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Variations on a Korean Folk Song

Variations on a Korean Folk Song. John Barnes Chance 1967. Historical Context. Variations on a Korean Folk Song is based upon a folk tune that the composer learned while serving the U.S. Army in Seoul, Korea. The tune is known as “Arrirang.”

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Variations on a Korean Folk Song

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  1. Variations on a Korean Folk Song John Barnes Chance 1967

  2. Historical Context • Variations on a Korean Folk Song is based upon a folk tune that the composer learned while serving the U.S. Army in Seoul, Korea. • The tune is known as “Arrirang.” • The song “Arrirang” has historically been most popular in Korea when the country has been in a state of crisis. • The song has many verses with a constant refrain and refers to a man about to leave his girl with pain in her heart. As he leaves for a long journey to the capital, she is upset that he will not let her accompany him.

  3. Historical Context • In autumn 1966, for the Journal of Band Research, Chance said: “I became acquainted with the folk song while serving in Seoul, Korea, as a member of the Eighth U.S. Army Band in 1958-59. • The tune is not as simple as it sounds, and my fascination with it during the intervening years led to its eventual use as the theme for this set of variations.”

  4. John Barnes Chance (1932-1972) • Biography from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition. • Born in Beaumont, TX, Nov 20th, 1932 • Died in Lexington, KY, Aug 16th, 1972 • Began studying composition at the age of 15. • Received the BM and MM degrees from the University of Texas, Austin. • Won the Carl Owens Award for student composition in 1956 and 1957.

  5. John Barnes Chance (1932-1972) • Timpanist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra • Arranger for the Fourth and Eighth US Army Bands • Served as composer-in-residence for the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project, Greensboro, North Carolina (1960–62). • In 1966 he joined the music department at the University of Kentucky, a position he held until his death.

  6. Cultural Link • Romantic composers studied folk songs of different cultures and found that many are based around a 5 note pentatonic scale. • Pentatonic Scale: A scale made up of five notes. In this case, Eb F Ab Bb C:

  7. Melodic Analysis • The Variations are based on the 5 note pentatonic scale • There are six transpositions of the pentatonic scale • Canon • Imitation • Inversion • Augmentation • Ostinato • Polymeter

  8. Rhythmic Analysis • The rhythms of Variations are directly related to melodic content. Each variation of the folk tune has its own melodic and rhythmic characteristics. Time signatures include 3/2,3/4, and 6/8.

  9. Theme and Variations • From New Grove: • Theme: The musical material on which part or all of a work is based, usually having a recognizable melody and sometimes perceivable as a complete musical expression in itself, independent of the work to which it belongs. It gives a work its identity even when (as is frequently the case with a theme and variations) it is not original to the work. • Variations: A form founded on repetition, and as such an outgrowth of a fundamental musical and rhetorical principle, in which a discrete theme is repeated several or many times with various modifications.

  10. Folk Song Theme (m. 1-37) • This two-phrase folk tune appears in the clarinets to begin the piece. • The tonal center at the beginning is Ab major, but the tune is first introduced in the dominant key Eb major. • Later, m.17, the tune is presented within a Db major tonal center. Note triple meter.

  11. Variation 1 (m. 38-77) • The first variation maintains the triple meter of the tune. • The folk tune is presented in canon/imitation/hocket style by a reed ensemble consisting of oboe, bassoon, alto clarinet, and Saxes. • The pentatonic scale is now transposed down a major second. • This is a rhythmic variation of the original theme.

  12. Variation 2 (m. 78-115) • The second variation is a melodic variation which first appears in a muted trumpet solo. • The original folk tune is inverted and presented within an Ab minor tonality. • Later (m. 108) the tonal center changes to Cb major. • Still 3/4

  13. Variation 3 (m.116-182) • This third variation abandons the previous melodic developments of Variation 2, instead relying upon rhythmic variation. • Third variation in 6/8 time. • After a percussion introduction, the variation is played by the trumpet section. • The pentatonic scale is now a major third above the original melody.

  14. Variation 4 (m. 183-198) • In this variation there is anew time signature, this time using 3/2 time. • The timbre of this variation is much warmer, as it is heavily dominated by the woodwind section. • The brass enter as the ensemble crescendos to a climax into the next variation. • This is an augmented rhythm of the original tune.

  15. Variation 4 (m. 183-198) • This is also the first time the tune is presented in a sharp key, providing contrast to all of the flat keys previous. • The timpani part provides a triplet ostinato to further emphasize the triple feel:

  16. Variation 5 (m. 199-241) • This variation is divided into two parts. The composer begins with the first part of variation 5 (5-1) with flute and piccolo over a snare drum ostinato, then adds the second part (5-2) in the brass from measure 223 to measure 241.

  17. Variation 5 (m. 199-241) • Variation 5-1 • Snare Drum Ostinato

  18. Variation 5 (m. 199-241) • This fifth and final variation brings the piece to a head. • It begins with a percussion soli section with teraced enterances in each voice. • Each wind voice enters until the entire ensemble is playing. The listener hears a Bb major tonality which is the most obvious tonal area heard to this point. • The triple feel is maintained, but the composer has introduced a hemiola effect in the duple feel of the 5-2 material.

  19. Coda (m. 242-262) • The piece ends with a coda. Sustained notes are contrasted with ascending scalar runs. • The folk tune is recalled before a unison sixteenth-note figure to end the piece.

  20. Harmonic Analysis • Harmonies in this piece are generally the result of the composer’s use of counterpoint. • Each movement has a tonal center, but Western harmonies are usually only obvious at cadences and ends of movements. • From New Grove: • Counterpoint: A term, first used in the 14th century, to describe the combination of simultaneously sounding musical lines according to a system of rules

  21. Tonal Analysis • Folk Song Theme in Ab • M. 1 A • M. 9 B • M. 17 A1 • M. 25 B1 • M. 32 Codetta

  22. Tonal Analysis • Variation I – Ab M. 38 A M. 48 B M. 53 A1 M. 63 B1 M. 68 Codetta

  23. Tonal Analysis • Variation II Ab to Cb M. 78 A M. 82 B M. 90 A1 M. 108 Codetta

  24. Tonal Analysis • Variation III M. 116 Intro M. 124 A M. 132 B M. 140 A1 M. 147 Extension M. 150 A11 M. 158 B1 M. 166 Codetta M. 173 Transition (snare drum)

  25. Tonal Analysis • Variation IV M. 183 A M. 191 B

  26. Tonal Analysis • Variation V Bb M. 199 Intro M. 208 A M. 211 A-B M. 223 A1-B1 M. 241 Coda

  27. Glossary of Terms • Pentatonic Scale- a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave. • Counterpoint- the texture resulting from the combining of individual melodic lines. • Theme- a principal melodic subject in a musical composition • Variations- A form that is an altered version of a given theme, diverging from it by • melodic ornamentation and by changes in harmony, rhythm, or key. • Canon- consistent, note-for-note imitation of one melodic line by another, in which the second line starts after the first. • Imitation- the repetition of a melodic phrase at a different pitch or key from the original or in a different voice part. • Hocket- a technique in medieval musical composition in which two or three voice parts are given notes or short phrases in rapid alternation, producing an erratic, hiccuping effect. • Inversion- presentation of a melody in contrary motion to its original form. • Timbre- the characteristic quality of sound produced by a particular instrument or voice; tone color. • Diminution- the repetition or imitation of a subject or theme in notes of shorter duration than those first used. • Augmentation- modification of a theme by increasing the time value of all its notes. • Ostinato- a constantly recurring melodic fragment. • Hemiola- a rhythmic pattern of syncopated beats with two beats in the time of three or three beats in the time of two.

  28. Activities for developing Music Literacy • Warm-ups: • Students will warm-up on the pentatonic scale used in this piece. • They will play it ascending and descending, first in whole notes. • After this they will play it in more complex rhythmic values quarter notes, eighths, triplets, sixteenths, refering to passages in the piece which uses that given rhythmical unit. • This scale may also be transposed as it is in different variations within the work.

  29. Activities for developing Music Literacy • Bring in a guest speaker or peraps a traditional Korean instrumentalist or singer to discuss Korean folk culture and song. Perhaps the students can interact with the speaker in regards to the “Arrirang” melody itself.

  30. Work Cited • Blocher, Larry, Ray Cramer, Eugene Corporon, Tim Lautzenheiser, Edward S. Lisk, and Richard Miles. Teaching Band through Performance in band. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications INC, 1997. 304-07. • Burrack, Frederick. "Variations on a Korean Folk Song." 21 Oct. 2008 <http://www.bsu.edu/web/fwburrack/webpage/variationskorean.html>. • www.grovemusic.com

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