Aim -

The purpose of this blog is to compare and contrast musical pieces from disparate cultures in order to provide a global context and perspective concerning the pieces. The pieces under analysis are Pachelbel's Canon in D and a Gamelan Djoged: Tjetjing - Kereman (album compiled and recorded by Dr. Hornbostel, piece recorded in Bali and played by native artists).

Piece I: Canon in D
Pachelbel, Johann. Canon in D. Perf. Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert. 1919. MP3.
Piece II: Tjetjing - Kereman
Native Artists. Pagan, Gamelan Djogèd "Tjetjing - Kereman". Music of the Orient. Hornbostel, 1934

Musical Links: Melody, and Theme and Variation

Word Count: 858

Context and Culture -

Piece I - Canon in D
In the Baroque period, the Canon was a well-established musical imitative form. Later in the analysis, I define the piece as being accurate to the title of Canon. Also, it was a popular tune at the time, so this piece is very likely to be aptly representative of it's time period and culture.

Piece II - Tjetjing - Kereman
Balinese gamelan usually has characteristics of: improvisation, a sort of support structure that the rest of the piece is based upon, and has almost exclusively percussive instruments. The piece specifically has only percussive instruments, has attributes that could suggest improvisation, and I notate later a rhythmic section that I believe to be the base for late variations in the piece.

Musical Link 1: Melody

Piece I: Melodic Contour
Example 1:

By looking at the score for Piece I, we can see a visual representation of the piece's melodic contour. The piece contains as melody that's often conjunct, even using major scales at times, but also contains sections of melody that are significantly more disjunct. 

Example 2: 

Conjunct Melody 

Disjunct Melody

Piece II: The instrumentation of the piece could affect the listener's perception of the melody's intervals, as it's much easier to hear the intervals when there is no flurry of notes between each of the loudest pitches. In the audio example (Example 3), the first section highlights the intervals with a fewer number of notes being played, and the percussion instruments playing in unison. In the second example, it sounds like the melody is more conjunct than the first section due to the melody progressing more step-wise, and the instruments staggering the notes (rather than playing in unison). The first section also highlights another example of theme and variation, but with more evidence to suggest melodic variation.

Musical Link 2: Theme and Variation

Piece I: Canon in D
Example 4: Definition of canon: In music, canon means "A piece in which the same melody is begun in different parts successively, so that the imitations overlap" and "from Latin canonicus 'according to rule'".


By this definition, a canon includes imitative or varied sections based on the theme. 
Example 5: 
Piece II: Tjetjing - Kereman

Source: "Canon." Oxford Dictionaries. April 2015. Web.

Pachelbel, Johann. Canon a 3 Violinis con Basso. Berlin, Germany: 1840. Musical Score. <http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/5/54/IMSLP346264-PMLP04611-pachelbel_canone_e_giga.pdf>

a. Variation: 

Example 6: Chord Structures in Measures 5-6: 

The green notes represent the bass part. In all of the chords for this section, the green notes act as the root of the chord, suggesting that the added parts are a variation on the bass line.

Example 7: Chord Structures in Measures 7-8: 

The purple notes represent the eighth notes that are already contained within the previously established chord structures of quarter notes.

The blue notes represent eighth notes that would fit within a triad of the established chord structures.

The pink notes are notes that were not already contained by the first chords, and don't fit within a triad of the chords either.

Since the majority of the eighth notes either build on the chords with new notes, or repeat notes (sometimes in a different octave), this again supports the presence of theme and variation. 

b. Imitation: In measures 1 - 3, the harpsichord/bass part (basso continuo) is notated and written to repeat throughout the duration of the piece. This part is melodically varied (a melodic variation of) in the first violin (measures 3 and 4) and harmonizes with the bass. The second violin then takes up the first's variation on the bass, and so on with the third violin taking up the repetitions of the second.

Then, in measures 7 and 8, the eighth notes also signify an introduction of rhythmic variation.

Example 8: 

Native Artists. Pagan, Gamelan Djogèd "Tjetjing - Kereman". Music of the Orient. Hornbostel, 1934. PDF.

An audible rhythmic variation is present in the first few measures of the piece when an original rhythm becomes more complex, and does so at different points in the piece.

Example 9: I've notated the simple rhythm that becomes audibly more complex as the piece progresses: (beginning at 0:03 in recording) 

Example 10: Listen to audio comparison of the simpler rhythmic section compared to a more complex section (labeled "Example 10"). The same basic subdivisions allude to the nature of the variations. Instrumentation and technique contribute to the increased complexity of the sound, as the percussive instruments are played such that they echo each other closely, and more variation of dynamics is present.