Above is a rather gross piece of music analysis done by me.
Away in a Manger is a christmas carol first published by composer James Ramsey Murray (1841-1905) during the year of 1885 in an Evangelical Lutheran Sunday School collection entitled "Little Children's Book for Schools and Families". It was set to a tune called "St. Kilda" credited to J.E. Clark. In recent context, this tune is affectionately known as, 'Mueller'.
This piece is an adaptation of the original tune harmonised by Edward L. Stauff. The song flows in an A-B-A-C structure, with the seperation of each section being defined by a pause denoted by a minum. Section A starts from bar 1 and ends on the first note of bar 5. Section B, second note of bar 5 to first note of bar 9. Section A is then replicated for the next 5 bars, and the song finishes with a different melody from section B, hence section C.
The harmonic function starts with a T-PD-D-T function. It is then followed by a short D-T progression of section B. The repeat of section A follows a T-PD-D-T function as expected, and the last section is quite unique, having a PD function preceding a T-PD-D-T ending. This preceding PD could probably be a preparation function to the ending functional progression.
Regarding chord progression, the writer uses much tonic expansions and voice exchanges to decorate the piece. Note the chords after the passing 6/4 in bar 8: I 6/4 - 5/3 ... I. He uses three different chord configurations for the F major tonic chord in the perfect cadential ending of the phrase. Voice exchanges also exist in bars 3-4, bars 11-12, and bars 14-15.
The phrase structure of this piece follows a double period which actually encompasses the entire song. The antecedent period flows from bars 1 to 9, while the consequent period overlaps in bar 9 and ends on the last bar. Within the antecedent period, the antecedent phrase is from bars 1-5, while the consequent phrase overlaps from bar 5 and ends on the first note of bar 9. In the consequent period, the antecedent phrase starts on the 2nd note of bar 5 and ends on the first note of bar 9, while the consequent phrase starts on the 2nd note of bar 9 and ends on the last bar.
Regarding sentence structure, there is no clear definition of and short or long sections within each sentence as the sentence segregation follows a fairly constant pace. If I were to define it, it would be a "long-long" configuration.
ok, it's a pretty well done analysis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the chords and the chord progressions.
However, i saw some parts marked with "voice exchange" which i think are wrong. The voice exchange, in my opinion, only occurs in bars 3, 11 and 14, since a voice exchange would only occur between soprano and bass parts, unless i am wrong.
Another thing which i noticed was that the entire piece could be in a short, short long structure by itself. Meaning, we can consider your first A section as short, then the B as another short, while the last A and C to be the long portion.
Well, this are just my observations, i could be wrong.
Yung Chuen
Yay thanks.
ReplyDeleteIn my analysis I mentioned voice exchanges in bars 3-4, 11-12, and 14-15. Voice exchanges do occur in other parts too, not exclusively to Soprano and Bass parts. In this case, bars 4, 12 and 15 have voice exchanges that occur in the Alto and Bass parts.
To me the song can't be as simple as a short short long sentence, because section A is repeated, and if you were to separate A and B by the 2-beat tonic chord in bar 5, the same should go for bar 15 which separates the repeat of A and section C. Furthermore, each section is ended with a movement from either subdominant to tonic or dominant to tonic, hence each section will sound resolved.
Okay time to comment on yours :)
Guoyong,
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of why the overall structure cannot be a sentence structure is basically correct. Your other response that voice-exchange can be effected by any pair of voices is also right. However, note that there is no literal V.E. in your b. 14 (C-D-E is not counterpointed by E-D-C above).
Having noted the other V.E. correctly, it is a pity you didn't recognize the implication for functional analysis: that the first two VE in the opening phrase expand the T and PD respectively. In other words, the entire first phrase is a plagal expansion of the tonic (i.e. no dominant). For the non-V.E. expansions, you may wish to indicate the voice-leading elaborations. Once you do that, you may discover that actually the opening tonic expansion (I-ii4/2-I) is a different kind of V.E. (3-4-5 against 5-4-3): that is, V.E. can be betw any two chordal tones a third apart.
There are a number of other technical details to note:
i. we normally do not number the first incomplete bar (hence, the last bar is 16), nor do we count any incomplete bar as a complete one (hence, all the phrases are 4-bar in length).
ii. A phrase is not a section (which normally consists of two or more phrases).
iii. A minim is not a pause even if it sounds longer than its surrounding crotchets.
iv. The 6/4 chord in the second phrase is a passing 6/4 insofar as the soprano D is a passing note, but note that the progression here is not the typical passing 6/4 progression. If anything, it is more typical of a cadential 6/4 applied to the final tonic chord.