Harmonic & Structural Analysis of Marcel Bitsch, Concertino Pour Basson Et Piano
TMU302H1 Harmonic & Structural Analysis of Marcel Bitsch, concertino pour basson et piano
Marcel Bitsch composed his Concertino pour basson et piano in 1948 prior to accepting the position of teaching counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire from 1956 to 1988. It is an exciting piece written using the chromatic scale containing two movements. The piece in its entirety is very animated and neotonal, often using non-functional chord progressions and leaving dissonant chords unresolved. Although the tonal centre is unstable and hard to tell, the overall tonal centre lies around D, with the first movement taking place in a key signature consisting only of Bb which suggests D minor and the second movement with F# and C#, suggesting D major. The movements contrast not only in technical difficulty and feel, but also in instrumental roles and form.
First Movement: Andante
Overall structure: ternary
|m. 1 to 15, (15 bars) |m. 16 to 45, (30 bars) |m. 46 to 59, (14 bars) |
|Section A: theme 1 in bassoon, strong |Section B: theme 2 in piano then bassoon, |Section A: theme 1 returns in bassoon |
|implications of D as tonal centre |strong implications of F as tonal centre |transposed up a perfect 5th and ends with a |
| | |cadenza leading directly into the second |
| | |movement without a break |
The first movement takes place in ternary form. For the first fifteen bars the accompaniment in the piano involves straightforward repeated solid chords with very smooth voice leading as each chord contains at least one common voice with the chord preceding it. The bass notes of each chord also spell out
Marcel Bitsch composed his Concertino pour basson et piano in 1948 prior to accepting the position of teaching counterpoint at the Paris Conservatoire from 1956 to 1988. It is an exciting piece written using the chromatic scale containing two movements. The piece in its entirety is very animated and neotonal, often using non-functional chord progressions and leaving dissonant chords unresolved. Although the tonal centre is unstable and hard to tell, the overall tonal centre lies around D, with the first movement taking place in a key signature consisting only of Bb which suggests D minor and the second movement with F# and C#, suggesting D major. The movements contrast not only in technical difficulty and feel, but also in instrumental roles and form.
First Movement: Andante
Overall structure: ternary
|m. 1 to 15, (15 bars) |m. 16 to 45, (30 bars) |m. 46 to 59, (14 bars) |
|Section A: theme 1 in bassoon, strong |Section B: theme 2 in piano then bassoon, |Section A: theme 1 returns in bassoon |
|implications of D as tonal centre |strong implications of F as tonal centre |transposed up a perfect 5th and ends with a |
| | |cadenza leading directly into the second |
| | |movement without a break |
The first movement takes place in ternary form. For the first fifteen bars the accompaniment in the piano involves straightforward repeated solid chords with very smooth voice leading as each chord contains at least one common voice with the chord preceding it. The bass notes of each chord also spell out