Music GCSE - Wicked Appraisals

What is the change in rhythm of the piece?

• Frequent syncopation - dotted rythms

• Rhythm in vocal part - crotchets and quavers

• Rests break up

What is the change in tempo of the piece

• Lots of tempo changes

• Song slows down at the end - rallentandos

What are the changes in time signature?

3/2 to 2/2 to 4/4 and back to 2/2

What is the tonality in the piece?

• The piece is mainly in D major

• At the start, tonality is ambiguous has unrelated chord sequences and chromatic movement

• In the intro, the piece modulates to B major in bar 20, F major at bar 22, and then to the tonic D major at the start of the verse

• In the ‘unlimited’ section, it is G major then goes back to D major

• After ‘well, are you coming?’, it returns into the chromatic melody of the intro

• It returns to D major for the final verse. The maestoso (played majestically) section is in B minor before a D major chord.

What is the melody of the piece?

• Syllabic throughout - makes words clearly understandable

• Wide range

• Stepwise movement (one tone up or down)

• Big leaps

• Vocalisation at the end

• Leaps in perfect fifths and compound perfect fifths - can be angular

• Melody is legato

• Ascending sequence

What is harmony in the piece?

• Chords are unrelated

• Most chords were in simple root position

• Some dissonance

• There is a pedal note at the end

What are the instruments/sonority of this piece?

• It is a duet between Elphaba and Glinda

• Big range is used - just under 2 octaves

• Singers either speak, sing or lines are half sung half spoken

• Big orchestra for a modern sound

  • piccolo, bass clarinet and cor anglais - woodwind instruments

  • Harp - string section

  • Drum kit, tubular bells and timpani - percussion instruments

• Synthesizers and glockenspiels are used for high pitches magical sounds

What do the instruments play?

• Brass plays homophonic chordal music

• Drum kit adds rhythmic momentum with repeated hi hats

• Cymbal roll into chorus gives excitement

• Tremolo in strings is used for tension

What musical is this song from, from what did the musical generate, who wrote it and when?

The song is from the musical Wicked inspired by the story the Wizard of Oz written by Stephen Schwartz in 2003.

What is the context behind the song?

It is the finale song for the first act where Elphaba discovers that the Wizard of Oz is not a heroic figure. Elphaba wants to fight the Wizard of Oz and sings about going against rules and living without limits

What is the texture of this piece?

• Homophonic (melody and accompaniment)

• Sparse texture with chord stabs in the orchestra and monophonic bars

• Elphaba and Glinda usually sing separately but sometimes sing together in unison or harmony

• Outro is polyphonic with Elphaba, Glinda and chorus singing together

Vocabulary for Rhythm, metre and tempo

Rallentando – To slow down

A tempo – To resume playing at the original tempo of the piece

Syncopation – An interruption of the regular flow of rhythm

Triplet – Playing three notes in the space of two

Fermata – To show that a note should be held longer than the normal duration of the note

Vocabulary for harmony and tonality

Chromatic – Chords with notes that aren’t in the key

Dissonance – A combination of chords that sound harsh and are difficult to listen to

Pedal – A note held through changing harmonies

Bitonal – Two different keys or harmonies played at the same time

Augmented chord – A triad chord with the fifth note being sharp

Circle of 5ths - A diagram that shows the sharps and flats of 12 different keys

Interrupted cadence – When you expect a chord to finish the section of music, but you get another chord which adds color and surprise

Vocabulary for texture

Melody dominated homophony – A voice sings the melody while the other voices sing harmony

Unison – Playing at the same pitch

Contrapuntal – Two or more independent melodic lines performed at the same time

Monophonic – Using only one instrument to play one melodic line

Homophonic – One line of melody played by multiple instruments at the same time

Colla voce – To follow the tempo and rhythm of the soloist

Vocabulary for melody

Ostinato – A repeating rhythm, chord or pattern using repeated through the entire piece

Leitmotif – A theme or melody that reappears, usually representing a character or idea

Compound interval – An interval (the distance between two notes) that is greater than an octave

Angular – A melody line with large jumps, and appears to not be smooth

Sequence – The melody repeated in a higher or lower octave

Conjunct – The melody moving up or down in only a semitone or tone

Syllabic – When the lyrics have one note per syllable

Vocalization – When the melody is sung with vowels or syllables rather than text

Fanfare – The introduction of a piece or song, usually played with brass and percussion instruments.

Motif – A short section of a piece, smaller than a larger section

Vocabulary for performing forces

Tremolo – When you play one or two consecutive notes as fast as possible

Stabbed chords – A staccato chord played for a more dramatic tone

Staccato – To play each note detached or separately from others

Legato – To play in a smooth and connected manner.

Overdrive – Distortion caused by pushing an amp past its ability to produce a clean tone

Sforzando – To play with a strong accent.

What is the genre of defying gravity?

Recitative 

Style of monody that emphasized and indeed imitates the rhythms and accents of spoken language, rather than melody or musical motives

What is the overall rhythm of the piece?

Anacrusis : one or more unaccented notes before the first bar line of a verse

What is the overall melody of the piece?

Compound 4ths/5ths 

4ths : a distance of eleven scale degrees between top and bottom note. 

5ths: a distance of  twelve scale degrees from the bottom to the top note.

What is the overall tempo of the piece?

Colla Voce: a direction for a singer to follow the tempo of the leading singer.

Maestoso: In a majestic manner

What is the overall harmony of the piece?

Sus chords: a musical chord which the third is omitted and replaced with a perfect fourth or major 2nd

What is the overall instruments/voices of the piece?

• Voices: Mezzo Soprano

• Instrument: Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel

• Studio effect: Overdrive - Form of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a fuzzy, growling or gritty tones.

What is the structure of the piece?

Verse-chorus form