My rational behind choosing these two pieces was very simple - they are the two pieces listed in the course notes that I had sheet copies of at home.
Syrinx - Claude Debussy (Flute)
This was the piece I played as my solo study for my Grade 8; 12 years ago. What amazed me the most about this piece when I got the score was that it's 8 pages long, but the music only fills the first 2; the remaining 6 pages are performance notes and a background to the setting of La Flûte de Pan. The piece was requested by Gabriel Mourey as incidental music to his play Psyché, to be performed as the last melody the character Pan plays before his death. As a result, the music contains the lines spoken on stage in between the musical lines.
In general the music has a very chromatic feel to it; Debussy also only tends to use the bottom 2 octaves of the flute's register as the brightness of the top register is not really in keeping with the mood of the music. Throughout the piece Debussy is very precise about how the rhythms should be played and the tempo of the music; he regularly marked where the music should have more movement, where it should slow and even where rubato should be employed. His dynamics are also very precise; in many cases he marks crescendos and decrescendos to indicate emphasis in a musical phrase rather than actually meaning get louder and softer. He also never marks the music louder than mf, meaning everything is slightly restrained.
The opening melody features emphasised dotted quavers interjected with demisemiquavers which create the feeling of mordents leading into the next note. Debussy then uses a rising triplet motif to create a sense of movement and building before the section ends with long, sustained high notes. A paused bar denotes words spoken on stage before the opening motif returns an octave lower and piano. Some scalic flurries lead into the next section based around triplet groups low in the flute register. Setting it this low gives a tone of mystery and mourning. The same triplet group begins each phrase followed by a different short motif; it's as though Pan is reminiscing about something, but by repeating the same motif with a different ending it creates a feeling of uncertainty. The music then becomes more animated, as directed by Debussy, but aided by rising and falling semiquaver triplets.
Rising trills lead to the return of the opening motif with different embellishment from before. The notes of this motif are then repeated down an octave but with a triplet rhythm, making it sound sleepier than before. The triplet groups of the middle section return, but with long held notes in between so that it loses the fluidity it had before. One final piano, descending scale leads to a bottom D to finish the music, marked perdendosi (dying away) to represent the passing of Pan.
Six Metamorphases after Ovid - Benjamin Britten (Oboe)
If I had remembered I had this at home I'd have selected a different oboe piece for the study point, but hindsight's a wonderful thing. Like in Syrinx, Britten provides a short description of each movement to set the mood.
I. Pan - who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved.
The movement is marked Senza misura, meaning without measure; Britten doesn't specify a time signature and only uses bar lines to denote breaks between phrases. The phrases at the beginning are short, only a few beats long, and tend to start and end on the same or notes close to one another; the melodic line simply turns around the starting notes. Britten varies the number of notes he groups together so that the melody arrives at his desired note on the beat; groups of 5, 6 and 7 are used. A second section begins pianissimo with repeated notes followed by a rising and falling section. This theme is repeated a few times with embellishment on the rising and falling motifs until a rising sequence with a crescendo leads to the same repeated notes up an octave; it's interesting how effective repeating the same note is in building or tapering the musical line. The final section uses demisemiquavers in front of dotted quavers to ornament the notes of the melodic line and create a feel of uncertainty and almost panic; the music crescendos and accelerates to a final trill before two phrases reminiscent of the earlier passages end the movement.
II. Phaeton - who Rode upon the chariot of the sun for one day and was hurled into the river Padus by a thunderbolt.
The movement is set in 12/8 time and the opening melody is reminiscent of a gigue, except Britten puts rests on the 3 note of some groups to make it sound less secure; this creates the impression Phaeton is slightly out of control on his chariot. The notes are short and detached to create a contrast with the previous movement. After a pause the music continues with a similar motif a fourth higher but slurred in different groups to create a smoother melodic line, yet still with rests at the end of some groups breaking up the melodic line. The detached version of the motif returns followed by a descending, crescendoing chromatic scale down to a fortissimo Bb, the lowest note on the oboe. This section is to symbolise Phaeton soaring too high before plummeting to earth. The loud, low passages which follow suit the oboe very well as it creates a raw, edgy tone.
III. Niobe - who, lamenting the death of her fourteen children, was turned into a mountain.
Marked Andante piangendo, meaning weeping, this movement contrasts the previous movement being much slower and more restrained. Overall it is set high in the oboe register, which gives it a pained tone in keeping with the meaning in the title. The music features a lot of descending phrases; the opening motif is particularly poignant as Britten writes a dotted crochet-quaver pattern with stress on the dotted crochet to create a motif which dies away as it descends onto the quaver. The middle passage becomes more animated and lively with slurred triplet motifs built around rising and failing arpeggios; I get the impression this passage is meant to symbolise Niobe's transformation into a mountain as it completely breaks the mood of the previous section. The opening music then returns but piano, decrescendoing to pianissimo before rising to a top D to create a weak, feeble ending to the movement.
IV. Bacchus - at whose feasts is heard the noise of gaggling women's tattling tongues and shouting out of boys.
This movement is roughly laid out in an ABAC form. My interpretation is that the A section gives the setting of the feast, almost like incidental music to be played while the guests are eating. The dotted quaver-semiquaver grouping which forms the basis of the melody gives it a grand, pompous feeling. Each group is slurred together to give it a bouncy feeling and this is interjected with detached semiquaver groups. There is a suggestion that the music is set in 4/4 time, but in the opening section there are regularly bars with only 3 beats in them, thus Britten is able to vary the number of dotted quaver-semiquaver groups he uses in a bar. The B section I think is meant to symbolise the gaggling women; it features large rising leaps in the melodic line and detached semiquavers to create a more edgy, biting feel to the melody. One beat, or longer, rests are interspersed to create a break in the proceedings, as though the women are pausing for thought. The C section I think symbolises the boys shouting. Breaking away from the previous sections it is marked con moto and uses long semiquaver broken chords to give a feeling of fluidity and agitation. The passage ends on repeated sforzando Cs, creating a feeling of anger and power as though the boys are being told off. A variation of the opening music then returns to end the movement.
V. Narcissus - who fell in love with his own image and became a flower.
This movement, marked Lento piacevole meaning slow and pleasant, fits perfectly with the tranquil fixation of the title character. Britten uses written out trill motifs to ornament the melodic line. As the movement progresses he begins to write some of the notes with upward stems and some with downward stems; he notes the upward stems represent the reflected image of Narcissus, and the downward stems represent Narcissus himself. Britten writes the passages with upward stems roughly an octave high than the downward stems and the music generally echoes the preceding motif but inverted, like a reflection. Listening to the music, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate that it is written like this as there is no dynamic contrast between the motifs. This might be intentional though, as Narcissus became so infatuated with his own image he lost sight of what was real.
VI. Arethusa - who, flying from the love of Alpheus the river god, was turned into a fountain.
This movement is written with rising and descending arpeggios to depict flowing water. Britten puts emphasis on the first note of every group to mark the melodic line out of the semiquavers; the rest of the notes are then slurred to create one long, flowing group. The middle passage is very different; Britten uses trills on every note to create a feeling of movement through the descending melodic lines.
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