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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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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Teaching myself to identify phrases and need feedback
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, ...
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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 ...
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Harmonic Voices Alongside Counterpoint
I'm writing a piece for a rather large ensemble:
full string section
SATB choir plus soloists
2 of oboe, bassoon, and trombone
c-g timpani
In one of the sections, the chorus sings a fugato while the ...
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schenkerian analysis archive [closed]
I would like to know if there is something like an Archive of Schenkerian Analysis of most pieces of music, or, at least, some kind of analysis. If you want to analyse an important piece of music, I ...
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What is the music theory related to a bass progression of descending augmented 4th from ^7 to ^4?
In the disney song "A whole new world" from the move Aladdin there is a part that I am trying to analyze and it doesn't really fit in with what I have learned so far in music theory (I am ...
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What differentiates Mozart from Clementi as composers for piano?
Mozart and Clementi were composing for piano in similar styles at the same time and both were considered greats of their day.
The contemporary view, broadly speaking, is that Mozart is the superior ...
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In a reduction why are some notes stemmed together?
Here you can see in the first bar the reduction of the first bar has the ^1 on the second beat while in bar 2 the two tones are stemmed together. Why?
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Incubus - Stellar, where is "1"?
I was discussing this track with a fellow drummer. From the first verse, we get a typical backbeat, so it seems obvious where 1 is. But, he argued that the snare is actually on 1 and 3-
If the snare ...
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How to make a "reduction" from an arpeggiated bass
In one of my textbooks (Harmonic Practice by Robert Gauldin), there is a section about figuration and making reductions from arpeggiations to better see the voice leading. In the provided example the ...
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Where is the palindrome melody in Schoenberg Op.15 No.1
From Mindy Beth Horowitz's dissertation, "Vocal Melody in Schoenberg's Opus 15: Boundaries of Text and Register",
The song begins with an almost palindromic melody which ascents from B3 to ...
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Sharpened 5th in otherwise regular diatonic scale
Generally, I'm very pitch intolerant; out of tune vocals can send me running from the room. I'm particularly intolerant of 3rds & whether they push or pull depending on whether the feel is minor ...
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Is it possible to determine the major/minor key of a song by just looking at the chords?
I play the piano and I'm new to musical theory but I have a basic understanding of chords and keys. At the moment I'm looking at pop songs and trying to analyse the chords of the songs, determine the ...
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Jazz Harmonic Analysis of "The Way You Look Tonight" [closed]
So I was asked to do an analysis of The Way You Look Tonight, but we didn't need to include the roman numerals. Just the symbols. Apparently it still isn't right, so is there anything I'm missing? In ...
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Brahms Concerto Piano 1 Rondo : Hungarian Gypsy scale?
Piano part, Measures 136-139 (in Breitkopf's) - Pollini playing
A/ Can I understand the right hand part as based on an Hungarian Gypsy scale ?
B/ Are there any functional ? harmonic ? logical ? ...
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unexplained sus4 progress in bach's choral
score is measure 2 in Bach 371 Chorales No.5 'An Wasserflüssen Babylon' in G major
i think beat 2 is v7sus4 but if G in DDGC is suspension note,
G in previous chord(AEGB) is must be Harmonic Tone in ...
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Is there a music-theoretical language for directly expressing voice leading?
The question
Does music theory provide a language for directly expressing voice leading? Roman numeral analysis (RNA) encapsulates voice-leading expectations, but these are built in by implication (...
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To what key does Dvorak Humoresque #7 modulate at the Piu Lento? [closed]
The melodic part of Humoresque number 7, beginning at m. 25, changes to another key. What key is it. The main body is G flat major.
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Harmonic analysis of J.S. Bach's Prelude in Cm (BWV 847)
I sometimes try to analyze the harmony of a Bach prelude to understand how chords change, and how he manages to shift from one key to another. Here is the prelude in Cm BWV 847 (source image, MP3 here)...
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Can a melodic minor chord be a pivot chord?
The image above shows, from Bach 371 Chorales, No. 3 "Ach Gott vom
Himmel sieh darein" in E Minor.
I think my analysis is totally wrong, but I just wrote it down on the image to try it out.
...
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Ambiguous chords in Bach's "Ich dank dir lieber Herre" setting (BWV 347)
The image above shows, from Bach 371 Chorales, No. 2 "Ich dank dir lieber Herre" in A major, measures 11 and 12.
I'm very confused by this part.
1. first red square, Is that chord I or vi56?
...
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What makes "Oh Hanukkah" sound Jewish?
Recently, I've been studying the effect of scale choice on the mood and feel of music. Songs using the major scale tend to sound happy. Songs using the minor scale tend to sound sad. Songs using less ...
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Is the 2nd movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata nº 7 in C, K.309, a "large rounded binary"?
My analysis of the form of the movement is, currently, that it is a large ternary with written out repeats of the main theme and the subordinate theme complex + return of the main theme together, ...
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How to analyze a composition? [closed]
How does one analyze a composition? I am trying to work through Czerny 599
(The "Czerny Czallenge") but I think if I knew "why" the pieces were structured the way they are, it ...
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Seems to fit all 3 PAC criteria and yet I'm told it's a root position IAC?
So, as I have been looking for examples of the 3 different types of IAC(Imperfect Authentic Cadence), I run into this:
A cadence that looks like a PAC(Perfect Authentic Cadence) on paper, but which I'...
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What is the theoretical explanation of D/F# chord in this turnaround?
Here is the sequence in harmonic Am. What is the function of D/F# in terms of tonal harmony. Borrowed chord from parallel major? Chromatic inflection?
Am-D/F#-F-E-A
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Harmonic Analysis: How would you interpret these 4 bars? Var. 18 Rhapsody by Rach
Great community I've stumbled upon. It's been some time since I've done harmonic analysis and I'd appreciate some thoughts about these four bars towards the end of the 18th Variation.
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Rachmaninoff Prelude G minor progression involves V chord instead of v chord
Why does Rachmaninoff seem to use a major V chord instead of a minor v chord in the attached measure (7th from the end) of his Prelude in G minor?
The progression seems to be
i-VI7-idim7-v-V-(in next ...
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Is Mozart - Concerto for Flute & Harp K.299 Rondeau in Sonata-Rondo form?
As a listening exercise I'm trying to see how the 3rd movement of Mozart's Concerto K.299 fits into the sonata-rondo form.
I don't know how many times I've listened to this piece, I don't seem to be ...
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Is the first theme missing from the Recapitulation of Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 - K. 218 - Alegro?
I have just learnt about the Concerto Sonata Form and was trying to practice by listening to Mozart's 4th Violin Concerto K. 218. The teacher got us started, and I just want to see if I can finish ...
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