Sunday, April 03, 2005

Bizet's "Two Dances from 'The Fair Maid of Perth'"

This piece is very relaxing, or is it? There are beautiful dongs from some kind of instrument in the orchestra that are played under a simple flute solo. The flute plays a parallel double repeated period. Then another instrument takes this same melody and plays with it. Now the underneath bellish dongs are speeding up and demanding attention from the melody to follow in speed and dynamics. Then another instrument enters and steals the show. Now there are many instruments playing this melody so that it sounds like a round and is crazily exciting since all parts fit together so well and from the beginning I was expecting a very relaxing piece. Surprise! Right when I think no other instrument could take another part of this first theme and change it through timbre and dynamics the entire thing transfers to low orchestra. This register change is dramatic and then the drums come in and bang away pushing the piece forward to the exhilarating end. The only form I know to call this is complex. It makes me think of Merrily We Row Our Boat in a round, only a million times more impressive with variations on the original Row the Boat theme.

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