Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream explores all the elements of music. The piece begins with a rather slow tempo; long tones, but changes many times throughout. Mendelssohn chose to include these drastic changes in the tempo to introduce new themes and to tell a story through music. Contrary to the tempo, the metre stays the same. The piece is in cut time; two half notes per bar, which is also known as simple time. The beat increases and decreases during the piece to further enhance the story. He includes ritardando’s, accelerando’s and polyrhythm where he has separate rhythms occurring at the same time. Mendelssohn’s choices for the rhythm is very practical. There are many large dynamic changes in the song. The rage of dynamics is from pianissimo to fortissimo. He also included many accents to make the music more powerful. It was a good idea since this overture is introducing the story of A Midsummer Night’s dream. The melody in this …show more content…
Mendelssohn created a mysterious mood with unexpected chords at measure three, the subdominant triad is altered from major to minor. The chord progression it follows is one, four, minor fifth, and one. He creates dissonance with musical choices like these throughout the piece. Whenever the dissonant chords are played, they are always resolved. He also includes many smooth sounding harmonies in different sections of the piece. Mendelssohn used a tetrachord pattern to tie the contrasting themes of the Overture. There is a variety of timbres in this piece. The overture is meant for large orchestras with instruments that play in the treble clef such as the flute, to instruments such as the tuba that play in the bass clef and even viola’s that play in the alto clef. The instruments all have their unique sounds but blend very nicely in this movement. The contrast between the higher wind instrument and the strings and bass instruments produce nice
Messiaen had no choice on what instruments the piece was written for, ‘the group of instruments…to large to allow the piano to express itself freely, yet too small to obtain…variety of timbre,’ and his way around this was to obtain ‘maximum variety of which they are capable.’ By exploiting each instrument in so many different ways to create different timbres, the technical challenges faced by the performers are endless.
JF52opera. "Britten - A Midsummer Night's Dream (complete - ST Eng-fr-de-it-esp)." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, there are multiple analyses that one can follow in order to reach a conclusion about the overall meaning of the play. These conclusions are reached through analyzing the play’s setting, characterization, and tone. However, when one watches the production A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Michael Hoffman, a completely different approach is taken on these aspects, leading to a vastly different analysis of the work. Though there are many similarities between the original written play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and the on-screen production of the aforementioned play which was directed by Michael Hoffman, there are differences in setting and
When played on lower strings, on the contrary, stringed instruments have a darker, deeper, and sometimes richer tone. By playing the melody with a warm, lush tone, the tale of the prince falling in love embodies a traditional love story full of hope and dreams. The violin melody ends at 22:06 , while the new entrance of clarinet and supplemental bassoon pick up to progress the story, transitioning to the next theme as an interlude. Now, at 22:20 , the melody returns, this time with the cello and oboe. As the story progresses, effects like plucking and different harmonic color are added. The flute transitions as an interlude at 23:20, and the second violin brings the warm melody back, as the first violins copy the same motive as the clarinet and flute interlude. Once again, the melody is transferred back to the first violins, and, after repeating a motive three times at 24:20 , carries on to new thematic material. A new instrument is blended into the mix, percussion. This adds a new dimension of color. The tempo increases faster and brings a new exciting tale of love. The new thematic material is introduced with the clarinet, then played around with by flute, violins, and
In order to fully encapsulate Leonardo’s conquest of the almighty heavens it would only be fitting to have the text set to a full orchestra accompanied by a SATB choir. This is the only combination of instrumentation and vocals that will fully capture the piece’s dramatic story (save a Wagnarian music drama). A full orchestra is a glorious medium that can be used to accommodate the full range of emotions embodied in the poem because of the breadth of orchestral timbre. In parallel with the orchestra, a four-person choir is ideal for the lyrical expression of the poem due to the wide range of notes that can be sung by the soprano, the bass and everyone in between. The parts of the poem sung by the full choir would be done in an imitative polyphony texture utilizing malismas on the repeated line “Leonardo, Leonardo, viene á volare” to accentuate the fact that this line is a “siren-song” sung by “the very air itself.” However, the majority of the text would be sung by the tenor to give the piece a story telling quality, with the rest of the choir chiming in for the Italian parts. This will serve to emphasize the contrast between English and Italian that Sylvestri creates in his poem. It seems appropriate to have the orchestra and choir perform a through-composed setting with a change in music for each st...
In conclusion, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare effectively uses the motifs of the seasons, the moon, and dreams to show that love, irrationality, and disobedience directly cause chaos. By calling to mind the seasons in unnatural order, describing the moon behaving strangely, and discussing the dualistic, irrational nature of dreams, Shakespeare effectively evokes a sense of chaos and disorder. Linking each of these motifs to the themes of love, irrationality, and disobedience allows Shakespeare to illustrate the disarray that is bound to result from any romance.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is, in a way, Romeo and Juliet turned inside out--a tragedy turned farcical. The tragedy both are based on is the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe." In one, Ovid's story is treated as a melodrama (in Romeo and Juliet) and in another, it is fodder for comedy (in A Midsummer Night's Dream).
When one considers the history of classical music, often images of Vienna, Prague, and other European cities come to mind. Centuries of European musical achievement and development have implanted in society the idea that classical music is an inherently European creation. Considering the accomplishments of countless composers such as J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Antonin Dvorak, this preconception is certainly not unfounded. However, Leonard Bernstein's rise to international fame proved that one cannot neglect American composers in a discussion of the development of Western music. Combining elements of a vast array of musical styles, Bernstein's unique compositions reached a wide variety of audiences and often bridged gaps between distinct musical genres. Through his long conducting career, profoundly influential compositional output, and televised music lectures, Leonard Bernstein left a lasting legacy which came to define American music in the 20th century.
In the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare the contrast between both setting and character are well explained throughout the play. This play is mostly about four young Athenians whose lives become a total disaster because of the fairies in the forest, strange situations in the city of Athens, Greece and mixtures of love potions. The main setting of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is in Athens, Greece. In Athens, the Duke Theseus plans his marriage with Hippolyta. In contrast, the forest is where all the drama happens between all the characters. The four main characters of this play are Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander.
While reading and watching the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” we were comparing and contrasting some things we found different in both the play and the movie. First we read the play then we watched part of the movie. While watching the movie i saw that there were quite some differences.
There are two main rhythmic ideas that are present in this piece. The first is the regular rhythmic pulse in the pianos and mallet instruments
...also has expanded the size of the wind section of the orchestra with several more instruments. While Beethoven and Berlioz composed their symphonies as complete works Daugherty allows conductors to perform movements separately if they desire. This makes each movement more like a tone poem than a full symphony. It is easy to see though by the Dies Irae in the fifth movement and the storm like atmosphere of the fourth movement how Daugherty was influenced by these two composers who came over one hundred years before him.
Burke, Kenneth. “Why A Midsummer Night's Dream?”. Shakespeare Quarterly 57. 3 (2006): 297-308. Web. 25 Apr 2014.
Critics call Twelfth Night one of William Shakespeare’s most poetic and musical plays. Shakespeare writes poetic lines for the major characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, and gives the Fool, and other minor characters, songs to sing throughout the play. The particularly romantic lines of the play make it seem as if the characters are professional poets themselves. Shakespeare also uses the music and poetry in Twelfth Night to foreshadow what is going to happen for the rest of the performance and to reveal major themes in the play. Music and poetry become major characters in the play themselves.
William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly walking through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it.