Assignment One - Analyzing Musical Elements-2
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Exploring Music Online | Assignment One
1
Name: Bryce Pew
Copy/paste the link to the piece you posted about in your introduction. Include the name of the artist and title of the piece in case the link breaks.
https://youtu.be/VqhCQZaH4Vs
Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
Conduct a full musical analysis of this piece to demonstrate what you learned in this lesson by answering the questions below as they relate to your chosen musical work. If you aren't certain about a musical element, please take a guess and explain your answer. For example, if you think the texture is homophonic, explain which instruments you think are playing the melody and which are playing the harmony.
1.
Consider the balance between predictability and variability
in your chosen piece. How does the
composer handle these elements? Give an example.
The predictability in this piece is obviously there as Armstrong is very repetitive with a lot of his lyrics such as “What a wonderful world”, but the verses in-between is a nice change up in between this song. There is not much variability in the song because Armstrong is using his smooth, slow tone to come back to his main point that the world is wonderful and beautiful to him.
2.
What instruments are used in your chosen musical work, and to what instrument family
do they belong?
Violin – Strings
Drum – Percussion
Flute – Woodwind
Double bass – Strings
Trumpet – Brass
Harpsi chord – Strings
3.
Which musical layer is the melody
? Is it a singer or an instrument? Do any other instruments or singers sometimes sound like they take over or share the melody at any point? If so, where? Provide time markers. The musical melody of the song is the singer Louis Armstrong, and it is every time he says “What a wonderful world”.
4.
Which layers are playing harmony
or "background" music?
Exploring Music Online | Assignment One
2
The harmony in the background in the song in my opinion is mainly the piano and the trumpet as they
are the two main instruments you can hear, and they provide a nice subtle rhythm behind Armstrong’s voice.
5.
Based on your answers to numbers 3 and 4, what do you think the musical texture
is, and why (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, heterophonic)? Does it change? If so, where? Provide a
time marker.
I think the musical texture in this song is homophonic because there is only one melody within the song as well as the subtle harmony in the background. I do not believe that this texture changes within the song.
6.
Listen for the steady beat pattern in your piece to determine the meter.
Clap and count along with the beat. Do you think it is in quadruple or triple meter (or something else), and why do you think that? I believe this song has a quadruple meter because it sounds like there are 4 pulses in each measure of the song and it does not change once throughout the entire piece.
7.
How would you describe the overall dynamic level
of the piece? Is it piano
(soft), mezzo-piano
(medium-soft), mezzo-forte
(medium-loud) or forte
(loud)? Are there any crescendos or decrescendos? Use time markers to indicate where these occur.
This song has an overall dynamic level of a piano as both the instruments and Louis Armstrong seem to be very soft and smoothing throughout the whole entire piece without any crescendos or decrescendos.
8.
Use three adjectives to describe the timbre
of the main singer's voice. Is it scratchy? Smooth? Mellow? Husky? Full? Deep? Hollow? Shrill? etc. If there is no singer, describe the timbre of this
main melody instrument. The timbre of Armstrong’s voice is 100% smooth, mellow, and soft. He is very slow throughout the song and very rarely raises his voice, only to hit a note that he feels needs to be hit louder than others. For the most part, his voice is very smooth and soft.
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