Outline For MHS 121 Paper

Outline for MHS 121 Paper
I. Introduction and summary of Armed Man tradition

a. Secular tune that has no clear origins that turned into a phenomenon
b. Set to masses, song cycles, and changed/added onto by composers
II. Overview/Roadmap to essay and thesis
a. On Extempore II, the armed man tune is used and transformed to fit the
message of the newly composed song through the development of rhythm,
form, tonality, and texture.
III. Explanation of Bloom’s theory of poetic influence
a. Intertextuality: Changing and developing a part of the syntax or form of the
original piece while still keeping the old. Comparing the old to the new and
juxtaposing them to show them “locked in conflict”
b. Anxiety: The fear that their own work will never be as good as the original. How
do they “make room” for themselves? Makes composers push their
competitors aside
c. Misreading: When an artist tries to reinterpret a predecessors works and
misread the purpose for which they created the work. This creates room for
musical freedom and new ideas to revise and recreate the work at hand.
IV. Summary of Extempore II and description of three select works
a. Motet: “The Man, the Man”: Mixed meter; duple and triple feel, battle of
meters, perfect intervals in voices, Use of tritones, jazz sonorities and chords,
solos, improvisation
b. Gloria – “Glory Be” (Track 5): Overlapping voice texture, soloist at the
beginning, a jazz-like ostinato that includes a triplet against duple feel. Giant
Golria form.
c. Epistle – “Prayer” (Track 7): Solo sax with combo in background, Rondo form
with armed man tune as theme.
V. Transition: Why and how can Bloom’s theory be applied to music?
a. Music and Poetry are both art forms in which one build on another’s work
b. how explained in III
VI. Application of Bloom’s conceptual framework to Extempore II
a. Motet: “The Man, the Man”
i. Intertextuality: use of triple rhythms in the old version but in the new
version, the use of duple rhythms is introduced in the form of 5/8 time.
Juxaposing the old and new – mixed meter, Influence of jazz – battling
against each other? Matches aggressive armed man text.
ii. Anxiety: rewritten in a completely different tonality (G major) in stylistic
texture written four voices and Jazz Quartet which is in extremely rare
ensemble especially in the competing manner in which they perform.
More likely to be “disseminated by performance”
iii. Misreading: changed tonalities to make a major key with a festive like
feeling. When re-composing this melody, I think the arranger miss read
the context of the armed man song. The aggressive nature of the text
suggests that the melody to accompany it shouldn’t be a joyous jig like
one such as in track 1. Perfect houseplants sought to “say what they
want or need to hear.”
b. Gloria – “Glory Be” (Track 5)
i. Intertextuality: was able to preserve the form of the Gloria prayer as it
is performed in the mass ordinary. Big effort to make a difference
between quarter note triplet and half note. Changes subdivision in
beginning to duple even though in the original the entire piece was in
triple. Later in the new version, the subdivision changes to triple
incorporating both duple and triple rhythms and feel.
ii. Anxiety: honest to the style of a responsory – melismas are swapped
out for improvisation – the jazz version of a Gloria successfully re-
create something and “Clears space” by putting a modern twist on it.
Voices alternate the same passages in succession while transposing
up perfect fourth and fifths – could be extrapolating on Hocket during
the Ars nova and Renaissance time periods. In which the armed man
song was very famous
iii. Misreading: use of syncopation at bucks a, the shift between Duple
Quarter note triplets at measure 50, and the “house plant groove” all
create a sense of uneasiness because of the constant switch between
duple and triple subdivisions. This works in the jazz sections because
of the way swing style works but during the vocal lines especially at the
solo before measure 50, we feel an uneasiness as the solo ends by
changing to duple after have been in triple.
c. Epistle – “Prayer” (Track 7)
i. Intertextuality: extended the form of the armed man and added to it
create a similar form to the Rondo form. Using the first five bars of the
arms man tune as the “theme.” This extended the pieces length which
made the newer piece much more grand than the older piece. Kaizen
ideas of citation and authority and vying with the original work.
ii. Anxiety: short theme catchy tune that we’ll gain popularity. Extended
word of arms man tune. Rondo and variations on a theme are very
popular in popular music within the Canon. Has everything the original
has it even more containing impressive solos and improvisations that
will draw audiences and encourage dissemation through performance.
iii. Misreading: uses the melody at beginning of the tune but doesn’t use
the whole tune. Texted part that said “the man, the man, the armed
man, the armed man.” Takes the “fear” out of the peace and sets the
text that does that the Jazz context to a jazz Texture. Appropriate and
sensitive use of the armed man tune.
VII. Other evidence / observations in support of thesis
VIII. Conclusion/s
a. On Extempore II, the armed man tune is used and transformed to fit the
message of the newly composed song through the development of rhythm,
form, tonality, and texture.
b. Prayer was the strongest because it was sensitive in it’s use of the armed
man tune and didn’t feel the need to use the whole piece. I think the
composer with the most talented are the ones that don’t need to borrow a lot
of material. The ones that can create a large amount of new material out of a
small amount of old.

Outline For MHS 121 Paper

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Outline for MHS 121 Paper

I. Introduction and summary of Armed Man tradition

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