Musical Excerpts
Musical excerpts in this chapter performed by Adam Matlock. In most instances, Adam plays the excerpt twice, the first time at reduced tempo. Page numbers refer to the recommended edition.
How to use excerpts: As you encounter each short musical score in the chapter, stop reading and listen to the excerpt using the videos on this page. Listen more than once if you do not recognize, in the music, the idea that Copland is presenting. Then continue reading.
Excerpts for Chapter 10
Pages 107-108
Score for above; click to enlarge.
Pages 113-114
Score for above; click to enlarge.
Suggested Listening
1) F. Couperin -- Le Moucheron
2) D. Scarlatti -- Sonatas, # 413
2) Haydn—Quartet, Opus 17, No. 5 Menuet begins at 6:12; see page 107, and Adams' page 107-8 excerpt above.
3) Beethoven—Sonata in E flat, Opus 27, No. 1 ("Moonlight Sonata")
4) Chopin—Preludes Click SHOW MORE to navigate; No. 15 is mentioned on page 110. See if you can follow Copland's description. If you like this music, listen to more, and read what the commenter says about each piece. This page at YouTube is a great example of some whoever out there taking it upon themselves to help educate the world by sharing a passion.
5) Bartók—Suite for Piano
6) Tchaikovsky -- Nutcracker Suite
6) Tchaikovsky/Duke Ellington -- Nutcracker Suite Jazz arrangement of Tchaikovsky's ballet suite.
Additional, for Chapter 10 (form, sectional)
• G. F. Handel -- Water Music, part 1 (a suite of dances; titles of the movements on the record label)
If you are familiar with this popular work, you might find this recording somewhat different in style and sound. The conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016), was a scholar of authentic performance styles and instruments of the baroque period (early 1600s to late 1700s). Nikolaus and his wife Alice co-founded Concentus Musicus Vien in 1953. They used original styles and instruments of the period, so their concerts are like combining a musical evening with a visit to a museum. Concentus Musicus Wien has produced a very large body of recordings and is still active. For the complete work, try this recording by Akademie für alte Musik Berlin a more recent group (founded 1982) that performs with period instruments.
• Ravel -- Le Tombeau de Couperin, Menuet, or complete suite -- Click SHOW MORE to navigate the movements. Copland, page 108-109: “The typical A-B-A form is present, with these differences: The return to the A section is made up of an ingenious combination of both A and B at the same time; and a fairly elaborate coda is added at the end. But nothing essential to the form of the minuet has been changed.” (Excerpt From: Aaron Copland. “What to Listen For in Music.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/what-to-listen-for-in-music/id414422842?mt=11)
• Leôs Janáček -- Sinfonietta (1926) -- Click SHOW MORE to navigate the movements. In both of these recommended pieces, see if you can discern sectional forms within movements. The moderato movement is a good one to try.
Also note very different orchestral voices or colors of these two roughly contemporary composers.
• The Beatles -- Medley of eight songs on side 2 of the album Abbey Road, might be considered a single piece in sectional form. (No link to this music, because it is hard to find authentic Beatles recordings on YouTube.) The medley includes the songs or fragments You Never Give Me Your Money, Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight (which bring back elements of the first song), and The End. Listen to them, thinking of them as a single composition. In particular, notice the different kinds of links between them, which become tighter as the medley proceeds. AFTER you listen carefully and think about these matters for yourself, read THE BEATLES ABBEY ROAD MEDLEY DISSECTED, for one person's take on the medley.
• Dave Brubeck Quartet -- Blue Ronda a la Turk
Question: Is this a rondo? (See page 110 ff.)
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