Week 2 (Aug 28): Narrative (F23)

This week, you’ll read about the most prominent theory of narrative in the field of music theory and analyze a piece with narrative theory.

Narrative theory

Introduction video: Frye’s narrative archetypes

Watch my instructional video on the basics of narrative theory for music, based on .

Note: This video uses interactive technology. The picture-in-picture can be swapped or even viewed side-by-side. The video also uses a menu so you can quickly navigate to certain portions of the video. For more explanation, see this video from Kaltura.

download slides – download transcript – link to video

Optional: Complete the Concept Check quiz on Blackboard to see if you are understanding these concepts.

Due Thursday: Response

In the Reading Responses channel on Teams, post a message with some type of response about the readings/videos. You may either make a new post or reply to someone else’s post (both count for this participation grade). You can approach this in a bunch of different ways! You might ask clarifying questions about the reading, summarize an important bit of it, share a related personal anecdote…anything counts, as long as it relates to the reading in some way.

Here is an optional prompt for your essay: Give an example from your personal background where you used the idea of a musical story to help guide your performance (or, for educators, your instruction  for a performance) or composition. What did this story add to the piece?

Feel free to write your response on another idea, if you wish.

Due Sunday: Analysis assignment

You will analyze Chopin’s prelude in C minor from the Op. 28 preludes. This Chopin prelude is short and in a simple texture, yet full of narrative implications.

Instructions

1. listening

Listen to recordings of the prelude several times while following along with the score, to get the music in your ears. This is a very short piece, so it will not take long.

Here are two recordings:

• Rubenstein: Note the E natural instead of E flat in measure 3!
• Pires

2. Identifying motives

has analyzed this piece as being based on two overlapping motives, which are both found in the melody of measure 1: motive a, a neighbor-note figure in quarter notes, and motive b, a stepwise descending figure with the dotted rhythm. This is shown in the picture on the right.

Go through the rest of the prelude and identify the fragments that can be based on motive a or motive b, making note of how they are transformed as the piece goes along.

3. analysis

Now, try to create a narrative through the relationship between motives a and b as they develop through the piece. You can think of a and b almost as two characters in a story.

Here is a starting point for you: in measure 1, think of these two characters (the motives) as being in cooperation with one another. The motives overlap nicely, and together they outline the tonic C minor triad. This gives a definite sense of gloom and lamentation.

For your analysis, write a short essay (<500 words) that answers the following questions:

1. Which motive represents order, and which represents transgression?
2. Which side of this battle (between transgression/order) do you, as the listener, sympathize with?
3. According to your answers in questions 1 and 2, which narrative archetype does this piece represent: romance, tragedy, comedy, or irony?
4. In which passages does either order or transgression seem to be “in charge”?

In addition to tracing the motives, here are other elements that you may consider in any narrative analysis (this also comes from Almén):

• Spatial and temporal aspects of the piece. For example: registral shifts or gaps, changes in a prevailing or normative key or rhythm, etc.
• Any change or development in a musical parameter. For example: the sense of increasing momentum associated with accelerando passages.
• Any programmatic associations linked with themes, motives, textures, or with the work as a whole.
• Expressive markings as coloration of other meaningful events. For example: when extra emphasis is implied by a crescendo or marcato marking.
• The use of text, descriptive titles, or supplemental explanatory material, when appropriate.

Please respect the 500 word limit on the short essay. I have to read a lot of these! If you want to have additional discussion, I’m happy to do this over video chat.

Grading

• You will be assessed on the following concepts:
  • Good identification of motives throughout the entire piece
  • Proper application of order/transgression concepts, including sympathy
  • Good support for narrative archetype
• You will be given detailed feedback through the rubric. Click “View rubric” in the gradebook to access this.
• Assignments are always graded pass/fail, with a threshold of 70% to pass.

Submission

• Submit only your mini-essay. There is no need to submit a separate score, but make sure it’s clear what aspects of the score you are referring to by using measure numbers, pitch names, etc.

• Submit your assignment on Canvas.
• Upload your assignment as a .pdf attachment. Please do not use other file types.

Bibliography

If articles are not available online, you should be able to find them in the Readings folder on Teams.