Unfinished Symphony Mvt. 2 Measures 103-110 and 244-252 (Orchestra)

This weekend I worked on the two major runs in the second movement of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and, unlike the first movement, I had never practiced them super intensively before.

Included below is a video of the very first time I played the run in measures 103-110:

Ultimately this run is harder for me to play than the one in measures 244-252, so I worked with this one much more (even though I did the same basic exercises with each run). First, I got out my metronome and set it to the lethargic tempo of 65 (approximately the tempo that this video is played at) and worked at that tempo until I could play the notes with minimal, if any, mistakes. Then, I slowly increased the tempo and mastered the run at each tempo until I reached 86 bpm, concert tempo.

Included below is a video of 103-110 at 86 bpm:

As you can see, this is still pretty bad but I am working on it! (It sounds SO much better at 76 bpm)

However, the run in measures 244-252 is much better than this one!

Included below is a video of 244-252 at 86 bpm:

This still isn't 100% perfect in this video (I blame it on starting exactly on the run without any time to acclimate myself to the tempo in the measures before the run) although I have played it perfectly before! To achieve this level of *perfection* I followed the same process as the first run. :)

I will continue to work on both runs up until the day of the concert because they are the only challenging part of the second movement!

PS: I updated this after I published it because I realized that there was some sort of error that caused the last two videos to not play :(

Ex's and Oh's Analysis (DP1 Music)

The song I chose for this blog post is Ex's and Oh's by Elle King because I recently discovered it (thanks to Alt Nation) and am currently obsessed with it.

Structure

• 0:00 - 0:35 = Verse One (A)
• 0:35 - 1:09 = Chorus (B)
• 1:09 - 1:37 = Verse Two (A)
• 1:37 - 2:18 = Chorus (B)
• 2:18 - 2:32 = Bridge (C)
• 2:32 - 3:22 = Chorus (B) 

Like most songs in pop culture today this song has several verses and a repeating chorus, as well as a short bridge. Each verse has a melody that repeats twice within each verse, to repeat four times overall. The chorus also has a double period melody. The bridge consists of a guitar solo that follows the same sort of melody but has slight variation because it goes higher when the traditional melody goes lower. 

There is not a particular form when it comes to binary or ternary because of the A-B-A-B-C-B format. There are two many sections for it to be binary, and the presence of the C portion stops it from being ternary. The song in general can be considered modified strophic form because parts of it do repeat. 

Somewhere I Belong Analysis (DP1 Music)

I chose to analyze a different type of song for this blog post, certainly very different from Claire De Lune! The song, Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park is from their album titled Meteora, and it's a bit on the angsty punk side of their style. The music video of the song is included below:

Meter:

• This song can be felt at either a fast 4/4 or a moderate 2/4, although I think 4/4 fits the song better because each beat is emphasized (particularly in the chorus) instead of every other beat. 

Tempo:

• The tempo is extremely fast if felt in 4/4, my guess is somewhere around 160, or presto.

Melody:

• The verses contain a melody that is almost entirely monotone with very little movement, so these sections of the song can be considered conjunct. The chorus, however, is less monotone, but still moves in a step-wise manner that classifies it as conjunct. To the effect of being monotone, the range of the melodies is not very large, although the melody hops up slightly during the bridge. 

Texture

• The song starts fairly homophonic, with a single-note percussion line, then gradually more parts are added until it is polyphonic. After a few seconds of polyphony, the guitars enter and create a more prominent homophony with the bass guitar harmonizing with the guitar. Shortly after this, more intense parts drop out so that only two contrasting parts are left along with the bass line, making a less intense polyphony than before. When the vocals begin, the texture is homophonic because the guitar is accompanying the melody (vocals). There is another vocal part during the verses, but it is not considered a counter melody because it is not played at the same time as the main melody (it is more like call and answer). This type of texture continues throughout the chorus and the following verses until the abrupt end of the song.

Instrumentation

• There are two different singers in the piece, one covers the verses and the other covers the chorus. The latter tends to sing in a higher register, while the first sings in a lower register. There are several chordophones used in the song, mainly the electric guitar and the bass guitar. A drum set is present to keep the beat, so there are membranophones (the actual drums) and idiophones (the cymbals) used within that set.  Many layers of this song are electronically produced, so anything that isn't a guitar. drum set, or vocals is an electronophone.