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Concert Review #3

I went to the jazz concert a couple of weeks ago on February 3rd. I forgot about this review so that is why I am doing it so late. But I really enjoyed the concert. Jazz music is always interesting to listen to because, as we learned in class, the same piece can sound pretty different depending who plays it. I also thought it was unique how the conductor had made his own little jazz song that they played. I am always impressed at how good the Augie bands are. You would think eventually I would expect it but it still surprises me. It was cool to see people play the trumpet in that way because I use to play the trumpet but that was just in concert bands and not in a jazz band.

The atmosphere of this concert was kind of light. People seemed to be having a good time and the director kept making jokes or trying to be funny. Jazz music is a fun type of music that makes people want to dance so I would say it is hard to create an atmosphere that is not fun at a jazz concert. The musicians seemed to be having a lot of fun with their music also. It was not a boring concert to be at since in jazz you clap after solos and there just seemed to be a lot of participation from everyone, both the musicians and the crowd.

One piece that stood out to me was Take The “A” Train by Billy Strayhorn because this is a piece that we studied in class. It is your typical jazz piece with the brass and all the solos. I believe it has a pretty fast tempo. It also has that drum that is on a steady beat in the background behind the brass instruments. I do not remember which song it was but I remember a song that was a lot of trombones. It was mostly trombones, I believe. This song had a strong brass sound because of the trombones and was not very fast because it was made fro trombones to play and trombones are not an easy instrument to play fast.

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Blog Post #20

There are two presentations that stand out to me that would relate to things that we talked about in class. The presentation about Thailand’s music and the different instruments they use there. This would relate to the part of the class were we talked about music around the world. Also they used different instruments than the rest of the world. They were very unique instruments. Another presentation that stood out to me that would be something interesting to learn about was the one about pop music in Africa. It was odd to find out that they only have like 4 genres of music and none are the same as the genres that we have. This  would probably also relate best to the music around the world part of class.

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Blog Post #18/19

1. John Adams - Tromba lontana

This piece would fall under the musical style of orchestral fanfare. Fanfare music is usually brass instruments because it is meant to sound prideful and the sound the brass instruments make exude that sound. Also it is often repetitive and builds a little. It has two trumpets playing and they are playing over along with some tone. It sounds like its building it just never really does.

2.Arnold Schoenburg - “Der Moonfleck”

Schoenburg invented and used klangfarbenmelodie or color melody. You make this type of music by having each instrument play a piece of the melody instead of one instrument playing the whole melody. In the piece the moonlight is leaving a spot on a person and they are trying to get it off. In the video they have a  spot like shown on the women in the video and she is trying to get away from it and rub it off her shoulder.

3. Anton Webern - Five Pieces for Orchestra

This piece of music is Klangfarbenmelodie. I could hear 13 different instruments. I could hear a horn, trombone, violin, timpani, bass drum, tuba, flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, clarinet, harp, and the cymbals.

4. Billie Holiday - Fine and Mellow

The form of this song is the chorus or her singing and then 2 instrument solos so it goes chorus, solo 1, solo 2 and then the chorus again and then 2 more solos and so on. They make it into a whole piece by adding the instrument solos to it. When Billie sings she uses a lot of emotion and her voice is really raw and you can also feel her pain or whatever she is feeling when he sings. It has a very nature sound to it.

5. Duke Ellington - Take the A Train

This song by Duke is in 32-bar song form. The instrumentation of the band is mostly brass instruments, like trumpets and trombones, but there are also a few strings and then the drums. The big band would be the ones with the brass instruments, I think. Also part of that group was some saxophones.

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Blog Post #17

For my final project I will be working in a group with Kayla, Shippo, and Kumail. We decided to do out project on rappers and the different styles that they use. Also how there cultural backgrounds impact their style and what they wrap about. We would then compare the rappers to each other and make the differences clear.

A video of a song that we might possibly use is the music video of “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.

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Blog Post #16

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Concert Review #2

I went to the “General Student Recital.” There were many performers: Grace O’Shea, Gail Baldwin, Grayson Dixon, Kylie Gember, Jeana Brown, Charles Schmidt, Kamneev Rai, Rachel Heah, Nicole Romano, Stephanie Tillman, and Grace Dwyer. Most were solos but a few were accompanied by a piano. A couple pieces that were played were “Sonate de Concert, Op. 47″ by Charles-Henri Valentin Alkan and “Virtuoso Flamenco Studies” by Krystof Zgraja. “Virtuoso Flamenco Studies” stuck out to me because I do not know if I have heard a flute played like that before. It was fast and changed between high and low pitches throughout. Also it was not your typical flowing flute music it has a lot of short notes. I do not know very much about the flute but it just seemed odd to me. The notes might have had staccatos or sometime of dynamic that made them shorter. The timbre sounded like an interesting flute piece. The second piece I mentioned, “Sonate de Concert, Op. 47″, stuck out to me because it sounded a bit familiar. It sounds like some type of music I have heard before in like church or some place like that. Also the girl that played this one, I think, I think was the best one that played the cello. It was soft and changed a little bit. It would be slow sometimes but then the music would seem tense and faster.

The atmosphere of the concert seemed like most concerts. It was a lot of parents and adults, all dressed up. There was a lot of students there compared to the last concert I was at. Most of them were also dressed nicer. I just wore a sweatshirt and jeans but I could have looked worse. This one seemed more formal to me. Just because of how all of the performers acted and there was not really any crowd interaction. They would just play and then a new person would go on to the stage. They did not talk to the crowd. They just played. This audience was a good audience. It was very quiet in the room they were playing, as it should be but you do not always get that when there are students at the concert.

Overall, I enjoyed the concert. I actually was not planning on going to this one but I figured out I could not go to the one on Friday so I went to this one and I am glad I did. I am sure the one on Friday was swell too though. I realized that the cello is a cool instrument. I liked the sound of it and thought maybe I would add it to the list of instruments that I would learn if I ever took the initiative and took it seriously. Also as one of the people was playing I could not help but think that their arm had to be getting tired from playing the instrument for so long so props to the and everyone that played. It was a good concert.

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Blog Post #15

1. After reading the article I have decided that I am in stage 2. I had heard about it before from my mom but I did not really know anything about it except that it was a musical. But since wee have started talking about it in class, I have become interested in it and looked up some of the songs and I added the opening song to my playlist that I listen to during homework and chilling in my room. I could possibly be interested in seeing it but since tickets are of so high demand and it only shows in Chicago and New York, I will probably not be trying to see it anytime soon. But someday, when I have money and time, I will go see it.

2. History is important for people to know for a couple of reasons. One of those reasons is to know where you came from and how you got to where you are or have a general idea. This is so you can appreciate the people that came before you and developed the world that we live in today. Also history is important so wee can learn from mistakes or things that people have done in the past that ended badly or just simply where not a good idea. This is the reason things like the holocaust are taught in schools, so history does not repeat itself.

The purpose of music is for people to be able to express themselves and share their stories with people as well as it is for entertainment. Many songs tell a story and these are often the best songs because they have a deeper meaning that people can relate to or just find interesting. Music is a fun way to send messages and spread information to society.

It is not super important for them to stick to the exact story but I would say they should stay as close as possible to the original story. Adding life and making it more exciting makes people more interested in it and that's the whole purpose is to spread the story so it is not a huge deal if they have a few things that are not accurate. It sounds like they are staying pretty true to the really story which also adds to the greatness of the show. If they can tell the really story and it still be awesome then that's a great show. Everyone views things through their own eyes and beliefs that they have so I do not believe that it is truly possible to look at history without bias. We can only try our best to see al sides of the story and be understanding of all parties.

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Blog Post #14

These two songs both have the same meaning but I get the feeling when they made the first one they were not as serious as they were when they made the second one. They thought “hey, here’s a problem that everyone deals with. Let’s sing about this.” Then a few years went by and the world issue this song addresses started to get worse so they decided to get more serious and really catch peoples attention to show them what the song is really about. In the first song, it is your typical hip-hop song with an up base beat and a few instruments thrown in there, like the violin, percussion, and a few others I cannot distinguish. It has claps in the background also. The music builds up to the chorus at the end of each verse. It also has the exact same beat throughout it. The song is kind of fun, really. It addresses a serious issue with out getting too serious about it.  

In the second song, the mood is much more serious. They really are trying to get peoples attention and tell them that we need to come together. They really emphasize the lyrics. The sound of the voices reminds me a little of the spoken word we listened to in class on Thursday. The music is very soft and they make sure that every word is clearly pronounced. The music is more just kind of in the background because they want people to really hear the lyrics. The instruments have a unique sound. They sound a bit electronic to me. I believe there is a piano at one point also. This song is sad to me because of the voices do not sound as joyful.

http://www.campsouthernground.org/ This link is to the home page of Camp Southern Ground, which is a camp started by Zac Brown. He runs it and it is for really all kids but it focuses on helping kids with neuro-developmental disorders. The main goal of the camp is to help kids become leaders and excel in society.  

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Blog Post #13

I went to the discussion about gospel music and if it is okay fro white people to sing it and spiritual music. I thought it was very informative. I did not know that this was really a problem. I just kind of figured music was out in the world and anyone could play or sing whatever they wanted. It makes sense to me what he said about someone being informed about the music so they can perform it to the best of their ability and do it justice. But is not that the case with most things in life. Even “white” music has to be taught to people so they can know how It was designed to be song and the purpose for the authors teaching. It is not like white people are born with the knowledge of “white” music and black people are born with the knowledge of “black” music. Also when people choose to perform a song it is usually because they like the song. Nobody says “oh this song sucks. Let’s perform it at a concert.” They enjoy the song and want to perform it to the best of their ability. I thought the songs that the choir sang where awesome. I did not know that our choir was that good. The first song was my favorite of the two that they sung.

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Blog Post #12

When I think of music that is about social justice, I think about Kendrick Lamar’s music. At an awards show that I saw on television Kendrick got an award because his album was about race relations and social justice around the world. The award was something like best album and I believe it was his album “To Pimp a Butterfly” which I actually have never listened to but they talked about how he talked about inequality around the world and said that it had a large impact on people. Another song that I think of when I think of social justice is “Imagine” By John Lennon. It talks about a world where pretty much everything is perfect because no one fights and everyone gets along with one another. The only other thing that comes to mind when I think social justice is the song by the Black Eyed-Peas, “Where is the love.” Another song all about peace and getting along in this world. 

I looked through the topic titles fro symposium day and none of them sound directly related to music. Well really none of them sound like they are that closely related to music either. But I think it would interesting to attend “Trying to do the Right Thing with the Wrong Brain: Evolutionary Legacies in the 21st Century” or ““I’m not a racist but...” : Lets get real and talk about the “but”.” Also it might be interesting to hear the one about black moments in Augustana College’s history. Okay so I read through the titles again and I decided that the one titled “Art as Activism” could be related to music. 

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Blog Post #11

It is not really music, just silence and the click of a stopwatch.

This is an interesting piece for sure. The more I thought about it the more I started to think that technically it is music, it just has a bunch of rests instead of notes to play. As I read the article they talked about that a little also saying “... he stated that sound and silence were coequals in music, and that musical structure should be based on duration because this was the sole characteristic that these two had in common:...” Here he saying that sound and silence are very similar in music. The only difference being sound produces noise and silence is quiet, but both are durations of time and are part of music as well as our lives. Silence is an interesting thing to be the only thing in a piece of music. It is actually a pretty neat idea. It really makes you listen and gives you a bit of a break in the world. We could all use a moment of silence to take a break from our busy lives.

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Blog Post #9/10

The picture of the asparagus refers to the sound of the beginning of this piece as the guy in the video says and he makes that comment around 23:40.

1. Stravinsky was highly influenced by what he saw in Russian culture. His teacher was part of a group of men that were the first to create music that people would say has a Russian sound by adding a unique sound to it. The type of music that he heard in Russian villages, he liked and wanted to incorporate it into his symphony pieces.

2. The first instrument of this piece is the bassoon. This is worth noting because people did not know what instrument it was and did not even believe that it was a bassoon because of the sound it was producing.

3. The premiere of this ballet was a very wild one because the music was much different than most people had heard before as well as the dancing that was taking place was different from the usually ballet. The audience was very crazy and was making noise throughout the whole thing. They were so loud that the dancers could not hear the music which made it harder for them to know what part of the ballet it was. 

4. I am not sure if this instrument is at the beginning but I remember them talking about it a little and it stuck out to me. This instrument was the bass drum. It stuck out to me because the loud sound it made but also they talked about it as kind of the heartbeat of the piece and it just seemed interesting to me that the bass drum would have such a large role in the piece. Also the gong stuck out to me but this was because two people were playing it. One person would actually strike it and the other would stop the vibrations by grabbing it to stop the sound. That was interesting to me also. 

5. The sacrificial part of the dance at the end when the women dies and they lift her to the sky as an offering to the gods was a hard part for Stravinsky to write the music for because he could not think of a way to make the sound that he wanted. It was hard to produce the sound that he wanted using conventional instruments. He had the instruments play short, quick notes back and forth as if to create a build up and then they all were playing together eventually, I believe. He also had the brass players play their last four notes as D - E - A - D which as you can see spells dead because the sacrifice had been completed. 

Reaction to Choreography:

I do not know very much about ballet but this particular dance seemed odd to me. It did not seem like a ballet and certainly not a traditional ballet. They are dancing very elegantly, which is to be expected but, as the man said in the video, the costumes they are wearing do not seem ballet-ism to me. Also I feel like a ballet is usually a group of people dancing together with maybe one or two people not part of the main group and in this ballet there are many different groups of dancers all doing different dances. I think it is a bit funny to watch also because it is something that I am not use to so it is odd to me. There also appears to be a bit of chaos on stage. 

My favorite video of these that I could find was the one that you gave us for the example because they others seemed like they were not as real or the producers did not try as hard to replicate the ballet. This one has great costumes compared to a few others I watched and the performance also did not seem like it was old, which was another thing that was common among the other videos. 

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Blog Post #8

My favorite holiday song use to be “Mary, did you know?” by the Pentatonix but once I listened to them sing “Halleluiah”, became a bit confused which I like more. Both are very good and I like them a lot.

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Blog Post #7

The four different instruments that he plays in the documentary are the double-string clavichord, harpsichord, a piano from the late 1800′s, and a Hamburg Steinway modern piano. He plays the clavichord first. It is the oldest instrument out of these four. It is very quiet, most likely played for private affairs. Seems to be easy to transport as it is a box with string in it. The notes it plays do not last very long. The sound goes away quickly. It it can play at a loud or soft volume but the loudest volume still is very soft. The range is also not very large. The harpsichord is pretty similar to the clavichord except the strings are plucked on the harpsichord while they are struck on the clavichord. It is bigger though and has legs it stands on. It would be harder to move since it is bigger. I believe the range is similar to that of the clavichord. A harpsichord only plays at one volume so dynamics are impossible to perform on it. Also it’s notes have very little sustain. The piano from the late 1800′s has quite a few differences from the modern piano. First, the old piano only had 58 notes so the range was not a large. It was not as loud and did not have the ability to play very soft and very loud, smaller volume scale. It had no peddles like modern pianos. Instead it had things you hold with your knees to change the sound. Dynamics were possible with this instrument. I imagine it was not fun and hard to move because it was large and a delicate instrument. It has the timbre of woodwind instruments. It has a similar sound to them. The modern piano has 88 notes so it has a much larger range. It is also very heavy so it would be harder to move. Although I believe they put most pianos today on wheels so they can be moved much easier. It has 30 tons of pressure inside so it would not be a good idea to drop one off a stage or anywhere for that matter. The sound of the modern piano seems smoother to me than the older one. Also you can play a very large range of volume on the modern piano. 

During the Baroque Era, pieces where not really played publicly, unless in church, so an instrument that is not very loud like the clavichord would fit the needs of people of the time. As music of this time began to be more complex, it only makes sense that they needed a more complex instrument such as the harpsichord to play the pieces that the composers were creating. This instrument as sufficed at the start of the Classical period because the music they were making was more conjunct and had a narrow range so it could be played on this instrument. As the time went on and they got to the Romantic Era they needed something more complex that had a wider range and had different volumes. They started to play concerts at this time so volume was a key part of the instrument needed. The piano is the instrument they came up with. There was a lot of piano music at this time as they gave it solos and would play it along with someone singing at a concert. Just absurd ideas for the time. 

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Concert Review

I went to “A Christmas Celebration” and the performers where the Augustana Flute Choir and Heart Strings. The first half was played by the flute choir and teh second half was played by the Heart Strings. I enjoyed the concert. I thought they did a very good job and the music was peaceful. I knew most of the songs so it was easy to follow along and I liked hearing them played in a different way than usual. I would say my expectations were met. I expected them to be good and played the songs well. I am very likely to attend another concert in the future because I like music and it is interesting to me to hear different versions of songs.

The atmosphere of this particular concert seemed pretty light to me. It seemed very relaxed and calm. There was actually quite a few people there. I did not expect so many people to be there. There was a lot of parents and siblings there. Also there was a good amount of students in the audience. Most people were dressed up for the event but it was just like a nice shirt and jeans. Not too many of the students took the time to dress up but they did not stick out too much. Nobody appeared to me to look like a bum. The concert seemed a bit more relaxed than a concert would be if the whole orchestra was performing. It went fast. They moved from piece to piece with good pace.

At the concert one of the songs that they performed during the first half was "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Well in all of the pieces it was just flutes, piccolos, alto flutes, and bass flutes. So you would think that there would not be much variation in sound. But there was a good range of notes and it sounded good even without the brass or strings. The melody of this song was the classic melody of it. Since they had a few different types of flutes playing they could cover the range of the pitches needed to play the piece. The melody was conjunct and in 4/4 time. The harmonies of the song make it sound more peaceful and calm. The key of this song is major. The meter is double. During the chorus the music get much louder most likely due to a subito.  I would say that this piece is a fugue. A song I heard in the second half of this concert that stuck out to me was “O Come Immanuel”. I like this song a lot and enjoyed hearing it while at the concert. This song was played by a flute, violin, guitar, and Celtic harp. They played an abbreviated version of the song so it seemed to be like a prelude. With many different instruments playing it was not hard for them to cover a range of pitches. The melody was very complex for that reason. The music was peaceful and conjunct, as it flowed smoothly. The flute and harp are harmonizing most of the time and the violin is joins in sometimes as well. I believe the meter was double. The rhythm of the piece is very slow. I do not think previous versions I have heard were this slow. This one seemed particularly slow to me. There is like a big crescendo throughout the whole song. It gets loud at the end of it but then settles back down a bit. Both pieces were good and I am excited to attend another concert here on campus.

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Blog Post #6

Everyday life in Europe is much different than how everyday lives today. In Europe at this time most music seemed to be in the church and made for the church. Also they had just got through the 7 years war so people were trying to find things to do and ways to spend the money they had gained during the war. Illness was a bit of a problem in Europe at this time as the typhoid fever spread through Europe. The life of a musician at this time was a dangerous and grueling one. They had to travel to perform at shows and they were continuously making music to be performed at concerts or in the church. It seems clear to me that Mozart was a genius. They said that he was writing a piece of music had the age of 4 and could play the piano by this time in his life. Also I would say being able to play the piano blindfolded or without being able to see the keys is another display of genius. A few other things that also made him a genius were that he was really could at improvising and could just come up with music on the spot, beating other composers in a challenge before he was 10. He also made a world on a map. He named cities and basically created another world. He was investigated by people in England because he was so good and they did not believe he could be 8 years old and do what he did. He also captivated audiences with his performances because the music he played was unconventional for the time and he played it so well. The man in the movie also says that he believes Mozart was the first great Romantic composer. One thing that I found very interesting was that he was also a bit of a business man. He came up with the idea for people to subscribe to his concerts and performances. This shows an ability to not only play music but think in other fields as well. If all of this stuff is true about Mozart, he is most definitely a genius.

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Blog Post #5

The madrigal arrangement of the song “Dark Horse” is fun to listen to after listening to the original. Since they did not use instruments during madrigals it sounds very different than the original. Some of the things that I notice about the madrigal is that when they are singing the words “boy you should know what you are falling for”, I think they get lower as if to be actually falling. It also sounds like a much more happy song and not as dark as the original. It sounds to me like it is in the major key. Also they are all singing the words just at different tones so it gives it a neat sound that we do not hear often today. It is kind of taking the instruments and giving them lyrics.