Assignment #1
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Assignment #1:
For your paper write/comment about at least two (2) of these statements:
A student’s piano teacher once said:
1. “Music has consequences”.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
2. “Without music life would be a mistake.”
3. Can music change you?
4. Is there more to music than melody?
Note: Consequence: importance, relevance.
How, what, where, why, for whom, etc.?
Below are LINKS of music and information from the class. Peruse these Links.
Then choose, say, four (4) music and/or art “items” on LINKS to include in your writing responses. Choose those that connect with your thoughts, feelings, ideas, aesthetic, style difference or preference, etc.
You may write about Links “items” individually, comparatively, about similarities, contrasts, any aspects from your experiential observations, interpretation, appreciation, criticism, etc.
If you draw conclusions or make statements, please be sure to support your statements up with reasons, examples, details, etc.
This is an opportunity to write creatively, imaginatively, research a few points as needed, discover something along the way, reflect on your initial and subsequent impressions of music, information, overall awareness and detailed awareness. You can refer to the previous pages’
INTRODUCTION and coaching for writing approaches and ideas.
Mus 309 LINKS, items to choose from:
Lyricism:
time, continuity of melodic foreground, the accompaniment to the long line, savoring-time, taking time to experience, also present in poetry and other forms of art
Martin Fröst, clar., Mozart: Clarinet Concerto No 1 KV 622 II, Adagio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YYc-S2UDZA
· Lyrical Jesse Norman singing Brahms, Mozart, etc
· VOWELS, long notes.........
· Consonants, short, can trigger off vowels
Lyricism – time, continuity of melodic foreground,
the accompaniment to the long line, savoring-time, taking time to experience,..
Sartorial appreciation (open collar, etc.), a statement, clarinetist Fröst also plays bluegrass and other styles, clarinet is flexible across its registers, can make soft sounds affect mood...
Audience etiquette/behavior no clapping between movements.
It disrupts mood and continuity of the composition’s presence.
Clapping, shouting considered gouche: (Fr,:Left) awkward, insensitive,
clumsy, uncultured, ill-mannered, unrefined, lacking in social graces.
Joshua Weilerstein, with Martin Fröst - Artie Shaw: Concerto for Clarinet
Verbier, Switz. Festival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sg_99UBVHo
More energy from the full orchestra than from a trio that just has clarinet, bass and drum-set (bass drum, snare drum--military sounds, etc.), group rhythm is together, soloist in jazz can improvise and go against that rhythm and then come together with the group and play with them in rhythm, jazz standards (tunes that are familiar to jazz learners) would be a part of fakebooks
AMBIENT MUSIC:
atmosphere, not particularly invasive, one form of avant-gardism
BRIAN ENO
UK, makes music that doesn’t try to overwhelm or have too much drama, in contrast to Beethoven symphonies, Mozart, etc. with dramatic scenes in operas
Ambient 1: Music for Airports
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_1:_Music_for_Airports
Music for Airports makes use of spliced tape loops (predictability and variation: some repetition, some variation on how tapes are spliced).
BRIAN ENO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno
Johann Pachelbel's Canon
(German) LYRICAL soothing, relaxing? also energized SLOWER PACE,
CLOSER TO 1/2 HEART-Beat TIME (e.g., 30 beats per minute)
Arpeggios: chords that are broken up, played one note at a time
Moving the harmony very slowly, then increasing its rate of speed and then adding triplets (beat divided into three equal notes)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachelbel%27s_Canon
Influenced rock bands, others for years
UK band Oasis don’t look back in anger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8OipmKFDeM
songs that make use of the Pachelbel's Canon chord progression include "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell (1974), "Gemilang" by Krakatau (1986), "Basket Case" by Green Day (1994), and "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis (1996) (though with a variation at the end), while....
....Maroon 5 used the harmonic sequence of Pachelbel's Canon (and part of the melody) for their 2019 single "Memories” HUH?? PLAGIARIZED??
MAROON 5 MEMORIES Pachelbel's canon in D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlPhMPnQ58k
Listen for digital effect: sculpted echo effect
Words make a difference: delivering them at a certain rate of speed
Doo doo doo: word fragment (phoneme) prolongs the lyric, doesn’t have a word meaning
Jessye NORMAN sings Johannes Brahms –Gestillte Sehnsucht
(stilled longing) from Two Songs, Op. 91 (1/2) Longing at rest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUkY3Z3IIa0
Expressive phrasing, pacing-speed, tonal music: major mode shows hopefulness and then
CONTRASTING--agitated section, a plodding pace, minor mode tension, then return to beginning
Longing: anticipation, desire; in pop music it is a common theme, lots of directions it can go, including dance or gesture...
Jessye Norman-A Portrait - Dove Sono (Mozart)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5WDGxpblZc
Note that long tones are vowels, not consonants.
LYRIC POETRY
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-lyric-poetry.html
Accompanied by Lyre
We also discussed sonnets and their poetic forms: https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/examples-sonnets-types
Extended technique
In music, extended technique is unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds or timbres--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_technique
What are several types of extended tech.-piano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_extended_technique
An example of extended technique with piano: The Piano Guys: perform pop tune “What Makes You Beautiful”
BUT FIRST...
The SONG 2011 original by One Direction UK band https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Makes_You_Beautiful
Lyric: you don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful
Songwriter(s) Savan Kotecha Rami Yacoub Carl Falk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJO3ROT-A4E
PIANO GUYS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqTwnAuHws
Extended techniques are hitting the strings on the inside of the piano rather than just hitting the keys, using various surfaces of the piano as percussion, etc.
RELATED: arpeggiation ----gesture, tonal music, prolonging the harmony in time.
ARPEGGIO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpeggio
Henry Cowell (1897-1965) developed in this piece a new way of playing the piano.
Here is a description of the way this piece should be played :
"All of the notes of the "Aeolian Harp" should be pressed down on the keys, without sounding, at the same time being played on the open strings of the piano with the other hand."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QF4ZgYx6ec
Pianist Fausto Bongelli plays Cowell’s “Aeolian Harp”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10DlNK-6Io
PREPARED PIANO
The piano transforms into a percussion ensemble with some easy adjustments. Just be gentle with those dampers and strings. 00:00 intro 00:40 John Cage 01:45 basics of preparation 04:09 Preparation of piano 04:41 "Preparation Tango" 07:30 conclusion
COMMENT/Critique:
interesting possibilities but tends toward a conventional homogeneous sound as an “instrument” rather than a diverse group of sounds existing in same allotted time-space.
Prepared Piano | Nuts, Erasers, Tape, & Chain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9vLD_sfxHo
John Cage - Sonata V
(from Sonatas and Interludes) - Inara Ferreira, prepared piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRHoKZRYBlY
Sonata: means sound piece, it follows a certain structure for movements and within a movement particular order of events (themes, modulations), patterning is a part of tonal and pop music (which is often tonal).
Was it tonal? (Does it sound as if it has a central pitch?) Yes! It kept returning to one pitch (played near the beginning) and so gave us a comfort zone while timbre challenges sonic perceptions
Played by Jesse Myers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bal-GoBGBo; notice snippets of Myers preparing the piano
John Cage generally went between usual and unusual in terms of how much he controlled parameters vs. letting chance or performers select them: pitch, rhythm, timbre
Living room music 1940 is more unusual and gives more choice for instruments than does Sonata V, but the rhythms are very precise
It is a quartet for unspecified instruments, all of which may be found in a living room of a typical house, hence the title.
0:00 To Begin
1:15 Story
· The curve of the world represented in sliding pitch of voices (up and down)--gesture that is like drawing and literally looks like drawing in the score
· Words, rhythm, vocal registers make it sound familiar
3:46 Melody
6:10 End
Living Room Music consists of four movements: "To Begin", "Story", "Melody", and "End". Cage instructs the performers to use any household objects or architectural elements as instruments, and gives examples: magazines, cardboard, "largish books", floor, wooden frame of window, etc. The choice of different materials affects the quality/timbre, volume, pitch, etc. of the sound.
The first and the last movements are percussion music for said instruments. In the second movement the performers transform into a speech quartet: the music consists entirely of pieces of Gertrude Stein's short poem "The World Is Round" (Pritchett, 1998) spoken or sung. The third movement is optional. It includes a melody played by one of the performers on "any suitable instrument."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKrwCkHQRco
ARPEGGIO
· Cliche for keyboard instruments
· Can be hard to play because large and sweeping movements, moving fingers quickly
· Some pianists slow down the tempo to play all the pitches correctly, but pianists can tell they are slowing down
Georges Cziffra (virtuoso pianist)
Hungarian-French-Romany (Gypsy) heritage
The most technically impressive recording of the etudes was made by Georges Cziffra. Nobody else could play quite like him. If you want to hear the old-school approach with a lot of musical passion and don’t mind a less sure technique, look for Alfred Cortot. And finally, for a more modern and conventional, but still very musical playing style, there’s Murray Perahia.
Chopin Etude op.25, no.12 --played by Georges Cziffra
(popularly called by the nickname “Ocean”) . Water in turmoil, the stormy sea—imagine.
Frédéric Chopin was from Poland but moved to France for music studies
Notice:
16th note arpeggios, Tremendous technique.
Georges Cziffra—his performance has the tune/melody punch through those arpeggios, bigtime!
THE SLOWER MELODY sails above the faster arpeggios in his performance
Its LYRICISM and reinforcement in octave doublings emphasize its significance.
Therefore, it should be brought to our awareness and not suppressed or masked from our awareness by being drowned out by the accompanying arpeggio patterns in both hands on the piano.
OCEAN-pet name of this Etude given by Chopin’s music fans. with SCORE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbCEF1XF9Q
One more!
Pushing further into virtuoso piano technique in a different
Frédéric (Fryderyk) Chopin Etude Opus 10. No 4.
– played by Ukrainian virtuoso Valentina Lisitza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWg-u3XVY-8
#2 Assign
Write your paper about the performance and music in the video BELOW:
“Percussion Concerto” by Chen Yi - Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra
with Percussion soloist Sun Yi.
The concerto is in three (3) movements. You may choose to write
more about one or two movements more than others, tell us why.
Focus, increase your awareness, jot down your impression
and reactions as a curious listener, thinker, as yourself questions
including what, where, why, why, etc. try to answer some of these and
back up your impressions, observations with examples, reasons.
As always you to write a convincing paper. Don't use "filler" and ChatGPT
generalizations, as I mention in advice above for 1). writers on Miles's Perc.DEMO.
Percussion Concerto by Chen Yi - Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra
Percussion soloist is Sun Yi, a winner of the SBU Graduate Concerto Competitions. Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University. October 6, 2018
Eduardo Leandro, conductor. Sun Yi, percussion soloist, Concerto Competition Winner. October 6, 2018, Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University.
00:25 I. The Night Deepens
07:42 II. Prelude to Water Tune
15:25 III. Speedy Wind
ABOUT Composer Chen Yi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Yi_(composer)
PERFORMANCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Da94om5T1Y
#3 Assignment
Please select TWO (2) or THREE (3) “items” to write about from the list below.
Each “Item” may contain one or more Links. Items are separated by
a double dotted line. Try to respond to most of the selections in
each “Item,” when possible. See if the optional comments, questions below inspire you
toward further writing. You may write more about one or two items out of the three you choose.
Their lengths needn’t be identical/symmetrical.
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Mitski – has a Butoh influenced aesthetic. But what does that mean?
Butoh:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh
"Butoh, an avant-garde style of dance with origins in postwar Japan,
is an art form concerned with psychic pain.
Examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMzWZ4f8CrM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ms7MGs2Nh8
Rolling Stone described Mitski’s earlier albums as a "wry running commentary
on twentysomething angst, raw desire, and often unrequited love".
Lucy Dacus, a singer-songwriter who has at times opened for Mitski, described her music as "really visceral ... She's connected to a part in herself that wants to scream. Maybe you don't live in a space where you can scream, or maybe you don't have the words for what has happened to you. Mitski provides a space for that."
Mitski has described her music as a place where people "can put all of their feelings,
their ugliness, that doesn't have a place in their own lives."
Can there be Beauty in (more or less) Weirdness?
Do we Pay Attention? Attention is what most art /artists try to capture.
Without attention can there be communication?
Mitski "Nobody" Official Lyrics & Meaning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G30AtDEc5Do
Mitski song - Nobody (Official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qooWnw5rEcI
Mitski - The Only Heartbreaker (Official Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmXFF_whkVk&list=RDLmXFF_whkVk&start_radio=1
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Dead Can Dance – Yulunga (Spirit Dance)
DCD, Australian neoclassical darkways group/band, since 1981.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqUbb-WuPQ
Dead Can Dance - The Carnival Is Over (Official VIDEO)
...for some... Mesmerizing, ethereal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDLJ1UU2Uk
What messages or message does the DCD have to offer?
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Sky Macklay: Harmonifriends for Ghost Ensemble and two Harmonitrees
is an American composer of concert music and an oboist. From Minnesota, she completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2018. She is a founding member of Ghost Ensemble. Lecturer of Composition at the Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGRTlUXXJs
Sky Macklay's Harmonifriends takes the form of a “concerto” featuring two of her hand-crafted inflatable Harmonitree sculptures, one containing harmonicas in A and the other harmonicas in B-flat. However, the B-flat harmonitree sits about a quarter-tone higher than the accordion, opening up a crunchy, free-reed microtonal pitch space between them. The harmonitrees interact with the ensemble in sonic and kinetic counterpoint as they rise, sing, tremble, and fall.
It's an art installation as a vital audio/visual/sensorial part of the composition.
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The Smashing Pumpkins, song: “1979” (from 1996) (Official Music Video)
Smashing Pumpkins, American alternative rock band
song "1979" from the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
"1979" song won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video in 1996.
"1979" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aeETEoNfOg
"1979" with LYRICS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-3irkUfRlg
From the lyrics: “Zipper blues” is an expression related to the sadness kids feel when
they have to be constantly moving over to new places, homes,
incapable of forming lasting relationships this way.
The Smashing Pumpkins Live at Tower Theater; Upper Darby, PA, USA 2007-10-21.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-A3pdDDvYY
If you select this lengthy performance set, you may choose to write about a fraction of it
and provide an overall review of the ambiance, etc.,
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HANATARASH, a noise band:
Hanatarash: Japan's Most Dangerous Band
wanted to push the envelope to see just how extreme rock n’ roll could get.
The Insane World of HANATARASH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fhs-eDcn-s
Hanatarash Performance excerpt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPuf2adIwZ8
What is your impression of the performance? Was this planned?
Is this also theater? Performance art?
What would an audience of fans find interesting about it?
What does it express?
Is this performance only about the sound, or are there psychological aspects
it evokes from the listener-viewer?
Was this planned? What are the sonic “instruments”?
What if you hear only the sounds without seeing an image?
4 Assignment
Writing on sections #1) and #2) below is required although you may choose to write more on certain ideas and questions and less on more than others.
Peruse the different LINKS and INFO. in each of the sections and decide on several that you connect with (or not!) to include in your writing. You don't have to write about everything in detail, but at least think about some of the additional suggestions for #1) and #2).
#1) Please to write your impressions and comparisons of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for String Orchestra given here as a reference) and the Adagio’s remix presentation in an audio/visual spectacular spectacle by DJ Tiesto.
Ideas you may choose to write about:
Can music play a role in social change? Or is it the evidence of social change?
What do you think? WHY does some music keep returning, being recycled in different styles, arrangements and expressivity?
Vienna Philharmonic – Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op.11 (Summer Night Concert 2019), Gustavo Dudamel, conductor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAoLJ8GbA4Y
From Venezuela, Dudamel is currently music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and the Paris Opera.
Age 42, Gustavo Dudamel is one of the world’s leading conductors and is scheduled to become music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026. Dudamel and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) accompanied Coldplay and sang along with Chris Martin, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars. As a child, Dudamel studied public school music in Venezuela’s El Sistema training with the motto "Music for Social Change."
El Sistema-inspired programs provide "free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children." El Sistema has inspired similar programs in more than 60 other countries. By 2015, El Sistema included more than 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The original program in Venezuela has four after-school hours of musical training and rehearsal each week, plus additional work on the weekends.
HERE’S A QUESTION you might consider: with many conductors in the U.S.
coming from Europe or mostly from European training, why would Gustavo Dudamel resemble more of a “new world” conductor/musician in his connections?
ABOUT: Trance Music (electronic)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trance_music
Dutch DJ Tiesto’s remix of Barber’s Adagio, 2004 recording.
ABOUT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti%C3%ABsto
DJ Tiesto takes the melody of Barber’s Adagio (which is in 3/4 time) and adapts it into 4/4 time. In 2013, Mixmag readers voted it as the second greatest electronic dance record of all time.
You may include your impressions of the DJ’s introductory music that is before the Barber’s Adagio melody and harmony and after the Barber music remix by DJ Tiesto. His Adagio remix starts at approximately time 6’:40” on his video.
There are numerous versions of the DJ’s performances of the same music.
Here are several:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8u7RgZ0-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIgN7eICn4
Tiësto - Adagio For Strings (Live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzUqhw_yymM
Tiësto - Adagio For Strings | at Tomorrowland 2022 W2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVzqkG6oiEg
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As with the items above in #1) , there are numerous opportunities to write about in
the #2) music, movements, performances, influence, and the power of imagination
that has lasting impact in forming a style and its message. Is it lyrical, martial (like a march), graceful, sentimental wistful; heraldic, fanfare-like; structured of phrases with contrasting energy levels, enticing subject matter, story, anything else you might observe? Fantasies into what is above, the sky, outer space, the unknown are filled with imagination in different forms. They inspire, fascinate. Do know what you like more or less? What you connect with, resist or get to know?
What do you observe, become aware of, figure out, recognize, connect the dot with, change your mind about, are surprised by, etc.
#2) Gustav Holst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets
Composer Gustav Holst’s work The Planets was inspired by astrology (among what other things?). But music isn’t astrology, so Holst ignored certain astrological factors including the influence of the sun and the moon, and in astronomy he ignored the order of the planets’ orbits around the sun. He attributed mythical, imaginary qualities to each planet. His main intention was to maximize the dramatic effect of the music with individual movements of a different character, mood and expressivity.
Written between 1914 and 1917, Holst’s epic and modern orchestral music score greatly influenced the character of film/movie music from that time on until our time.
One influence on Holst, among others, was the artist, textile designer and poet William Morris who said, "I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few. I want all persons to be educated according to their capacity, not according to the amount of money which their parents happen to have."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris
Selection of versions and aspects to focus on in your writing:
The Planets, Opus 32, a suite in 7 movements representing individual planets.
by UK composer Gustav Holst INFORMATION:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets
Gustav Holst - The Planets, Op. 32
Film of an orchestral performance with sections of the orchestra featured:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OD_HzdZwKk
In the last movement of the suite of movements, a women’s choir sings
without words, adding a mystic quality to the overall sound.
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Female Choir, Philharmonic Hall (Poland)
The Planets, Opus 32, a suite in 7 mvts. by Gustav Holst (FULL Score, notation).
Montreal Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Charles Dutoit, Conductor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhFfuLqoiUI
Gustav Holst - The Planets, Full Suite
The movements are played by various orchestras and conductors.
Each of the planets is shown in an individual still image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs
Singer Ayaka Hirahara’s version of G. Holst’s “Jupiter” hymn-like melody
includes her lyrics, "Every day I listen to my heart", remained in the top tier of
Japanese pop-charts for three years:
【平原綾香】「Jupiter」MVフルVer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGWzRUdn0so
Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson,_Lake_%26_Powell
Mars, The Bringer Of War based on one of the seven movements of
Gustav Holst’s The Planets (for orchestra and women’s chorus)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6I3mmPiG7c
Film composer John Williams conducting the Vienna Philharmonic –
John Williams used the melodies and instrumentation of G. Holst’s “Mars” as the inspiration for Williams’ "The Imperial March" and "Imperial Attack" themes in his soundtrack for the Star Wars films. He used Holst’s “Venus” as inspiration for the Force theme. Star Wars films and the soundtracks were a cultural phenomenon. Do you connect with that at all now if ever?
What would be today's phenomenon?
John Williams: Imperial March (the Darth Vader theme from “Star Wars”)
FSO 2016 From “Star Wars”: The Force Awakens. Film music by John Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_Symphony_Orchestra
Film Symphony Orchestra records film music in Prague. The orchestra has recorded music for over 5,000 Czech and international movies, including German, French, Belgian, Greek, Italian, Danish, Norwegian, Canadian, American and Japanese films. Notable film titles include Blue Velvet and The Bourne Identity, which earned the orchestra an Emmy Award.
2024-01-11