Compare and Contrast: Anonymous, "Viderunt omnes", and Paul Simon's, "Sure Don't Feel like Love"

I wanted to compare "Viderunt omnes" and "Sure Don't Feel like Love" because they are the most unique in terms of the pieces given. The Anonymous piece is much older and has an ancient form of part writing. They use numes instead of the regular notation we are used to. I have only performed a piece written like this once and I was in Music History class, so it wasn't a song performed in a choir it was for observation.

The Paul Simon song is different because it isn't classical, or something that would stereo typically be performed by a band or choir. It is upbeat and easy to listen to, whereas with the other pieces I feel obligated to analyze them more in depth. There are more instruments, more variations in the tempo, louder and softer moments, and etc. For this song, you just want to sit and vibe with the music.

Compare and Contrast Between Ranky Tanky and Symphony No. 1

The two songs I listened to is Ranky Tanky and Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler. The difference between these two pieces are easy to pick out. For one, Ranky Tanky is more of upbeat dancing type of song.  I would expect to hear that song in a gathering for dancing.  Now the Symphony is the complete opposite of Ranky Tanky.  The Symphony is more of a relaxed style.  Something people might say they would listen to to calm their nerves. The similarities between the two are hard to pick out. For one, the instrumentation is similar.  Ranky Tanky uses some stringed, some brass, and percussion.  The Symphony has the same instrumentation in it but its just a little bit more in depth.  In conclusions, both of these pieces are amazing for their own style, but comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.  You can’t!  

Rhythm: Ranky Tanky, Sure don’t feel like love

        Ranky Tanky was published In October of 2016, throughout the piece there were different rhythmic pattern. In the drum-set part he created a clave pattern in the bass drum to drive the piece while creating a different rhythmic design and use of equipment around the set. Listening in you can hear a call and response as well as a break from both the instrumentalist and vocalist. During this piece I really enjoyed how they kept it driving and made the tempo more interesting in the instrumentation. 

      Sure Don’t feel like love was published in June of 2015, throughout the piece he was telling a story. In the piece, I feel he was going through human emotion and the rhythm as well as lyrics was like he couldn’t find words to better describe while the same rhythmic pattern was kept throughout. During this piece, I really enjoyed how he was telling a story while building onto the funk of the piece. That had us drawn into being more interesting in finding out what the piece was about.  

Harmonic similarities between Tocatta from L'Orpheo and Das Rheingold, Prelude to Act I

To me, at first glance, the prelude to Das Rheingold's first act and the Toccata weren't very similar. I was prepared to talk about the thematic difference between the two, one being a Tocatta, fast and virtuosic, and the Prelude being more pensive and tranquil, but upon further listening, I found that they do actually share something very foundational. They're entirely based on and inside the tonic triad. I first noticed this in Das Rheingold's horns. To be fair, I might be stretching this since the piece is in Eb Major but I believe it is borrowing from the tonic of its relative minor. After the arpeggio section in the horns, I believe that melody and harmonies remain inside the tonic triad. L'Orpheo remains melodically inside the tonic triad and all the other instruments switch between playing the Tonic and Dominant with various rhythmic differences.

Toccata from L'Orfeo and Ranky Tanky

In both of these pieces the ensemble use instrument techniques to create a variety of different sounds to get different tone colors. Toccata from L'Orfeo used the instruments that were common within the time period the piece was written to give it a more accurate sound to how the original would have sounded. They used trumpets without valves and stringed instruments without sound holes because those things didn't exist in the time period therefore would have had a different sound quality and tone to modern day instruments. Ranky Tanky used different techniques to keep its tone color on the upbeat sound that it had. Within the percussion they didn't use regular drumsticks or mallets they used what looked like a mallet with fringe at the end to create a more unique sound to create that specific tone color.

Das Rheingold and Toccata from L'Orfeo Layering

Richard Wagner's piece and Toccata both have layering involved throughout. The prelude starts off with a low brass instrument playing a sustained note, then higher brass instruments come in (maybe baritone or french horn?) and they layer with each other. After the low and medium brass layer, the strings come in while the brass instruments keep doing their thing. Then woodwinds come in. In just the first three minutes, there were four different layers of instruments that I heard. Just like Ras Rheingold, Toccata starts off with a low brass note sustain, just with some articulation. While both pieces have nice layers, Toccata's layering moves more quickly than Ras Rheingold. While low brass continues, high brass comes in with the melody. Another high brass part comes in as harmony to both low and high brass. It has similar articulation to the low brass layer, but harmonizes with the high brass melodic layer. After section A, a strummed instrument layers in section B. I really loved both pieces and I think that with these being more layered, they sound really really nice in my opinion.

Layering in Mahler Symphony No. 1 vs. "Sure Don't Feel Like Love"

Despite the differences in style and color of the music, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 and Paul Simon's "Sure Don't Feel Like Love" share some similarities. In the first 1 minute and 15 seconds of the first movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1, the orchestra starts out by playing one note quietly. Other instruments gradually layer on notes from the same chord to create a fuller and more interesting sound. Likewise, in Paul Simon's "Sure Don't Feel Like Love," we start out hearing percussion which drives the entire song, but other instruments, such as guitar and voice, are gradually layered on top of this throughout the piece. The two pieces, however, are different in regards to layering because in Paul Simon' s piece, the layering happens quicker than it does in the first thirteen measures of Mahler's Symphony.

Das Rheingol & Viderunt Omnes- melodic movement

Both of these pieces caught my attention with the amount of motion they presented. Das Rheingold started off as eerie and had a  memorial kind of feel to me. Viderunt Omnes was also plain and in a way these were both very understandable because there was one motion happening. By this I mean, there was not tons of harmony that you may have had to dissect. The music was very well received in both pieces. I feel these two songs are comparable because of the sacred and serious feel both of them convey to the audience. 

Viderunt Omnes and Sure Don't Feel Like Love

Viderunt Omnes and Sure Don't Feel Like Love are very different in terms of their lyrics. Viderunt Omnes is a plain chant, meaning mostly all of the notes sung are the same, it's in Latin, and the lyrics are about God. The music is written in neumes, which is basically just symbols that show the singers what pitches to sing. Sure Don't Feel Like Love sounds like an alternative song to me, and it has some very confusing lyrics. The song starts off by saying he registered to vote, and from there the lyrics just get more and more confusing. The similarity between the two is that they are both singing, but in very different ways. This shows how music has come along from being strictly about God to not even having to make sense.

Ranky Tanky, "Ranky Tanky" & Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold, Prelude to Act I – RHYTHM

These pieces both contain prominent rhythms, meaning that I, personally, noticed the rhythm first. Rhythm is a significant musical element, as it is the core of the song. “Ranky Tanky, Ranky Tanky,” obtains a consistently upbeat, faster rhythm. The song is driving, meaning that the rhythm of the song protrudes and aims to grab attention. Das Rheingold, Prelude to Act I, is infrequent with its rhythm. The song begins with a slower, ballad-like rhythm. I would like to note that the beginning of the piece was extremely quiet and I could not find the rhythm the first time I listened to it. Towards the end of the three-minute-mark, the rhythm picks up and the song becomes spritely.

Ranky Tanky and Sure Don't Feel Like Love - Lyrics

Ranky Tanky and Sure Don't Feel Like Love share a good bit of similarities. For one, both songs immediately drew in my attention. I feel that both songs shared the quality of funny lyrics. It was interesting to listen and try to make sense of what the artists were trying to convey. However, they both used very different ways to tell the song's story. One thing that I believe these pieces don't have in common is their way of storytelling. Ranky Tanky used call and response as a way to tell the story of the song, and make sure the audience was involved. Sure Don't Feel Like Love used eye catching descriptions to tell the story. You had to really listen to the lyrics to understand what was happening in the story. Overall, both songs were quite enjoyable.