exploits the Areas of Study I have chosen. I have included sequences in bar 9 and 11 and ornamentation in bar 24. The melody of the piece is conjunct and it follows the notes of the G major scale. In the B section, there is a chromatic scale in bar 21 and sequences in octaves in bars 29 to 31. The texture of the piece is homophonic throughout with the split chords and then, Alberti Bass is brought in to the A2 section but this still stays as homophonic texture.

To satisfy the requirements of choosing Rhythm and Metre, I have included dotted rhythms during the A section. Also, there is the use of syncopation in the melody in the B section and the compound time signature change to 12/8. In the A2 section, I changed the time signature again to ¾ therefore; I decided to change some rhythms in the piece to fit this.

The focus of the given strand in my composition is the blues scale. It is successful because jazz and blues music emerged during the 20th and 21st centuries. The blues scale gives my piece the jazz style in the B

In the A sections, it features strong components from the classical era whereas the B section has a much more relaxed bluesy feel to it.

The A sections have equal four bar phrases which is a typical feature of classical music. The ternary form was also a popular because it allowed variation in a piece which was used a lot during the era. To mimic this style of music, I included sequences, imitation and subtle dynamic with crescendos and diminuendos. I also used Alberti Bass which is a popular Classical texture to use. The use of Alberti Bass is typical to a piano piece because it is difficult to play on any other instrument.

In the B section, it sounds bluesy and jazzy because the melody has a syncopated rhythm; this makes the mood of the section more relaxed because the rhythm is less strict. The blues scale creates an unexpected effect as the flattened notes are not part of the usual major or minor scales which again make the piece feel more