The Viennese Musical Clock from The Hary Janos Suite by Zoltan Kodaly (1882 – 1967)
I hope you enjoy listening to ‘The Viennese Musical Clock’. Listen to it at least 3 or 4 times to get the feel and sound of it into your ear. Then read the structure below and try and work out the different sections in the music.
When you ‘ve spent time listening and looking at the form, you could then devise a quiz based on the composer ‘Kodaly’
Background Information
In this opera, Hary Janos is an old man who loves to sit in the village tavern boasting about his adventures as a brave young soldier. Most of his stories are made up! One story tells of how he rescued the Emperor of Austria’s daughter, who was being held prisoner by the Russians. Hary brought her home safely to her palace in Vienna. Here, flowers are made of gold and each is shaped like a crown. The most wonderful sight of all is a huge clock. When this clock chimes the hour, doors open and a procession of clockwork soldiers emerge to a marvellous marching tune. They then disappear until it is time to chime the hour again.
Structure of Piece
This piece is in 4-time.
It is a rondo. The first section (A) is heard four times, while the other three sections (B, C, D) are heard once each.The instruments include the tubular bells, trumpets, celesta, piccolo, triangle, cymbals and snare drum.
In the beginning we hear Chiming sounds (gong and tubular bells)
Soldiers emerge and begin to march (Tune A)
New tune on trumpet (Tune B)
Tune A
Tune C
Tune A
Tune D
Tune A – soldiers marching back to the clock
Therefore the form or plan of this piece is A B A C A D A. ie Rondo Form
Section A is the recurring theme – in other words section A tune keeps coming back, we hear it a few times.
Resources to Download