7.c. Musical features
iii. Musical form
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A Flower in the Haze
A Flower in the Haze is a lyric piece in strophic form. It adopts a stable four-beat and andante speed, the tune is melodious and beautiful, full of illusion and imagery. The poet uses flowers and fog as a hint of a mysterious beauty. The poem is short and concise, only four sentences express the recollection of the beautiful past and the melancholy of the injustice of reality. The atmosphere created by the poem is hazy, obscure and real.
Below is a summary of the poetic structure in relation to musical forms for a better explanation.
Immediately following the second lyric "nor haze", the melody is advanced four degrees upwards (P4), and the same technique is used with D (Gong=Do) as the axis. A musical sequence is shown here.
Part b refers to Elucidation, which appears in mm. 5-6. Elucidation means borrowing the ideas before to further develop. This phrase shares the same rhythmic patterns as before since there are the same numbers of characters and so rhetoric ideas. The overall trend is downward from again A (Zhi=So), the same note as in mm.3, the end of the phrase falls on E (Shang=re), and the accompaniment sound is extended, making the sonority soft and ear-wrenching. It is worth mentioning the harmony: the first bar mm.5 is the same as mm.3, but later on it develops to a different chord in mm. 6.
The third sentence embarks part C, which is Transition (mm. 7-8). This melody is a continuation of the previous line, following the ending sound E (Shang=re) of the previous sentence. Yet, the previous sentence goes down, on the contrary, this sentence progressively goes upward, making the melody very fluctuate. In the lyrics "brief (不多, mm.8)", the melody jumped up with five degrees (P5), pushing the whole song to a climax. After that, the melody gradually descends to the end, as if everything is as beautiful as “sweet dreams (春夢)”, but short and unpredictable.
In the fourth sentence of the passage (part d), which is also Summary (mm. 9-10), the melody gradually descends with the emotional decline in line with the verse. In the word "cloud (雲, mm.9)" in the lyrics, a big jump of seven degrees down (Minor 7th) was used. In the end, the melody returned to the calm and composed D (Gong=Do), as if a beautiful dream became more and more blurred and disappeared. The end of the extension of the accompaniment gives people a feeling of indistinctness, adding to the mysterious atmosphere of the music.
Longing for Home
This song was composed according to modern poetry. It has a lot of freedom in terms of rhetoric ideas. In an earlier recording, there was Tempo rubato and even specific diction requirement to stress the syllable. Huang combined varied harmony, tempo, and volume to create different musical atmospheres, helping listeners better imagine the emotions conveyed by the poems or the scenes described in the poems.
Below is a summary of the poetic structure in relation to musical forms for a better explanation.
Please also refer to the music score for better understanding:
In the introductory part of the music (Intro, mm.1-4), the piano prelude is active in both the melody and the bass part, for example a big jump in the mm. 1 (Bb-F, Perfect 5th) and mm. 3 (F-C, Perfect 5th), arpeggio is used in the bass part, pushing the progression. The introduction part ends at mm. 3-4 with the perfect cadence of "V7- I".
In the first part (A), this section is composed of two phrases a and b of 4 bars each, which is a parallel section of "4+4".
Among them, the first phrase a (Introduction, mm. 4-8) is written according to the syntactic structure of "short + short + long", which is divided into "1+1+2 measures". The overall melody has a downward motion, and the material presented in Prelude proceeds downward in a progressive form. In the long sentence, many decorative notes with rich melodic colours are added to the second descending interval, which makes the phrase idea extended and elongated , the a section stays on the ii chord on the first beat of mm. 8.
In b (Elucidation, mm. 8-12), compared with the first phrase a of mm. 4, it is carried out in parallel by minor 2nd, following the arrangement of "Long Sentence" in the last two bars (mm. 6-7) of the first phrase, and the overall phrase length is longer. This phrase has a "Long+Short+Short" structure, which is just the opposite of the structure of a, and b finally ends with the harmony of "V7-I" in mm.11-12, ending Elucidation.
Interlude starts at mm. 12-15. Although it only consists of 4 short bars, it also has the function of inheriting transition. mm.12-13 take over the middle material of part A and make a musical transition; modulation appears in mm. 14-15, using the f# of the leading tone to gradually change the key to g minor. In mm.15, through the progression of "vii/V - V7 - i" in g minor, perfect cadence is formed, leading to the final section Transition.
Finally, (B), mm. 17-27 consists of two phrases c+d.
Sentence c is Transition (mm.17-21), which is entered by g minor. The syntax is "short + short + long". The two "short sentences" in mm. 17-18 are the sequence of the M3, pushing the whole song to the climax on the G. In mm.19-21, the syntax of music is long, and the melody trend is in the form of a descending scale.
Part d is Summary (mm. 22-27), near the end of the music, the note extends upwards and finally stays on the tonic of the mode (Eb), and the tonality returns to the initial Eb Major, which is the same as the end of the last two bars of the Perfect Cadence (mm. 11-12, V7-I), but the duration of the note is extended to 4 measures, and marked with a diminuence (Allargando). It seems that the author's homesickness is gradually drifting away.
