Tuesday, April 05, 2005

tick tack polka--strauss

so I was just browsing naxos, and decided i'd pick a little polka to blog on. i mean honestly, what's better than a polka?
this polka starts off with three hits from the entire slovak philharmonic orchestra follwed by the entrance of the bells which has the main melody. just like the first strain of a march, it begins lightly and grows to a louder dynamic, ending in a PAC, too. this section is a parallel period and then is repeated. however, there is a cadential extension in the 2nd ending, emphasized by the strings.
the next section begins with four measures of a call and response between voices followed by a 4 bar tutti phraselet. again, this is repeated and a cadential extension is added on.
the trio settles in which is mainly a melody provided by the strings, with a few little punctuations by the brass, and, of course, off beats by the french horns. the harmonic movement is fairly simple, including the I IV V I cliche that we know all so well.
the expository melody (as heard at the beginning) is repeated at the end, but a little bit differently. as i said, the bells were the primary melody holders--but now they have a little solo; a tick tock kind of solo, which is why the title is significant, i suppose.
cute, eh?

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