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Analyzing Nicholas Mochocki's Sleepy Hollow

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The following performance of Sleepy Hollow featured Nicholas Mochocki, a boy soprano from the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. The piece starts off at a rather quiet dynamic. With the few introductory notes from the piano, Nicholas Mochocki sings a very connected melody consisting of long duration notes, and creates an etherial mood. Violins serve as an accompaniment and effectively support the sound of the soloist. The violins have moving notes in response to the sustained notes from the singer, pushing the phrase forward. The dynamic level drops slightly and the violin is now playing a line comprised of eighth notes with low brass holding a note underneath, and the choir later adding to the chord. The boy soprano starts again with the …show more content…

A slow crescendo is lead by the strings and low brass play a phrase with very low pitches in small intervals, creating a dark tone. The choir sustains a minor chord overtop this. This section of the music is getting heavier due to large amounts of lower voice instrumentation. The snare drum then plays a rhythm comprised of sixteenth notes, which resembles a typical march line. The melody is later carried by the double basses and the cellos. After a few bars, the boy soprano sings the main melody of the piece while the violins play a very frantic run using scales ascending and descending at random scale degrees. The short durations in contrast with the sustained notes create a very interesting effect on the mood. The melody shifts over to the violins who play a connected series of held notes in the higher register of the instrument. The chord is built up slowly as more instruments gradually make subtle entrances. When brass join, the section continues to build up, and is being pushed forwards. The trumpets then play repeated eighth notes underneath. The dynamic is building up and is very close to reaching a climax until a sforzando, transitioning to the final melody from the boy

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