L4 - Texture and Instrumentation

Lesson 4 Samba Em Preludio

Lesson Objectives:

To understand the different textures within Samba Em Preludio
To be clear why the texture at bar is contrapuntal
To be clear why the texture at the opening is monophonic
To understand the shifting between a homophonic and contrapuntal texture
To know the stripped down instrumentation

Texture

Texture in music is refers to the number of musical layers and how they are related

Before looking at the texture in ‘Samba Em Preludio’ let’s be very clear what is meant by texture. In pairs, come up with a short definition of texture.

The opening introduction is played alone by the bass acoustic guitar. This is a monophonic texture—one musical line on it’s own.

Having Melody A and Melody B played at the same time at the end of the piece is a perfect example of a contrapuntal texture—two independent melodies played at the same time

Verse 1 has a 2-part texture with just the bass and voice. The bass part alternates between a melody + accompaniment (homophonic texture) and independent melodic lines in the bass and voice (contrapuntal texture)

∙ The first 2 bars of verse 1 are more contrapuntal with the next 3 bars being more homophonic.

∙ Verse 2 changes to a 3-part texture with the addition of the guitar. Like verse 1, it alternates between a homophonic accompanying texture to a contrapuntal one.

∙ The guitar solo has a 3-part texture with the solo guitar line, bass line and a guitar part playing chords.

∙ The piece ends with a guitar flourish as the voice fades out.

Summary: The texture alternates throughout from monophonic to contrapuntal to homophonic

Instrumentation

In this set work, the instrumentation is very stripped back

∙ Female vocal

∙ Acoustic bass guitar

∙ Nylon-string acoustic guitar

This is a similar line up to many Bossa Nova tracks of the early 1960s. In this way, it has much more in common with ‘Music for a While’ than ‘Killer Queen’

Notice the double stopping in the bass, when more than one note is played at the same time. We heard this in ‘Release’ in the fiddle part

There is also a mordant in the first bar, which is an ornament that moves from the note to the one above and back. Do you remember that from ‘Music For A While’?

Review Questions:

1) What instruments is ‘Samab Em Preludio’ composed for?

2) How would you describe the texture after the guitar solo and why?

3) How would you describe the texture in the opening 4 bar introduction?

4) How would you describe the texture in verse 1?

5) What technique does Spalding use on the acoustic bass guitar to create chords?

6) What kind of guitar is heard in ‘Samba Em Preludio’?

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