The use of Polyrhythms

To end I will just discuss polyrhythm’s to emphasize the complexity differences in the rhythms of the two pieces. Whereas Watts has little to no polyrhythms because that would contrast with the reasons why he wrote the piece, Tchaikovsky scatters them throughout his score. Tchaikovsky begins with more consonant rhythm’s but by the 21st measure he begins to use more polyrhythm’s and then reverts back to using none by the 37th measure until the end.

Baroque era vs. Romantic era

A lot of the aspects of either of the pieces can be explained based on the time period in which the composers were alive and wrote the scores. Watts was alive from 1674-1748, during the Baroque era and wrote Joy to the World during the late Baroque era. Tchaikovsky was alive from 1840-1893, during the Romantic era and wrote Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy during the late Romantic era. One of the reasons that Tchaikovsky’s piece became so popular was due to the time in which he wrote it, this was when nationalist Russia was really becoming a force to be reckoned with musically and really began to grow and expand musically. During the late Baroque era, composers began their attempts to branch out musically and change the way that music was both written and performed, but a lot of composers were still sticking with the old basic styles and ways of writing music that had been done for centuries. The late Baroque era, when Watts wrote Joy to the World is when the real divide between homophonic and polyphonic pieces was beginning to be seen. Watts was decidedly on the homophonic side with the basics of that era that he demonstrates with his piece. Tchaikovsky contrasts the differences in the era’s by writing a piece that is clearly polyphonic and widely accepted by not just his own culture but my others all around the world, as Watts’ was when it was first written and continues to be so. In the Baroque era, the church was still a large part of the culture, especially the British culture, so a piece such as Watts’ about a religious holiday that could be easily performed by many during a service and on the holiday was of course very popular and also explains why Watts would have written the piece that way. However, in the Romantic era, the Russian nation was calling for their own identity and hoping for something that could make them noticed as a nation in the form of art, amongst other things. The Romantic era, as mentioned before, called for music that was much more polyphonic in texture, whereas previous era’s had been more about pieces with the monophonic and homophonic textures. Thus, explaining why Tchaikovsky would have written a more intricate piece than Watts.

The conclusion of Joy to the World:

Conclusions to the pieces

Watts diverges from his straightforward rhythms and chords in the middle of his piece; however he brings it back to those in the last two measures of the piece to conclude it. The first chord is a tonic chord in second inversion which then progresses to a dominant (A major) seventh chord in root position. To conclude the entire piece Watts uses a D major seventh chord in root position, a simplistic ending, however it does get the final consonant ending sound across. Tchaikovsky, being less conventional than Watts does not conclude his piece with a chord of any kind instead, it is concluded with an e in both the treble and bass clefs. Though the methods of getting to the end are quite different, both composers conclude their pieces in a similar way, using the tonic note as a means of finalizing the piece and looking for the consonant, rather than dissonant ending. This kind of ending goes along perfectly with what Watts did with the rest of the piece but for Tchaikovsky this kind of ending is much simpler than the rest of his piece, however it does not sound out of place, rather the opposite, the ending is the kind of conclusion or finale to the piece that an audience would be seeking from Tchaikovsky after his intricate and layered piece. The ending the Watts uses is the ending that makes the most sense for his piece seeing at it is in the tonic key and ending in a seventh chord, which he had many of within his piece.

The composers intentions

Being that Watts’ piece was written as a hymnal and meant more to be sung along with rather than to be danced to and enjoyed just as the music as Tchaikovsky’s the simplicities of Watts’ piece make a greater amount of sense. Thus, the presence of straight forward mostly consonant chords in Watts’ piece also makes a greater amount of sense. Watts would have written his piece with the pianist in mind knowing they would be performing the piece and would also like to sing along and make it simple for the choir or church-goers to keep up with the lyrics and style of the piece. Whereas, Tchaikovsky wrote his piece not so that an audience would enjoy the sound of the music while the dancer could dazzle them with their steps, and if either the music or the dancing was to simple the audience would grow tired of the piece quickly which is an entirely undesirable event for Tchaikovsky, the musicians and the dance company performing.

Measures 2-4 of Joy to the World to demonstrate the straightforward chords:

Chords at the beginning of each piece

Both pieces are filled with chords, chord variations and chord progressions. Joy to the World begins on the tonic chord in second inversion, though the bass note is a D due to the other notes going in the order of A, then F, then D. The second chord in the first bar is a variation on the tonic chord, with mostly dissonant and incomplete results due to it not being the complete tonic chord, as the composer uses variations and lastly the third chord of that first bar is the subdominant seventh chord in first inversion. The first chord of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is likewise a tonic chord; this chord however is in first inversion and is not a seventh chord. The other chord in the first measure is the supertonic chord in first inversion. The second measure of Tchaikovsky’s piece has two different variations on the subdominant chord, with incomplete chords as the top note of each chord being a note that creates dissonance. Measures 3 and 4 are repeats measures 1 and 2. Watts in his second measure returns to much more simplistic, par to the course, chords, with the first one being a tonic seventh chord in root position and then progressing to a supertonic seventh chord in first inversion, there is no dissonance or out of place notes in this measure. The third measure of Watts’ piece includes both a tonic chord in second inversion and a leading tone seventh chord in second inversion. The fourth measure follows with variations on the tonic chord.

Motif from Joy to the World Measure 2:

Short Motif from Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Measure 21:

The main theme of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Measure 5-8:

Intricate vs. simplistic

Tchaikovsky proves to have written a more intricate piece than Watts, this can be explained firstly through the motifs and themes of the pieces. While, Tchaikovsky has several themes and motifs that vary in length and intricacy, Watts, has very few and they are much shorter. The main theme in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy occurs on measures 5-8. This is repeated several times throughout the piece, mainly in the beginning and the end. Measure 21 is a short motif repeated several times in the middle of the piece, it helps to create the climax, but as well creates the important sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy dancing and floating around, that Tchaikovsky was trying to convey through his music. This Motif, is essential to the piece as it is brings across the main thematic idea of the piece, that being the movement of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In Joy to the World, due to the fact that the piece is repeated several times with a different verse each time, while the music stays the same, there are no main themes however, there is a motif. The second measure of the piece is the motif, it is repeated three times throughout, not including the repeats. This motif does not add to the piece the way that the motif in Tchaikovsky’s piece does, however it is still vitally important to the feel of the music, and the creation of the sound that Watts desired.

An example of the rhythms in Joy to the World, Measure 12:

The Rhythm Basics

The rhythm of Joy to the World and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy demonstrates the similarities in the two pieces, which I find highly interesting. Both pieces are more partial to the use of eighth and sixteenth notes than any other rhythm, and then followed by quarter notes. The use of the shorter notes adds to the melodies and overall sounds of the individual pieces by making them have a fuller and richer sound. Watts uses more dotted rhythms in his piece, while Tchaikovsky has much more rests and very little dotted notes. This changes the sound obviously quite a lot. While, the dotted rhythms continue on in Joy to the World, making it smooth and majestic as it is intended, the rests in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy add both anticipation and more of a plot feel to the piece.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Measure 2:

The Keys

To start off I’m going to look at the keys because the keys are essential to know when figuring out other important aspects such as chord progressions and triads. The key signatures of both pieces are distinctly different. While, Joy to the World is in D major, with no accidentals present, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is in the key of e minor, with many accidentals. For example in second measure, in the bass clef the A and C are raised a semitone with the first chord and then return to their natural form with the second chord. As well, in the treble clef the D is raised a semitone. This pattern is then repeated in the fourth measure.

Introduction

Musical Links Investigation
For the musical links investigation, the pieces that I will be looking at are Joy to the World by Isaac Watts and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. While both pieces today are used around Christmas time, to spread the spirit and cheer of the event, the songs come from distinctly different cultures and time periods. Joy to the World was written during the Baroque era of music in England, as piece written for the church to celebrate the holy aspect of Easter (however at a later date it was decided that it was more of a Christmas piece). Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy however, was written during the Romantic era, during the beginnings of the Russian revolution. The piece was written for the Nutcracker ballet as a part of the Grand Pas de Deux.