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The last for awhile from the Bear McCrary and the Battlestar Galactica series. Passacagilia contains one of my favourite motifs right now. I will include both the string and piano version, as I am slowly working on music. It is quite past my level (alternating 6th’s quad chords!) but this it is one of those songs I cannot seem to get out of my head.
The Battle Star Galactica Motif continues, with the 6/8 Shape of Things to Come last week, Allegro is in the spotlight 4/4 this week. Bear McCreary works his magic for us again. Love the syncopation in this piece. Sadly, the piano reduction for this is way beyond me at the moment.
The Shape of Things to Come theme
This theme, also referred to as the “Passacaglia“, “Allegro“, or “Opera House theme“, is one of the few recurring motifs in Battlestar Galactica — along with “Worthy of Survival” — not associated with a particular character or group of characters. Appearing in the first season soundtrack as “Passacaglia” after the Spanish and Italian musical form that it follows, the theme was first introduced over the opening montage of episode “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part 1“. In “Kobol’s Last Gleaming, Part 2”, it plays as Baltar has a vision amid the ruins of the Opera House on Kobol of that structure as it was during Kobol’s glory days. He is informed by his internal Number Six that the mysterious infant he sees within — apparently Hera Agathon — is “the first of a new generation of God’s children” and “the face of the shape of things to come.” The theme also accompanies Number Three’s visions of the Final Five set in the Opera House in “Hero“, but its usage is not limited to the Opera House setting: in “Home, Part 2“, “Pegasus”, and “Unfinished Business” it accompanies emotionally resonant scenes that concern the fate of characters or their relationships. In the third season soundtrack, it features in the track “Violence and Variations”, where it is interwoven with Lee and Kara’s love theme, and “Under the Wing.” The final version serves as the outro to “An Easterly View”, which plays as Admiral Adama sits next to Laura Roslin’s grave in the series finale.
Each major variation of this theme is in a different meter: “Passacaglia” is in 3/4, “The Shape of Things to Come” is in 6/8 and “Allegro” is in 4/4.
We’ll be seeing Passacaglia and Allegro in the future as well.
Silly. Oh so silly.
Thank the Swedish for this lovely piece.
Swedish Lyrics:
Vem kan segla förutan vind?
Vem kan ro utan åror?
Vem kan skiljas från vännen sin
Utan att fälla tårar?
Jag kan segla förutan vind,
Jag kan ro utan åror.
Men ej skiljas från vännen min
Utan att fälla tårar.
Vem kan segla förutan vind?
Vem kan ro utan åror?
Vem kan skiljas från vännen sin
Utan att fälla tårar?
English Lyrics:
Who can sail without the wind,
Who can row without an oar,
Who can leave behind a friend,
Without just one tear to pour?
I can sail without the wind,
I can row without an oar,
But I cannot leave a friend,
Without just one tear to pour.
Who can sail without the wind,
Who can row without an oar,
Who can leave behind a friend,
Without just one tear to pour?
Tori Amos is a fabulous musician. Her dexterity and voice are quite amazing.
The video of the same song, with her commentary.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSykrt_k4WU
“John’s Book of Alleged Dances strikes me as a modern equivalent of John Playford’s English Dancing Master, in effect an early fake book of popular tunes for musicians. Playford printed just melodies from which “head” arrangements were probably made. Recently, it became the fashion among early music groups to provide complex realizations of these tunes, realizations probably far more sophisticated than anything heard during the Dancing Master ‘s vogue. Adams has done roughly the same. I love the tension between “high” and “low” in Adams’s work. “Dances,” of course, implies rhythm. Rhythm certainly stands out here. In his beautifully written liner notes for the album, Adams claims that he uses the term “alleged,” “because the steps for them have yet to be invented.” Nevertheless, we can hear snatches of dances: bluegrass fiddle, “slow dancing” from the Fifties, jazz riff, habanera or Latin rock, and so on. Adams scores the work for string quartet and tape loops, derived from samples of prepared piano, where essentially one places paper and assorted bits from the hardware store on the piano strings to get clicks, plinks, and buzzes. The loops function like a pop rhythm track, and here the piece gets interesting. Adams frees the quartet from the beat, so much so that the beat becomes ambiguous, yet at the same time retains rhythmic sharpness. Often the meter seems to fluctuate between triple and duple time, which transforms the rhythmic emphases of the loops. This, of course, is a feature of most American black vernacular music.”
John Adams the composer.
The music of John Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist although in interview he has categorised himself in typically witty fashion as a ‘post-style’ composer. While Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict follower of the movement. Adams was born a generation after Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and his writing is more developmental and directionalized, containing climaxes and other elements of Romanticism. Comparing Shaker Loops to minimalist composer Terry Riley’s piece In C, Adams says, Read the rest of this entry »
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