Download MUSIC LITERACY FACT SHEET

MUSIC LITERACY FACT SHEET
TITLE
1. “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------STYLE PERIOD/GENRE 1. Contemporary
2. Choral Music
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COMPOSER/ARRANGER/EDITOR 1. Williametta Spenser
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------COMPOSER INFO 1. Williametta Spenser (b. 1932) born in from Ann Arbor
Michigan, moved to California to earn her B.A. degree with a major in piano and
composition from Whittier College. She then attended the University of Southern
California earning a Masters of Music degree. A Fullbright Scholarship took her to
study composition in Paris, France. She then earned her Ph.D at the University of
Southern California.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TEXT 1. John Donne (1572-1631) 2. Holy Sonnets VII 3. John Donne was an English
poet, satirist, lawyer and priest. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical
poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious
poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its
vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries.
Donne's style is characterised by abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations.
These features, along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax and his
tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of conventional Elizabethan poetry and
an adaptation into English of European baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was
marked by poetry that bore immense knowledge of British society and he met that knowledge with
sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donne’s poetry is the idea of true religion, something that
he spent much time considering and theorising about. He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love
poems. He is particularly famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits.
In Sonnet VII, Donne tells the heavenly angels to fire up Judgment Day. Like the conductor of a
symphony, he commands them to blow their trumpets in all parts of the world. The trumpets will
awaken the souls of all dead people. The souls will be reunited with their bodies, like it says in the
Bible.
Naturally, the collection of all deceased people in the world is going to include both good and
bad folks. According to the Christian tradition, on Judgment Day, the good will be separated from the
bad, which explains why the speaker wants everyone to wake up.
Then he tells God, essentially,
"Wait, I didn't mean I wanted Judgment Day now. We've got to let those dead people sleep for a bit."
Also, the speaker wants time to mourn for the dead and for his own sins. He worries that if he hasn't
repented enough for his sins, he had better do his repenting on earth, before it's too late.
He asks
God to teach him how to repent so he can be in the good category on Judgment Day. If God would only
teach him repentance, the effect would be the same as if God had signed a pardon with his own blood.
But here's the twist: according to Christian beliefs, God already signed this pardon (metaphorically
speaking) when he sent Jesus to earth to shed his blood for humanity's sins.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SOUND 1. SATB divisi 2. a cappella 3. Homophonic (except at measure 9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------HARMONY 1. Mixolydian mode on Aminor or DMajor tonality. 2. Final cadence in
DM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MELODY
1. Always found in the highest voice part. 2. Non-repetitive. 3.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RHYTHM
1. Formed based on the text. 2. Mixed meter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------GROWTH/FORM 1. Through composed
2. 4 main sections
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME SIGNATURE
1. 6/8, 4/8, 5/8, 9/8, 8/8
2. Mixed meter (to
accommodate the poetry
3. The eighth note remains constant
4. Compound
vs. simple meter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KEY SIGNATURE 1. Mixolydian mode on Aminor or DMajor tonality. 2. Final
cadence in DM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------IMPORTANT TERMS/SYMBOLS/SIGNS
Mixolydian mode = The seventh ecclesiastical mode. A mode consisting of a rising
sequence of intervals W-W-1/2-W-W-1/2-W, (W=whole-step, 1/2+=half-step).
In Greek theory, the Mixolydian is the Hypolydian mode inverted: a descending scale of a
whole tone followed by two inverted Lydian tetrachords (each being two whole tones followed
by a semitone descending). This is the equivalent of playing all the 'white notes' of a piano
from B to B, or B C D (E) | E F G A | B. This happens to be theoretically the same as the
Hyperdorian mode, but Mixolydian seems to have been the preferred name. It also seems
that this Mixolydian mode was little used by the ancient Greeks, and that it was deemed
unfit for any kind of music.
agues - “All whom warre, dearth, agues, tyrannies…) - the fevers associated with malaria,
chills, fever, sweating
crescendo (cresc.) - (English, from the Italian, literally ‘growing’) growing increasingly loud
fermata - (Italian f.) a musical symbol placed over a note or rest to be extended beyond its
normal duration, and occasionally printed above rests or barlines, indicating a pause of
indefinite duration
fortissimo (ff) - (Italian) very loud. Louder than forte but not as loud as fortississimo,
abbreviated ff
mezzo-forte (mf) - (Italian) or mezzoforte (Italian), moderately louder, between forte and
piano (loud and soft) with mezzo forte being a little louder than mezzo piano
mezzo-piano (mp) - (Italian) or mezzopiano (Italian), moderately soft, between forte
(Italian: loud) and piano (Italian: soft) with mezzo piano being a little quieter than mezzo
forte
mixed meter - while time signatures usually express a regular pattern of beat stresses
continuing through a piece (or at least a section), sometimes composers place a different time
signature at the beginning of each bar, resulting in music with an extremely irregular
rhythmic feel
molto - (Italian) much, very
pianissimo (pp) - very soft, very quiet
piano (p) - (Italian) soft, quiet
rallendando (rall.) - (Italian) slowed, slower, verlangsamt, ralenti (often with the sound
becoming gradually softer)
ritardando (rit.) - (Italian) retarding, to hold back, holding back, held back (gradual change
of tempo), gradually delaying the tempo
subito (sub.) - (Italian) quick, sudden, immediately, suddenly, without pause, at onc
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NOTEWORTHY