Sleepy__Head

Well it's not like there isn't lots to choose from, although if you're after a free score you'll need to pick someone who's been dead long enough for their works to be public domain, so no Britten or Copland (although whether you think that's a shame depends on what you think of their music).

If you're after accessible might I suggest something by Sibelius?

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jazz_rock_feel

^Not that accessible. My idea was to do something that people wouldn't be too put off with, but would still offer something they hadn't heard before, and might have to analyze a bit differently than tonal music, hence Stravinsky or Bartok.

The big problem is scores, because unless I do something really early, there's not much to choose from that's free.

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An Afternoon with Stravinsky: Analysis and Observations of the Symphony of Psalms

I finally updated my SoundCloud with more recent pieces. Check it.

505088K

How about Bartok's String Quartets?

griffRG7321

I have a link to Bartoks Concerto for orchestra.

5th movement sucks tho.

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jazz_rock_feel

It's not access so much as passing around copyrighted material for download, which they frown upon here

A Bartok quartet might be possible, his first couple should be PD, too.

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An Afternoon with Stravinsky: Analysis and Observations of the Symphony of Psalms

I finally updated my SoundCloud with more recent pieces. Check it.

National_Anthem

So, prog rock (or metal for that matter) is incoherent and formless? Both genres (even at their worst) will follow a structure that results in something perceivable and comprehensible by a listener. Tbh, I would say that some prog rock is possibly more interesting from a formal point of view than some of the most mediocre composers of the Classical era.



I don't think anyone could find two musicologists that could agree on a definition for form. My analysis tutor set us the following question:
"Bach's Adagio from the G minor Sonata for solo violin, and his Prelude in E major from Book I of WTK have the same form. Or is it structure? What implications would either of these assertions have?"

Now, these two pieces follow more or less identical tonal progressions, and employ very similar contrapuntal manipulations to accomplish these. For the purposes of this essay, I decided to define form in a way which related more towards it's usage in Art, which relates much more directly to what we perceive, rather than what we interpret, or what we comprehend through knowledge. From this definition, it makes it almost meaningless to compare these two pieces, as they clearly will be perceived in very different ways.

I was slightly playing devil's advocate, and I realize that a large proportion of the musical world use form and structure interchangeably. This is really a question of semantics rather than any conceptual differences, but don't you prefer the idea that a form relates to an individual work (and incorporating all musical, and possibly extramusical aspects of it), whilst structure would refer to the order of events that takes place within a given musical style? These definitions relate far better to their real world definitions, IMO.

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Nietsche

I tend to glaze over everything Xiaoxi says with regards music outside the realms of classical and jazz ever since he claimed that Metallica were a precursor to death metal. But yeah I know you have a dismissive attitude towards prog X-man but even a cursory familiarity with the classic bands would tell you that it isn't just formless mush.

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Xiaoxi

Again, this is needless semantics. Like JRF and I talked about, the practical reason for my definition of form is so that I can separate and highlight the concept of flow.

And of course prog isn't formless. It's just that there is no consideration for development, making each section within the long form essentially a standalone, unrelated to each other. That's what I meant by incoherent form. You cannot map any given part to any other in a meaningful way.



lol I'm not sure if you know this but I used to be huge into metal and prog when I was in high school. I know what I'm talking about. Metallica is absolutely a precursor to death metal (thrash was the early stage of death metal). Again, it isn't that it's formless, for that is virtually impossible.

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

National_Anthem

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. To my mind, flow is a product of all of the combined elements of a piece of music, and is really no more than a subjective measure of how successful/interesting a piece is to listen to. I don't see how any definition of structure or form that I've come across really disturbs the ability to assess this. And I'm sort of with JRF on this one, I'm not sure how it is possible to separate form/structure from flow.

Just as an aside, have you read "Sonata Forms" by Charles Rosen?

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Xiaoxi

More semantics...

Look, I just tried to categorize it in a practical way that will bring it to the attention of most people regardless of what kind of music they have in mind. A lot of people may be wondering why their music drags on, or some parts are not working well with others, etc. I just verbalized those concerns and packed them into a tangible representation: flow, for the sake of simple and "visual" explanation. If you actually read the OP, you'll see that I established the working definition of flow for the purpose of this article. I'm not interested in arguing about higher abstractions such as what exactly is form, etc, because that does not really help anybody in practical, immediate terms.

And no I haven't read that.

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

National_Anthem

Sorry if it came across as just jumping on a couple of slightly tangential things that you'd said, it's just those are things that I've been thinking a lot about recently that came up in the discussion, and I haven't yet had a chance to read your analysis thoroughly (I missed the box where you explained your definition of flow).

I didn't mean the tone of my posts to sound quite as contrary as they probably came across.

Also, do you not think that a substantial portion of analysis in any field is necessarily tied up in semantics?

And you should definitely read it, I think you'd enjoy it.

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Xiaoxi

Well, if you read further, you'll see that JRF and I basically agreed regarding form/flow. And what you say isn't wrong either since you're essentially saying the same thing. But again, my concern here is mostly practical and in general terms so that people (ie not composition majors and advanced classical musicians) can understand. Those higher abstractions regarding form, etc can be for another thread if you really want to talk about it

With that in mind, I absolutely don't think this article and topic should be tied up in semantics. It is all about whatever gets the message across in the simplest and clearest way possible.

And I will check out the book (?).

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

supersac

just finished reading this
im bookmarkign this for reference

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a youtube link?
maybe you should click on it
http://www.youtube.com/user/supersac69


i sound like one...im secretly a huge dick

my bands soundcloud
http://soundcloud.com/thenativetongues

vIsIbleNoIsE

so, why do we get the shit we get on UG's front page and not this?

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Like melodic, black, death, symphonic, and/or avant-garde metal? Want to collaborate? Message me!

TheHydra

Have you read the comments on front page articles?

mulefish

This is great!

Any plans for any more of these in the future?

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Xiaoxi

Well uh....I'll get to the harmonic analysis eventually lol...

Caught up with another project right now.

Don't know if there will be more analysis like this for a bit...who knows

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

EmilGD

Finally got around to read all of this. Absolutely loving it, you point out so many important aspects to consider, I should be revisiting this regularly!

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