Word: chordal
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...works on this record are performed with a sense of style, and each is individually satisfactory. The record as a whole suffers from a certain amount of monotony, since most of these pieces are relatively chordal, or else have the separate lines obscured, with the result that there is not much polyphonic interest...
...Williams' extraordinary Flos Campi. In this piece the chorus vocalizes on all kinds of vowel sounds and musically sustainable consonants. The composer was not interested in expressing ideas, but rather in evoking moods by exploiting sheer sonority and tonal colors. Occasionally there appeared such typical Vaughan Williams features as chordal parallelism; but mixed in with them were wonderful wailing appoggiaturas and, above all non-Western melodic lines that so characteristically turned back on themselves--which suffused the whole with a subtle, intoxicating exoticism. An important role went to a solo viola, superbly played by Jean Comstock, which expressed itself...
...jagged vocal line posed inevitable intonational difficulties. Since the music bore no relation to the text, I think the piece would fare best as a purely instrumental duo. On the other hand, "Dream" and "Go Seek Her Out," both for soprano, were truly vocal conceptions, the first with a chordal accompaniment for two clarinets and 'cello, and the second with an attractive arpeggiated piano background. It was a welcome relief, furthermore, to hear songs with the text set straight through instead of having the phrases repeated a dozen times. Thrown in for good measure were the four tuneful airs...
Schuman, who is now head of Juilliard Music School, has here written one of the best of modern symphonies. The work is built on a recurring chordal scheme, much like a gigantic passacaglia. The music does not surrender itself completely on a single hearing, but is well worth repeated listenings. The harmonies are rocky, the rhythms complex, but the orchestration is clean-cut and the symphony is beautifully paced. Ormandy and the Philadelphia give it a vigorous reading, and the recording is fine...
Tilted & Contorted. A prize pupil of Twelve-Tonalist Arnold SchÖnberg, Berg set his opera in the tilted frame of atonality, or better, non-tonality-with no fixed key as a point of reference, or familiar chordal relationships. In his huge (110 pieces), often brassy orchestration, he painted warmly and painstakingly, missing no musical detail that would illuminate a character or a scene...