GCSE Music: Area of Study 3 - Music for Stage and Screen: Main Title/Rebel Blockade Runner - Key Musical Features

How does this piece start?

the full orchestra playing on a Bb major chord marked ff

What does the music of the first three bars feature?

overlapping lines starting with the trumpets and trombones, then the horns, then the tubas in bar 3

What are the rhythmic features of the first 3 bars?

triplet semiquavers and quavers

What does the use of the interval of the fourth in the opening fanfare suggest?

power, strength

What is the structure of the main theme?

ternary

How does the main theme open in bar 4?

with a strong upward fifth interval from the tonic to the dominant, Bb to F

What are the main intervals that are used in main theme?

fourth, seventh

What do the off-beat rhythms in bars 5 and 6 create?

excitement in the music

What can be seen in bars 5 and 6?

superimposed fourths

What is played in bars 4-6?

an inverted tonic pedal played by tremolo strings

How is the middle section contrasted with the opening section?

marked mf

What does the accompaniment in the middle section consist of?

octave strings comprising simple chords, although they may have added notes, bar 12 - Eb major with added sixth

What is a feature of bars 11-14?

a dominant pedal on F in the bass

What occurs at bar 17?

a crescendo to ff at bar 18, leading to a full orchestra three bar link section before the theme returns at bar 21

What does bar 18 feature?

a strong contrary motion dotted rhythmn

What happens at bar 20?

a ritardando

What do the accompanying chords in the reprise feature?

triplet figuration and off-beat rhythms

What does the bass play in the reprise?

the tonic and dominant notes

Bar 28:

trumpet figure rises in pitch to a dominant F major chord

Bar 29:

harp glissando

What does the bass play in the link section?

triplet broken-chord figurations, build up in fourths (F, Bb, Eb, Ab)

What does the build up of fourths in bar 30 create?

quartal harmony

What do the strings play in the link section?

sextuplet groupings, swiftly ascending in compound thirds

Bars 33-35:

feature chromatic chords

How do the chromatic chords in bars 33-35 affect the music?

help to unsettle us as the music moves from bright heroic major keys to a dark and uncertain tonality

What is played above the chromatic chords?

violins and harp play triplet and demisemiquaver broken chords as the dynamic level gets softer to reach piano in bar 36

How does the Rebel Blockade Runner theme provide a strong contrast to the main theme?

- much quieter
- lighter in texture
- very slow
- uses longer note values to achieve a static feeling
- high piccolo writing and harp accompaniment
- high C trills add to eeriness

What does the second link feature?

- sextuplet groupings
- bass part repeats two beats as an ostinato
- brass builds to unrelated C major chord, creating a sense of drama and expectation
- dynamics crescendo

What does the March feature?

- bare octave Cs in bar 42
- timpani and basses play military sounding rhythm, marked ff
- accompaniment of tutti chords
- chromatic major chords, adding strength
- three-bar ritardando

Bar 44:

metre change to 3/4, triplet chords

What does each bar feature in the codetta?

a rhythm of two crotchets and a group of triplet quavers, form a driving ostinato

How does the piece end?

suddenly reduces to pp and ends on a long sustained pedal C