Listening Journal 1

Listening Journal


For my first entry, I chose The Indian Princess by John Bray. The Indian Princess is an opera written on the romance of John Smith and Pocahontas. The work premiered in April, of 1808, and had a successful run in major theaters of the United States. It was also one of the first American operas to be produced in London after its American premiere. The orchestra mainly consists of woodwinds, brass and strings with little percussion in the mix but the occasional timpani, makes a cameo. The opera is a little under thirty minutes and includes an overture, solo and ensemble numbers, choruses and finales. There are a few segments that contain spoken dialogue as well.

Bray does a good job of heightening the dramatic action within the piece by using specific instruments or dynamics to either accompany or follow the vocals. For example with sections that incorporate a soloist, only a tiny portion of the orchestra is used for the accompaniment, then once another soloist is introduced or once the chorus comes in the instrumentation either changes from strings to brass or a combination of both.

I did enjoy how for certain characters like Larry the Irish adventurer, Bray gave them distinct musical style almost acting as a theme for that character. The song “Och! Hubbaboo! Gramachree! Hone!” sounds very Irish. I do not know how to dance an Irish Jig, but there are parts that made it tempting to try with a tear in my eye because their is also a somber quality to song. Larry is discussing his feelings about the girl Katy Maclure back in Ireland with the character Robin.

Then I also feel like there were segments where the music did not heighten or add anything to the overall dramatic effect; especially within the play where John Smith was surrounded by Indian warriors and taken hostage. The music did not create any tension with change of mood, dynamics or instrumentation. It did not stray away from the major tonality established from previous measures and could be easily confused as a joyful scene. It is soon thereafter redeemed, in my opinion, by the change of mood in “Incidental Music to Act Two.” This track contains segments of the opera that are my favorite. With John Smith now a prisoner, the tonality changes to minor harmony with beautiful melodies being played by the strings and flutes, creating a nice contrast to what came before.

I personally feel, that, overall the opera is too fluffy and light in musical content. Even though it is quite enjoyable and nicely orchestrated and simply well thought out, I prefer more contrast and tension within the music to help create a deeper and more meaningful story. I will definitely say that John Bray does a great job with melodic and rhythmic phrasing to aid in the development of the dialogue or to inflect the spaces between vocal phrases.


I can definitely see how this piece fits within the confines of the classical style. The music possesses sophistication, simplicity and does not utilize an excess amount of ornamentation and frills. The piece had frequent resting points, breaking the melodic flow into two, three and four measure phrases creating periodicity.
This opera, I imagine, would have been a great opera to see because it is very upbeat, simple, catchy, and deals with romance.

But my modern ears might be making me too harsh of a critic, but I felt like I was listening to a soundtrack from a Disney movie. Even though it may have been a great “Disney movie,” I glad that this work is not a representative of the standard canon.