Analyze a Piece of Music

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.

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?)
• 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.)
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• How unity and variety are exemplified in those sections through the use of:
  1. Dynamics
  2. Timbre
  3. 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.
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• 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)
• Whether you think this piece serves (or could serve) a specific purpose.
• Whether or not it has any specific connotation(s) for you.

In the Assignment Materials section/Upload Assignment page, type your answer into the text box or upload your file. (Please check with your professor if you are unsure which method to use.) When you are ready, click Submit to send your answer to your instructor.

Have fun!

Important Hint

If you plan to type your answer directly into the text box, we highly recommend you use a word processing program. (PC users: You may use WordPad or NotePad. Mac users: You may use TextEdit.) Please make sure you save your work as you go along. When you are done, CUT and PASTE your answer into the empty box. That way, if for any reason you lose your internet connection in the middle of typing your answer, you won't lose all the work you have done up to that point.