kelly-musicandciv-blog

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sound sculpture xii

Sound Sculptures was one of the coolest musical concert experiences I have been to. The concert was a series of students' projects and most of them were on stereophonic playback, but a few included a video and one had the saxophone quartet join in. I found about half way through that most of the songs that were just played over the speaker were even cooler and more intense to listen to with my eyes closed. The first piece was "Driverless passenger" by Jackson Whitely which was supposed to embody the idea of comforting music to listen to if you were in a car that self drove. It had very futuristic sounds and when imagine what the artist was trying to convey, you could really understand the piece. The next one was "Lantern" which was an alternative rock song with lyrics by Paul Smith which told the story and set the tone of someone searching for a way out of darkness. The next student was Corey Smith who did 4 projects consisting of 3 commercials and 1 radio project. In the commercials he tried to set music to influence the viewer to buy the product. The radio project was as if he was a DJ on the radio playing songs and someone was shuffling through stations and kept coming back to his station. You could imagine the listener being yourself in the car listening to the radio. "Memory" by Katie Flom was a video memoir explaining how you physically experience things like memories and internally process them in your brain at the same time. "Purple Haze" by Karen Leslie used the same futuristic and very modern sounds to try to evoke the feeling of the purple haze in the mornings. This was the piece when I realized closing my eyes made it even cooler. "Subterfuge and Surmises" by Paris Boyd told the stories of common conspiracy theories and used the electronic music to make it more intense. The next three were songs that told stories by Evan Thomas, Walker Bradley and Stephen Ledbetter. Each of these sounded similar and kind of blended together back to back to back in a very unique way which was interesting because it wasn't their intentions. The next piece included the saxophone quartet in "Reforged" by Andrew Naber. The music over the stereo was recordings of the sounds of a blacksmith's day while the saxophones were meant to evoke the emotions felt by that blacksmith. It was very accurate and cool because the saxaphone notes would rise and fall with the way the blacksmith would feel, representing the highs and lows of a mundane, repetitive job's day. The last piece were two movements of a piece by Douglas Basset called Images. It was very cool to see how modern music can be organized and written the same way as classics music we've studied and learned.

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Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a short song for an orchestra and 2 synthesizers that exudes energy and fun. The composer, John Adams described the song as creating a frenzied feeling. It is from the minimalist era. It opens with a woodblock and then the synthesizers play along with woodwinds, join by uneven brass notes creating more dissonance.  In the second part of the song there is a solo trumpet, and the song still has the uneasy sound as in the first part. The rhythms and uneven dissonant sound give this piece the minimalist ideas.

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Come Back Sweet Papa

Armstrong and the Hot Five decided to make the dixieland classic of “Come Back Sweet Papa” their own by added a jazz twist to it. In their version, they played with Armstrong on the cornet, and the others on trombone, sax/clarinet, piano, and banjo. The quality of this recording was one of my favorite parts because it had that fuzzy, old-timey sound do it which gives it a special quality. The trumpet and saxophone start off with a short introduction, then the sax plays the chorus and repeats. Then the trumpet plays the chorus and is joined by the trombone, and repeats again. The trombone continues adding in some special sliding note sounds called glissando creating a different and very jazzy effect. The trumpet continues and is paired with a clarinet who adds decorative, contrasting notes to the piece. The piano then plays the chorus another time followed by the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone all play playing together for one last chorus. The piece concludes with characteristic rhythm figure. 

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And God Created Great Whales

During the period of Twentieth century eclecticism, Alan Hovhaness embodied everything it stood for in this piece. Some people did not even really consider this style to be real “music” and rather just notice. And God Created Great Whales possesses many of the key features of eclecticism, making it quite the epitome of the genre. Actual whale recordings, portions of chance music from the orchestra with the only instruction being to play not together with rapid and powerful repetition, non-rhythmic chaos, a pentatonic melody reflecting the sounds of ancient China or Japan all reflected this time period of music. In contrast, the music also stood for the beauty of the natural world when there were no humans and only pure nature and of course, whales. The music opens with a gradual crescendo by the string instruments, playing with no specified rhythm followed by the first theme by the brass instruments in pentatonic scale.The second theme is again in pentatonic scale with the violin playing sharp, quick sounding notes and the brass instruments underneath with low, long notes and then some aleatory music and next, the grand entrance of the whale song. The recordings of whales is so unusual and nothing I would have expected to hear in a classical music class, and I had no background knowledge of eclectic music so I really enjoyed this piece because of its diversity. Theme one enters again the the brass instruments adding “points of color,” which were to make the piece more attractive and appealing because of how unusual and unprecedented it was. The excerpt fades out just before whale sounds were to enter again. 

[kelly-musicandciv-blog]

The Right of Spring

The Right of Spring was a ballet in during the primitivism period created by Igor Stravinsky who decided to capitalize on the Parisian interest in primitivism. Typically ballets at this time were beautiful, flowing and told pretty stories which Stravinsky did none of. The Rite of Spring focus’s on the sacrificial ceremonies of prehistoric civilizations- not your typical ballet theme. These excerpts from act one include the Dance of the Adolescents part 1 and 2, and Dance of Abduction. The song opens with driving chords with an irregular pattern of accents which stays pretty much constant but is joined by other instruments like the trumpet and bassoon, as well as percussion. When part 2 begins, you hear strings and a french horn, and the tempo and dynamic increase through out this section with trumpets and piccolo joining in. Dance of Abduction opens with sustained notes from the brass section, and give the feeling that something bad is about to happen. The tempo increases and the rhythmic pattern is very irragular, changing often. The song ends with a trill by the flute. The attitudes and tones these songs create for auditory aspect complemented what the ballet was trying to visually exhibit. Because the ballet was so ahead of, or maybe behind, its time it caused some outrage and I believe still could be seen as strange or different in today’s society because of what is expected from the usual tutu’s and pointe shoes of ballerinas. 

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Clair de Lune

Clair de Lune is a very well known piece from the impressionist period by Claude Debussy, originally written as a part of a suite but today is often heard as a separate piece for piano or an orchestra. Clair de Lune means “moonlight” in english, which when I hear the piece I can envision a full moon over the ocean or marshes and rivers because the melody is very peaceful. The piece in general is a descending chord with some notes added for decoration. It opens with the A theme, then the B theme is played which is more upbeat and climactic than the A theme which is repeated a second time. To conclude the song, a chord is split up and played almost like a harp that continues to ring until it fades out. I feel like this is the sort of classical music that I could play to help me study or even sleep because it is so lovely and peaceful. 

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Barbara Allen

Barbara Allen is a mid 17th century folk song from the british isles, brought over to America by English and Scottish immigrants most likely during colonial times. The recording in class is by Pete Seegar,  The song lyrics are written with very colloquial language, and sung by a medicare singer. The fact that the singer’s voice isn’t amazing contributes to the folk song aspect, being that any and everyone probably knew and could sing the song no matter what their voice sounded like. Its melody is very simple and it tells a story of the girl Barbara Allen, making it easy to memorize. The song tells the story of the love between Barbara and William who died within a day of each other and were buried next to each other. The story is very sweet.

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Orchestral Masterworks

Orchestral Masterworks was a performance by the Georgia College Orchestra. Immediately upon arrival, the tone for the concert was set by the professional black clothing worn by all performers. The conductor, William McClain, was extremely engaging and passionate about informing the audience of what was to come, giving a little explanation for each of the five main songs. One of my favorite parts of the concert was the opening song “Ode to Joy” performed by the orchestra as well as violin students from Putnam Elementary. The tempo was slower than usual but beautifully played. I liked this because I know it had to be a very great experience for the kids to be able to play with such a great orchestra. Following this opening piece, the Orchestra performed two contemporary songs from the 20th century composed by Richard Meyer. The first song was titled Cincopations, a play on the word “syncopation.” The spanish number five, cinco, is important to the piece because it has latin american influences, a five beat meter,  and has five parts. The Latin influence was very evident sounding like any sort of salsa music you may hear in movies, commercials, or even at some restaurants. The next piece by meyer was titled Incantations, and Mr. McClain told the audience to listen for magical sounds like those of the music in Lord of the Rings.The piece had 4 different time signatures and an asymmetrical meter. The music truly did have the magical qualities he described and I really enjoyed the harp part in this song. The next two songs were composed by Arvo Part, who is a very different composer with his own signature style. In both Summa and Da Pacem Domine, the music was different than most other classical works I have heard. McClain described Part as being the perfect composer to listen to while having a cup of coffee, which seemed accurate because both of his pieces had very tranquil and calming qualities. The last piece was composed by Benjamin Britten titled “Simple Symphony” which he began writing when he was asa young as nine years old. The four parts each had names that went directly with the style and sounds of the music they were talking about. The first movement was Boisterous Bouree, followed by t Playful Pizzicato both having very upbeat and full dynamics. The 3rd and 4th movements were titled Sentimental Saraband and Frolicsome Finale, which went from a calm and solemn sound to a playful finish due to the fact that the performers all only plucked at their string instruments instead of using their bows . Overall, this concert was very enjoyable. The fact that they performed in the Russell Auditorium made it feel like a very special performance and the performers played beautifully. 

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Vivaldi: “Spring” from The Four Seasons, First Movement

Spring by Vivaldi was part of the four convert series, The Four Seasons. As the title states, Vivaldi was trying to create songs that sounded and reminded listeners of the season it was named because of the sounds it imitated. In spring, Vivaldi played three distinct parts in between parts of the ritornello theme, including “Birds” “Brooks” and “Storm.” The orchestral score had lines of poetry inserted also accompanying the music. The music is played in two or four beat meter, has a homophonic texture and terraced dynamics which is a key feature of the Baroque period this piece does from. The string instruments and harpsichord are clearly heard with some violin solos, as well as the violin playing very rapidly moving decorative notes at a high pitch throughout the song. It begins with he string playing both halves of the Ritornelo theme, and then the birds section is played with fast chirping songs. The second half of the ritornello is repeated, and then the Brook portion is played. Brook has smooth, flowing sounds like that of a brook. The second half of ritornello is repeated again, and then the Storm section is introduced in the minor key followed by the second half of ritornello yet again, but this time in the minor key. A violin solo plays chirping sounds of birds again, as if to say the storm is over and then the piece concludes with one last repetition of the entire Ritornello theme.

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Corelli: Trio Sonata in F, Op. 3, No. 1, Second Movement

This trio sonata is one of 12 published by Corelli together as “Op. 1″. It has four movements, the first of which typically sounds like it is church music with a very solemn tone followed by a light hearted tone in the 2nd movement.  The second begins with one violin, then the second joins in and finally a cello. The instruments play in a round beginning the same melody at different times followed by some free flowing counterpoint. Then the opening theme is played again but at a much faster tempo. It is then played once more and resolves beautifully for a nice conclusion.

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Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker

Waltz of the Flowers is a part of the suite from the Nutcracker written by Tchaikovsky. The piece opens with a very peaceful melody played by the harp and woodwinds to begin the A theme, followed by a harp cadenza. The A theme is played by the french horn and clarinet. The B theme is then introduced with violins, and then the A theme is played again followed by another B theme. The C theme enters with the oboe, and contrasting lines with violins, then repeated and extended by the cello  and violins, with contrasting lines from the woodwinds. The A theme returns again being played by the French horns, followed by the coda which gradually builds and finally the piece ends with full chords. Waltz of the Flowers is a beautiful and iconic piece as is the entire Nutcracker.

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La Donna e Mobile

La Donna e Mobile was composed by Giuseppe Verdi from the Opera Rigoletto. It has a unmistakable Italian characteristic that I can imagine in the background of any pizza or spaghetti sauce commercial or movie scene in Italy. Rigoletto tells the story of a court jester whose daughter falls in love with the womanizing Duke of Mantua, so Rigoletto plans his murder. La Donna e Mobile is an aria performed by the Duke who has a tenor voice accompanied by an Orchestra. It has a light and almost comical tone to it, especially when considering the irony of the song. In the Opera, the Duke is extremely fickle being that he wins Gilda over with lies, yet La Donna e Mobile translates to “Woman is fickle.” The melody of the song is fairly simple but the voice part is quite high. It was written during the Romantic period, and has many romantic characteristics. 

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Classical Dynamite Concert

Classical Dynamite was the concert I attended this semester, a performance by David Johnson on the violin and Owen Lovell on the piano. They played three pieces, of the 3 the last particularly was my favorite because it was the most beautiful to me. The two performers have their Doctorates in musical arts, so regardless of my taste or distaste for the pieces it was very cool to see people so passionate about, as well as talented on their instruments. The 3 pieces were “Frates,” “The Recalcitrants,” and “Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108.”  “Frates” by Arvo  consisted of Part surrounded a central theme which the piece over and over came back to. This piece was focused more on the violin, and as Lovell stated the violin part of this is very hard. The melody of the violin was very strange, fast, and unlike anything I’d heard before. The piano accompaniment seemed to sound mostly just like a series of chords at a slow tempo. One thing I did particularly like was how Johnson plucked the strings on the violin, because I had never seen that before. The performance was very formal here and enticing. The second piece by  was by a friend of Lovell, Randy Bauer, a jazz pianist, and it consisted of three movements. Johnson described it as the first movement being about an inventor discovering a robot with a missing piece, the second movement being when the inventor realized it was love the robot was missing, and the third movement was a malfunction. While this description was just humorous it did help me paint a picture and relate to the pieces. The first movement had a fast tempo with a lot of dissonance, but It did create the image of a sort of “danger” approaching, or the robot Johnson described. This piece was also mostly for the violin, but the piano part was beautiful as they played back and forth as almost an argument. The second movement was slower, more peaceful, and less hard to listen to as it flowed better, which went with the idea of a robot finding love. The third movement again went with the malfunction idea of the robot, and the melody seemed to almost be lost between the two different tunes of the piano and violin. Finally, the 3rd piece was a piano Sonata by Brahms, and definitely my favorite because I recognized the second movement and solely because it focused on the piano because I absolutely love the piano. There were four movements total, allegro, adagio, un poco presto e con sentiment, and presto agitato. Each movement had a beautiful melody, flowing together with the sounds of the violin, and the mood and tone of dancing and beauty that it created. 

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Dies Irae from War Requiem

A true medieval sounding piece, Dies Irae was written by Britten for the War Requiem. The piece opens with brass instruments accompanied soon after by men singers, then women come in, ending with a full chorus. It has a dark sounding melody, bringing about the emotions of sadness and even horror; this goes along with the unceasing choppiness of the song and uneven meter. This piece stands out to me simply because of how much i didn’t like it, but Britten successfully achieved his goal of creating an uneasy feeling brought about by the song. Dies Irae originally was a gregorian chant used in the funeral mass and still today. 

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Simple Gifts

Aaron Copland’s Simple Gifts was written in 1950. The piece opens with string instruments, and is then joined by the singer with a full dynamic. The melody is very constant and repetitive throughout the piece with two different lines in the middle for contrast, and ends with a cadence. The song is extremely catchy, even though it has a slow tempo. I can easily recognize this piece. 

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As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending

As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending was written by Thomas Weelkes. It is a very different piece than what we had listened to thus far and stood out to me because of the clear word painting. It goes along with a story of Vesta and another Greek goddess who are going up an down a hill, and the voices of the singers fall and rise as Vesta and the other go up and down. Another reason this piece is diverse is because of the 6 voices it was written for, rather than 4 like most similar songs at this time. It contains a variation of textures and has an upbeat rhythm and happy melody. 

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Open Thou Mine Eyes

“Open Thou Mine Eyes” is a classic piece from the English church choral tradition, written by John Rutter. It is typically sung by an all boy choir, some being prepubesscent creating a wider range from bass all the way to soprano. It has a beautiful, refined melody. It has an opening verse sung by only sopranos, then repeated with altos joining in. The contrasting section is where all of the other pitches join in. This is one of my favorite listening pieces because its reverent quality is familiar because most classical styled music in my life is present during mass.