Engaged Listening Sample

Title: “The Galop of the Comedians”

Composer: Dmitry Kabalevsky

Artist (if known): unknown

Musical Elements
Rhythm & Tempo: rhythm: even, uneven, long,
short, rests, duple, triple,
Short, repeated rhythms in a driving pattern at a fast, quadruple, pulsing, driving,
frantic tempo repeated, syncopation
tempo: slow, fast, frantic,
peaceful, moderate, accel., a
tempo, ritard
Melody: pitch- treble, bass, high, low,
middle, mixed range,
Melody begins with a descending pattern; combination of ascending, descending,
conjunct and disjunct motion
melody-conjunct, disjunct,
Fairly high pitches steps & leaps, short or long
Short melody repeated several times phrases, arch, wave, vivid
motif, theme
Harmony & Texture harmony-melody,
accompaniment, rich, sparse,
Homophonic harmony (clear melody with accompaniment), monophonic, polyphonic,
some dissonance but mostly consonance homophonic, consonance,
dissonance, block chords,
Medium texture with several instruments broken chords, resolution

texture-dense, thin, thick,

medium, heavy, light, sparse.
few/many instruments
Tonality: tonality-major, minor, combo,
changing, indistinct, bright,
Music sounds bright and happy which means it’s probably happy, dark, somber, other
based on a major scale

Dynamics & Articulation: dynamics-loud, soft, mezzo,

crescendo, decrescendo
Main dynamic is loud with a big (very sudden) decrescendo
at 0:43. Articulation: staccato, short, clipped articulation-staccato, clipped,
legato, smooth

large contrasts, little contrast

Timbre: bright, brilliant, clear, deep,
heavy, warm, reedy, thin,
Bright timbre, maybe a little piercing breathy, piercing, harsh,
mellow, dark, light, airy

Form & Structure: theme, section, A, B, C…,

phrase, verse, strophic, binary,
Ternary form (since two separate themes can be ternary, antecedent,
distinguished and the first theme is repeated at the end) consequent, restatement,
 introduction, bridge
Actual structure is AABA; begins with a short introduction,
also, several of the sections are connected by bridges
Context: place and time, background
info, purpose
part of Comedians Suite
written in 1940 for Children’s Theater in Moscow
The comedians are an acting group that travels from town
to town to attract a crowd (like the circus).

Personal Response
Physical: How did the
music affect my
This music is very fast and makes me feel like tapping my pen on my body?
desk.

How would I
characterize the
sound of the
music to my
ears?

Emotional: How did the

music make me
The mood this music created for me was frantic. This music could feel?
help me perform a task very quickly (like cleaning up my room –
which I hate to do) since the music is so fast and makes me feel
frantic. What mood does
the music create?

What activity
would this music
reinforce?

Intellectual: What mental

image did the
This piece reminds me of a cartoon I saw once where the good guy music bring to
was chased by the bad guy, and they ran all over the place. mind?

Is there a specific
memory I
associate with
this music?

What else did I

think about as I
concentrated on
the music?

Overall Perception
Two-word Description: Describe the music
using only two
concise descriptive
fast, exciting words.

Rating: Rate the music,

and give a reason
4 – I enjoyed this piece pretty well because it’s fast, short, and for your rating.
exciting. I wouldn’t want to listen to it all the time, though, because
the fast tempo might start to bug me. 5 – Greatly enjoyed
4 – Somewhat
enjoyed
3 – Neither enjoyed
nor disliked
2 – Somewhat
disliked
1 – Greatly disliked