Due Friday, April 18th:
Listen to Ligeti’s Atmospheres (<Atmospheres.mp3>, in iLocker) and write a sectional analysis of the work.
Use Kostka’s analysis of Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima on p. 239 of the text as your model. List the section number, start time (based on the recording I provide), and a brief description of the musical material that comprises that section and makes it different from the previous and subsequent sections. If you hear material returning from previous sections, make note of that.
Since the work is an example of sound mass composition, you will find little (if anything) in the way of traditional thematic material. Instead, you will want to focus on items such as register (high, medium, low), range (the distance from low to high within a single mass or gesture), texture (thick mass, combination of high and low, etc.), dynamics, articulation (accents) orchestration (what instruments are being used, such as strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and if one group or groups or dominant in a section), rhythmic activity within a mass, and general degree of consonance and/or dissonance.
Turn in your analysis via email to my bsu account.
Leave a Reply