Music Appreciation - Week 6: Haydn, Mozart, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Sonny Rollins and Leanard Bernstein

MUSIC APPRECIATION WEEK 6: CLASSICAL I

This week we will be looking at the teacher (Papa Haydn) and his best student (Mozart). Along the way, we will watch Leonard Bernstein explain Sonata form and help you all become expert listeners...which you will all prove by unanimously getting an A+ on the Music Quiz afterwords!

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 - 1809)

Enjoy this spirited performance of Haydn's Fantasia in C by Malcolm Bilson:

SONATA FORM

Even some musicians don't really understand Sonata form, possibly the most important musical form in history. Well, my gentle and balanced students, you will all be experts in Sonata form after a visit with conductor, composer and teacher Leonard Bernstein:

Lets listen to the Beatles play "And I Love Her." See if you can follow the ABA form.

That was from the movie Hard Days Night, by the way. A good movie.

OK, now back to Lennie and the New York Philharmonic.

The basis for Sonata form is an ABA structure but this structure is also very common in popular music today. I would like to call this final part of this week's blog:

LED ZEPPELIN, DIZZY GILESPIE, SONNY ROLLINS AND VAN HALEN JAM ON SOME ABA

Here is another example of ABA form from the psychedelic 60s:

Jazz has a lot of songs that are in ABA form. Typically, first they usually play a "head", which is the written out part of the tune, with the melody and chords ("changes"). After that different soloists will improvise melodies based on the "head." After that, they return to the "head' once more. In a way, if you look at the "head" as A and the improvisation as being B, you can see that this is an ABA form.

In this next video clip we will see Dizzy Gillespie playing " A Night In Tunisia". The "head" itself is in ABA form with a coda added to the end. The A section of the "head" has a Latin feel and the B section is swing. Actually, to be exact, the form of the head is AABA, much like Sonata form.

Here is a clip of Sonny Rollins playing "My One and Only Love". The A section of the "head" is in a a major key, while the B section is in minor. The form of the head is AABA. See if you can follow the form on the head. For even more of a challenge, see if you can follow the form even through Sonny's improvisation.

Here is an interesting thought. In Sonata form, we consider A to be both the exposition and the recapitulation and the B section to be the development. In a way, this is what Jazz musicians do with their improvisations. They "develop" ideas from the "head" in their improvisations in the B section.

To make this very clear, look at the following chart:

Sontata form in classical music:

A: Exposition

B: Development

A: Recapitulation

Typical Jazz arrangement:

A: Head

B: Improvisation

A: Head

The main thing that is missing from Sonata form in Jazz are the key relationships but at least you can see how ABA as a structural form is still prevalent today.

To end our discussion, let's look at Van Halen's "Jump", featuring one of Eddie Van Halen's greatest guitar solo's. Eddie is the master of the 20 second guitar solo. I consider this song to be an example ABA form due to the key relationships between the song itself and Eddies guitar solo. The song itself is in C major but the guitar solo is in B-flat minor, distant key from C. This key change really showcases the guitar solo and calls attention to the listener that something new is happening.

If you listen to Van Halen, you will notice he does this a lot. Here is another example from the same time period:

Now, please go to this week's Music Quiz:

Music Quiz