Here are some of the techniques we discussed in Episode 4 of Mastering the Craft.
Tonal Degrees vs Modal Degrees:
Let's take the key of E Major for our example.
The Root, Fourth, and Fifth or Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant are called the Tonal Degrees are the foundational pillars of Tonality. They remain the same in Major or Minor.
The Third and Sixth, or Mediant and Submediant are the Modal Degrees. They define the mode you are in since they differ in Major and Minor.
The Second Degree, or Supertonic often functions as a Dominant of the Dominant or is absorbed into Subdominant. It is therefore considered to be a Tonal Degree, but with much less strength in defining Tonality.
The Seventh Degree is the Leading Tone and does not have its own harmonic function. It is absorbed into the Dominant. It can then be considered to be a VII melodically and a V harmonically.
Intermediate Modulation
An intermediate modulation is a temporary modulation of an entire phrase which then returns to the home key. The ear will retain the memory of the first key and the return to the first key makes it appear as if no real modulation has taken place.
Rossini does this twice in this section of the piece. The theme begins in E Major. He then repeats it, but transposed up a fifth to B. Rather than just play an exact sequence in B Major he uses a Change of Mode to B Minor and he also has a bit of melodic variation in the phrase. Next, he plays the theme in A Minor.
Notice that Rossini modulated to the Tonal Degrees of 5 and 4 of the original key of E. So even with the change of mode to minor the strength of the Tonal Degrees is still there. He then returns to the key of E Major, thus creating Intermediate Modulations.
The second time he does this it's to the Flat Sixth, C Major. Modulating to flat 6 is a really fascinating sound because you have the common tone of E, the root of the original key which gives a fairly smooth transition, but the rest of the harmony has a pretty foreign or exotic sound to it.
The theme transposed to C Major.
Skillful use of the Percussion Section:
Measures 4-7
The Timpani is playing the bass note E and the fifth, B, in the same rhythm as the Harmony Section instruments except for the rest in measure 5 for a slight variation (To much Timpani can grow tiresome rather quickly)
In measure 4, The Bass Drum, Triangle, and Snare are almost playing the exact same rhythm, except the Bass drum skips the sixteenth note and only plays the quarter note rhythms. Like the Timpani this is most likely because overuse of the bass drum can get muddy quickly and it also offers a bit of variation (the variations here are what make the percussion writing so good) .
So in Measure 4, you have the Snare and Triangle playing together with the Bass Drum only playing the quarter notes. In measure 5 the Triangle joins in with the Bass Drum and plays the quarter notes.
The snare however has its, own rhythm here with the triplets which cleverly occurs in the space that has now been created in the harmony (the bass, cello, trombone 1-2 and horns in G are all resting and the tuba and Trombone 3 are playing held tones and so is the melody) so this is the perfect time for some rhythmic variation in the snare and it fills that space beautifully.
In Measure 6, they all resume the same rolls as in the 4th measure.
This is a fantastic example of good Percussion writing!
The interplay between Homophonic writing and independent lines
This piece is largely Homophonic, which means that the melody and harmony have the same rhythm. In the example below, where the harmony joins the melody in measure 4 (second bar in the excerpt) you can see that the rhythm of the melody is the same as the harmony.
If he continued this way for the entire piece it would be quite static and much less exciting. What Rossini does, however, is switch every measure back and forth between Homophonic writing and Independence of the lines. So in measure 4, we see the homophonic writing, and then in measure 5, the melody sustains the C# while one section of the Harmony keeps that constant rhythm underneath (first harmony line above) and the other section of the harmony plays that very colorful part in the bass (second harmony line) This blend of 1 Bar of homophonic writing followed by 1 Bar of separate rhythms has a good balance to it and keeps the ears of the listener engaged the whole time.
Now, let's talk about what's going on in that colorful bass part.
Using Ornamentation to make a bass-line much more interesting
This is a very fascinating way to give some movement and coloration to what otherwise may have been a static bass note. Some of the techniques you can use to color or give movement to a bass note are Trills, Neighbor Tones, and Octave Leaps. Rossini uses all 3 of those techniques on the same note (What an animal!). It's important to note, that when you use the trill and the neighbor tone like that it may obscure the true bass note which in this case is D. So, in the piece Rossini also has the Tuba and the Trombone 3 playing sustained D's while this figure above is being played by the Bass and Cellos. The sustained notes help to clarify and strengthen the harmony, while this figure gives it color and movement.
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