An Analytical and Educational Survey of Howard Hanson's Dies ...

27the chords that the melodies arpeggiate. The following example illustrates the firstoccurrence of the melody, over a B pedal.m_o_3E*5=sttz sfz sfz && psfz_o_Ex. 8: Whole-note melody, measures 92 through 97Some parallels may be made between this progression and other sections of thepiece. The first variation created a minor melody from the first five notes of the chorale.The second variation contains an original major setting of the chorale melody, but theharmonic progression is an altered version of the third, fourth, and fifth notes of themelody. The third, fourth, and fifth notes of the minor melody in the first variation havean intervallic relationship of a perfect fifth to a minor second, while the second variationintervals are a tritone to a minor second (B, F, and F-sharp). The fourth variation alsoutilizes this tritone relationship.Variation III. Among all the variations, the third recalls the most melodic materialfrom Hanson's original statement of the chorale. The entire A section, or first phrase, isplayed as a solo line in the oboe and then overlapped by clarinet and bassoon solimelody.Ex. 9: Oboe solo, measures 116 through 121