Ruijun Liu

Friday 12:30PM Emma

Paper #5
I will talk about Four Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay, but I will specifically focus
on
the second sonnet. Then I will write a program music for this poem and talk about what musical
element I will use to represent it. There are lots of musical elements that I need to chosse from,
such as medium, form and so on. I also need to decide which ones need to be kept unchanged
and which ones need to be changed. Next, I will talk about one of the program music which has
been discussed in class, Symphonie Fantastique, Movement IV: March to the Scaffold by
Hector
Berlioz. I use this program music to defend my decsion how I compose the Four Sonnets.
The peom talks about how the woman feels when her man has betrayed on her. At the
fist
time, she feels so depressed and she couldnt imagine how could the men lie to her. She is so
desperate for love. Then she thinks that if she says love without jest, the man may love her
back. Now, she knows that what the man used to be like just because he thought she was a
shallow woman. He just wants to have fun, but not a serious relationship. And she knows even
though she loves him, he will never love her back. She laughed at herself and she uses paradox to
describe why she would be faithful if the man never wants to be serious with her and she doesnt
want to be hurt by love again. At last she gives herself freedom.
The musical elements that keep unchanged are medium, form and meter. I will use
orchestra for medium throughtout the whole program music to show the womans spirit that how
she feels anger and despair for love. In second sonnet, I, that had been to you, had you
remained, But one more waking from a recurrent dream. she feels sad about she cant get her

heart even if she gives hers to him. For the theme of the form, I will use ide fixe throughtout
the
poem for recurring theme to represent her beloved. Especially in second sonnet, she feels if she
could say love seriously, he may fall in love with her. But she is disappointment after she finds
he just want have fun with her. At last, even though she feels desperate for love because of him,
she still want to move on and set herself freedom. I will use duple meter which is less lyrical but
more martial because I want use big orcheatra to make the atmosphere full of tension and
resentemnt to show the woman ambivalent feeling. She is not sure whether she need to be
faithful to the love, however, she knows what to do after she sees throught the love.
The musical elements that need to be changed are tempo, dynamic and tonality. The
tempo in the beginning should be a little bit fast and minor tonality to show her feeling after she
finds out how he has been lied to her for this unserious relationship. I use fast tempo to show her
anger and minor tonality to make the song full of sadness that is related to her feeling. The
dynamic is the forte orchestra music to help showing the sad atmossphere. Then the tempo
should be slow to express her wonderful illusion if he can love her back. The dynamic should be
soft and major tonality to show her hope for his love. At last, the tempo should be fast again to
embody that she has out of her contradiction about whether she should be faithful or not. I will
use forte dynamic to show her finally set herself free and major tonality to hope that she could
find her love in one day.
There are several parts of words which can use word painting to perform the meaning of
the lyrics. In second sonnet, the word earnest can be played by higher pitch using big orchestra
and forte dynamic to show her wishful to be serious for love. Another phrase beneath your
gaze can be played by using lower pitch and soft dynamic to show how she feels that his eyes
are full of love when he gaze her. Last, I will make a pause and no music when the song palys

the word reticence.

There are some similarities with the program music Symphonie Fantastique,
Movement
IV: March to the Scaffold by Hector Berlioz. Both of two program music is about the love.
Berlioz also use ide fixe to represent he beloved Harriet. Movement IV is in an opium trance
that he thinks he is being executed for killing beloved. They both use orchesta as medium to
renderinng the atmosphere of sadness. They both use duple meter and forte dynamic to show the
tense atmosphere and use minor tonality to show composers sadness.
The program music Four Sonnets shows composers feelings about love and her
beloved
and how she get over the mans shadow. I compose this song by using some changing musical
elements and constant musical elements. There are many similarities with the program music
Symphonie Fantastique, Movement IV like theme of the from, medium, meter, dynamic
and
tonality so that it can help me illustrate my decision to make the program music Four
Sonnets.