Hopefully, in the past few days, you were able to enjoy Dave Hurwitz’s gift in motivating active listening to music. He guided us through the language of wordless music, and through the power of harmony (click on links if you missed it).

Today, he unveils the linked concepts of Topics (Topos) and Timber.

0:00 Continuing to actively listening to great music: Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt suites, now focusing on “Morning mood”, one of the most iconic tunes of all time.

4:21 Topics and Timber in music are the focus of this video. Topics will be viewed through the example of the pastoral topic in music.

8:10 listen to “Morning mood” (4 minutes)

12:30 review of what makes outdoorsy-sounding music: 1.use of woodwinds 2. Rhythm: use of compound meter like 6/8 (defined simply by Dave). 3. Use of drone basses.

19:25  compare to other great music using some or all these pastoral musical devices.

21:00 listen to excerpt from Handel’s “PIFA” from The Messiah

23:00 listen to excerpt from Haydn’s Symphony 88

25:00 listen to excerpt from Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony #6,

27:45 listen to excerpt from Dvorak 5th symphony

29:44 pastoral harmonies are simple and euphonious. Conclusion on the pastoral topic.

32:30 Timber. How Grieg modified his “morning mood” for the piano, not having the timber of woodwinds so important to the pastoral topic.

38:00 listen to “Morning mood” on the piano. Dave’s remarks on the piano version.

46:20 listen again to orchestral “Morning mood” after all we have learned about topics and timber.

Note: at 32:00 for about 3 minutes, you may have to hear Dave’s opinions about other opinionated musicologists. Dave’s opinions are his own (that’s his channel!).

Thanks for reading, and listening to Dave,

Hervé