Violin Concerto in E Minor, first movement, by Mendelssohn and answer the following questions:

• Does this solo violin part require a virtuoso to play it? Can you identify any particularly difficult things that the player does?

• When is the cadenza played? Is it effective in featuring the soloist?

• If you were going to describe this music to a friend, what would you say?

String Quartet op. 33 by Haydn and answer the following questions:

• How many times is the A theme played?

• How many times is the B theme played?

• When do you hear an imitation of bird sounds?

• What do you hear between the sections of bird sounds?

Please compare and contrast our three pieces using the Elements of Music from your Piece Analysis Worksheets. This week, I will ask you to address one additional question for each of these pieces. Bela Bartok dedicated much of his career to collecting Hungarian folk music and then using it in his compositions. Do you think this is an effective way to preserve the folk music of a particular people/country? What programmatic effects does Britten use to depict war and the horrors of war in his War Requiem? One of the dancers in the "Dance of the Adolescents" will be sacrificed later in the ballet, The Rite of Spring. What do you see being depicted when you listen to this work?

The two giants of the Baroque Period are generally considered to be George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. Using the elements of music, please compare and contrast the 4 selections we are listening to this week, addressing the differences in genre between recitative, aria and chorus in the Messiah oratorio (Handel), and chorale in the cantata (Bach). Please also address the following question: If you were stranded on a desert island and could have the recordings of only one of these two composers, which one would it be? Why?