cmp analysis/outline by shawn muench · 2019. 1. 8. · puszta four gipsy dances by jan van der...

CMP Analysis/Outlineby

Shawn MuenchImage Credit: https://www.janvanderroost.com/en/work/11/puszta-concert-band-1988

Puszta Four Gipsy Dances by Jan Van Der Roost CMP Outline and Analysis De Haske Publications Shawn Muench

Broad Description• Puszta is a suite of four movements meant to evoke the lifestyle of Hungarian

Gypsies who corralled wild horses on the puszta.***• The piece uses folk-like melodies but are originally composed.• Premiered in 1987.

***(Be aware of connotations related to the term Gypsy—stereotyped ideas of nomadism and exoticism. In some cases the term is used pejoratively.)

Composer BiographyJan Van der Roost was born in 1956 in Duffel, Belgium. His primary pursuits are composition, conducting, and music education. In the past he studied music education, music history, and trombone at the Lemmenssinstituut. Later he studied at the Royal Music Conservatories of Antwerp and Ghent and began to focus on conducting and composition.

Today Van der Roost is Professor of Counterpoint and Fugue at the Lemmensinstituut in Belgium and conductor of the Symphonic Band. Van der Roost is well known internationally for his pieces written in a variety of genres and for adjudication, presence as a clinician, and guest conducting.

Background Information

Van der Roost has several other pieces that are similar in content and style to Puszta. Rikudim (four Israeli dances), Balkanya (three Balkanese dances) and A Highland Rhapsody (Scottish rhapsody) are meant to evoke a geography or group of people with folk-like settings. All of these pieces use originally written themes despite any similarity to folk music.

“Puszta” means a bare grassy plain. In eastern Hungary, the Great Hungarian Plain is an arid space that was used for raising cattle. Because the land was widely cultivated, there is now only a few places that the biome survives. The piece refers to Romani people who are itinerant and travel on the Eurasian Steppe. These pastoral nomads move about the steppe to different pastures availing resources and managing the recovery of land. Stylistically, the piece is meant to be a series of dance movements, which informs the interpretation of the piece. Accompaniment might have a tendency to be heavy, but it needs to be kept light and articulation needs to match. The feel should always be kept buoyant in keeping with the style. In addition, the piece often transitions with abrupt tempo changes. Outside of that the rhythmic structures are predictable but require good subdivision to accurately place them on entrances and on offbeat placements.

Heart Statement: Authentic folk rhythm, rich orchestration, and ubiquitous handling of melodic, rhythmic, and phrasal contrast give Puszta an exciting and catchy quality.

***Next I will explain and give examples of each element in my heart statement term by term:***


Folk Rhythm: Van Der Roost uses accelerando, emphasis on the and of beat one, pickups that begin on the and of beat one, and a walking bass line + “boom chuck” accompaniment as important elements in Mvt. I.

See this video for an excellent example of how a Hungarian Folk Tune uses these elements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfQ-aggblkE



Rich Orchestration: Puszta uses orchestrally influenced voicing- the trombones are split into three parts often (see example below: B5 in Mvt. III) and involve a rich variety of inversions. Rather than a “section sound” approach, colors are combined from various instrumentation choices and varied.

Melodic, Rhythmic, and Phrasal Contrast:


Puszta is Exciting and Catchy:

-The melodies are invented, but are singable, in a folk style, and feature excellent attention to counterpoint (Van Der Roost teaches counterpoint). When leaps are used, they are appropriately “filled in” afterward (because the ear clings to notes leapt from) and melodies show a directive toward goal tones. Long term voice leading in high and low voices demonstrate an architecture. For example, see E17 in Mvt. I:

-Van Der Roost uses contrasting melodic contour to create excitement. A melodicexpectation is set up and then abruptly leaps upward or uses angular material instead. SeeLetter A in Mvt. III for this:

And the “composite” (parts combined) melody at B9 Mvt. III:

Also notice how this excerpt transitions from a stepwise ascension to a leap oriented descent.

Puszta Four Gipsy Dances by Jan Van Der Roost CMP Outline and Analysis De Haske Publications Shawn Muench -Letter A in Mvt. I features the use of melodic minor scales (A8-A9 flutes):

and tonicizing various key areas in low voices for a rapid shifting feeling (A-B Mvt. I):


Skill, Knowledge, and Affective Outcomes: (Followed by strategies and related tips for teaching these outcomes):

Skill Outcome: Students will construct a visual analysis of rhythmic, melodic, and phrasal contrast in Puszta.

WMAS: F.12.16 Analyze and describe uses of the elements of music in a given work that make it unique, interesting, and expressive.

The ultimate goal of this outcome is that students will be able to take an excerpt of music and add markups that explain contrasts on a small and broad level. (See page four for examples of contrast markups).

This requires an understanding of each element (rhythm, melody, and phrase/motive) AND how some crossover between these occurs as well as happening on small to broad levels. -Rhythms can change bar-bar

-Some rhythms repeat but have new notes on them (bar 1 and 3 above)

-Rhythms between phrases can be identical (lines 1 and 2 above)

-Rhythms provide energy or “rest”

-(the end of lines 1 and 2 are energetic)

-“Resty” rhythms (held notes) often delineate phrases (melodic resting points)

-(the end of line 4 is more “resty” than the end of line three)

-Melodic intervals can be stepwise or leaping

-Leaps can be angular (line 3 versus the other lines)

-The rate of rise and fall can contrast (bars 1-3)

-Sequencing between lines can add energy

-Motives can be rhythmically the same, melodically the same, or both

-Phrases can end away from home or back at home.

Strategies to Reach This Outcome: - Students will listen to a musical excerpt and raise their hand when they hear new

phrases begin.- Use an excerpt from Puszta to point out how rhythms often repeat.

o Ask students to notate rhythms they see in an excerpt.- Students will identify rhythmic motives in Mvt. II of Puszta. (See page 4 for a

handout to be used in explaining phrase and motive.)o Ask students how two rhythmic motives have differing notes.


- Students will discuss whether they believe the phrases are four bars or two barslong. (Four bars because bar four has two quarter notes).

o Based on this discussion, explain how rhythm is what can control phraselength.

o Also explain how a melody can wander away from home and then returnlater (example is shown on handout).

- Students will compose call and response melodies. Tie in to how melodies use stepsand leaps and how sometimes they end away from the home note.Use this style of handout:

-Explain how they can write any scaledegree on each blank to generate amelody. Put student examples on theboard in the format below and have themtry melodies. (They need practice onplaying random scale degrees in priorwarmups!)

-Students will identify steps and leaps in excerpts of music.

-Students will identify high, middle, and low notes in a scale and musical excerpt.

-Students will draw contour lines that represent Mvt. III in Puszta.

-Students will hear a “think aloud” from the instructor about contrasts happening in Mvt. I. (Using handout from page 4-- excerpt of Mvt. I letter A).

o After this, students answer the following questions with their peers to zero in on contrast:

-Describe two cases where contrast is used to generate interest (ie. Make it sound COOLand different.) What specifically is changed in the examples?


-Why are bars four and eight especially energetic?

-Based on the handout, what is an example of small scale contrast and broad contrast?

-What is the longest note of the excerpt? Why is it in that location?

-Explain how line one and three use the direction of leaps and steps to create contrastdespite how the rhythms are exactly the same.

Etc.

o Another “think aloud” or questioning the students should demonstrate howsome contrasts happen on a small scale and some on a large. A commonstudent misconception is that small scale means one or two elements andbroad means many all at once (a good insight!). Show them that contrast canhappen between bars and between phrases/sections/movements.

Knowledge: Students will identify authentic folk rhythms used in Puszta.

Some accessory topics:

-Folk music has different purposes than concert music.

-Audience is different and behaves differently.

-Performers use what sorts of instruments?

-Number of performers?

***This addresses Wisconsin music standards concerned with audience and purpose of music. For example: "WMAS H.12.14: Explain how the roles of creators, performers, and others involved in the production and presentation of the arts are similar to and different from one another."

-Puszta uses authentic rhythms but made up melodies. What makes a melody sound like a folk melody?

Strategies to Reach This Outcome:

-Students will clap and play melody, bass line, and “boom chuck” combo from Mvt. I Letter A. (See handout on page five for an example of what a student may read).

Use a video for these strategies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfQ-aggblkE

-Students will view a violin/guitar duo and identify who plays melody and accompaniment.

-Students will use an annotated score (page 2) to identify the following elements alsopresent in the YouTube video:

-Accelerando, “boom chuck” pattern, walking bass line, 1 and syncopation, andaccented pickups beginning on the and of beat 1.



Affective Outcome: Students will explain how Puszta generates excitement through contrasting rhythm, melody, and phrase.

WMAS: G.12.3 Evaluate a given musical work in terms of its aesthetic qualities and explain the musical means used to evoke feelings and emotions.

Strategies to Reach This Outcome:

-Students have a dialogue about what kind of mood they are in today.

-Students listen to Mvt. I of Puszta and discuss their reactions to the music.

-In particular- What kind of mood is conveyed? Is it dreary? What is it?

Sample Tasks/Prompts:

-After learning about contrast from the skill outcome, students write a statementexplaining an instance of how a pattern is set up in music and then changed suddenly togenerate excitement.


Additional Material: Chords and Inversions: Puszta can be used to teach students how chords and inversions function in music.

-Scaffolding to be completed before this:

- Students should play a scale while thinking about scale degrees.

-Students should play scale degrees cued by fingers held up.

-Students should build a triad on the first scale degree and move upward.

-Students should build a triad and move between I, IV, and V chords.

-Visuals are helpful for this.

-Students should learn that chords have shared tones.

-One half of the room can hold a chord and the other can play the scale while listening totension and release based on tones that fit in the chord and those that don’t.

-Do the above in minor as well, teaching how to use a raised 6th and 7th scale degree to pullto the top.

-Chords in minor are also influenced by these scale degree changes. Try them.

***Emphasize this take away: MUSIC COMES FROM A SCALE. Moods and emotions in music come from tension/release between chords and melody. Accidentals give you SPECIAL SOUNDS. We learn scales because if you aren’t seeing accidentals, you are PLAYING NOTES IN THE SCALE—it makes reading easier.***


Handout for Students:


Sample Lesson Plan:


BONUS:

This handout uses information from Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The diagram in the lower right similar to his Flow channel graphic as well as the Zone of Proximal Development graphic in educational theory. The lower left is inspired by the Spiral Curriculum theory promoted by Jerome Bruner. Furthermore the lower left is inspired by blogger James Clear and his insistence on performing the fundamentals accurately at all times. This handout is meant to show students how an engrossing activity that requires effort can meet their need for fun (ie. Glasser's needs) just as well (if not better!) than passive entertainment.

cmp analysis/outline by shawn muench · 2019. 1. 8. · puszta four gipsy dances by jan van der...

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