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'Take her to Sea Mr. Murdock' by James Horner

Composer	Film	Work	Page
(b) James Horner	Titanic	`Take her to Sea Mr. Murdock’	440

Context

This music was composed for the film ‘Titanic’ The film is based on the true story of the ship Titanic which was built to take passengers across the North Atlantic ocean between Southampton in England and New York in the USA. The Titanic was advertised as the largest ship in the world and was designed to be unsinkable. The ship was sunk on its maiden voyage by a large iceberg and most of the passengers were drowned.

The film has characters with the same names as the real characters and the set was modelled on the real ship down to the furnishings and decorations. There are shots of the real ship taken as it lies on the bottom of the Atlantic merged into shots of the set. ‘Tale us to sea Mr Murdoch’ is the latest of the extracts bringing film techniques into the late 1990s. The music shows a masterly control over diverse moods and textures. The traditional full orchestra is still used but initially with the addition of SATB choir and later uses synthesised voices.

1. Rudiments and identifying elements (also refer to GCSE vocabulary www.musichelp.info)

Element	question	Answer
Pitch	Write down the part and the correct pitch of the lowest note in bar 19?
melody	In which parts is the melody at bar 30?
melody	In which parts is the counter melody at bar 30?
tonality	What is the interval between the soprano and alto parts in bar 30 bets 2, 3 and 4?
harmony	1. Describe the block chords used in the synth part bars 37 and 38. ( The first 3 chords of bar 37 are I, I, IVb ) 2. Wich broken chord is played by the harp in the last 4 bars of the work.
rhythm (note values)	What is the meaning of the two diagonal lines through the note in the viola part in bar 32?
rhythm (metre	Name a bar with a 5/4 time signature? Fully describe what it means.
rhythm (metre	Name a bar with a 6/4 time signature? Fully describe what it means.
Tempo	Describe the starting tempo’
dynamics	Describe the dynamic changes in the horn part bar 12?
articulation	What is the meaning of ‘pizz.’ and ‘arco’ in the double bass part bars 1 and 5?
Structure
instruments	1. Which two instruments will sound an octave lower than written? 2. What is the meaning of Unis.violins, bar 8? 3. Where is the first example of tremolo in the violin part? 4. Bar 79 - 89 in the harp part there is a diagonal wavy line. What is the technical term for this and what does it mean? 5. What is the term used to describe using the voice without using real words as in the opening of this work
instrument groups	What is unusual about the choice of woodwind instruments?
Periods
styles
Context	What part does this music play in the film’ Titanic’?
transposition	What is the concert pitch of the highest note played by the trumpets at bar 8?
range	Where is there an example of string writing where the parts are doubled at the octave?
Italian terms	What is the meaning of ‘andante’ at bar 1?
Italian terms	What is the meaning of ‘poco meno mosso at bar 11?’
Italian terms	What is the meaning of senza sord. bar 22 violin part?

Describe the texture in the first three bars

The work opens with a canon at the octave wuth the first entry at bar1, the second bar 2 and the third bar 3. The theme has a scalic movement gently ri The parts overlap at one bar intervals before moving into a new texture at bar 4 .

Give three reasons why the texture from bars 15 -17 give a feeling of a ship going to sea.

1. Four rising and four falling quavers played in 3rds by the horns and 2nd violins

2. Four rising and Four falling broken chords moving as quavers with increasing and decreasing dynamic clarinets and first violins

3. Leaping crotchet octaves between double basses and cellos 7 double basson and bassoons.

Describe the differences in texture between bars 70 and bar 71?

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