Obbligato

Indispensable

"Obbligato" is a musical term that used by composers - the creator of the work. It indicates that the certain element or part is extremely important to the music itself, and should not be omitted or altered.

In music or other art forms, works are often re-arranged, simplified, or even omitted by other musicians (performers or composers) or artists. Therefore, to maintain the integrity of the piece, composers use the term "obbligato" to indicate that the certain part is "indispensable".

The opposite of "obbligato" is "ad libitum", a notation that indicates that the related parts can be changed or omitted according to the needs of the performer or conductor.

Example of Obbligato

We Are NY Phil @ Home: Richard Deane Explains the Horn Obbligato Solo from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5

Tutor's Video (Ken Lui)

Tutors

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Frankie Chan

California Baptist University (US), Hong Kong Baptist University

Master

Violin, Western Music Theory

Samson Ng

Hong Kong Baptist University, Musicians Institute in Los Angeles (US)

Master

Piano, Pop Piano, Jazz Piano, Composition, Arrangement, Film Scoring, Western Music Theory

Winnie Lui

Hong Kong Baptist University

Bachelor

Clarinet

Ariel Wong

Hong Kong Baptist University

Bachelor

Classical Vocal, Pop Singing, Musical

Cyrus Wong

Hong Kong Baptist University

Bachelor (Current)

Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba, Western Music Theory

Winnie Yiu

Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (US), The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Master

Viola, Violin

Articles

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Canon in D

Canon in D, one of the most widely known classical music pieces of contemporary times, is composed by German composer Johann Pachelbel. The original version of Canon in D is composed for three violins, accompanied by one (or more) bass instrument(s). Over time, the piece has been arranged into various versions, such as piano solo and orchestral versions. The exact date of its composition is not recorded but it is generally believed to be composed between 1680-1706.

G Song by Terry Riley

As an iconic American composer, Terry Riley (born 1935) is always considered as a minimalist. However, this kind of thoughts would be ignoring part of his creativity. In fact, Riley added plenty elements in his compositions since 1970s, especially when he started collaborating with the Kronos Quartet. Riley’s composing style is very extensive, including improvisation, polyrhythm and jazz. He adopted classical elements, such as instrumentation, musical forms, structure and tonality. He also combined the elements from different periods to create unique musical textures. This research focuses on Terry Riley’s String Quartet, G Song. The research will be divided into two parts. The first part introduces Riley’s life and the background of G Song. The second part focuses on music analysis, including the musical structure “Two forms in one work”; The harmony “Unresolved Dissonance”; The rhythm “Metric Modulation”; The baroque “Canon”; The modern “Pointillism”. The purpose of this study is to discuss how Riley combined classicism and modernism into a work, and discuss why the statement “Terry Riley is considered as minimalist” would be ignoring part of his story.

Common Practice Guide

After many years of being a student first and a teacher after, we often noticed that in our every day practice we can make small mistakes that may slow us down or might not bring the best out of our music. With these short tips we tried to go through some of them, hoping it will help students (and not only!) in their daily practice.