On Wenlock Edge

On Wenlock Edge

Shropshire is where wenlock edge

the poet “A.E housmen” wrote a series of poems called “A shropshire Lad”

trying to make the connection of humans vs nature?

man agaisnt time

the poem tells a story about a blustering gale blowing on wenlock edge,we can hear the dangerous weather in the opening bars

lots of word painting(heaving hill in music)

the words hurt him put in high agitated pitches

its a synthesis(its basically like fusion but dont say fusion)

syntethis of english german,folk

harmony avoiding a key(put this in harmony)

harmony here is actually modal wwhich is based on pentanoic

instrumentation(sonority)

cello playing quite high and using tenor cleff

unusual instrumentation(piano quintet with a voice(piano quintet alone is NOT unusual))

there are similarities with the ravel string quartet

creating an atmosphere

creates a unique sonority which really captures the storm

instrumental techniques (tremolo-creates wind, aggressive, instablity,trills(not melodic writing by effects writing),

piano ostinato. Unrelenting continuous semiquavers

burst, flurries

rapid hemidemisemiquavers - purely painting no melodic harmonic function

bar 54 it says colla voce -(the piano follows the voice)

the cello is in a high tesitura -(sense of heigh elevation) - not grounded

triple stopping (extended technique)- used as a percussive rather than melodic -gives emphasis on the words

theres pizzicato + arco

sol Ponti cello ( playing up the bridge of the cello)

words syllabic

lots of word painting, bar 49 “life blew high” octave leap “high”

structure

strophic, follows stanzas of the poem(strophic very common in folk music) could d be seen as

• intro bars 1-6

• verse 6-16

• Interlude 16-21 - based on melodic material from intro

• verse 2: 21-31

• interlude bar 31-33

• verse 3 34-44

• verse 4 bar 45-55

• Interlude 55-58

• Verse 5 58-68

• closing section 69 to end

verse 1s and 2 are similar

verses 3 and 4 are similar

5 are hybrid

tonality

modal, pentatonic, creates ambiguity and instability

veers towards a g minor, has a g minor feel but its modal

even when there are g chords theres no 3rds(no major or minor feel) - tudor music

lack of a third gives it tudor music

• first chord Ebmajor 1stinversion gives us the impression that we are not in G
  • is it dorian?
  • is it Aelinian?

its quite cinemtaic,evokes an image

ab first inversion

• paralle intervals(makes him avoid tonality?,no indication whever its G minor or what tonality)

not rooted in tonality

piano triplet plays whole tone scale in piano

right hand of the piano is playing sextuplets only 5 notes(G A C D F) (pentatonic avoididng major minortonality) that plays throughout

avoiding major minor tonality

bar 11 bitonalaty,LH Ab,Bb and C. RH G A C D F- creates disconance on “gale”

becomes more and more ambigous

gets increasingle chromatic

from 74-end we ends up with just D and G - could confirm that its g minor(thought not sure)

texture

melody dominated homophony

sometimes cello and left hand(piano) double the voice - “to reinforce the melody, gives weight to the melody”

pentatonic ostinato in piano creating continuous movement

layers of trills

violin interjections - flurios

piano start trilling(second verse) - storm is developing, constant movement

and then it becomes more sparse, verse 3 and 4 is texturally different - much more spare(alternates between voice ans strings)(less accompaniment)

in verse 5 theres lots of tremolo and in the end its very sparse

in general the functional is of the texture is to enhance the atmosphere

melody

vocal range is D - G(an octave above) - perfect 11th

comfortable range - not particularly virtuosic

lots of chromaticism which creates tension

in verse 3 bar 40 theres a rising sequence with chromaticism which heightens drama

first and second verse scalic(folk music) based on the pentatonic

there are some leaps of 4ths and 5ths

11-12 stays on the same note - persistent gale(wind)

dissonance and word paintinng “ashed under uricon” tritone

ends on an E natural.

verse 3 very monotonous (voice) its in a low tesitura and it could be reflecting the roman town

tempo rhythm and metre

4 4 - allegro moderato

theres a poco rit -bar 61

rythm of melody follows speech rythms

lots of triplets and dotted rythms - in acconpainment

sextuplets,hemidemisemiquavers

voice simple

lot of movement even though tempo is not fast

harmony

essentially consonant(opositive of dissonance)

avoids conventions of functional harmony

parralell harmony - impressionism

Ab -Cm/ab -Bb(first inversion)- (triplet) ( bar 1)

bar 3 false relation(Db - D)

bar 54 on the words “Now ‘tis’ F natural in the same as Fb(all you need to say there are false relations)

quarter harmony in bar 3

bitonality creats dissonance

lot of chromaticism apart from the endd where theres open 4ths very much in contrast with false relations and notty complex sus chords and bitonality and you end up with this simple mediavle hes really modern but ancient at the same time

dynamics

overall theres extreeme dynamics pp to ff

lots of crescendos and diminuendos which reflect the swelling and surging of the wind along with the tremlos

overalll things i wrote down later(find where to put it)

in bar 33 beat 3 theres a militaristic motif(like a battle call)

overall adjactives to describe : frenzied,flickers,flourishing,vivid,surgig,swaying tremlolo,surging arpeggios,stormy trills,to time to time there are distant flickers (like lightning)

wider listening “Sea Symphony” - Vaughan Williams’

“Morning “ from Peer gynt by Edvard Grieg