samuelmartingcsu

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Essay 2

The song that I would select for my wedding would be “Me and Your Mama” by Childish Gambino. Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) is one of my favorite artists and this is possibly my favorite song by him. In all honesty I am currently jacked all the way up on coffee getting ready to study for one of my early finals tomorrow and I’m listening to this song and feeling kind of emotional thinking about getting married one day. When Gambino says “this isn’t just puppy love” I feel that because we’ve all wasted our time on a meaningless relationship. Psychedelic funk is definitely an odd genre to chose for a wedding but this is one of my favorite “love” songs and it’s my wedding so my guests are just going to have to suck it up and I’ll probably also not be completely thrill with their song selections at their weddings either. 

As for my funeral, my song of choice would be “Godspeed” by Frank Ocean. Right next to Gambino, Frank Ocean is one of my favorites. By the end of his career I think Frank Ocean could go down as the greatest R&B artist of all time. While the song is about letting go of a lover, I think it is appropriate for a funeral. I want people to remember me for having a happy life and I would never want anyone to dread on me not being around anymore. This song is possibly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever listened to. On top of the beauty and message within this song, it’s a song that will have your eyes watering by the end of it. I would want it played at the beginning of my funeral so everyone could let it all out during the beginning and then go on remembering my life with happiness and exciting for the future where we may all meet in some sort of afterlife.

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Listening Blog 14

Human sacrifice is considered an edgy subject in today’s times so I couldn’t even believe how edgy it was considered in 1913. A primitive piece based on human sacrifice in pre-Christian Russia, Igor Stravinsky (a rival of our friendly neighborhood twevle-tone composer, Arnold Schoenberg) has us in for a real treat with this song. The piece in general is great. You don’t want to be distracted because you are afraid of missing a single note or transition the entire song. One thing that separates the abilities of great composers from good composers is the ability to keep our attention throughout an entire piece, even if it’s just 2 minutes or 30 minutes. Stravinsky kept me captivated throughout the entire song at every twist and turn I wanted more and more. The ending definitely satisfied all those cravings because of how chaotic it is. Going back to my point about Schoenberg, one of the biggest things this class has done would be broadening my horizons on the type of music I both enjoy, and definitely improving my appreciation of music that may not be in my taste.

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Listening Blog 13

Everyone’s aunt, grandma, third cousin, dentist, and dry cleaner has heard this song and if you have not heard it then you’ve probably never been introduced to classical music in any capacity. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Movement I, is a classic and possibly one of the most well written pieces of all time. It displays both emotion and energy. Even the most novice of listeners will be able to pick up on the theme heard throughout this song because it hits you right in the face every other measure. I almost dreaded doing this song because I am sure everyone else is going to do this in their blogs, but one thing in undeniable about this song and that is the fact that no matter what level of skill or understanding you have in music this song is both enjoyable and educational to listen to. Seeing as we most likely will never go back to this style of music (unless time actually is a circular concept) then Beethoven’s brilliance will like forever go unrivaled for all of time.

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Listening Blog 12

Pachelbel’s Canon in D is recognizable by almost anyone who has to any sort of traditional wedding. On a side note, when searching for this song on YouTube the results of this song are overpopulated by videos claiming to be the “best version”. Pachelbel shows us that sometimes simplicity is sometimes the best thing going for you. The ground bass in this piece allows for a simple chord progressions which is really all this song needs. The repetition also allows for a predictable chord progression which is a nice change up from some of the other songs that are almost overly complex that we’ve had to listen to. I’ve been to wedding with a live group playing is song and personally I think this song sounds significantly worse when overly embellished. This is will always be in style as long as there are people getting married and wanting the classic white dress and tuxedo wedding with the doves flying out of the box at the end.

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Listening Blog 11

Franz Schubert’s, “Der Erlkönig” is a rather impressive piece. Being accompanied by a poem about a father, son, and an Erlking the music must match the mood of the poem. The poem is originally written in Germany, but the English text is very easy to find so you can figure out what’s going on. I like this song because there is a lot of emotion within the story, mostly seen between the panicked son and the father trying to calm and comfort his son. Sadly this poem ends in tragedy with the son dying. It takes an immense amount of skill to be able to line up a technically challenging piece like this with a poem and that just continues to add to the value of this song. Der Erlkönig is definitely the song that will define German music during this time period and I could consider this song timeless, especially in terms of German culture and music.

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Listening Blog 10

Most people will probably listen to Schonberg’s, Variations for Orchestra for orchestra and be either confused or not enjoy what they are hearing; however, I love this piece. The atonality displayed in this piece is brilliant. This is another song that was considered scandalous for its time. In retrospect, I think that this song could be considered one of the defining pieces for modernism, especially in a post-First World War Germany. It took a lot of guts for Schonberg to try something new and outlandish like this in the 1920′s and I think that it truly paid off for him even though it did not seem like that at the time. The twelve-tone technique which Schonberg developed will be considered something is will forever be the master of. I love that every single note is considered of equal importance in this type of music and while it isn’t the most pleasing music to listen to it definitely makes you think about what is going on in the music at all times.

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Listening Blog 9

For this 9th listening blog I chose to listen to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, IV. This song is absolutely brilliant beginning to end. In fact, I would recommend this song to anyone who thinks classical music cannot be stimulating and exciting. The runs played by the strings throughout require an extensive amount of practice and talent. It is truly amazing what can happen when things line up perfectly in the music no matter what level of difficulty. While this is the fourth movement in the symphony, you can hear many different ideas and themes throughout the song. My absolutely favorite part of the song is hectic ending. There is so much going on towards the end that it almost makes you anxious for the ending and it is teased with a few marcato notes before some percussion rolls and then the final chord. Overall, this piece is definitely one of my favorites for symphony and it is one of the most auditory stimulating pieces on the required listening list.

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Listening Blog 8

Maple Leaf Rag is a ragtime song composed by Scott Joplin. It is very jumpy and cheerful. It has a moderately fast tempo and features an exceptional amount of syncopation throughout. Songs like these are timeless because they will always just make you want to get up and dance. The song sounds bright throughout and just listening to it almost puts a smile on your face. By our standards today, it is almost hard to believe that music like this was considered borderline vulgar during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Also, it is almost impossible to notice how ragtime is an something that influenced jazz, especially that during the 1920′s. Without both ragtime and the blues, jazz would have most likely not came into itself as almost the defining genre of America during the 1920′s. Lastly, Scott Joplin is an amazing composer and I also enjoy The Entertainer which is another excellent piece composed by him.

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Concert 5 (Small Ensembles Concert)

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Concert 4 (Wind Symphony)

On Thursday, October 19th, I attended the Wind Symphony concert at the Russell Auditorium. Overall, I would have to say that I am disappointed. Looking through these pieces and looking some of them up on the GMEA website this looks like a concert with grade 5/6 songs, and maybe a 7 or two (possibly). In high school I played a Percy Grainger song my sophomore year so I’m already very familiar with “Graingerisms” and it was disappointing to see this on a college level program. I would have loved to hear some more difficult music similar to what I have heard at both Georgia State and the University of Georgia’s symphonies. On the bright though, Walter Cornwell was brilliant with his piano skills during the cadenza of Cordoba. The piece was very emotionally moving and the technique Walter displayed sent chills down my spine and caused the hair on my arms to stand up. I went and listened to the recording in which the composer Julie Giroux plays the piano as a tribute to her father. While not being able to see that one live, the video just displayed a still image with the recording, Walter’s abilities could definitely rival that of Giroux’s one day and I will not be surprised if we see him in large music halls one day performing for crowds much bigger than what we saw tonight in Milledgeville.

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Concert 3 (New Faculty Recital)

Last Monday night, I went to the New Faculty Debut Recital and I enjoyed it and thought it was a great performance. Youngmi Kim was an amazing singer although I did not like her song selection it was still a good concert. Owen Lovell was possibly the best piano player I’ve heard in a long time. He had excellent technique and sometimes you would rather listen to him rather than the singing. My favorite song was the last song because I thought it was the strongest in terms of quality and the most powerful in terms of emotions. Also, I think the Max Noah Recital Hall has great acoustics, especially when compared to Russell Auditorium. I am pretty sure that it is because Max Noah is much smaller than Russell. The sound carried really well in Max Noah and you would hear everything that was going on between the vocals and the piano.

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Concert 2 (Music Midtown Day 2)

For my concert blog entry I attended Music Midtown. This blog will be about the second day of the festival. The second day was headlined by Future who is a rapper from Atlanta. His music is characterized by rapping about money, drugs, and women over a powerful, loud, and bass heavy beat. It was nice seeing someone from Atlanta headline a festival that was in Atlanta. At the beginning of Future's set we were in about the eighth row of people but by the end we were around the third row and we could feel the fire that was part of the special effects going on behind Future. The biggest surprise of the night was when Future brought out a fellow Atlanta rapper named Young Thug and they performed some of their songs together, as well as allowing Young Thug to perform some of his own popular songs to the crowd.

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Concert 1 (Music Midtown Day 1)

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Listening Blog 7

"Take the A Train" by Duke Ellington is my favorite song that I have chosen to do a blog on for the first half of this class. I believe that any Duke Ellington song, in my opinion, is an automatic classic. Ellington is the hallmark of jazz music and that will probably never change. The free flowing nature of jazz is what allows it to be so timeless and easy to listen to, as well as be remade over and over again by modern day bands. When the vocals come in I like the use of the background singers as both providing chords for the lead singer as well as being used in a call and response manner. As much as I like the accented, energetic beginning to this song, my favorite part occurs after the two minute mark where it begins with a saxophone and piano feature that leads to a percussion break that is followed by a big band moment where the brass instruments come in.

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Listening Blog 6

John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine is one of my favorite listening so far. I've never listened to any of John Adam's compositions, but they remind me of Samuel Hazo; who is one of my favorite composers. The upbeat tempo makes this fun to listen to. The syncopation at the beginning keeps this song both lively and bouncy. My absolute favorite part of this song is the chord progression that occurs between around a the one minute and thirty-five second mark and the one minute and fifty second mark. I love hearing the progression from major to minor, along with some inversion, to a diminished chord, which ends in a beautiful resolution back to a major chord that keeps the song driving along. The beat is easily felt throughout this song due to the heavy presence of a wood block or some sort of other percussion instrument sounding out quarter notes, or its equivalent if this song isn't written in 2/4 or 4/4, in the background.

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Listening Blog 5

Estampie was written during the medieval period. This song makes you feel like you are a knight riding on a horse throughout open fields of medieval Europe trying to reach your home kingdom after conquering neighboring lands. The main melody of the song is up tempo and at times it makes you want to get up and dance. The beat of this song is easy to find due to the powerful drums that we hear in the background. In some way medieval music sounds distantly similar to modern folk music; especially bands like Mumford and Sons. Due to its simplicity though, Estampie also resembles something that someone could create in garage band or other music making software. Despite my criticism of this song, Estampie both gives us an idea of what life was like for these people through their music and definitely exemplifies what typical music was like throughout the medieval period of history.

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Listening Blog 4

Dies Irae is a Catholic Gregorian chant. Its solemn, slow paced tempo will lead some people to turn away from this song and find it boring. Dies Irae follows a strict structure where there are minimal leaps in the notes. Like most songs during this time, Dies Irae was not written in a major or minor key signature, but instead it was written in mode. Another general turn off to Gregorian chants are the homophonic texture; however, using multiple voices, such as female and male singers, helps provide some contrast throughout the song. I find Gregorian chants hard to critique due to their basic nature, but their serve an important purpose especially in religious settings. Dies Irae serves a definite setting in the Catholic church when it is sang during the proceeding of a Catholic funeral  during the Requiem section of the mass and it is followed by other traditional Catholic chants.