Questions tagged [analysis]
For questions about studying the intricacies of a piece of music. Questions should also be tagged with a more specific form of analysis if applicable.
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Was Bernstein's interpretation of Mahler's 9th Symphony correct?
During his fifth Norton lecture at Harvard University, Leonard Bernstein famously speculated that Mahler's ninth symphony was symbolically prophesying his own death, the death of tonality (the advent ...
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Bach St. Matthew Passion section 33 key shift
In Bach's St. Matthew's Passion section 33, at measure 104, both the first and second chorus pause together all at once, and there is a key shift. But I don't know to what key the music is shifting to....
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How do I analyse these chords in this chorale?
I’m playing some chorales and I can’t figure out how to analyse these highlighted chords. I think these chords share the characteristics of having adjacent notes and I’m having trouble with that. The ...
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Anyone know what key this cadence from the SimCity 3000 theme is in? [closed]
I'm currently analyzing the SimCity 3000 theme (
). I've noticed that the chords for the intro (by figuring out the notes for each chord and then looking the note ...
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Harmonic Analysis of Polka, Op. 39, No. 14 by Tchaikovsky
I'm having some trouble identifying what's going on harmonically in this chromatic sections here.
i. Bar 2: What function does the chord spelled [C#EGBb] have? All I can say about it is that it's a ...
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Oblique motion in more than 2 parts
I've always been taught to ask questions even if I'm quite sure about being correct. It never hurts to ask, as I'm always learning!
I've seen and heard contrapuntal pieces, mostly in the works of Bach,...
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How to analyze/spell this chord progression
I generally feel that I have a good intuition for chord naming, but know very few formal rules that apply to chromatic progressions like this one I wrote:
It seems obvious that one should avoid ...
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How to analyze this chord in Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement?
In Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement, I'd like to understand the Fx (double sharp) in measure 8.
Measure 8 has a bass of A and an arpeggio with the notes C# E Fx C# which sounds like an A7, ...
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How to use a spectrum analyzer to help practice an instrument
I recently started playing the trumpet my first brass instrument and I got a tuner to help with practice. I got istrobesoft by Peterson on android, it got a display of its real time spectrum analysis ...
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Music Score annotations
What should music score annotations look like? Should I show every chord or only the important ones? What other music techniques do I annotate?
I am annotating it as part of a musical analysis. The ...
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Analysis of a few bars in Bach's BWV 895
The overall key of this piece in A minor (it is Bach's prelude from Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 895). Here is what I understood :
At the end of bar 6, there seems to be a change of key: this ...
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What’s the correct key analysis for this excerpt?
From the ABRSM G5 workbook.
To my mind the excerpt could be in F minor or B flat minor, both contain flat BED (and A). The answer given is B flat minor; why is it not F minor?
(Saw this after posting: ...
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Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude): tension-ful chord progression in bar 9, 10, 11
I am trying to digest the Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude) chord progression in bar 9, 10, 11 with the full of tensions.
Three related sub-questions.
In both the Zoltán Gárdonyi (1906–1986) ...
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Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude): Top voices on ascending fifth, descending second, descending second
I wanted to follow up to analyze the top voice on the right hand of the Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude).
Here are my (related) questions:
Is the red box note a B-flat or B? (It looks that ...
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Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude) -- chord progression along the Arpeggio (in the first 4 bars)
Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude)
I am curious to know whether there is a logical reason for the "chord progression" of the Arpeggio for Liszt Transcendental Étude No.1 (Prelude).
...
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Similarity between “Caro nome che il mio cor” and “Celeste Aida”
While listening to Caro nome che il mio cor from Rigoletto a couple days ago, I found a couple measures that reminded me vaguely of Celeste Aida from Aida.
What do these two passages have in common, ...
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How should this passage be analyzed?
From a previous exam. Possible answers were D maj, G maj, d min or a min.
I think it’s a minor: if D or G then the F needs to be sharp and if it’s d the B would need to be flat. I think the c# is ...
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Did anybody try to analyze Strange Meadow Lark by Dave Brubeck by functional analysis?
I was trying to understand the chord progression in Strange Meadow Lark, but it comes to a point where the changes are a little bit blurry of what is going on. Did anybody try to? Maybe we can discuss ...
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Are all chords that follow a cadence to an expected chord a deceptive cadence?
Is there a rule for deceptive cadence that can explain all 3 examples below? One of them I am almost positive is a deceptive cadence, but I don't know about the other two.
In the first two examples I ...
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Roman numeral analysis: how to notate tonic root anticipation / triple suspension V7 I742 I?
Sometimes in a cadence between V7 and I there's a moment when an anticipated tonic root in the bass given on top of suspended 7^2^4^ from the V7 (triple suspension?). Two examples:
Beethoven op 10 no ...
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Why do some pieces in sonata form lack a development section?
This leaves only the exposition and the recapitulation sections. Such examples include the overtures to Rossini's La Gazza Ladra and The Barber of Seville, or the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Tempest ...
user92536
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Hip-Hop Song Analysis [closed]
A friend and I are delving into some UK Hip-hop and have been listening to the much older songs and analyzing their style. I was wondering if anyone would want to help and provide their detailed input ...
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General way to find the key of a song [duplicate]
I was wondering if there was a general way to figure out the key of a song looking at its chords/scales.
According to this two questions:
Is the Chorus Key of Toto - “Africa" major or minor?
...
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Can anyone help me understand F#ø7 - F7 - Asus - AM7 - D7 - Em?
I'm trying to understand what's going on in this small piece written for Genshin Impact game, the song's name is "Pure Sky" is about 1min long and you can listen to it here (the part I'm ...
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Identifying Period Type
I've attached a music excerpt that's been stumping me. Is the attached passage a parallel period or a contrasting period? The rhythmic repetition makes it seem parallel, but the chord progression and ...
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Dissonance in SWV 447
I'm a huge fan of Heinrich Schütz and in particular of the Dresdner Kammerchor's recordings of his work. This moment in bar 169 of "Vater Abraham, erbarme dich mein, SWV 447" really caught ...
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How do I correctly identify whether a song is in minor or major? (Take "My Old School" as an example)
My Old School:
This song is very confusing. Is it in E minor or G major? 4:31 ends in a G major chord, but 4:50 ends in an E minor chord. How do I identify which key ...
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Is there a name for this pattern of piano chord progressions? (Clementi Op. 36 No. 5 & 6)
I noticed in Clementi Op. 36 No. 5 and No. 6 there are these very similar and peculiar chord progressions (see image). Do those three chords often go together like that? Or is it more a Clementi style?...
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Opening of Bach's mass in b minor: why does it make sense?
The opening harmonic progression of the B minor mass:
Bm moves to a C# half-diminished 7th — a ii7 chord, nothing unusual yet. To put it in root position is a bit unconventional for the style, but the ...
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Harmony: why does transforming a ii minor chord into II major chord work?
I accidentally composed a song that uses the same harmony "trick" as the song The Odyssey from Symphony X. Both are in the key of Eb (I know it's C minor, but I like to think major for ...
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Ambiguity of Roman numeral analysis of Andalusian cadence
When I write that the Andalusian cadence is the chord progression "Am – G – F – E" then there are no doubts in what it means. (All you need to know is what chords are and how they are named)
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Next step on music theory as a guitar player
I've been playing the guitar as a hobby since 2013 and have been gradually gaining familiarity with it by playing all kinds of songs.
At first, I simply tried to remember the fingerings by reading ...
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How to notate harmonic sequences in roman numerals analysis in main theme from Beethoven Symphony 7 2nd movement Alegretto?
Q1: How would you notate the first four bars of the second system?
I'm trying to understand the introductory theme from the Alegretto in Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Here's what I have so far, which ...
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Does Mozart's 5th Piano Concerto Lack a Solo Theme?
As part of a listening exercise, I'm trying to assign various elements of double exposition form to the first movement of mozart's 5th piano concerto.
Is it correct to say that it is missing a solo ...
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How would you identify the root of a non-standard chord / cluster?
What are some ways to identify the root of a chord? I know Hindemith has a treatise on this, but are there any other convincing ones?
For instance, what would be the root of these chords?
FBC
CDE
BCD
...
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Trying to visualize Ternary Form with this piece
I am using this piece: "Ob ich manchmal Dein gedenke" (Josephine Lang, 1872) to try and visualize ternary form. I know the ternary form is ABA' but I am a little confused. Does it go A, then ...
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Should practice be shared with the general public for the sake of sharing [closed]
I record much of my practice for my own study and it tends to be interesting at least to me when I make mistakes. However I find some of my errors are valuable teaching tools for me to learn from. ...
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analysis Partita in A minor Gigue, BWV 827 [closed]
I started out by hearing advice on analyzing keyboard partita before, but again I found too many questions in this Gigue.
this Gigue in 12/8 time
Let's summarize the questions with images below.
1. I ...
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Getting played note frequency using Unity and FFT
I am working on a project using the Unity game engine, The idea of the project is that the user plays a note on a guitar (and other instruments) and the app should display the note frequency that the ...
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Phrasing in "Melodie" by Robert Schumann
I took this piece by Schumann (Melodie) and am trying to identify the cadences. I have already started to try and identify the phrases first. I am unsure if the first system is one phrase. Any help ...
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Jarring F natural in Bartok's "Former Friends"
I'm trying to wrap my head around the awfully jarring - it hurts my ears so bad, I literally can't bring myself to play it - F natural in m16 of Bartok's "Former Friends" from his Book 1 for ...
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Full bar rest at the end of piece
Béla Bartok's Mikrokosmos - Vol. I is a book of short and simple, yet quirky piano pieces. Piece No. 24. Pastorale is shown below.
A full bar rest (for both hands) ends the piece. This is something ...
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Analysis of non-four-voice music
I'm going to stop analyzing bach's choral and try to analyze the keyboard partita, but it's so different from what it applies to choral, I don't know how to look at it.
I'm not asking what part of a ...
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Chopin's Etude op. 10 No.1 - why the D sharp in bar 8?
In Chopin's Etude op. 10, No.1, bar 8,
why does Chopin choose to have D sharp (D♯) in the purple square quoted below? Why not choose the more natural D there? Is there logic, a good reason, and ...
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Are there applications of interval graphs in musical analysis?
For each voice v_j we have notes n_ji (not rests) which are played at times s_ji and end at time e_ji. Now let us collet all intervals of time where the notes of all voices are played:
I_1 = [a_1,b_1],...
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Is the chord progression of this short piece C-G7-C?
Is the chord progression of this short piece C-G7-C? I'm new to music theory and want to confirm my understanding.
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Does the Scarlatti's 'Cortege' really sound like Gaudeamus Igitur?
Every time I hear https://imslp.org/wiki/Keyboard_Sonata_in_E_major%2C_K.380_(Scarlatti%2C_Domenico), I think I'm hearing the melody for the third and fourth lines of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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What is the reason that I don't lose the sense of tonality in these measures
The question itself is rather subjective hence the 1st person pronoun. However, I believe that many of you reading this question agree with me and hear 'Bb major'. If you hear it in a different way, ...
user88063
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Why isn't #i just called #i?
This answer to How to write functional chord symbols with accidental roots, basically claims that (and I paraphrase) "#i is not a thing" in functional harmony. But why not just call a spade ...
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How to tell the difference between lydian mode and dorian mode in songs
I am writing a song progression using the lydian mode using AABA form. My chord progression will be
A: E F# A E
A: E F# A E
B: C#m F# A E
A: E F# A E
The scale for the melody is E major pentatonic ...
user35708