#WeeklyAcademic

[musicacademic]

THE FUTURE OF THE WEEKLY ACADEMIC

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Hi there!

The current state of The Weekly Academic has always been fluid as I’ve been writing and deleting these posts since my first day of University, all alone in my dorm room on Fresher’s week. I am hoping that with this long break I have before the next academic year starts that I can come leaps and bounds with my blog writing abilities and start providing you with the quality content you deserve. 

This will include a rebranding and reformatting of all of my future Weekly Academic posts (Not including my Year 1 Weekly Academics) and one more closing post for this academic year. 

I will likely make a post or two over the break to keep myself from going insane but other then that:

Thank you for reading & expect more Weekly Academics next October!

Asher - MusicAcademic

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester B - Week 5

February 24th - March 1st 2020

A Performer Prepares

Creating Visuals

[Reading: A Guide to Musical Analysis - Nicholas Cook]

When making Graphic Scores there are 5 pieces of advice to go through for building an argument through analysis:

1) The Simple Steps

Listen + Become Familiar

Make note of your Personal Reaction to the music

Follow the score along with the recording and make notes

Form a musical understanding (Note Important Key / Structural Points)

Apply your understanding to the whole piece

Write up the Analysis in the Appropriate Form

Start Again

2) Inductive Approach over Deductive Approach

When analysing music you should start with observing first instead of trying to fit the piece into a musical box and then work to propose a Theory around the works after.

3) Ask Questions of the Music

What is the most striking feature?

Does it create a sense of moving towards or away from some goal?

What + Where (Describe + Demonstrated)

How + Why (Analyse + Draw Conclusions)

4) Start with a Simple Representation

You don’t have to have all the details in the first draft of your analysis. It’s always best to start with the bigger more noticeable details and then dig down.

5) Levels of Detail

A - Background (Lots of Detail)

A = Movements, Tonal Shifts and Units.

B - Middleground (Medium Amount of Detail)

B = Tone / Texture and Instrument Shifts.

C - Foreground (Little Detail)

C = Melodies and Chord Progressions.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 1

September 23rd - September 29th 2019

Andddd....

That’s a wrap on the first week of University!

It’s time to start on my weekly rundowns of each subject and other events that I’ve been to over the week. As stated in a previous blog post I will be using this page for myself to look back on for later reference. Anyway, time to get to it!

Music Industries

Introduction to the Music Industries

At the beginning of this lecture, we were asked to write our definition of what we think the music industry is. My definition was:

The Music Industry is a very tricky industry to break into due to the many different sectors of it such as Live Music, Promotion, Recording, Distribution and Teaching.

From there we looked more in-depth at the different sectors of the music industry and whittled each role down into 5 sections:

Live Music and Performance

- Artist

- Artist Manager / Artist Liaison

- Orchestra

- Conductor

- Session Musician

- Tour Manager

- Budget Manager

- Stage Managers

- Roadies / Set-up 

- Venue Managers

- Sound Engineer

- Photographer

- Videographer

- Animators

- Music Journalist

- Social Media Distributors

- Promoter

- Rights Manager

Recording Music

- Record Labels (Big Corporations and Indie)

- Label Executives

- Artist and Repertoire Management (A&R)

- Techies

- Sound Engineer

- Mixer / Masterers

- Producer

- Artist

- Songwriters / Composers

- Session Musician

- Distributors

- Photographer

- Videographer

- Animators

- Copyright Lawyers

Distribution Labels

Distribution Labels collect music for TV shows, Advertisements, Films, etc. to buy. They keep a catalogue of music sold to them and show these to clients to try to make the original songwriters money.

- Publisher

- Distribution Agent

- A&R Rep

- Social Media Distributors

- Printers (CD, Vinyl, etc.)

- Songwriters 

Promotion

- Advertisements

- Leafletting

- Designers

- Social Media Distributors

Misc.

- Foley Artist (Sound Effect Maker)

- Luthier (Stringed Instrument Maker)

- Teaching (Music Education)

- Radio & TV Presenters

After looking at all of these jobs we were told to create a new definition that included all of the different career paths listed. The statement we came up with is:

A diverse collection of professions all related to making money and navigation through the industries.

A Performer Prepares

Defining Performance Practice

Performance Practice is:

Serious Practice

A deliberate creative process of improving musical ability

Creating a productive environment to ensure optimised practicing

When scheduling practice sessions it’s always best to practice for a similar amount of time each day to make sure that you have a time you know that you should be working in and always make sure to not overwork, rest is very important. The best way to practice is in short stints, always make sure to take breaks to not lose motivation towards reaching your practice goals.

The most important part of practice is to balance it with other aspects of your life evenly. Don’t let it get in the way of your mental health and relationships but also make sure that it’s not hindering your education or your work.

A popular way to ensure an effective practice is to start Self Recording. By recording yourself each time you practice or even small sections of your practice, it allows you to look back and reflect on your work for bettering later on.

Events

I went to go see 2 events this week as part of my course, one was called “I Only Know I Am” which is a piece that was composed by my lecturer along with a fellow colleague based on poetry by John Clare. The other was The Hallé Orchestra Practice where we got to go up to the Cathedral and watch one of the biggest Orchestras in the UK practice for an upcoming performance. This was my first time hearing a full orchestra in such a way and it really opened my eyes to new possibilities with composing in the future!

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester B - Week 3

February 10th - February 16th 2020

A Performer Prepares

Scandinavia

In this lecture, we looked at the 3 countries within Scandinavia: 

Norway

Sweden

Finland

We started by looking at the Sami People, which are the most Northern minority tribe. (60-100k Sami people living in Scandinavia)

Sami Music is usually made up of a Yoik. Yoiks are something you can only do, you cannot Yoik at someone or about something which is how it was described. (Still very confused about that)

Yoiks are used for many things within their culture including making holographic images in your mind, a way for Shamans to communicate between worlds and calming Reindeer.

Technically a Yoik is made up of:

A Circular Structure like the Seasonal Cycle

Careful Breath Control

Very Specific Timbre

Large / Small Intervals

Glissando and Vocal Techniques (Usually hard to accompany)

More recently the Yoik has been modernised by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, see example below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPaaUa3Aiek

The second type of music we looked at was Kulning which is a Sweedish Ancient Herding Call. The Kulning is mainly performed by women in fields (Fäbod) to call the cattle home in the evening. This kind of music is built up of High Pitched (Ca. 800-1300Hz) syllables instead of words, without Vibrato.

Next, we looked into the instruments of each country starting with Norway.

In Norway, the instrument we looked at was the Hardanger Fiddle (1872) which is known as the National Instrument of Norway. This is a very decorated version of the standard fiddles seen in Western culture. They’re made up of 8 string with the 4 original strings and 4 extra strings (Sympathetic Strings) below them to create a resonance. It also has a flat fingerboard to allow 2 strings to be played at once easier which is common within Folk music. This instrument inspired the First Hardinger Fiddle contest in 1888 (in the place of origin, Telemark).

The instrument is most common in Folk Dance Music: Slått. The types of Slått include Springar (3/4) and Gangar (2/4 or 6/8). The type of Slått we looked at was the Halling dance which is a vigorous Norwegian Folk Dance for Couples as a courting dance. It is often used for men to show off their strength and grace. Composer: Edward Grieg was influenced by this instrument and recreated the songs for Piano. One of these compositions being Røtnamsknut Op.72.

For Sweeden, we looked at the Nyckelharpa which is a 14th-century key and string instrument from the Hurdy Gurdy family. It’s made up of 3 main strings, 1 drone string and 12 resonant strings along with 37 wooden keys. Other instruments that are common in Sweedish Folk include the Fiddle, Sackpipa (Sweedish Bagpipes), Accordion and Sälgflöjt (Willow Flute).

Lastly onto Finland where the main instrument is known as the Small Kantele which is made up of 5-15 horsehair strings tightly wound around each other. This instrument then developed into the Concert Kantele which now has up to 40 strings which is much larger than the original and alike the Harp has switch mechanisms for playing Sharps and Flats.

A History of Popular Music

Politics, Protest and Popular Song

The first 2 songs that we looked at when listening to Protest Music were two that were really subtle pieces by Randy Newman who was the composer of all the Toy Story films.

Sail Away + Putin

Sail Away sounds like a very sweet, string orchestrated song sang by a very soothing voice. If you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics this could be a cute anthemic song for America but when looking into the lyrics you can find a much darker meaning than what was originally heard.

This song, unlike it’s perceived meaning, is from the perspective of Slave Drivers promising the American Slaves that they will have a better life on the other side and ignoring everything that will happen to them in the future

( In America you'll get food to eat Won't have to run through the jungle And scuff up your feet )  - Insinuating that their life will be much easier for them  You'll just (sing about Jesus) and drink wine all day  - Pushing religion on to the Africans to assert their dominance It's great to be an American

( Ain't no lions or tigers ain't no mamba snake ) Just the(sweet watermelon) and the buckwheat cake - Watermelon Smile is a slur used towards Black American’s Everybody is as happy as a man can be Climb aboard little wog sail away with me                We will (cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay) - Charleston Bay is where the slaves would be taken to from America Sail away-sail away We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay

(In America every man is free To take care of his home and his family) - It’s a fake promise towards the Slaves that they wouldn’t be seperated from their families when they arrived  You'll be as (happy as a monkey in a monkey tree) - Another Slur towards Black Americans

(You're all gonna be an American) - They’ll have no choice as they were taken by force

Sail away sail away We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay Sail away-sail away We will cross the mighty ocean into Charleston Bay

Guitar Tuition

Time - Loop Arrangement

In the Guitar lesson, I had on Monday we looked at my APP - Solo Performance and my plan for what that would look like and include.

So far my overall plan is to first figure out what my theme would be called as it is only Originals and so far my only idea is “Authentically Me”. My plan is to try fit 4 songs into my 15-minute plan but that will be based on how long my two most important tracks (looped) Time and Alice will be. My hope is to have the order be:

(TBC)

Alice (Looped)

(TBC)

Time (Looped)

I am thinking as for the scenery I would really like it to be an intimate setting with the blinds closed and a soft Orange / Yellow lighting as all of my songs are very emotional.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester B - Week 2

February 3rd - February 9th 2020

A History of Popular Music

Music of the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was a group of uprisings against the Arabian Governments based off of the Arab Springs that occurred in 2011. The cause of the unrest was a mix of many things that included Economic Turmoil, Rising Food Prices, Human Rights Violations (Government Torturing Civilians) and Authoritarian Regimes. 

The Uprising began in Tunisia when a street food vendor set himself on fire in the street after being berated by a Police officer over his stand, which led to more copy-cat immolations to happen, the next being in Eygpt.

The first song to appear of the Arab Revolution was written by El General and was called Rayes Le Bled (Mr President) and was arrested only days after the death of the street vendor but had to be released less than a week later to avoid the public unrest.

In Syria, a protest song was posted by a singer (Ibrahim Qashoush) on July 2nd called “Get Out Bashar” based off of the chants yelled by protesters in the street and the day after the video was posted he was found dead with his vocal cords ripped out which is said to be a message for other musicians that tried to slander the governing body.

The Music + Musicians

Rap was the genre that really came to the forefront of music after El General’s song was released and was one of the most effective ways to spread the news since normal news spreading was censored. 

The areas of the Arabian Revolution + Their Musicians:

Tunisia - El General (Mr President)

Tunisia - Emel Mathlouthi (My Word Is Free)

Egypt - Ramy Essam (Bread + Anthem of the Revolution)

Libya - Ibn Thabit

America - Omar Offandum (Syrian American)

Ramy Essam faced torture from the Egyptian Government and was later offered refuge by Sweeden in 2014 due to the danger that he faced by staying in Egypt.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester B - Week 1

January 27th - February 2nd 2020

Approaching Notation and Analysis

Why do we Analyse Music?

Our main reasons for Analysing music tend to be to develop a better understanding of the music and to discover the new techniques used by composers and the intentions behind using motifs within the music. 

When analysing music we tend to look for:

D - Dynamics R - Rhythm S - Structure M - Melody / Metre I - Instrumentation T - Texture / Tempo / Tonality H - Harmony

More minor things we also look for include:

Articulation

Thematic Materials

Links + Transitions

Climaxes + Important Features

Time Period Written

Score Shapes / Historical Documents

Historical / Ahistorical Analysis

A History of Popular Music

Intro to Music and Politics

In this lecture, we looked into a bunch of instances where Music and Politics overlapped to help us decide what we wanted our Presentation Assessment to be on. The Assessment Brief is: To present an interrogation of ‘Politics’ and/or ‘Identity’ in Popular Music, explored through a case study.

A few case studies I’m interested in looking into are:

- Donald Trump + 2016 USA General Election (Make America Great Again - Frank Turner)

- Jeremy Corbyn + 2020 UK General Election (Seven Nation Army)

- JFK’s Birthday Present (Happy Birthday, Mr President - Marilyn Monroe)

- MLK Speech (Bob Dylan + Joan Baez)

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: The topic that I ended up covering was Cultural Politics and Chinese Identity within Film: The Live-Action + Original Disney Mulan films.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 11

December 2nd - December 8th 2019

Music Industries

Careers and Employability - Freelance Working

In this session, our lecturer invited in 2 workers from the Careers and Employability Service at the university they spent time discussing with us our options after University and laying out a plan for what steps we should be taking over the next 3 years to get there.

Some of the advice we were given was that it’s good to have more than 3 different job ideas because as a Musician we’ll most likely have a Portfolio Career which means that we’ll most likely take on multiple jobs at one time to provide an income for our main works. Another thing that they referred to is having a T shaped career which means that along with having your main skillset (Your Musical Talent), you also need to have adaptable skills that you can apply to other jobs to fill out your Portfolio and to make you more employable.

Something that the University is offering is an Opportunity Fund to help fund projects that you’re thinking to run so if I have any important projects I would like to be funding it would be smart to apply for that. 

We were also informed to look at a few websites when it comes to looking for work experience to help us out with getting a better job after University:

- LinkedIn

- Lincoln Connect

- UMusic

- UoL Careers

Some extra advice we were given that is specific to Freelance working is that the Midlands is the best place to be when becoming a Freelancer as it is the freelance hotspot of the UK. The most important advice we were given was to say Yes to every single job offer you’re given as everything may lead to another job and to get Terms and Conditions written in a signed contract for every single project that you do to make sure that you get paid the settled for amount as that is your only form of income most of the time. As a Freelancer you must also remember that once you start earning over £1000 you have to register with HMRC as Self-Employed.

Freelance Toolkit

Guitar Tuition

This week in my Guitar Lesson we started to discuss more on my solo recital for A Performer Prepares at the end of the year. I found out that it will end up being 20 minutes long and needs to have a theme that ties it all together. My guitar tutor suggests that I play Alice as one of my songs as that is his favourite out of the ones that I played for him. From this session, I’ve figured out I need to start timing my original pieces to find a few that fit the time and are suitable for the event.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 10

November 25th - December 1st 2019

A Performer Prepares

Exoticism in Music

“Musical Exoticism is the borrowing or use of musical materials that evoke distant locales or alien frames of reference” (Bellman, 1988, ix)

Exotic music is set out to reflect “elsewhere”. The way that music portrays this “elsewhere” includes:

Scales not common in Western Music

Lyrical Content

Singing Techniques

Instrumentation (Usage of Percussion)

Hijaz Melody

Gipsy Scales

Orientalism = Music that represents the “Orient” (Spain - Japan including Africa & South America)

Exotic Music is not entirely okay to do today due to cultural appropriation but it is still seen in certain situations such as the Mulan Soundtrack being composed by Matthew Wilder & David Zippel.

This kind of music started as early as the 17th century and was mainly provoked thematically and not within the music (Purcell’s Indian Queen). 

In the 19th century (in the context of industrialism), the ‘other’ is conceived as a symbol of stability and unchanging eternities as the world was changing around the western civilisation. Also within this century colonialism defined how people were treated due to their race and Orientalism provided an intellectual authority over ‘Orients’.

The 3 kinds of Creators of Exotic Musical Works are:

Composers who have experienced a distant landscape

Composers who rely on the moods of previous works that were composed by the previous type

Composers who invent what they need the orient to be

An example of one of these composers is Camille St Saens (1835 - 1921) who was a French Composer who traveled the world in 1888 to try to educate his works. Before he traveled he wrote an opera called ‘Samson et Dalila’. This opera was set in Palestine and based on a Biblical story about a fight between Palistines & Hebrews.

One of the songs within this Opera is the ‘Bacchanale, Act 3′, to create the sense of the ‘Other’ St Saens uses:

Drones

Tetrachord Scales

Trills / Ornaments

Slurred Legato Strings

Percussion

Woodwind

Glissando / Arpeggio

Oboe Solo

Use of Harps

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 9

November 18th - November 24th 2019

Music Industries

Luthier

In this session, a local Luthier called Adrian Lucas came in to discuss his career with us and how he started out as a luthier through going to guitar making classes and selling his guitars through guitar tutors to their students.

From this lecture, I’ve started becoming interested in making my own guitars, mainly for the skill and also the idea of being able to play my own instrument. Both of those ideas sound like very good quirks to have as a musician.

A History of Popular Music

Looking at Essay Concepts

For my first assignment in the History of Popular Music module, I need to write a 2000 word essay on Authenticity in Popular Music.

My idea is to cover both Genre / Ideology Authenticity by looking at the Linkin Park and Jay Z collab album “Collision Course”. This album consists of remixes of both Linkin Park and Jay Z songs mixed together to create new tracks. The question I’m covering is “Does the album take away from the authenticity of both the song’s original meanings / the genre identity?”. The idea behind this is that it could be argued that the history of the genres, especially Hip-Hop, is ignored when mixing the very black ethnic origins of Hip-hop with Alt/Metalcore music.

My final title is:

Genre Authenticity: How Linkin Park x Jay-Z's “Collision Course” (2004) broke the genre boundaries.

Events

Haunted

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 8

November 11th - November 17th 2019

Music Industries

Opera, Agents & the Port-folio Career

Starting Out:

Get an Agent

Build a Website

Networking (Important)

Have Demos / Recordings / Videos

Continue to learn

Go to Auditions

First Paid Jobs: 

Get your first contract (Money)

Preparation (Get Accommodation)

Nailing It (You’re only as good as your last gig)

Being Seen (Invite important people to your gigs)

Record gigs (Advertisement + Add to Portfolio)

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

SWOT Analysis is a form of self-reflection which is really helpful for advertising yourself as a product as it helps you grow and figure out which traits you should put first and which you need to work on.

Carousel / Portfolio Career:

Teaching

Directing

Session Musician

Fixing (Setting others up with work)

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 7

November 4th - November 10th 2019

Music Industries

Teaching Music

In Music Industries on Monday morning, we were taught about teaching or we taught ourselves about teaching? Either way, it was probably one of my favourite sessions of Music Industries so far. Most of the session was up to us to see how Music should be taught. My professor started by welcoming us into the room with sweets and asked us how our holiday (as an Icebreaker) which was really nice as we’d been on a weeks holiday before that session and that’s where the lesson began. Right at the door. 

One of the most crucial parts of teaching is to make sure that the students respect that the classroom belongs to you as a space to educate them but also to them as a space to be educated and to not be afraid to ask questions.

After being welcomed in my professor already had the classroom in a layout that he wanted it to be in to teach the lesson which made the transition between standing outside and beginning the lesson much easier as the classroom was equipped for learning.

A line that he made sure to emphasise was “A teacher’s job before anything else is to make sure a student is learning” and the way to do this is usually through assessments. There are 3 kinds of assessment:

- Self: This consists of letting a student look back on their own work and decide where they were successful and how they think they could learn better.

- Peer: This form of assessment can be shown. An example of this would be swapping work with another student to add their own input on how they feel the other’s work could be improved which allows insight on certain things you may not have noticed yourself when learning.

- Teacher: This is where you as the teacher really learn about how your student learns and you pick up on their strong suits and places in which they may require help. This is how a teacher will make sure that their student is learning.

To make sure we understood the lesson he provided to us an assessment of his own which was to plan our own lesson and present it for the class within 1 minute. When giving us this task he made sure to emphasise that as a teacher you must always remain professional even if giving a more relaxed lesson and that teaching always requires a plan. 

See my lesson plan below:

Being a teacher, especially a music teacher within the teaching industry is an extremely hard task due to a number of things my professor listed as:

Noise! - Especially when working with younger years, noise can be a big problem with teaching music as in Primary and the early ages of High School, Music is usually a mandatory subject which means many students that you take may not always be interested in learning how to play music and sadly that means listening to the DJ button on a keyboard going off during your well-planned lessons.

Poor accommodation & funding - With budget cut after budget cut coming from the Government, the Arts are slowly dying as a subject and with less money for Music, schools are less likely to want to put time and effort into making sure that the subject has adequate equipment and workspaces. Which links into the next point:

Lack of administrative support

Competition with other creative arts subjects 

Numbers of classes you will have, names, paperwork, parents evenings…

Small dept teams, including peripatetics (peri-pat-etic: a person who travels from place to place, especially a teacher who works in more than one school or college.)

Stress/workload

Even after hearing about the struggles of being a Music teacher, this lesson really influenced me into thinking about it due to the positive reinforcements from my professor that I would make a good teacher even though it was something that I’d always brush aside and say that I wasn’t ready for.             I’m very thankful that I had this lesson as even though I knew about most of the parts of being a music teacher I’d never equated it to myself as much as this lesson allowed me to.

Approaching Notation and Analysis

Introduction to Transcription

(Worked on Notating Rhythms - Nothing to Show)

A Performer Prepares

The Cult of Virtuoso: Concertos

A concerto consists of an Orchestra playing with Soloist. It is usually used to:- Add Texture to a piece- Give an important Musician a chance to show off- Showcase a brand new instrument- Create a dramatic dialogue between the Orchestra and Soloist

Throughout the different stages of music (Baroque - Romantic), there were many different definitions for what a Concerto was which meant that Concertos varied a lot during this time but once music progressed to the Romantic era, it finally seemed to become one definition. A Classical Concerto (Cadenza) was the first seen improvised solo given to musicians within music whereas concertos within the Romantic Era were based more on the virtuosity of the main soloist rather than musical depth. Most Concertos in this time were written to show off and gloat about virtuosity.

An Example of a Concerto: (Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons - Winter)

[Vivaldi, Concerto No.4 in F minor, Op.8, RV297, “L’inverno” mut.3 Allegro - 1725]

Recording Music

Recording Studios

In this session, we went into the recording studios and were walked through how the equipment worked which I had learned from my time in College. Not much else was learned other than shaking an egg to be recorded which was quite funny.

A History of Popular Music

Mediation, Semiotic Analysis and Musical Dramaturgy

The definition of Mediation in the Oxford English Dictionary states that Mediation is an “Intermediate Agent” and a “Medium of Transition” which when written in simpler terms basically boils down to Mediation is making music marketable. It is usually seen as opposing to Authenticity as it takes away from the original meaning of the song but can also be complementary to the Authenticity of a piece of music.

When thinking about Mediation the sections usually thought about consist of:

- Live Performance - Selling Merchandise / On stage lighting choices and art

- Package Recording - Recording CDs / Vinyls / Cassette Tape (Image/Artwork)

- Filmed Concert Documentaries

- Radio Broadcasts - Live Lounge

- Feature Film Soundtracks - Netflix / Films / TV Shows

- Adverts for Non-Musical Projects - John Lewis Adverts

- Instrument Choice - Dylan Goes Electric

An Example of Mediation could be the performances of Verdi’s “La Traviata” - ‘Brindisi’ (Lost Weekend (Wilder, 1945)) as it shows how the context within a performance is important to Mediation.

Semiotics is the creating of meaning from an action or symbol. For example, some things have multiple meanings such as the sign the 2 fingers up meaning Peace when it comes to Hippies and Victory when Winston Churchill did it after the war. Most Semiotics depend on the context and the subject’s cultural codes / what they grew up understanding.

Codes are signifiers that promote a certain thought or feeling within a spectator due to the individual’s familiarity with the code. E.g. Shrieking Cellos to a Western audience would be a code that connotes horror whereas someone who hasn’t been exposed to the sound within that context may not feel the same feeling of fear after listening to the same sound.

Within the book Unheard Melodies by Claudia Gorbman, the author proposes that when an audience attributes meaning to film music their reading is based upon their experience and understanding of 3 different semiotic factors (Although sometimes these factors blur and merge):

Pure Musical Codes

Cultural Musical Codes

Cinematic Musical Codes 

Musical Dramaturgy: When broken down Dramaturgy refers to techniques and principles employed in the design and presentation of dramatic works which leads to the idea that ‘Musical Dramaturgy’ separates elements that complete dramaturgical functions from ones that do not.

The terminology used when thinking about Musical Dramaturgy includes:

Added Value - Adding music to a scene gives the visuals a value. An example of this would be having one scene with different music over the top and seeing how the scene is perceived with the change.

Non-diegetic Music - This is where the music within a source is absent from the story word aka music that the characters within the story cannot hear. Example: The Opening Scene from UP - The music that plays within these scenes is obviously non-diegetic as it plays throughout the story of their lives and the characters do not react or interact with this. This music is merely there to add depth to the scene for the audience.

Diegetic Music - Being the exact opposite of Non-Diegetic Music, this music exists within the world of the characters and is often something the characters will interact with either through turning on the radio, putting earphones in or walking into a party and having the music play. Example: A scene from The Amazing Spiderman 2 in which the music switches from Diegetic (Being played through earphones in the main character’s ears) to Non-diegetic (The character taking his earphones out and the music getting louder to connote the switch between the two)

Internal Diegetic - This is the 3rd form of music within the context as Internal Diegetic refers to music in which one of the characters is thinking about a piece and therefore the audience can hear this music but the other characters within the scene cannot hear or interact with the music.

Acousmatic - Is the creating of an audiovisual space which brings the audience beyond the borders of the screen into the spaces in which the camera cannot capture. Examples of this would be like behind a closed door or behind the character as they’re being filmed walking down a corridor.

Empathetic - This music is something that is matched with the mood of the scene or of a character/compliments what the audience would think is appropriate for the scene.

Anempathetic - This music is something that is matched against the mood of the scene or of a character. Example: In Kingsman where there is a massacre within a church and yet the music is happy and upbeat.

Dissonant Harmony - A form of Anempathetic Music which creates a sense of Irony which is reflected through the music and the film scene.

Intracontextual Reference (Leitmotif) - Referencing a song that has been playing throughout a film in reference to a character or a certain event within the film. Example: Top Gun where the song playing on the Juke Box in the cafe is one that is linked with the Protagonist’s relationship with his partner which is heard throughout the film.

Intertextual Reference - Music which creates meaning through its connection with another form of media. An example of this would be if the Jaws theme playing in a different film, the audience link this sound with the idea of something lurking and getting ready to strike and therefore get worried.

Mickey-Mousing - Actions that are syncronised with the music alike what is usually seen in Mickey Mouse cartoons.

Ostinatos and Stingers - An ostinato is a repeated melody or rhythmic pattern that illustrates sudden dramatic tension (A Stinger).

Sound Bridge - Music that starts at the end of a scene and guides the transition through to the next scene.

[musicacademic]

Year 1 - Semester A - Week 4

October 14th - October 20th 2019

Music Industries

Basics of Touring

Touring is a key part of the Live Performance Industry and is required of a Performing Artist to make money. The first documented instance of touring happened in the Medieval ages with Troubadours making their way around the local towns to spread the news through music.

Touring Roles:

Artists

Roadie

Artist Manager

Tour Manager

Budgeting / Merch Manager

Door Man

Techie / Equipment Manager

Vehicle Driver

Sound Technician

Booker 

Promoter (Agent)

Venue Manager

Records & Labels

Festivals

Trade Fairs

Media / Press

Preparation:

Requirements for Touring include:

Equipment

Repertoire

Contacts

Confirmed Venues / Information on Venues

Insurance

Form of Transportation

Money / Budgeting

Time

Defined Roles

Promotional Material (CD / EP / YouTube Channel):

Audio, Video, Photo, Blurb, Website & Facebook.

It’s always important to have a Press Pack available for potential venues to be sent when asking for bookings. This would be made up of High Res. Photos & a blurb for promotional posters, a tech spec, stage plan and contract details. The best place for a Press Pack would be is on a website for your act so that instead of sending each document separately in an email you can provide all venues with a link to everything they could ask for.

Planning the Event

When organising a tour you always have to make sure you do your research. Some of the best questions to ask yourself are:

When is the best time to tour your music? 

Are there other important holidays or festivals going on? 

What time of year is the best to perform?

Where will your regular fan base be?

Have you contacted the venues 6-12 months before the date to ensure the venue availability?

More important information to have on hand is:

Do you have a blurb of potential bands to support you?

Do you have the venue’s minimum conditions and capacity information?

Make sure to be polite when contacting anyone

Have a clear objective in your conversations

Make use of your personal contacts 

Include links to more information

Money, Money, Money...

Income:                                                        Expenditure:

Playing the Gig                                 Travel - Parking, Hire & Petrol

Busking                                             Food

Reimbursing                                      Equipment Fixing

Travel Allowance                               Venue Costs

                                                          Accommodation

                                                          Promotion

                                                          Insurance / Liability

Funding:

Arts Council England - Touring Scheme

Crowd Funding

Local Funding

Merch

Savings

Kickstarter

The Tour Plan

Promoting The Tour

Create quality posters

Provide venues with promotional materials

Spread the word over social media

Make sure venues help with promotion

Tell Local Press & Radios to promote 

Ready To Go

Create a plan for timings and downtime

Stick to your plan

Communicate often with Venues for updates

Keep the performers happy with food and breaks

Be polite and courteous at all venues

Learn Sound Engineer names

Don’t turn up under the influence

Party Sustainably

After The Tour

Thank everyone for the efforts put in (Don’t forget the less important)

Pay everyone on time

Make sure you yourself get your cut of the payment

Take time to yourself and relax for a job well done

Downsides

Traveling around often and sleeping on the go can be very tiring. It may be the best option to stay in one central area in between a few venues and travel to and from that place while touring.

Keeping contact with your friends and family outside of this tour. Don’t forget that you have a life outside of what you’re going through at the moment that will want to know what you’re getting up to.

Mental Health issues are things that will crop up no matter how hard you try to avoid it from being out of your comfort zone, being away from your loved ones, the stress of always being on the move, keeping in close quarters with the same people all the time and not having much space to yourself. The best way to take care of this is to not lose touch with your emotions and remember to take breaks when you can. It should be within your Tour Plan to take a day off for every 3 nights of performance that you do.