I have now been given the task of writing about whatever I want to in this blog post. Given all of the things that we have learned this year in music appreciation, I am free to discuss any type of music that I want. There are two musicians in particular that have always sparked my interest. They both came at the beginning of the 21st century, and they are Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis. You might be asking yourself just how those two go together, but I am going to try and tell you how. ( I have to find out first) :) Ray Charles was a pioneeer in the genre of music called Soul during the 1950's. Jerry Lee Lewis was a rock and roll musician. The thing that these two men had the most in common was the piano. Ray Charles was completely blind and he was an amazing piano player. Ray Charles was called the "only true genius in show business" by Frank Sanatra. Something else that links these two men together in a way was the fact that people questioned their music and called it the "devil's music".
Ray Charles started going blind at the age of five, and was completely blind at the age of seven. He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945, where he developed his musical talent. He was only taught classical music in school, but he wanted to play the jazz and blues that he heard on the radio. Almost immediately after signing with Atlantic, Charles scored his first hit singles. "Mess Around" was an R&B hit in 1953. "It Should Have Been Me" and "Don't You Know" both made the charts in 1954, but "I Got a Woman" (composed with band mate Renald Richard) brought him to national prominence.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Because a cat's the only cat who REALLY knows where it's at!
Swing music is a form of jazz that developed in the early 1930's and became very popular by 1935. Swing is simply just a different feel to the eighth notes in a song. Instead of playing just straight 1&2& patterns you give it a little "swing." Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945.
Swing, like jazz, was created by African Americans and had a great impact on the American culture as a whole. Swing bands abandoned the string orchestra and wanted to use "edgier" arrangements that emphasized woodwind and horn parts. One particular instrument that was more or less introduced with Jazz was the saxophone.
Charlie Parker was an American saxophonist and a composer. Parker played a leading role in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuoso technique, and improvisation based on harmonic structure. Louis Daniel Armstrong was also a famous jazz musician. He was a jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans. Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music towards solo performances. He was very talented at "scat singing" when you sing sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over," whose skin-color was secondary to his amazing talent in an America that was severely racially divided.
Swing, like jazz, was created by African Americans and had a great impact on the American culture as a whole. Swing bands abandoned the string orchestra and wanted to use "edgier" arrangements that emphasized woodwind and horn parts. One particular instrument that was more or less introduced with Jazz was the saxophone.
Charlie Parker was an American saxophonist and a composer. Parker played a leading role in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuoso technique, and improvisation based on harmonic structure. Louis Daniel Armstrong was also a famous jazz musician. He was a jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans. Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music towards solo performances. He was very talented at "scat singing" when you sing sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over," whose skin-color was secondary to his amazing talent in an America that was severely racially divided.
Monday, March 28, 2011
20th Century Music
Many musical changes happened during the 20th century. It was a time of deepening psycological awareness.
Experimentation and new systems of writing music were attempted by avant-garde composers like Edgard Varèse and although none gained a foothold with the public, these techniques had a profound influence on many of the composers who were to follow. Twentieth century music has seen a great range of various movements, like post-romanticism, serialism and neo-classicism. All of these were practiced by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. Experimentation and new systems of writing music were attempted by avant-garde composers.
Since twentieth century composers weren't limited by the rules and restrictions of the classical period, they were free to write however they pleased. An example of work from the twentieth century is a ballet called "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. The Rite of Spring debuted in May, 1913. It was one of his most famous works, but it was first met by harsh criticism and a riot even broke out simply because people weren't sure how to respond to those kinds of sounds. The audience was accustomed to the "grace" and "elegance" of traditional ballets like Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. There were people that liked Stravinsky's work and that's how the whole disagreement got started. Stravinsky was so taken aback by the audiences reaction that the actually fled the scene before the show was over.
Igor Stravonsky was noted for his stylistic diversity. After the first Russian phase, he turned to neoclassicism in the 1920's. Then in the 1950's he addopted serial procedures. Stravinsky's compositions of this period share traits with examples of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells, and clarity of form, of instrumentation, and of utterance.
There were more musical advances than Stravinsky's works alone. Amplification permitted giant concerts to be heard by those with the least expensive tickets, and the inexpensive reproduction and transmission or broadcast of music gave rich and poor alike nearly equal access to high quality music performances. In the early twentieth century, devices were invented that were capable of generating sound electronically, without an initial mechanical source of vibration. As more electronic technology matured, so did the music.
Experimentation and new systems of writing music were attempted by avant-garde composers like Edgard Varèse and although none gained a foothold with the public, these techniques had a profound influence on many of the composers who were to follow. Twentieth century music has seen a great range of various movements, like post-romanticism, serialism and neo-classicism. All of these were practiced by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. Experimentation and new systems of writing music were attempted by avant-garde composers.
Since twentieth century composers weren't limited by the rules and restrictions of the classical period, they were free to write however they pleased. An example of work from the twentieth century is a ballet called "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. The Rite of Spring debuted in May, 1913. It was one of his most famous works, but it was first met by harsh criticism and a riot even broke out simply because people weren't sure how to respond to those kinds of sounds. The audience was accustomed to the "grace" and "elegance" of traditional ballets like Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. There were people that liked Stravinsky's work and that's how the whole disagreement got started. Stravinsky was so taken aback by the audiences reaction that the actually fled the scene before the show was over.
Igor Stravonsky was noted for his stylistic diversity. After the first Russian phase, he turned to neoclassicism in the 1920's. Then in the 1950's he addopted serial procedures. Stravinsky's compositions of this period share traits with examples of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells, and clarity of form, of instrumentation, and of utterance.
There were more musical advances than Stravinsky's works alone. Amplification permitted giant concerts to be heard by those with the least expensive tickets, and the inexpensive reproduction and transmission or broadcast of music gave rich and poor alike nearly equal access to high quality music performances. In the early twentieth century, devices were invented that were capable of generating sound electronically, without an initial mechanical source of vibration. As more electronic technology matured, so did the music.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The Romantic Period
We have just made our way through the Romantic period in my music appreciation class, and now it's once again my task to share what I've learned.
The Romantic differed from the Classical era in many different ways. The Classical period Had strict laws od balance and restraint, but the Romantic period took it's own direction and became a lot more emotionally expressive and more creative. Romantic composers used the expressive means to portray nationalism. Many changes in technique also came about in this period. Composers became more experimental with lengths of compositions, harmonies, and tonal relationships. Another important feature of Romantic music was the use of color. While new instruments were constantly being added to the orchestra, composers also tried to get new or different sounds out of the instruments already in use. A great example of a Romantic composer that used the "tone painting" was Hector Berlioz. We actually listened to his Symphonie Fantastique in class so we could see just how effective this technique was on the human mind in terms of helping you to create a picture from hearing the sounds of the music.
Another new form of music that came about was the song, which was a vocal musical work that had a great amount of emphasis on the text or the symbolical meanings of words within the text. During the Romantic period, the virtuoso began to be focused. Exceptionally gifted performers - pianists, violinists, and singers -- became enormously popular. Liszt, the great Hungarian pianist/composer, reportedly played with such passion and intensity that women in the audience would faint. Most composers were also virtuoso performers; it was inevitable that the music they wrote would be extremely challenging to play.
The Romantic period could actually be divided into two schools of composers. Some of them took a more conservative approach. Their music was clearly Romantic in terms of style and feeling, but it also did not want to stray too far from the Classical rules. While other composers felt comfortable with pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable. After so long of pushing the limits, the Romantic era left later composers wondering what to explore next. The period that includes the final decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth is sometimes called the post-Romantic era. This was when composers really began focusing on very nationalistic music.
The Romantic differed from the Classical era in many different ways. The Classical period Had strict laws od balance and restraint, but the Romantic period took it's own direction and became a lot more emotionally expressive and more creative. Romantic composers used the expressive means to portray nationalism. Many changes in technique also came about in this period. Composers became more experimental with lengths of compositions, harmonies, and tonal relationships. Another important feature of Romantic music was the use of color. While new instruments were constantly being added to the orchestra, composers also tried to get new or different sounds out of the instruments already in use. A great example of a Romantic composer that used the "tone painting" was Hector Berlioz. We actually listened to his Symphonie Fantastique in class so we could see just how effective this technique was on the human mind in terms of helping you to create a picture from hearing the sounds of the music.
Another new form of music that came about was the song, which was a vocal musical work that had a great amount of emphasis on the text or the symbolical meanings of words within the text. During the Romantic period, the virtuoso began to be focused. Exceptionally gifted performers - pianists, violinists, and singers -- became enormously popular. Liszt, the great Hungarian pianist/composer, reportedly played with such passion and intensity that women in the audience would faint. Most composers were also virtuoso performers; it was inevitable that the music they wrote would be extremely challenging to play.
The Romantic period could actually be divided into two schools of composers. Some of them took a more conservative approach. Their music was clearly Romantic in terms of style and feeling, but it also did not want to stray too far from the Classical rules. While other composers felt comfortable with pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable. After so long of pushing the limits, the Romantic era left later composers wondering what to explore next. The period that includes the final decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth is sometimes called the post-Romantic era. This was when composers really began focusing on very nationalistic music.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The "real" Amadeus
I have just recently watched the 184 film Amadeus in my music appreciation class, and we have been asked to compare the movie with the actually facts and history of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart in Salzburg, Austria. The movie does show Mozart as a child playing music for kings, and the Archbishop. At the age of five he was already composing little pieces, he would play them to his father who would write them down. His performances as a child prodigy began with an exhibition, in 1762, at the court of the Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. During which time in the movie, they tell a story about Antonio Salieri, a young boy in Italy who has a burning passion for music as well. Salieri had learned of Mozart, and idolized him very much. Salieri became the Court Composer for the Emperor of Austria, and when he learned that Mozart was in Vienna he decided to seek him out and see how good he really was. I haven't been able to find anything stating that that event was true, so I'm guessing it was just an additive in the movie. However, After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Mozart had a great number of friends and admirers in Salzburg. In 1782 he completed the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which premiered on July 16, 1782 and was a huge success.
Mozart ended up moving in with the family of his future wife near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo. The Weber family had moved to Vienna from Mannheim, and Mozart;s interest shifted to the third daughter, Constanze. The movie also portrayed the relationship between the two of them. It was true that Mozart had a hard time getting consent from his father to marry her. The couple had six children, but only two survived infancy.
In the movie, it shows that Antonio Salieri was extremely jealous of Mozart's work and the love that the people had for him, but I haven't found anything saying that that was true. Mozart did become intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Mozart also met Joseph Haydn in Vienna, and the two became good friends. Haydn in 1785 told the visiting Leopold: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition." The movie showed Mozart as being a huge success when he first started out, and when he first came to Vienna, but for some reason people just stopped coming to see him. It was said in the movie that Mozart should have pupils to teach music to, but he was too proud to teach anyone and said that he needed more time for composition. Some historical facts say that he did in fact have trouble with saving money, and that he and his wife didn't have a luxury life style for long.
Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank.
Mozart began drinking pretty heavily, and his last year until his final illness struck, was a time of great productivity. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E-flat), the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.
In the movie, after the death of Mozart's father, Salieri's plans to destroy Mozart reached an all time high. He dressed in the costume that Leopold wore and went to Mozart's home to comission a Requiem for "a man that always deserved a Requiem Mass." He was going to get the mass from Mozart, and then acheive Mozart's death. Then, at the funeral he could take credit for the beautiful piece of music that Mozart had written. My absolute FAVORITE scene from the movie is when Mozart is laying in his bed telling Salieri all of the things to write down for the mass. He started with "Confutatis" and you could hear the music in the background as he was thinking of it in his head. Then he moves to "Voca Me" and so on and so forth. Morning comes and Mozart starts getting tired. He asked if he could rest a bit, and then finish the "Lacrymosa". However, he didn't get to finish it. He died at 1 a.m. on December 5, 1791 at the age of 35. The evidence that he actually dictated the music to Salieri is very slim. Mozart was burried in a common grave.
Mozart ended up moving in with the family of his future wife near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo. The Weber family had moved to Vienna from Mannheim, and Mozart;s interest shifted to the third daughter, Constanze. The movie also portrayed the relationship between the two of them. It was true that Mozart had a hard time getting consent from his father to marry her. The couple had six children, but only two survived infancy.
In the movie, it shows that Antonio Salieri was extremely jealous of Mozart's work and the love that the people had for him, but I haven't found anything saying that that was true. Mozart did become intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Mozart also met Joseph Haydn in Vienna, and the two became good friends. Haydn in 1785 told the visiting Leopold: "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition." The movie showed Mozart as being a huge success when he first started out, and when he first came to Vienna, but for some reason people just stopped coming to see him. It was said in the movie that Mozart should have pupils to teach music to, but he was too proud to teach anyone and said that he needed more time for composition. Some historical facts say that he did in fact have trouble with saving money, and that he and his wife didn't have a luxury life style for long.
Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank.
Mozart began drinking pretty heavily, and his last year until his final illness struck, was a time of great productivity. He composed a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E-flat), the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.
In the movie, after the death of Mozart's father, Salieri's plans to destroy Mozart reached an all time high. He dressed in the costume that Leopold wore and went to Mozart's home to comission a Requiem for "a man that always deserved a Requiem Mass." He was going to get the mass from Mozart, and then acheive Mozart's death. Then, at the funeral he could take credit for the beautiful piece of music that Mozart had written. My absolute FAVORITE scene from the movie is when Mozart is laying in his bed telling Salieri all of the things to write down for the mass. He started with "Confutatis" and you could hear the music in the background as he was thinking of it in his head. Then he moves to "Voca Me" and so on and so forth. Morning comes and Mozart starts getting tired. He asked if he could rest a bit, and then finish the "Lacrymosa". However, he didn't get to finish it. He died at 1 a.m. on December 5, 1791 at the age of 35. The evidence that he actually dictated the music to Salieri is very slim. Mozart was burried in a common grave.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Baroque Music
The Baroque music period dates from 1600 to 1750. The Baroque period was a transition from the Renaissance which included masses and madrigals. Some Baroque composers continued to write masses, but the focus was on developing counterpoint, with stronger rhythmic elements that music in the previous period, and greater stress on emotional content. The fugue is most charateristic of the Baroque period. Bach is one of the most well known composers from the Baroque period, and he is my personal favorite as well. Bach was famous for his counterpoint style. Bach wrote over 1,000 musical pieces. However, in order to understand Bach's music, you must understand counterpoint. The definition of counterpoint is the compositon os two melodies played at the same time, and developing chords together. Other examples of Baroque music that are most familiar to us are Pachelbel's Canon and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Many of the well-known composer from the early Baroque period were from Italy. Also, many of the forms from the Baroque period such as the cantata, concerto, sonata, oratoria and opera. As the 1600's progressed , all of the different music forms took shape , and the period of 1700 to 1750 is seen as the "high baroque".
The Baroque period also favored the harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked and the player can't control the tone through touch. After 1750, the piano came into play offering touch sensitivty. In the words of baroque composer and theorist Johann Joseph Fux: "A composition meets the demands of good taste if it is well constructed, avoids trivialities as well as willful eccentricities, aims at the sublime, but moves in a natural ordered way, combining brilliant ideas with perfect workmanship."
The Baroque period also favored the harpsichord, in which the strings are plucked and the player can't control the tone through touch. After 1750, the piano came into play offering touch sensitivty. In the words of baroque composer and theorist Johann Joseph Fux: "A composition meets the demands of good taste if it is well constructed, avoids trivialities as well as willful eccentricities, aims at the sublime, but moves in a natural ordered way, combining brilliant ideas with perfect workmanship."
Friday, December 3, 2010
Medieval Music= EPIC FAIL
The latest research assignment that we were asked to do was to find anything that we could about music from the medieval period. The countries that our focus was directed to were the Middle Eastern countries, India, Egypt, and Southern Asia. I spent a few days on the web trying to find anything I could about music during this period, but I was out of luck. It was definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be. I did find a few useful bits of information, but nothing that really fit the topic of what we were asked to do.
I pretty much just used google to do all of my research. I found some things about how the Egyptians used heiroglyphs to show that instruments had been created and that people had been making music for centuries, but that was really the only useful thing that I found. I was kind of disappointed that there wasn't more about this topic on the internet. It made me wonder if no one else had the same question in their mind. Europe was in bad shape during this time and I wonder why no one really wondered what was going on in the rest of the world.
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