The Old Style Song in the Land of the Foresters, Hunedoara. Melodic Types with Refrain Resulted from Melodic Interjections

"Old style songs are the most numerous, varied and widespread folk music productions in the entire Romanian territory. Researchers such as Béla Bartók and Emilia Comișel have conducted collections in the Foresters’ Land in Hunedoara County. In the summer of 2017, together with prof.univ.dr. Ioan Bocșa, we did a lot of research in this area as well. Hundreds of songs belonging to this lyrical genre have been collected, both in previous collections and in our own. The songs are performed, for the most part, by women, in the privacy of their home, on the border or in gatherings. Although it is a mainly individual genre, group interpretations have also been recorded. The vocal emission is similar to ritual songs (metallic, strong, sustained voice); we were amazed, as a performance of the group interpretation, with the unison execution of the ample and complex ornaments. For our study, we selected melodic types that have a very short refrain (two or three syllables), which has been theorized over time as a melodic interjection; due to the extension (up to a melodic line), a consequence of an excessive ornamentation, we consider it to have the status of a refrain. Keywords: Land of the Foresters, Hunedoara, old style vocal song, melodic interjection, refrain. "

Features of Cadences in Vocal and Choral Music of the Seventeenth Century (on the Example of Giovanni Palestrina’s Motets)

The relevance of the study. The traditional idea of a cadence as a primarily harmonic phenomenon does not completely correspond to some musical styles, including Renaissance and early Baroque. Revealing the polyphonic essence of cadences in vocal works of the Renaissance, which is the aim of the article, allows deeper understanding peculiarities of musical thinking of that period. Scientific novelty. The historical approach to the analysis of cadences is quite common in foreign musicological works; this approach is still new for Ukrainian musicology. The research material is also new: the cycle of motets by G. Palestrina on the text of “Song of Songs” was unfairly ignored by Ukrainian and foreign scholars. Thus, the study is relevant both in relation to the method and in relation to the musical material involved in its approbation. The purpose of the article is to show the specifics of cadences in the style of a strict counterpoint using the motets from the cycle “Canticum Canticorum” by G. Palestrina, to reveal the role of cadences in the modal and compositional processes of a Renaissance work. Research methods. The study systematizes the data obtained as a result of the analysis of the cadences of G. Palestrina’s motets, thus, the main research method is inductive. The main results and conclusions of the study. Cadences in vocal polyphony of the Renaissance have a polymelodic nature, which is realized by combining typical melodic turns (clausulae) in different voices. The clausulae order in the voices and their completeness degree are effective criteria for the classification of cadences (e. g. the classification by E. Rotem). Cadences in which the main clausulae are presented in full (i. e. contain ultima and penultima) are strong. Cadences in which one or more clausulae are incomplete are weak. The role of strong and weak cadences in the composition is different: strong cadences are placed at the nodal points of the piece, they have a dividing function; weak cadences are placed in the middle of the text line and they have a connecting function. Strong cadences are the norm, while weak ones violate the norm, revealing the author’s ingenuity. There are a few ways to weaken the cadence: replacing the ultima with a pause or a different sound, distributing the clausula between several voices, extending the melodic line of one of the cadence voices, etc. Weak cadences significantly outnumber strong cadences. In the Dorian motets from the cycle “Song of Songs” by G. Palestrina weak cadences play an important role in the formation of the mode within the sound scale, as well as in revealing the meaning of the verbal text.

“Oops!… I Did It Again”: The Complement Chorus in Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC

A distinctive feature of a several turn-of-the-millennium singles performed by the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Britney Spears is the presence of the “complement chorus,” a special, third appearance of chorus that appears after the bridge. The complement chorus brandishes a new melodic line with a distinct rhythmic profile, allowing for a high-energy climax rather than a mere restatement of the chorus, as it imbues the now-familiar chorus melody with new vigor. Complement choruses seem to have been a trick used exclusively by the producer Max Martin and his associates during the years 1998–2000, making them a distinctly Y2K phenomenon.

Melody (Exercises 1–20)

In this chapter, the exercises focus on the single melodic line. Exercises 1 to 6 are based on the idea of writing melodies with given pitch collections (ordered and unordered), using focal points and pitch collections that have elements in common. The goal of frameworks 7 and 8 is to compose melodies using concatenated triads; 9 and 10 focus on the use of segments (of equal and unequal duration); 11 proposes the “translation” of a given image into sound; 12 through 14 incorporate the concept of integer notation. Simple use of probabilities is the basis of exercise 15. Numbers 16 and 17 use 12-tone rows and simple transformations. In 18 the objective is to use analysis (specifically the inventory of interval types from a given melody) in a creative way. Exercises 19 and 20 use the concept of simple melodic motifs and processes of elimination to compose melodies.

Stylistics of Impressionism in the Song Cycles of Lesia Dychko “Pastels” and “Enharmonic” on the Poems by Pavlo Tychyna

"The aim of the work is to determine the influence of the characteristic features of the linguistic and style environment of the second half of the twentieth century on the development of Lesia Dychko's creative personality (on the example of the song cycles Pastels and Enharmonic, written to the words of P. Tychyna). The analyzed song cycles demonstrate the artist’s deep penetration into the figurative concept of the poet's free verses, reflecting its semantic properties by musical means. We notice a lot in common and consonant in the works of both artists, namely, an impressionistic vision and perception of the surrounding world, a deep philosophical understanding of nature, a symbolic load of images. The musical-theoretical analysis of the cycles has shown the principles of the development of material common to poetry and music, such as cross-cutting development, leitmotif, etc. The article reveals another facet of the composer's stylistic direction, namely, the expressive means inherent in impressionism: the coloristic function of harmony, ostinato techniques and organ points, the melodic line of recitative-declamatory or instrumental plan. The overwhelming majority of them correspond to the principles of impressionism in combination with modern innovative techniques of the musical language and personal individual stylistic features of the composer. Keywords: Lesia Dychko, song cycles, poetic and musical texts, poetry of Pavlo Tychyna, impressionism. "

Leuangtengdong: Analysis of a Hmong Song

This article is an analysis of ‘Leuangtengdong’, a Hmong song melody which was recorded and transcribed by Jähnichen in 2000, while documenting a collection of Hmong songs in Laos. This new article is an effort to analyze melodic patterns of the song while considering its historical and social contexts through the personal gaze of the author with a specific background in singing and social experience. It is important to mention that the language sung in the song was unkown and that the emphasis of the analysis is on the musical shape. Finally, there is a conclusion regarding this song fitting in Jähnichen’s hypothesis on Hmong song melodies which states that most musical phrases do not repeat; all lines are different in pitch, order and length; pitch order and intervals can indicate a specific type (of song); singers do not know which type they sing, only analysis shows; and analysis cannot prove ethnic groupings. "Very interesting is the general characteristic of generating absolutely individual melodic lines in each example and in all the other recordings there was no one song with a repetition of a single melodic line. Avoiding repetitions is therefore a remarkable sign of Hmong song melodies.” (Jähnichen, 2011: 126). The given core hypothesis was the point of departure in this analytical article.

Performing sorrow

This chapter analyzes the slow “sorrowful” (de jale) tunes that Roma often associate with crying. Three musical parameters characterize this repertoire: (1) the rhythmic and temporal structure (irregular aksak or unmeasured rhythm); (2) the slight asynchronies between the melody and the harmonic accompaniment, which creates a swinging effect; and (3) the complex elaboration of the melodic line, in particular the addition of ornaments and passing notes to create an effect that is known locally as “sweetness.” The analysis is supported by empirical measurements of timing durations, obtained by tracking the musician’s bow’s movements with motion capture techniques.

‘With sound of lute and pleasing words’: The Lute Song and Voice Types in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century England

The Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song (1597–1622) represents one of the most iconic genres of all early music. Although much literature has been dedicated to this repertory, the issue of the voices for which this music was probably intended still remains surprisingly underexplored. This subject has, moreover, acquired greater significance in light of research undertaken by Simon Ravens (2014) and Andrew Parrott (2015), which has challenged the plausibility of the falsetto voice in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, particularly in sacred music.This paper explores the issue of the types of voices that most likely performed the Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song in three ways. Firstly, contemporary English evidence for lutes and viols is analyzed together with information regarding tuning and transposition. Secondly, the music itself is investigated, including the part names and clefs used alongside the tessitura of the melodic line. Finally, a detailed examination of evidence for the tenor and falsetto voice is presented, including a critical examination of the word ‘faine’ (usually assumed to mean ‘falsetto’). The collective results are then brought together to refine current ideas regarding the voices used in the Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song.

Religious Chants – The Diversity of Church Hymns Types

"In the Romanian musical space, in the Orthodox Church hymns’ repertoire, there is a great variety of non-liturgical chants intended to be sung in different moments of the liturgy. The moments these chants can be introduced are during the kinonikón, the believers’ communion and the end of the liturgy. Either they are called kinonikón, hymns, Calophonic Hirmos, spiritual or liturgical chants; the religious chants became a part of the Orthodox rite, training the Christians ‘community in the church chant. Having appeared in diverse historical contexts and being written by Byzantine music composers, by priests, by church singers and local liturgical communities, these religious chants have deeply been rooted both in the ancient liturgy ritual, and in the different moments of religious activities, pilgrimages, conferences, spiritual gatherings. Having an extremely accessible melodic line and being constructed on doxological, doctrinarian and moralizing character texts, the religious chants are an efficient means of making the Christian communities more dynamic. Keywords: kinonikón, hymn, religious chants "