The Desert Music is a work of music for voices and orchestra composed by Steve Reich based on texts by William Carlos Williams. An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Stephen Michael Reich (born October 3 William Carlos Williams ( 17 September 1883 &ndash 4 March 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism It consists of five movements, and in both its tempi and arrangement of thematic material, the piece is in a characteristic arch form (ABCBA). 2266-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the Chemical compound with the formula (CH23(CMe22NO In Music, arch form is a sectional structure for a piece of music based on Repetition, in reverse order of all or most musical sections such
Contents |
Orchestration
The piece is scored for a chorus of 27 voices: nine sopranos, and six each of altos, tenors and basses. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. Alto is a musical term derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" that has several possible interpretations The tenor is the highest male voice within the Modal register, just above the Baritone voice It calls for a woodwind section comprising four flutes with three doubling on piccolo, four oboes with three doubling on cor anglais, four Bb clarinets with three doubling on Bb bass clarinet and four bassoons with one doubling on contrabassoon. Types of woodwind instruments See also List of woodwind instruments Single-reed instruments use a reed, which is a thin cut The flute is a Musical instrument of the Woodwind family Unlike other woodwind instruments a flute is a Reedless wind instrument that produces its The piccolo is a small Flute. Like the flute the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C one octave above the concert flute (making it effectively a sopranino "Hautbois" redirects here for the strawberry variety see Hautbois strawberry. The cor anglais, or English horn, is a Double reed Woodwind Musical instrument in the Oboe family The clarinet is a Musical instrument in the Woodwind family The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word The bass clarinet is a Musical instrument of the Clarinet family The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally The contrabassoon is a larger version of the Bassoon sounding an octave lower
The brass section comprises four horns, four trumpets with one doubling on optional piccolo trumpet, two trombones, a bass trombone, and one tuba. The smallest of the Trumpet family is the piccolo trumpet. The most common of these instruments are built to play in both B-flat and A with separate leadpipes for each key The trombone is a Musical instrument in the brass family Like all brass instruments it is a lip-reed Aerophone: sound is produced when the player’s There are many different types of trombones. The most frequently encountered trombones today are the tenor and bass though as with other Renaissance instruments such as the Recorder Mediatubaogg -->The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched Brass instrument. The percussion section is characteristically extensive, comprising two timpani, both doubling on rototoms, two marimbas, two vibraphones, two xylophones, two glockenspiels, maracas, sticks, a pair of bass drums, and a medium gong. Timpani (also known colloquially as kettledrums or kettle drums) are Musical instruments in the percussion family Rototoms are Drums which have no shell They consist of a single head in a die-cast zinc or aluminum frame In some parts of Africa the term "marimba" refers to the Kalimba. The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a Musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion family The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον - xylon, "wood" + φωνή - phone, "voice" meaning "wooden The glockenspiel ( German, "set of bells quot or "play-bells" also known as orchestra bells and in its portable Maraca is also a genus of Tarantula. Maracas ( sometimes called rumba A bass drum is a large Drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. This article is about the Internet Protocol Television channel
Two pianos, played by four musicians, comprise the keyboard section, and the strings, (12-12-9-9-6) are broken into three sections of (4-4-3-3-2) seated by their section with the first set of 16 players stage right, the next 16 center stage, and the last 16 stage left. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers
Form
I- Fast Tempo (quarter = 192 in 4/4 time) II- Moderate Tempo IIIA- Slow Tempo IIIB- Moderate Tempo IIIC- Slow Tempo IV- Moderate Tempo V- Fast Tempo
The tempi between two sections are related by a ratio of 3:2, introduced at the end of each section by either triplet or dotted rhythms, respectively. So, I and V have 192 bpm; II, IIIB, and IV have 128 bpm; IIIA and C have 85 bpm.
Sections I and V have the same harmonic structure, sections II and IV have both the same harmonic structure and the same words. Sections IIIA and IIIC have the same words.
Lyrics
I-fast: 7 minutes and 30 second
"Begin, my friend
for you cannot,
you may be sure,
take your song,
which drives all things out of mind,
with you to the other world. " (from Theocritus: Idyl I- A version from the Greek)
II- Moderate: 7 minutes
"Well, shall we
think or listen? Is there a sound addressed
not wholly to the ear?
We half close
our eyes. We do not
hear it through our eyes.
It is not
a flute note either, it is the relation
of a flute note
to a drum. I am wide
awake. The mind
is listening. " (from The Orchestra)
IIIA- Slow: 6 minutes
"Say to them:
Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant
to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize
them, he must either change or perish. " (from The Orchestra)
IIIB- Moderate: 6 minutes
"It is a principle of music
to repeat the theme. Repeat
and repeat again,
as the pace mounts. The
theme is difficult
but no more difficult
than the facts to be
resolved. " (from The Orchestra)
IIIC- Slow: 6 minutes
Same text as section IIIA
IV- Moderate: 3 minute 30 seconds
Same text as section II
V- Fast: 11 minutes
"Inseparable from the fire
its light
takes precedence over it.
who most shall advance the light-
call it what you may!"
(from Asphodel, The Greeny Flower)
All poems are by William Carlos Williams: Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems - copyright 1954, 1955, and 1962, the New Directions Publishing Corp.
Relation to other Reich pieces
The piece opens similarly to many other Reich's own works: a piano and/or mallet instrument pulsing on the beat, with another piano/marimba soon fading in on the offbeats (Music for 18 Musicians, Sextet, Three Movements for Orchestra). Also characteristic of several of Reich's pieces, such as New York Counterpoint, Electric Counterpoint, Sextet, Music for 18 Musicians, Three Movements for Orchestra, the exposition of the pulse is followed by pulsed notes in the choir and orchestra fading in and out over the course of a chord progression. Also, the first movement prominently features a repeated rhythm found in several of the aforementioned works:
Twice in Section IIIC, the strings begin playing a slightly modified section from Reich's New York Counterpoint.
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