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Music theory
Musical analysis

Recomposing Van Hemel's 'Fantasia'

The dutch composer Oscar van Hemel (1892-1981), pupil of among others Willem Pijper, wrote the 'Fantasia' (1945), that consists of 10 short pieces for piano solo. They are traditionally connected to small compositions like Schumann's Kinderszenen or Album für die Jugend. The titles of the pieces refer to compositional techniques (e.g. canon), to mood (e.g. Joyeux) or to more musical portraits (e.g Berceuse or Walzer Viennoise). A closer look at the some playful and easy pieces reveals that 'Fantasia' is an example of an excellent educational project, that can give music student a lot of ideas.

In this section, I use more or less a method of simulated composition and will recompose pieces of Van Hemel's 'Fantasia'. Simulated composition is a very useful analytical tool, for it uncovers principles of the creative process that really matter; principles which get lost in a purely disintegrated analysis.

FantasiaTopicView PDFDownload MP3 (Right mouse click > Save link as)
1. no. 1Canon (on one chord)View PDFDownload MP3
2. no. 7Canon (on two chords)View PDFDownload MP3
3. no. 4'Comique', about note repetition and linesView PDFDownload MP3
4. no. 9'Berceuse', about antecedents and consequentsView PDFDownload MP3
5. no. 5'Oriental', about prolongation of tonesView PDFDownload MP3
6. no. 2'Danse', about making a melodyView PDFDownload MP3
7. no. 6'Valse', applying a germinal motiveView PDFDownload MP3
8. no. 8'March', about motivic relationsView PDFDownload MP3
9. no. 10'Joyeux', the triad as melodic and harmonic forceView PDFDownload MP3
10. no. 3'Valse Viennoise', breaking linesView PDFDownload MP3