muchen_ Posted February 21, 2024 Posted February 21, 2024 (edited) Hi all! Here's another fragmentary tripartite aria - it's about halfway complete. What do you think about it? What about the word setting? Edited February 21, 2024 by muchen_ MP3 Play / pause JavaScript is required. 0:00 0:00 volume > next menu bass_aria_audio > next PDF bass_aria 1 Quote
PeterthePapercomPoser Posted March 25, 2024 Posted March 25, 2024 I think this is quite good! I would have liked to hear a harpsichord with it filling out the harmonies - especially where the texture drops out to just two voices it sounds really empty. I can't say anything about the word setting as I don't (at this moment) speak German. I once spoke German as a kid though and since I've recently been using Duolingo to learn Spanish I thought I might eventually give German a try again since I heard that it's easier to remember a language you once knew already. Thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to hearing the completed version! Quote
Hcab5861 Posted April 10, 2024 Posted April 10, 2024 Very very beautiful introduction. I love the use of basso continuo! I feel it could use a more lively obbligato (rising Romanesca schema maybe?) to really emphasize the word painting of 'You who come from heaven.' My German is not the best, but I believe the 'Der' should be on a pickup and 'du' should land on the strong beat (1 or 3) since we want to emphasize 'him' (Gott und Jesu?) Again, overall very very nice. I feel studying the text and some of Bach's arias will help a lot. Look into Da Capo aria form as well if you haven't already. It really helps with extending a piece! Quote
muchen_ Posted April 16, 2024 Author Posted April 16, 2024 Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser and @Hcab5861! I've modelled the overall texture and soundscape off of the bass aria of BWV 159 (which is imo the most beautiful aria Bach has ever written). The omission of a harpsichord continuo and the strings "harmonic halo" are both completely intentional - I want the mood of the music to be gentle, warm, embracing. In addition, I'm a little bit torn on Da Capo form. I think it works well in duets but by default I tend to avoid it. From a singer point of view I don't get excited about singing the first part of the piece exactly twice, and from a compositional point of view, your ritornello theme better be REALLY good to warrant a minimum of four exact repetitions (but more typically six to eight repetitions including fragments), at least for those themes that are tonally closed. I much prefer the scheme of ABA' in these cases (e.g. see the alto aria in BWV 197), where A ends in the dominant and A' ends in the tonic. 2 Quote
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