Sonority In Gerald Finzi's Wartime

Improved Essays
In the first movement of his Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra Op. 31, Gerald Finzi utilizes downward bass motion, disagreeing key areas, and ambiguous cadences for the purpose of establishing a sense of wandering and despair.
Much like other well-known British composers of mid-twentieth century, Gerald Finzi’s music takes advantage of dissonant and dense orchestration, as well as reflections upon political turmoil and personal ailment of the period. During World War II, Finzi became more prolific than ever. During the latter half of the war, he took in German and Czech refuges. As seen in letter between Finzi and composer Howard Ferguson, the refuges stories of wartime dismay influenced much of his compositional style during the
…show more content…
In this example, the bass motion suggests a firm dominant tonic relationship resolving to G-sharp in measures 74 and 75. However, the scale that is shaped in the upper strings outlines B major. When placed below the stagnant trill on Bb in the clarinet, the suggestions of B major create the clashing half step dissonance theme observed earlier. Another issue that displays ambiguity with this cadence, is the V sonority is incomplete and missing an implied third. Rather than having the F double-sharp stressed in measure 74, a G-sharp is stressed instead. The end result is a five note tone cluster with B and B-flat being the center. Based off of the tension that is executed by the clarinet trill and the run in the upper strings, one can consider the B and B-flat is be encased within the texture, ultimately wanting to break out. Rather than falling onto either of these tonal centers, the harmony falls onto the G-sharp that is expected by the bass. If one considers the movement in building up to this climax in measure 73, they could consider the G-sharp minor harmony to be presented in second inversion, particularly with the triad being arpeggiated in the middle string voices. This motion undoubtedly suggests a cadential V64-53 movement going into measure 74. With this harmonic assertion in combination with the bass motion, no matter what lies above the D-sharp bass in measure 74, it is difficult to categorize in as anything other than a dominant. The complications that build above the bass act as a device for establishing a sense of forced

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    MUH 171 9:30 AM Eastern Kentucky University Department of Music MUH 171 Music Appreciation FA 2016 CRN 11061 SYLLABUS Tue/Thu 9:30 AM Foster 100 (3 Credit Hours) Prof. James Willett james.willett@eku.edu Foster 306 phone 622-1345 A. Catalog Description: MUH 171 Music Appreciation (3). I, II. May not count toward a major or minor in music. Provides the general college student with a cultural background in music.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The flutes play the melody in m. 48, which is an echo of what the violins previously played, and involves the same lower neighbor and turning motifs. However, the melody turns higher than the first phrase, reaching up to F#6 before descending stepwise. The horns and clarinet in A join in at m. 50 with an ascending third and descending whole steps. The violins once again have the melody at a higher register in m. 52, starting on E6, as if about to start a third phrase. Then, in m. 53, the second violin imitates the beginning of the phrase at G5.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war novel expressing the views of an average World War I soldier named Paul. Erich Maria Remarque uses an assortment of voice elements to create tone. In the passage on the preceding page, Paul describes his surroundings on the front. The tone of the excerpt is presented to be emotionless and overwhelming.…

    • 557 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War II Song Analysis

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages

    America’s intentions were to stay far away from the battle grounds of World War II. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was left with no choice but to join the war. Over two million men were deployed oversees to aid the allies; leaving their family and friends behind. At home, America struggled with missing their loved ones and wanting to help in any way possible. Americans occupied themselves during WWII with work, baseball, movies, and music.…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nt1310 Unit 1 Review

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Good luck out there. Should you need to vomit, please do so away from the piano,” quipped the competition organizer. Out of all the days I could have woken up feverish and dizzy, it just had to be March 27, 2011, the day of the piano competition. Playing the piano for an unwelcoming panel of stone-faced adjudicators when everything I saw seemed to spin round-and-round was the last thing I wanted to do.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Paige Sherlock English 2 First Analytical Essay Topic 3 Changing a Global Perspective All Quiet on the Western Front, an international bestseller, was named the greatest war novel of all time for a multitude of reasons. These reasons do not include his ability to tell an enticing story or describe key points in great detail, but because it changed the perspective of millions of people all over the world and their concept of war. In Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, he shattered the idea of war everyday citizens had by telling the story of a platoons journey in gruesome detail and unveiling the truth about the horrors of war.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “All Quiet on the Western Front” In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Eric Maria Remarque depicts the psychological changes undergone by the soldiers during World War I. Paul is the protagonist of this novel, and it seems that the harshness of war changed his perspective of life drastically. The exposure of Paul and his friends to all the horrifying pictures of death and brutalities during war ultimately led to the loss of their innocence. With the loss of their innocence came the painful reality of how destructive a war can be. The war has completely overthrown their emotions and when one of their comrades died a small fragment of their person faded away too.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Written by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front tells the cold truth about being a soldier in World War I. This book was originally published in 1929 by Propyläen Verlag, and it was one of the first war books that did not portray war as glory-filled, but as it truly was, grim, bleak, and bloody. Throughout the book, it is clear how big of an impact the war has on the soldiers, it changes the way the soldiers view human life, how the war makes it very difficult for them to return to a normal life, and lastly, how it forms strong bonds and friendships. This story truly exemplifies, how the war transforms many of the soldiers, for better or for worse.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his emotive lieder In der Frühe, Hugo Wolf utilizes key center discrepancies between piano accompaniment and the vocal line, lack of clear cadential motion, and quick-tempered movements through various tonal centers for the purpose of demonstrating the emotional complexity of a lost man struggling to find purposefulness in his daily life. Throughout his lieder, Wolf declares a key clearly with the left hand of the piano outlining the tonic triad; however, as soon as the vocal line enters, the melodic line heavily centers the dominant of the key. This is displayed as early as the first measure. Here we see the piano introduce the piece in d minor with a D pedal bass that sustains through until the first shift to a new key center.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compare and contrast Erich Remarque and Tim O’Brien wrote several stories about war during their lifetimes. Both Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, and O’Brien, author of In the Field, write from the perspectives of a veteran that fought in a war. In All Quiet on the Western Front and In the Field, common themes of the horrors of war, the lost generation, and symbolism are presented by Remarque and O’Brien with ease. In both, the stories the authors utilize the horrors of war.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Crisp brass backgrounds punctuate the second statement of the melody at measure 35. At measure 51, the harmonized trombones and bari sax begin a smooth-flowing bridge. When the trumpets take over the melody at measure 59, the bridge should build in volume and excitement to a peak at measure 65. After the bridge, the saxophones pick up the melody again…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At 6:00 the quartet sounds different because it has begun to sound flat, in a minor but…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War II was a time full of anger, sorrow, and pain for many between the years of 1939 and 1945. This war not only affected the European countries where the war was staged, but similarly many of the countries throughout the world. From the soldiers, doctors, and nurses on the front line to the Jewish communities who were carried to their death, the Second World War affected everyone. The role of music in this war, however, played a vital role.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Theme Of World War 1

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Pages

    When World War One or the “Great War” started on July 1914 and it started a new era of music all over the world. The war took a terrible toll on classical music and composers with the consequences of being drafted were drastic leaving them permanently scarred or even dead. The composers that died during battle were unable to finish to their pieces, Although some musical piece were lost others were created. Composers started writing songs about the war, many of the music had common themes. The main themes that composers wrote about were, to boost morale, mourn the losses of fellow soldiers, generate homefront support, tell about the horrors of war, and to give people hope.…

    • 181 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Elvira Madigan

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    OBSERVE MUSIC Concerto No. 21 in C major for Piano and Orchestra, K.467, second movement is also known as “Elvira Madigan“; named from a Swedish film and was used at length on that sound track. The graceful, slow movement would sooth any beast with its rhythmic resonance and graceful rhythm. This classical piece still entices a longing to close the eyes and listen to the swaying beats as the mind wonders through the ebb and tide of this musical dynamic. Movement no.2 starts with many instruments playing in unison as a background of cellos and bass drone a pattern.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays