Title I - Sonata Piano et Forte by Gabrieli was written at a time when Venice was at the forefront of artistic innovation. How is this innovation shown in Gabrieli's music? <
Title II - The music from Thy Hand, Belinda by Henry Purcell was written to describe Dido's descent into suicide. How has Purcell illustrated Dido's state of mind in this work? <
Title III - The opening of the Hunt by Jerry Goldsmith describes a chase between humans and what is believed to be aliens in the 1968 film 'Planet of the Apes'. Identify features of the piece that show this.
Title I
Sonata Piano et Forte was written during the transition from renaissance music into early baroque music, putting Gabrieli at the spear tip of the development into the new period in terms of the innovation visible in this piece. This can be seen with his use of hints of diatonic scales with the piece appearing to be in G minor at the beginning. however the music here is actually in the dorian mode. Traces of the myxolydian mode occur at bars 26-32. Harmony is functional with use of mostly root chords, such as the many in bar 47 to 52, and some first inversion chords. Occasional second inversion chords appear such as at the end of bar 53. The only dissonance is with suspensions so overall the piece demonstrates functional harmony, showing the piece is being written innovatively. The venue of the piece was Saint Mark's cathedral and Gabrieli cleverly employs its acoustic properties by writing this piece as a broken choir. When the second choir begins to play at bar 14 the sound of the first choir will resonate and harmonise with the second. Gabrieli also employs dynamics, though limited, which demonstrate his innovation in terms of composition. This was a relatively new feature of music and can be seen when the music changes form pian to forte in bars 25-26 respectively. Gabrieli challenges the normal standard of polyphonic music around this time by writing a Sonata, or together, which is shown by his use of homophony at bars 47-48. Homorhythmic writing briefly at bar 45 to further demonstrate this change from strictly polyrhythmic writing.
In terms of historical context, Venice was powerful in trade and the ruler or Doge was renowned across Europe and beyond. This piece was written for him and its innovation reflects Venice's power to hire artists at the forefront of innovation which Venice certainly was the centre for.
Title II
The music from Thy Hand, Belinda by Purcell is written to describe Dido's descent into suicide and her state of mind is reflected in his writing. Evidence of this can be seen in the vocal melody in the recitative which falls from a C at the beginning to a lower D by the end of this section showing a descent, like her state of mind. The harmony in this passage is often switching between minor and major such as the major 7th in bar one to the minor 7th in the next bar. This along with movement from A natural to A flat in bar 2, followed by A natural again in bar 3 beat 1, clearly describes Dido contemplating death as she argues with herself. Odd suspensions such as the minor 9th to 8 and major 7th double suspension to 6 sound dissonance as if she were confused. Again the lines between major and minor are blurred with a minor 7th to E major third in bar 6 and 7 respectively. This passage is ended with a mysterious Phrygian cadence at bar 8-9 describing her unsure mental state.
In the Aria her depression is much clearer with a five bar chromatic ground bass which descends. An unprepared dominant 7th caused by violin II reflects her sorrow in bar 7 followed with an F sharp in the vocals against a IV second inversion chord in bar 8. Double dissonance occurs at bar 13 with the second beat of this bar containing a half diminished chord. The final chord at bar 56 contains no thirds creating tonal ambiguity ending the piece with mystery.
