1. Fugue
Fugue is a type of polyphonic music, which is a piece of music that is imitated and repeatedly reproduced by the theme on different parts. It is structured into three paragraphs: rendered, expanded, and reproduced. Fugues can be divided into two parts, three parts, four parts, five parts, etc. according to the part, but three and four parts are the most common. If classified according to the number of themes, it can be divided into single-theme fugues, double fugues, triple fugues and quadruple fugues, while fugues with small structures and scales are called small fugues.
Fugue in G minor (BWV.578) (Bach)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer, organist, and outstanding composer of the Baroque period. The vast majority of his works are polyphonic music, but the progression of each part is based on the major and minor harmonies of the main key music, and in the processing of the theme, the coordination and balance between the various constituent elements are achieved, forming a new polyphonic music, reaching the peak of modern polyphonic music. His music is both highly logical and profoundly philosophical.
Fugue in G minor, also known as Fugue in G minor, was originally an organ piece and was later adapted into orchestral music by the Polish conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977). The fugue theme of the work, first presented by the upper part of the outer voice, is simple and vivid, pure and elegant.
Fugue Theme:
When the fugue theme is presented in the mezzo-soprano (inner voice), a fixed contraposition sentence appears in the soprano part of the upper voice. The theme is then presented in the tenor and bass parts, and unfolded in the formula of fugue, so that the lines of the song are exquisite, clear and fluid. Finally, the song ends the whole song by reproducing the theme in the original key (G minor) in the lower voice.
2. Etudes
Etudes, as the name suggests, are pieces of music created for a certain instrumental performance or vocal singing technique, and each piece of music is often dedicated to practicing one or two specific techniques or expression techniques to achieve a certain purpose of playing and singing. Vocal etudes are called vocal etudes. In the Romantic period, there were concert etudes that combined technical exercises and artistic creation, that is, technical exercises and artistic ideas were integrated into the works, becoming a common repertoire at concerts, and it was also a work of art with high artistic and certain image content.
Piano Etudes in C minor (aka Revolutionary Etudes) (Chopin)
Etudes in C minor (op. 10 of 12) is one of Chopin's most famous works of twenty-seven etudes. In September 183, less than a year after leaving his homeland, Chopin passed through Stuttgart on his way to Paris and heard the news of the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising, which he composed with grief. The work gives the etudes a profound ideological content and a high degree of artistry with a distinct musical image.
The song begins with an uncommensional and disturbing genus of seven chords, followed by a stormy descending pattern, a sixteenth-quarter note of the left-hand bass partially untangling the chord, rising and falling sharply, like a surge of emotion, a cry of excitement, or a shout and a battle in a fierce wind. The right hand plays a short but powerful melody, showing strong resistance and inner pain and despair.
These passionate calls, inner pain, and angry protests alternate in turn, forming a huge wave of sound, showing Chopin's irrepressible grief, as he wrote in his diary: "I weep at the piano all the time, despair..." The unusual sorrow of the music expressed his infinite anxiety about the fate of the motherland. But in the end, the emergence of that resolute and decisive tone indicates that the struggle is not over, but the future will still belong to the bright faith, showing the author's confidence in the victory of the people's revolution of the motherland.
Third, infinite motion
Infinity motion is a genre of music that maintains the same fast tempo from beginning to end, usually allegro or allegro, with a lot of fast sixteenth notes.
(i) Infinite Motion (Op.1 1) (Paganini)
Niccolo Paganini (1782–1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. His left hand moves quickly, with single and double overtones and left-handed plucking, and he is good at playing with G strings alone, with surprising variations. His development of performance not only set off a huge change in the national violin school, but also led Tonszt and Chopin to carry out similar innovations in the field of piano. In terms of creation, Paganini always adhered to the mysteries of technology, so that he published very few works during his lifetime.
The "Infinite Movement" is a violin piece composed around 1830, originally accompanied by orchestral music, and later often accompanied by piano, and was adapted into a solo piece for instruments such as flute and cello, as well as trio and orchestral ensembles. The music was difficult to play, and the Hungarian violinist Auer Leopold (1845-1930) considered it to be a very ideal quick bow jumping etude, and if played perfectly, it was a popular concert repertoire.
The music is in sonata style, C major, allegro, 4/4 beat. The first theme consists of a continuous sixteenth note pattern that rolls up and down, and the fast melody is smooth and unrestrained, like a churning torrent, full of endless power.
First topic:
The first theme is the tone of the whole song, followed by an equally brisk second theme in G major. After the entire presentation section is repeated, it is expanded with the musical material of the first theme. Then we move on to the reproduction section, where the first theme is reproduced in C major, and then, with a warm and cheerful ending. The whole piece of music is completed in one go, exquisite and superb skills, so that the music has a brilliant and gorgeous color.
(ii) "Wild Bee Flying" (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was a Russian composer, music educator, and composer of operas and symphonies of the Russian national music school of the 19th century. His creations combine the tones of eastern nationalities with the creative techniques of the European 19th-century romantic music school, with distinct Russian national characteristics. Often drawn from Russian history, folklore and literary works, the works embody real life in the depiction of folk fantasy realms and natural landscapes, and his orchestral works are delicately woven, colorful and sound-rich.
"Wild Bee Flying" is an orchestral piece composed in 1900, originally composed as an interlude from the opera The Story of Tsar Sardin, based on the fairy tale poem of the same name by the Russian poet Pushkin (1799-1837). Synopsis: When Tsar Sardan set out on his expedition, Queen Millie Teresa gave birth to Prince Gerdon. The queen's two sisters, out of jealousy, wrote to the Tsar falsely accusing the queen of having a monster. Tsar Sardan listened to the rumors and ordered the queen and the "monster" to be put into a wooden barrel and thrown into the sea. After the queen and the prince drift to a desert island, the prince saves the princess from the claws of the falcon. In order to thank the prince, the princess helped him to return to the palace in the form of a wild bee to avenge himself. The wild bee mercilessly stings the jealous woman and the fainting Tsar, causing the Tsar to finally wake up and find the queen and the prince, and the prince will eventually marry the princess.
This intermission song uses the musical image of wild bees flying to pave and render the plot of wild bee revenge that is about to begin, and is often played alone. It was later adapted as a solo piece for violin, cello, flute, trumpet, piano and other instruments, but it is most widely circulated as violin music.
The music has the characteristics of the genre of "infinite movement", and the rapid thirty-two-quarter notes composed of semitone up and down the "gliding tone" imitates the hum of wild bees when flying, and the tune is suddenly strong and weak, such as the state of the wild bee circling up and down when it is near and far.
Then another theme emerges in the work, the melody consists mainly of jumping intervals, strong and powerful, where the composer gives the bee an angry anthropomorphic character.
Finally, the music ends with a crisp and clean ending.