Example of Applying Musical Criticism
 

Here is an example of applying musical criticism to the familiar, public domain song Down by the Salley Gardens.  This not something anyone is likely to do with a musical work regarded as folk music, but the process is the same whether the work was written for the concert hall or the back porch.  Since we are not reviewing specific performances, some elements of criticism do not apply.

1.  Identify the Composer, Performers and the Work or Works Performed.
Down by the Salley Gardens is a public domain, folk tune whose author is unknown.  That answer is the one most would report for the song.  But it is wrong.  The lyrics have been attributed to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.  The most familiar music setting for the poem was created by Herbet Hughes in 1909.  A less well-known music setting was written by Ivor Gurney in 1938

2. Describe the Form of the Work
Down by the Salley Gardens was composed as a sectional form – specifically a song.  The sectional form has the pattern A A B A.

3. Provide the Reader with a Context for the Music.
William Butler Yeats published the poem in 1889 to honor the oral tradition of song.  He claimed that the poem was based upon his imperfect recollection of an elderly Irish woman
singing to herself in Ballysodare, Sligo.  He claimed that the poem was based upon his imperfect recollection of an elderly Irish woman singing to herself in Ballysodare, Sligo. 

The title of the composition includes the Anglicization of an Irish-Gaelic  word, saileach,  or the Middle Irish word sail tree to salley.  Many listeners confuse this with a woman’s name.  But saileach or sail means willow.  The eurasiatic willow found in the British Isles includes both shrubs and trees. Some of these are important sources of charcoal, and wood for small implements.  The willow belongs to the genus Salix and is generally found along stream banks or other low lying, swampy ground.   In Ireland, willows are called "salleys" or "salley trees."   Salley Gardens were places where willow shrubs and trees were found.   Generally these places were somewhat private and a perfect place for lovers to meet. 

4. Describe the Artistic Heritage of the Music.
The 1909 Herbet Hughes setting of the poem used the melody of the Irish air The Maids of the Mourne Shore.  Both the lyrics and the melody draw upon, undated, undocumented Irish folk idioms.

5. Explain the Affective Content of the Music
The melody supports the general tone of regret and self-criticism that the words of the poem convey.  Thoughtful arrangers could make good use of minor harmonic settings to support  the overall feeling of the piece.  Still it is possible to convey the music using exclusively major chords.  This approach establishes a bright background against which the somber words play out.  Probably less effective, but an option.

6. Describe the Technical Devices Employed to Convey the Message of the Music
Using Toch’s wave conventions the melody can be described as follows.  Part A is a sequence of one rising and one falling wave.  Part be begins with a bowl contour that leads to a falling wave.  This section ends with a strongly rising line that sets up a dramatic contrast between the line’s end at the highest tone of the entire melody against the lowest tone of the melody that begins Part A.   The final, single pass through Part A is an example of a wave and climax contour. That is a passage in which the rising and falling wave contours are contiguous.  See the wave diagram of the music on the following page.

7. Make a Statement of Personal Judgment on the Quality of the Musical Composition.
The melody and harmonic implications are uncomplicated folk tunes that have proved to be evocative for more than a century. 

8. Make a Statement of Personal Judgment on the Quality of the Musical Performance.
Until a specific performance of the song is studies, this cannot be done.  There are quite likely thousands of recordings of this song to choose from.