The principles of unity and variety apply to all music, regardless of compositional style or…

The principles of unity and variety apply to all music, regardless of compositional style or historical period.

Now that you are familiar with the concepts in the first section of the course (Basic Musical Concepts), and you have seen how they work on different pieces of music, try your hand, mouse, and ears at how they operate in a music selection that you may not have heard yet.

To do this, I will ask you to look at the piece below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLTWP0BruQMA HA DE CARNAVAL

Your analysis should include:

• The number of different musical ideas in the piece (for example, can we say that there are two ideas A and B? Or is there only one?)
  • For major sections, are there any significant subdivisions?
• The timings (start and stop times) of the different sections of the piece. (Hint: Listen for changes in musical ideas and timbre, for example, points when different instruments come in or give way to others.)
• The question of unity is particularly important in this piece. There is a great variety of melody presented here, raising the question: what holds the piece together?
• How unity and variety are exemplified in those sections through the use of:
  • Dynamics
  • Timbre
  • Pitch
• Although there are sections that feature one instrument over others, whether you think this is a piece for a solo performer or for an ensemble.
• Is there any improvisation in this piece? Or is it entirely improvised? In either case, how can you tell? And how does this determination affect your identification of the style?
• A list of the characteristics of the musical style closest to the one this piece exemplifies. (Hint: Look at the last lecture in the first section of the course)
  • Define any characteristics that you list and, most importantly, identify specific instances of the use of these characteristics in the piece itself, including timings and details.
• Whether you think this piece serves (or could serve) a specific purpose.
• Whether or not it has any specific connotation(s) for you.