Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Defying Gravity- Nearpod 2021 - Coggle Diagram
Defying Gravity- Nearpod 2021
Context
A Musical
A less serious version of opera.
Started in the 1920s and developed through 20th and 21st century.
Musicals include singing, dancing, talking and telling stories.
Some based on films and novels
Tonality either in major and minor.
Simple structure with verses and choruses.
Written by Stepehen Schwartz in 2003.
Story: Elphaba doesn't want to live by rules and limits.
Performing forces (instruments)
Duet for two singers: Elphaba and Glinda
Some spoken dialogue (notated with crosses instead of normal note heads)
Large orchestra (woodwind, brass, strings, harp, three keyboards).
A large variety of percussion instruments- drum kit, tubular bells, timpani, etc.
Electric guitars and synths are used to make the music sound more modern.
Strings play with tremolo in bar 34.
Guitars are played with overdrive.
Melody
Leitmotifs- there are several motifs such as the 'Unlimited' theme
Arpeggios
Octaves
Synth
Syllabic
Vocalisation on the word 'ah' (bar 175)
Melody starts conjunct
Ascending sequence bar 6 and 7.
Later the melody has more leaps
Tonality
Tonality starts as ambiguous with some chromatic movements.
D major.
Travels through several keys (in order): D major, B major, F major, D major, G major, D major, chromatic and D major.
Tempo, metre and rythm
Several (5) tempo changes.
Tempos include (in order) free tempo, andante, allegro, moderato, allegro, andante, allegro, andante, maestoso.
Ralletandos are often used at the end of sections.
A tempo (return to the original tempo).
The metre changes frequently (e.g from 3/2, 2/2, 3/2, 4/4).
Syncopation.
Dotted rythms.
Triplets.
Many phrases begin after a crotchet.
Pauses used for dramatic effect.
Texture
The texture in the introduction is thin.
Some monophonic bars.
Mainly homophonic.
Chordal accompaniment is chordal at bar 132.
Elphaba and Glinda usually sing separately but sometimes sing in unison.
The ending is polyphonic (contrapuntal) from bar 168.
Harmony
Chords are in root position.
Chord progressions are usually unrelated.
Some dissonance.
Pedal is used at bar 168.
Structure
Verse-chorus form.
Verse: bar 64, bar 63, bar 135.
Chorus: bar 50, bar 79, bar 103, bar 151.