Introduction to Music-Western Art Music

Introduction to Music-Western Art Music

Music is ficant in movies and has impacted varying films differently (Holbrook 307). One of these movies is working by El Koplovitz Dutton, Leslie Morgenstein, and Al  Alicia Keys. This is one of the most exciting and feel-good movies I have watched. It revolves around an awkward eighteen-year-old who attains close perfection in dance through complete hard work. Typically, she makes a vow to modify her gawkiness by dancing, thus refining her abilities till she gains the skills to participate in a dance competition. Music is vital in this movie because it shows the emotions in different scenes. As such, it has helped guide the audience and invoke the feelings behind the movie’s story. For example, in the scene where Sabrina Carpenter and Jake realize they have a romantic attraction, the music played is emotional and can take the audience setting and invoke their emotions. Some of the played songs include Thinkin’ Bout You by Ciara.

Additionally, music has been used to enhance the mood and capture the audience’s attention. At the movie’s beginning, the happy music indicates that the movie will be interesting. Rafferty states that music in a film suggests a general mood, strengthens a narrative, and creates emotional tension (477).

How Improvisation Is Used In A Type Of Music You Regularly Listen To

Listeners don’t appear to be satisfied with music improvisation for some reason. Hip-hop is a type of music that I often listen to, and improvisation tends to be central to this music. According to Watkins and Rebecca (1), just like jazz, hip-hop is an improvisational art type drawing from the extended history of disenfranchised individuals repurposing the master’s tools to create new art forms. Typically, hip-hop musicians are anticipated to give the audience original improvisation, commonly called freestyle. As such, impro called pop-hop is used to express and thus create createcreaterics. Once a hip-hop rapper freestyles, the listener expects them to voice the rhymes in a live approach(Caines 2). This is opposed to delivering formerly arranged and thought-out lyrics. As such, improvisation tests the capacity to create lyrics and measure the rapping talent. The freestyle is typically regarded as a test of lyricists. The freestyle is generally viewed as an instant and applied raw gift. This is contrary to taking the time to study and prepare the material. Once improvisation is perceived as authentic, the listener’s reaction usually is positive.

Works Cited

Caines, Rebecca. “Giving Back Time: Improvisation in Australian Hip-Hop Pedagogy and Performance.” Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation 6.2 (2010).

Rafferty, Charlie Inskip Aandy Macfarlane Pauline. “Music, Movies and Meaning: Communication in Film-makers’ Search for Pre-existing Music, and the Implications for Music Information Retrieval.” ISMIR 2008: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of Music Information Retrieval. Lulu. Com, 2008.

Holbrook, Morris B. “Music meanings in movies: The case of the crime‐plus‐jazz genre.” Consumption, Markets, and Culture 11.4, (2008): 307-327.

Watkins, Paul, and Rebecca Caines. “Cyphers: Hip-hop and improvisation.” Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation 10.1 (2014).

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Instructions:
*These are ten separate discussion board questions; there is no length requirement to answer each question. The referred-to text is not required to answer the questions!*

Introduction to Music-Western Art Music

1. Hello, class. Chapter 1 serves two purposes. First, it introduces some terms relating to the basic building blocks of music, what we refer to as the elements of music. Second, it briefly overviews how we typically discuss Western art music, that is, according to historical periods. These items will be discussed in more detail throughout the text. Try to understand the terminology in this chapter, as these terms (anything in the reddish/orange boldface) will constitute a significant part of your first test. A word about the Perspective essay is found in Chaperspectiveoughoutcan behe text; you will encounter these Perspective essays. These are short essays looking at the chapter topic from a different viewpoint. For example, Chapter 1 presents the musical elements and an overview of the historical periods of Western art music. The perspective essay in Chapter 1 discusses the aspects of visual art, such as color, line, etc., and also looks at how visual art is discussed from a historical perspective. These Perspective essays are designed to stimulate your creative thinking about the chapter topics and will serve as a starting point for your essays if you want to write papers for extra credit. So, to start our Discussion Board activities, let me throw out a question to discuss in this forum. Why do you think we discuss Western art music (what most people would typically call Classical music) according to historical periods but do not generally discuss other types of music, such as folk or ethnic music, in this way? Post your responses here, and let’s see where we go. Please note that there are two versions of “O Fortuna” on the Chapter 1 playlist. The first is a re-creation of a Medieval period song. The second is a twentieth-century interpretation of the exact words by the early twentieth-century German composer Carl Orff. Which do you like better and why?

2. In Chapter 2, we will look at how religious belief has shaped music throughout the Western art music tradition and in popular and World music styles. The historical periods are re-visited through the multi-movement genre of the Roman Catholic mass. A movement of music is a complete musical composition with a beginning and an end. Still, it is only a tiny part of a larger composition consisting of several movements strung together. Kind of like a baseball game, which consists of several innings, each one a complete unit, but not the entire game. Or a play that includes several individual acts. The discussion point for this chapter is the following: Is this style of musical religious expression valid in the modern age? The Roman Catholic Mass is the central ritual of that faith, representing as it does a re-enactment of the Last Supper when Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples. The words spoken during a mass fall into two categories: the Ordinary of the Mass and the Proper of the Mass. The Ordinary is a set of five texts, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, spoken during virtually all masses. Other texts appropriate to specific times of the year are collectively called the Proper. The Ordinary texts have been set to music by composers for over a thousand years and thus provide a convenient glimpse into the changing styles in Western art music over that period. Make sure you listen to each of the five movements of the Ordinary of the Mass presented in the text so you can begin to hear and identify differences in the sound of the music from one historical period to another. You will be asked on the Listening Tests to determine from which historical period the musical examples in the text come. Can anyone offer a specific musical trait identifying a particular piece of music from Chapter 2 as coming from a specific historical period?

3. Chapter 3 deals with music intended to accompany stage presentations, a performance that tells a story on the stage where music plays an important role. An early form of that in the Western art music tradition was the morality play, a religious genre in which a sacred tenet of the Church is presented through a dramatic production. These early plays were relatively dry by our standards today, not having the extensive acting, costumes, sets, etc., we expect in a stage production today. One of the musical pieces presented in the text is the morality play Ordo Virtutum, the Play of the Virtues, by Hildegard of Bingen. The musical example in the text is quite long, but there is a much shorter and beautiful excerpt on the video playlist for the chapter. Click on Playlists/Video list. Watch the Ordo Virtutum excerpt while reading this translation: Soul, singing joyfully: “O sweet divinity, O gentle life, in which I shall wear a bright robe, accepting that which I lost in my first formation – I cry to you and invoke all the Virtues.” (This is the “Soul” asking God to guide it on its journey through life.) Over the past 1,000 years, the dramatic aspect of staged presentations has become ever more critical. Today, the dramatic effect of the action on the stage is just as significant, or more important, than the music itself; the excesses of Cirque du Soleil productions are probably the most obvious example. Many people with extensive musical backgrounds look to the operas of the late Classical and Romantic periods as perhaps having the best balance between the music and the drama. The composers of those works are very similar to the composers of the movies of today, who use music as an integral component of the storytelling experience, linking musical motives with individual characters, aspects of the story, etc. Can we begin discussing your experiences with music in dramatic productions? I want to keep it primarily about stage productions rather than movies, as we will have an opportunity to discuss movie music in Chapter 9. Have you seen a musical in a live performance? What was your reaction to it? Does the music make the play or get in the way of telling the story? Let’s see where this discussion goes. Here is an additional challenge from Chapter 3. The first person to post the correct answer to the following question will earn a five-point bonus on a test. Here is the challenge: What do these two musical examples from Chapter 3, the Farandole by Bizet and the West Side Story example by Bernstein, have in common with the Chichester Psalms example (also by Bernstein) from Chapter 2? The answer is not that they were all written by composers whose last names begin with the letter B! See if you can figure this out and post the correct answer first.

4. Chapter 4 shows a relatively consistent historical progression from the Medieval period through the twentieth century. When listening to the Baroque examples, try to listen for the form (structure) of the pieces. Forms in music are often based on how melodies are presented and allow us to organize the time during which a piece of music exists so that it makes sense to our brains. When we hear a melody at the beginning of a piece, we often spend the rest of the piece listening to it, waiting for it to return. Most forms are a balance of repetition of a melody (or melodies) and contrasting melodies. If the main melody at the beginning of a piece is flowing and lyrical, a contrasting melody might be march-like and choppy. Or it could be the reverse of that. The Romantic period examples in this chapter offer beautiful melodies as the primary focus. Listen to the Swan Lake excerpt by Tchaikovsky. Do any sci-fi/horror movie fans recognize that melody from a famous horror movie? When listening to the Strauss waltz, see if you can hear when the theme (main melody) from the piece’s beginning returns later in the composition. The twentieth-century examples offer a study in contrast. The Copland ballet music from Rodeo is melodic and fun or quietly lyrical, while Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is a harsh realization of a macabre subject: human sacrifice. The Rite of Spring was one of the most influential pieces of music ever written. Why do you think that might be? Dance music usually has a clearly defined beat and regular groupings of beats (meter), but when listening to some of the World’s examples of dance music, that may not always be the case. By this time, you may wonder if all World Music is so radically different from the Western art music tradition. And that is an excellent question to ponder as we move forward. What is it about Western art music that makes it sound so different from so much of the rest of the World’s music? Besides the fact that it has evolved over 1500 years, what else makes it different? Please listen to the musical excerpts from The Rite of Spring and post your reactions here.

5. The material in Chapter 5 is divided into three types of songs: folk, art, and popular. Specific terms are associated with one type or another, and some apply to all three. Most songs are “strophic” in their form. That means there is a repeating section of music with different words each time the music is repeated. We commonly refer to these sections as verses or stanzas. They have the same music (usually the same melody), but the words differ each time the melody is repeated. Then there is the chorus, a repeating section of music AND words. Any song that exhibits one or both of these types of sections can be said to have a “strophic” form. The other type of form, which is much less common than the strophic, is called through-composed. It means there is no set form. Folk music is usually simply music that can be learned and shared easily among the people of a culture. There are exceptions to that, such as Bulgarian folk music, but for the most part, folk music is basic and straightforward. Art songs are entirely composed songs, usually with a written-out accompaniment of some sort. They often require a trained voice to sing them. We are all very familiar with popular songs. They are the music we hear daily on the radio, TV, movies, and the internet. In today’s culture, popular songs have eclipsed all other types of music in their prevalence in society. Can we discuss why that may or may not be a good thing?

6. Chapter 6 is not very happy as it deals with music accompanying the loss of life. Music plays a vital role in almost all critical moments in people’s lives worldwide, and funerals are no exception. The music we hear at a funeral often speaks to us in a way that words cannot. And ultimately, maybe that is why we even have music because it expresses something that words can’t, or at least touches us differently than words do. This chapter has a wide variety of music; from the Western art music tradition, we have the music from Requiem masses, a popular song, West-African tribal rituals, and New Orleans jazz. And also the horrific sounds of the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, a piece that assaults our ears in a way that had never been heard before to reflect an event that had no equal in the history of the World. All of this somehow reflects our disparate experiences when confronting death. Sometimes, all we need or want is comfort, and at other times, we want to scream at the World for the unfairness of life lost. Whatever our own experiences have been with the loss of life, there almost certainly has been music there as a partner on the journey. Is there a piece of music that has specially touched you when someone has died? If you would like to share that experience with the class, please feel free to do so here.

7. All of the music in Chapter 7 serves a function. It either inspires us in some, usually patriotic, way, celebrates crucial events in our lives, or commemorates some event or the life of an important person. As such, the interest in this music is usually not in how it is constructed or fits in with some characteristic of a particular historical period, but rather, it is measured by the degree to which it succeeds in its intended purpose. However, even though our interest in this music is not primarily in its form or style, sometimes our enjoyment can be enhanced by knowing such things. For example, the form of the Sousa march presented in this chapter can be found repeatedly in other similar pieces. If we expect what will likely happen during a piece of music, it can allow us a higher level of enjoyment that we would not have if we had heard the music without that knowledge. Also, in a piece like the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, if we didn’t know the “story” of the piece, we could still enjoy it. Still, our limited knowledge would your little knowledge would limit our enjoyment. The music in this chapter can certainly be enjoyed by just listening to it, and we can significantly increase our happiness by taking the time to understand more about it. That is usually true of most things in life. A little extra effort usually brings about a greater reward. Music is no different. The more you know about it, the more you can appreciate good music when you hear it, and the more you will enjoy all types of music. Is there a type of music you want that frequently follows a particular form?

8. Chapter 8 is what a traditional Music Appreciation class is like. It looks at the music from the historical periods, examines the common characteristics found in music from each period, and presents the music from each historical period as a reflection of the time from which it originated. That is a valid way to look at music, but a conversation confined to the Western art music tradition. The evolutionary path of Western art music is the story of intertwined influences. These influencing factors range from the political system at a given time to the socio-economic framework of each era to the religious influences that sometimes permeate a society. Understanding these varied influences allows us to know why the music sounded a certain way during each period and gives us a deeper appreciation for how music connects us as human beings. There’s nothing wrong with listening to music because it’s pleasant to hear. But music has always played a much more significant role in expressing who and what we are as human beings. It is often found in the Western art music tradition that music attains its most excellent height as a human accomplishment when it is not attached to the day-to-day activities of our lives. Still, instead, when it exists for its own sake, as an expression of our “humanness,” that is different from all other means of communication. I often have said that we have music because we have no words to express what music does in its unique way. When we invent those words, we may not need music anymore. But I don’t believe that will be any time soon. Listen to some of the music from this chapter and post your comments on how it reflects the time and place from which it came.

9. Chapter 9 Having grown up with movies and television, we all take it for granted that music accompanies the visual images we see. When movies were first invented, music was added as an afterthought to provide an appropriate background sound to the pictures on the screen. This was similar to music in other visual art forms like ballet, plays, and opera. But opera was always music-driven, with musical ideas representing dramatic ideas, a conscious melding of music and drama. Ballet became a primary musical genre with the advent of the total-length ballet, having stories driven as much by the music as the storyline. However, plays often had incidental music accompanying the action on the stage, often of a significantly less critical measure than in other dramatic genres. This type of music found its way onto the silver screen, more incidental than central to the action. Movie music has always been more episodic, short sections without significant development of musical ideas. This has served the genre very well for the most part. There have been instances where the music has been more integrated with the story, more like an opera, such as in the Star Wars movies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Harry Potter movies. But even these don’t begin to approach the complexity of the 18th and 19th-century compositions based on thematic development and the harmonic language that allowed extended explorations of musical ideas. That doesn’t mean that movie music isn’t essential or enjoyable; it’s just different from concert music. Being ancillary to the visual images, movie music always depends on what is being seen on the screen to have meaning. That is why I urge you to watch the video clips for this chapter rather than listen to the music. Without the visual images, you are only getting part of the experience. Please share with the class your comments about a movie where you felt the music was essential.

10. Improvisation occurs in the music of virtually all cultures worldwide. It is found most strongly in cultures where notated music is less frequently employed. Most folk music has an improvisational quality due to its very nature of not being written down. But no matter when and where improvisation is found, it always has parameters within which it occurs. Whether harmonic, melodic, or rhythmic conventions, improvisations are often based on culturally accepted standards that are generally not offensive to the culture’s expectations. In other words, the music sounds “right”. Most improvised music also occurs close to notated, or at least agreed upon, music. That is to say, sections of a piece may be improvised but are almost always not the entire piece. Jazz tunes often start with a section of music where everybody plays something agreed upon beforehand, and then sections of improvised music follow. A piece usually ends with a return of the music from the beginning of the piece. Our ears and brains expect some identifiable musical idea to cement the pieces of a musical composition together. Without that musical glue, an improvised piece would not give the listener anything to hold it all together. It would be a stream of disconnected musical ideas; our ears/brains usually do not like that. While improvisation is an essential component of almost all the World’s music, it usually does not stand alone; instead, it works best when built around music of a less transitory quality. Can you describe how improvisation is used in music you regularly listen to?