Category: Music

How does the development of form become a crucial aspect in these periods, or in the Baroque period? Why? What are the important stages in the history of form and how are they linked to developing genres?

Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Periods Of Music-

Provide an informed paper on one of the suggested topics below:

Text and music – this might focus on song overall, or a particular kind of song

Instrumental Virtuosity

Music in the Church – how did musicians create music that fit the uses of the Christian church during these periods

Women in music – opportunities, challenges, gendered aspects of music

The lives of composers – how they work, who they work for, how they write their music, etc

How does the development of form become a crucial aspect in these periods, or in the Baroque period? Why? What are the important stages in the history of form and how are they linked to developing genres?

Who pays and supports music during our class’s period of study? Why do they support music? How do they influence and control the music they support?

Describe what instruments are used in that culture, and the singing.At least three listening examples of its music, and any important details (ex. All music was coupled with a dance, or all music was ceremonial) about each song

Music culture of Italy

1. Geographical information

2. History of the culture

3. At least three listening examples of its music, and any important details (ex. All music was coupled with a dance, or all music was ceremonial) about each song

4. Describe what instruments are used in that culture, and the singing.

Compare any two dramatic characters and their musical portrayal through themes Puccini assigns them. What does the music tell you about each of the characters and the dynamics between the two?

Puccini’s La Boheme
1300 – 1500 words
Due on 12/10/2021

Write a 1300 word paper on La Boheme by Puccini in reference to one of the topic items below.

This is not a research paper, but rather an exercise in careful and intelligent listening. Below are some topic ideas to choose from – if you wish to choose a different subject,consult me beforehand.

1. Puccini uses themes, short melodies, to illustrate characters and situations, giving us a glimpse
into the characters’ intimate thoughts. Pick one theme from the choice of musical motives describing Mimi, Rodolfo, and Musetta, trace it throughout the opera, and discuss how Puccini uses it to tell the story and aid the development of the chosen character.

2. Compare any two dramatic characters and their musical portrayal through themes Puccini assigns them. What does the music tell you about each of the characters and the dynamics between the
two?

Remember, music should be the main focus of the discussion.
Do not devote more than 10% of your paper to recounting the plot or describing the costumes.encourage you to go back and listen again to some of the selections – the more you listen, the more you
will hear. Feel free to write in the first person (e.g. “noticed…”). Do not
be afraid to come up with your own conclusions. It is your personal impressions and reactions to the live opera experience that interest me most.

It is helpful to read the program notes beforehand.
program notes link:
https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/la-boheme/
Full opera link:

What did you learn from this experiment about creating both melodic and harmonic intervals?How far into the BellGraph video clapping various rhythmic patterns did it take you to achieve some success clapping correctly? Did you find the initial bell-beat pattern to be the easiest to clap, why why not? as other patterns entered?

Rhythm Play-Along. Invite family and friends to join in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEOTsPUUvsY

Assuming that you were 80% successful learning the most basic rhythm patterns, how many times did it take you to reach that goal, and was the video helpful?

Were you somewhat successful with syllables as rhythm? If not, do it again Rhythm is muscle memory.

Be prepared for some fun hands-on sections. You may wish to invite a family member or friend to join in the hands-on projects.

Agbekor Bell Videos: featuring a youtube video demonstration. This graph demonstrates, through color patterns, just how the rhythms work.

The African Agbekor Bell and polyrhythm (several different rhythms being played at the same time) graph is easy to follow and for some, it may appeal to your learning style.

The Bell Graph Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irR4qlFMuyA

How far into the BellGraph video clapping various rhythmic patterns did it take you to achieve some success clapping correctly? Did you find the initial bell-beat pattern to be the easiest to clap, why why not? as other patterns entered?

Did following and participating with this graph provide a better understanding of polyrhythms? Explain.

What did you learn from this experiment about creating both melodic and harmonic intervals?

Which was easiest and which was most difficult to maintain a steady beat?

What did you discover when trying to keep a steady beat and playing just the meter pattern? We did not include any rhythm patterns within these metric patterns, just the beat, and meter.

What did you learn so far from all of the exercises above? Be specific!

Was the 7-beat meter pattern easy for you to achieve or a little complex? explain.

The Ostinato pattern: play an ostinato rhythm and note pattern. Ostinato is when one part plays the same exact rhythm on the same exact pitches over and over. A great example is this piece by Chopin, pronounced, (Show-pan). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_iI1J0bALE Watch and listen from timestamp 3:17 to 4L25 as the left hand plays the ostinato while the right-hand part plays the actual music. (As a side note, the Nazis outlawed the playing of Chopin’s music in Poland.) This was another example of cancel culture rampant in history.

Watching the two hands playing completely opposite music parts, can you understand and explain why music performance on an instrument or even voice is a total physical acrobatic sport in addition to art? I need more than a “yes”

Now for your ostinato: Choose the order in which you will play an ostinato pattern on the glassware then repeat the exact rhythms and pitches in exact order over and over.  suggest a 3 or 4-beat ostinato pattern. You may wish to use a friend or family member to play the ostinato as you improvise rhythms against it on another glass.

How many times did it take to succeed playing an ostinato and what did you learn about repeating an exact rhythm on the same exact glasses? Be specific

Word syllables: Lastly, find any words, lyrics, etc. from any source such as a poem, comic strip, or favorite source. Read the sentence out loud.

You may wish to make up your own words. Find the syllabic (syllable) rhythms within the words, and speak them over a steady heartbeat tapped on the glasses or on a flat surface.

What was difficult and what wasn’t so difficult?

You may be on your way to becoming an amateur “rapper”.

Write a conclusion: What did you learn about beat vs. rhythm and your ability to perform these hands-on exercises?
Music Texture:

Watch this short video on music textures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teh22szdnRQ
Next, Look at Mindtap Chapter 1-4c harmony and texture.

What was most useful from this texture video and how did it help strengthen information from Mindtap Chapter 1-4 “harmony and texture?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNjroFNi7mA Debussy’s monophonic texture for Syrinx: Watch at least a minute of this. Answer this: Why is this piece a good example of monophonic texture?
Most pop music is homophonic with a lead voice singing ONE melody accompanied by backup instruments or vocals or both.

Next is the Polyphonic texture: Bach Little Fugue in G minor with a graph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbxFi3-UO4&t=72s The Bach Fugue is a polyphonic work of two or more melodies working together but separately. You witnessed polyrhythms from the Agbekor rhythm graph at the top of the page. Now watch and listen to a JS Bach Fugue. It is a polyphonic work where all melodies are independently traveling at the same time also creating polyrhythms. Follow the timestamps below:

(watching and listening to this short section of Bach’s “Little Fugue” at what point did your “critical listening” become stronger and able to identify the subject, main melody, as it traveled and broke off into several independent parts? Describe your biggest challenge as you listened. If you listened only once then it was a minimal effort not worthy of your answer.

For the eyes and ears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRa3REdozw A live organist plays this same Bach fugue that we just watched on the color graph: Focus especially on the subject/theme as played by the two feet at timestamp 0:54. Imagine hands and feet playing a keyboard with all parts being independent. Keep in mind that this is a written work, not improvised. Also, keep in mind that Bach is not the organist in this video as he has been dead for several centuries.

What must a composer, (one that writes the music) keep in mind as to the physical limitations of a performer when writing such a work? There are no wrong answers, but the effort is important. PS very few composers write a successful fugue. Most never bother because they can’t. . To compose such a fugue for an organ may take a skilled composer at least 50 to 100 hours to write.

Which hand played the subject from 0:23-0:30? What is the other hand doing with the countersubject?

At timestamp 0:39 – 0:45 which part is the left hand playing?

At timestamp 1:30 the left hand is clearly playing the first part of the subject, but how is it different from the previous subject entrances?

At timestamp 4:17 to 4:22 is a perfect example of ostinato in the left hand but what is the right hand playing from4:29 to 4:34 and is it the same rhythm values as 0:09-0:15?

What the Enlightenment was, (2) how Enlightenment philosophies affected life in Europe, and (3) how Enlightenment philosophies affected Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

Reflection Essay: The Enlightenment and Mozart’s Don Giovanni

1) What the Enlightenment was, (2) how Enlightenment philosophies affected life in Europe, and (3) how Enlightenment philosophies affected Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The details of the assignment can be found below.

“Why was Native American music so successfully Fused with New Age music?

This is what the last writer wrote;

“Why was Native American music so successfully Fused with New Age music?
The Native American relationship between their culture and music is generally gleaned according to their values and musical concept, the language role in the music text, and the musical event structure. Generally, the values and musical concepts encompass various aspects like the music source, its origin, and the ownership of the music. In such a case, these aspects give the structural picture in broader ways in terms of the perception we have regarding the particular music, hence offering us crucial insight into the overall pattern of the given culture. In addition, it is good to note that, even though some of the individuals who are incapable of verbalizing the ideas in the music underlying conceptual structure exist, they may be perceived by looking at the practices within the particular music.
With such a piece of background information talking about the music within the Native America Culture, they are characterized by tracing back the final origin regarding their traditional music since the creation time, when a particular song the creator and the spirit beings give it for the first time to the people according to their mythical past. The Native Americans provided a new song characterized by a given event within some of their communities every year. This means any person within those communities could have been dreaming by the time he acknowledges and uses the visions in the dream to structure and present a new song to the entire community. Therefore, this gives us an insight into the dynamic process of creating any particular music. As a result, the Native Americans were obsessed with their ancestral tradition, their relationship with nature, and music. Lastly, even though they were devastatingly disregarded and displaced, they ended up discovering better ways of fusing their loved traditions, hence providing their people with New Age Concept in order to take it to another level once again.

 

 

What do you perceive to be the strengths or weaknesses in each piece from an aesthetic point of view?

Your music study should cover the following, in full sentences:

Identify:

The full titles of the pieces

The composers’ full names, birth and death dates, and nationalities

The years when the pieces were written and where they fall within the composers’ lifetimes.

Compare: Juxtapose the two pieces using these criteria:

instrumentation

form

harmony

tempo

meter

texture

style period

text (if any)

absolute or programmatic meaning

sacred or secular orientation

Evaluate: What do you perceive to be the strengths or weaknesses in each piece from an aesthetic point of view? This will involve subjective judgment on your part, but please use examples to support your opinions.

What might be at least one or two music elements that you are able to identify? What is your reaction to this experimental classical music work from over 100 years ago? There are no “wrong” answers.

For part I, briefly comment on each individual piece of music, what might have caught your ear and what surprises you discovered in each piece.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wokx576v5Y0 Shostakovich string quartet #8 the Second Movement: Early to the mid-20th century: Is this a stereotypical slow and gentle piece of classical music for strings as so many would claim? Why or why not?

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QttUcKZ8NMU Barbara Hannigan sings El misterio de la macabre Mysteries of the Macabre. The conductor and musicians must really pay attention to the music written by Ligeti. This music is not new:

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE-w_mQ2mxU Cycling for flute by Kokoras: The composer uses a 4/4 meter but also uses ¾ meter and 5/4 meter, Yes, it’s late 20th-century classical music.

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tk_zHR-r_M Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee” (an Irish ghost). Finally some piano music from early 20th century classical music. What might be at least one or two music elements that you are able to identify? What is your reaction to this experimental classical music work from over 100 years ago? There are no “wrong” answers.

5. Mad King, is a 20th-century classical music stage piece. It’s NOT an opera! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6357vL9TPg&t=487s

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inBKFMB-yPg Another classical piece: What music elements can you identify?

7. Penderecki’s: Resurrection of Christ: Listen to various sections even if you don’t understand the language then describe at least two parts that you found most unusual. Use timestamps to justify your answer.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmcq1HylCg&list=PLCF9CFEFCD3D89BB2&index=9

8. Is Pauline Oliveros Sound Patterns music or just vocal noise? Does it have a pattern and does it have a beat? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSf7jvO6soM&t=83s

9. This fusion of 19th-century classical style violin improvisation in Hip Hop Violin style certainly embraces the better of two styles. What is your opinion of this music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLX7V_eDT5U

10. Carmina Burana: by Carl Orff. This is not an opera! This piece is part of a 90-minute work for choir and orchestra. Sometimes ballet companies dance to it and sometimes it is a music play format. The song, “In the Tavern” certainly is a drinking song. Please watch the video from timestamp 35:44 to 38:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKc47r6_lFo&t=3271s

11. Choose two pieces that either intrigued you the most or perhaps surprised you the most.

12. Meter and Measure: Write a 50 to 75-word review on this lecture/demonstration https://www.dropbox.com/s/8kk17evljelha5y/Measure%20and%20meter%20.mp4?dl=0

13. https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhsy3tbs3jnnz2o/What%20is%20Meter.mp4?dl=0 what is a “Meter” in music? Write minimum 50 words review by describing some of the various meter patterns and how you faired when attempting to conduct the patterns.

14.https://www.dropbox.com/s/xk3nvdv55mb03j8/Beat%2C%20meter%20and%20rhythm.mp4?dl=0 Beat, rhythm and meter: write a minimum 50 to75 word review. You are required to include the name of every “song”, specific to the meter examples in the video or no credit will be given.

15. Watch and follow the simple beat coincides with a simple rhythm. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rovnf8fskvye8y/20210619_110610.mp4?dl=0 It may be a little tricky to follow at first, but it’s a very short sample. Please go through it a minimum of three times. On your 4th view, follow along counting the beat as 1.2.3.4 and clapping the rhythm where the chords are playing. You may wish to do the very easy part more than once before the “rests” (squiggly looking line) are included. The beat continues to move even during a “rest”.

Answer this: When did it become

16. Rhythm Reading Sheet and video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o59b5g8q7j9luu5/rhythm%20reading%20sheet.mp4?dl=0 Answer this: Describe your personal level of difficulty and if after at least three attempts

Consider the significance of the performers (and how they impacted future musicians and musical ideologies) as well as the reaction by the general public and prominent music critics. How were views enhanced/changed/shifted because of this album and/or the career of the performer?

Concert Review

1. List the track titles and performers (and their respective instrument)
featured on the album.
2. In regards to the album, identify the following:
a. The genre (Swing, Bebop, Fusion etc.)
b. The year released
c. The record label

3. In a paragraph of 3-5 sentences, describe the importance of this
particular album. Consider the significance of the performers (and how they impacted future
musicians and musical ideologies) as well as the reaction by the general public and prominent
music critics. How were views enhanced/changed/shifted because of this album and/or the
career of the performer?

4. In one paragraph of at least 4 sentences, state your favorite track
and explain why. Use specific examples of the music and cite concepts learned in class (such
as phrasing, solos, the head, trading fours, the feel etc.)

5. Research one of the other musicians on the album. Discuss their
contributions in Jazz History including specific recordings (minimum
TWO), brief biographical information, and what other bands they
led/performed in

6. In a final paragraph of at least 4 sentences, argue whether this album
is still relevant today or not. Consider a person who has never studied/played music before;what would this listenergain from hearing the album in it’s entirety or how might it fail to connect with them? Cite specific song examples/excerpts from the album to back up your opinion.

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