Music on TV

For my assignment, I decided to watch the first hour of the Dayton Basketball game on Thursday morning. Music plays on the intro to when the analysts speak, and sometimes during the highlights that they show in the background. Music is also played when the game returned from a break. Occasionally the stadium would play music during the game. However, other than that, the only music heard was during the commercials.

Music in the Lion King

I decided to write about the music in the Lion King. Its a Disney movie, yes, but it really uses songs well to accurately depict the mood and intensity of the movie. Just because it is a disney movie does not mean it is not intense.
The first song I'll talk about is "The Circle of Life", which is played during the opening scene. This is when Simba presented to the Kingdom. It really draws you into the mindset of being in Africa. Its builds very slowly, and then explodes into triumph. The song is unique because as you are listening to it, you are viewing depictions of different african animals.
The second song is "Can't Wait to Be King." This occurs when Simba realizes and is excited to become king of pride rock. It is a very fun and uplifting tone, and gives the audience the feeling that Simba is almost invincible. It does a good job of depicting the care free attitude that most kids have about life and their anxiousness to grow up.
The final song I'll comment on is "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." This was written by Elton John specificially for the movie. This is when Simba meets Nala after they have grown up. Nala is surpised to see him, as they have been under the impression that Simba died some years ago. This is a very emotional song, and almost brings me to tears when I listen to it. It depicts the mood well in the movie as there is some uncertainty and relief at the same time. This is when they realize their feelings for each other and Simba realizes he must retake Pride Rock for himself.
Each of these songs depicts a change in the movie. I firmly believe that without these songs, the Lion King would be a much less enjoyable movie.

Music in the Last of the Mohicans

On Sunday night, I watched the movie Last of the Mohicans, based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper. This movie takes place during the French and Indian War, in which France and Great Britain battled for control of the North American colonies. It follows the story of Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachcook. This film also won the Academy Award for Sound. It has a very powerful soundtrack, and invokes deep emotion. Throughout the songs, they use dramatic violins and cellos to set the tone, often very intensely. It really helps you picture the thought of going to war with the possibility of not coming. The music swells at different points, and eventually comes to an end. The Main Title really embodies the entire music from the film. It is very dramatic and has harsh tones at different times throuhgout the music. However it does a good job of not over dramatizing it, yet always manages to get me pumped up.

Paul Lansky Computer Music

For this blog assignment, we had to listen to pieces of music composed by Paul Lansky. I chose to listen to his work entitled "Idle Chatter." It sounds like a synthesis of randomly assorted sounds at the beginning. However, once you delve deeper into his piece, the beat become quite apparent. There are repeating sounds at different points throughout the song and there is a set pattern, not just randomly generated noises. It sounded quite futuristic at times as well, because the tone of the voices changed about halfway through the piece. The sounds pitches increased as well, and actually I was somewhat frightened because the noises being produced were pretty creepy. Its interesting to see how computers can generate these different types of music, but I dont think I will be listening to this genre on my free time any time soon.

Old Fashioned Tunes

The recording I listened to was Hungarian Rag by Julius Lenzberg, performed by the New York Military Band. And I must say, the sound quality was quite poor. It sounded very tinny, and almost unbearable to listen to. I feel if I would have listened to this same piece via modern recording, I would have enjoyed it much more. The song itself is quite lively and reminds me of songs in that era which were very pepping and catchy. I am thankful that recording methods have improved tenfold since then, and we actually have quality music to listen to. I do not know what I would do if I had to listen to someone like the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Bruce Springsteen if they were recorded in this fashion.

New Notation

After reflecting thoughtfully on how I would change current musical notation, I was a little bit stumped. Finally I thought that the most universal way to do this would be by color. There would be a corresponding color for each note on the scale. To deal with sharps and flats, I would probably change the shape of the note. Perhaps if a normal note was a circle, then a sharp could be a square and a flat could be a triangle. Pretty basic, yet effective.

2 Songs-- rhythm and structure

The piece of music that I listened to from NAXOS was Symphony No. 8 in F Major, OP 93. I listened to the first movement, which was described as Allegro vivace e con brio. This piece lives up to its name in the beginning, starting of with cellos playing rapidly in unison. While the rhythm is fast paced, it feels somewhat disjointed, but in a good way. The rhythm would build up with the woodwinds, and then transfer over to another set of instruments. This piece was clearly dominated by the cellos and violins, however. It sounds like it takes place in 3 4 time, but I am somewhat uncertain. It is a lively piece of musc, fast paced, and I would say more light hearted than some of his other works.

The song from my own collection that I chose was Enter Sandman by Metallica. It has a very structured sound, going from Intro-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Solo-Outro Its in 4 4 time. This song features heavy guitar riffs accompanied by menacing vocals and deep bass sounds.

Electrophones

For our assignment, I listened to country, rock, jazz, and pop stations. The country station featured little electrophones. I think I managed to hear an electric guitar during a select Keith Urban song, but other than that, it remained dominated by the acoustic guitar among other instruments. The rock station I listened to featured at least an electric guitar in each song, and I believe I was able to pick out a keyboard or two as well. I was hoping to catch The Doors "Touch Me", featuring the keyboard quite extensively, but unfortunately I did not. On the jazz station, smooth rhythms from an electric guitar dominated the scene. Keyboards were also featured at certain interludes. For any of the stations that I listened to, the jazz station by felt the best effects from the electrophones, as it was so smooth and felt very natural. The last station I listened to was pop. Miley Cyrus was featured on this station and I believe I heard a keyboard in her song. Other songs on this station did utilize some keyboards as well among other electric sounds, but it was hard to tell if those were made by a guitar or were synthesized.

Aerophones on WGUC

This assignment proved to be more difficult than initially expected. While it was easier to pick out chordophones, aerophones were exceedingly difficult. I did notice aerophones, it was just more difficult to distinguish between themselves.

The first piece was by Franz Joseph Haydn, called Scherzando #1. At first, there were no aerophones playing. Then what I believe to be a clarinet came in a played a somewhat melancholy tuned. It was promptly followed by a flute medly which was really spectacular. I had never focused on listening to flutes before, and the transition from note to note for each was incredibly smooth.

Next was a piece by Henry Purcell, called Fairy Queen: Suite. To my untrained ear, the first movement seemed to primarily feature a clarinet accompanied by selected chorodophones. The rest of the piece featured many chordophones, and from what I could tell they were bassoons and oboes, but I am uncertain. They played in unison beautifully, making it the music lively yet bringing a unique tone to that is unmatched. They came in slowly, but gradually picked up the pace throughout the piece until it climaxed.

The last piece I listened to was by Giovanni Bottesini, called Double Bass Concierto. This piece featured minor aerophones at selected times but for the most part it was dominated by chordophones.

Keyboard's Affect On Music

The keyboard has definitely put its own trademark on the world of music. It helped provide music to the masses in the fact that no special skills were required to play it, and anyone could attempt to. Once it had been established, and music was available to the masses, then the keyboard style of playing music really took off.

The piano has really taken hold in modern music as well. It exists in most forms of music and is a focal point in some. Whether it be in modern, jazz, pop, or even rock, the piano plays an integral part in each. The electric keyboard has only amplified its impact in recent years. Past piano makers would marvel at where technology has taken us. If one wants to play a piece including synthesized brass instruments or an organ, they are able to do. It has broadened so many horizons and enabled people to become even more creative while writing music and delve deeper into themselves in order to express themselves even more. One can accurately tune the instrument's tone, pitch, or volume at any point of their music. The size of the keyboard is also an important aspect of it because it becomes a lot more convenient to anyone on a budget or with limited space. Its truly amazing how this technology has advanced over the years and it will take us in the future.

Music Genres

For this assignment, I listened to jazz, rock, country, and hip hop stations.

On the jazz station, the guitar provided smooth melodic riffs to accompany usually a saxophone or a piano. One song I heard was by George Benson (I believe it was called Breezin'), and he dominated the song with his prowess on guitar, which was simply unreal. Hammer-ons and slides appear to be his forte. There's a distinct feel of jazz that separates it from guitars in other genres. Its more fluent, smooth and soothing.

On the rock station, the played music that I am more accustomed to. Along with a good jam from Bruce Springsteen, they also played the Fray and Green Day. Most of these songs have distinct and noticeable guitar riffs that people can identify with. While the guitar is a primary part of each song, without the other instruments rock would not have its unique sound.

On the country station, the guitar dominated the scene. It sounds a lot more twangy, and is accompanied more often than not by a deep male voice, but there are exceptions. I feel with country that there a lot more hit or miss songs out there, partially because of the guitar. It is featured so heavily in country that if the melody does not feel right, then the song can be lost. Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Taylor Swift were featured when I listened.

Finally, on the hip-hop station, there was not a guitar featured at all. Songs by Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and others were played, all using what I suppose to be synthesizers creating their beat. No giuiars were heard.

DPR Chordophones

For this blog, our assignment was to listen to DPR and pay particular attention to chordophones. I tuned in at the top of the hour in order to listen to the entire progression of the pieces.

The first piece that I listened to was dominated by what appeared to be several violinists. They made up what seemed to be most of the melody that accompanied wind instruments like the flute and oboe. As I was distinctly listening for chordophones, it was surprisingly easy to focus on how they affected the mood of the certain pieces. The violins were able to meld the music smoothly from transition to transition. They differed their tempos frequently, offering fantastic changes of pace throughout the piece.

The next piece I listened to predominantly featured the piano, this time accompanied by violins and cellos. The piano was my primary focus in this piece because it simply was the focal point, and I could not help but focus on it. The piano started off slowly in what sounded like a minor key, and quickly transitioned into a faster paced melody that was quite intriguing.

The final piece I heard was a mixture of I believe violins, cellos, and double basses. For the most part, the song was lower in pitch. It was very smooth, and transitioned well in and out of different rhythms. It also sounded like a harp came in towards the end and brought things to a climax as well.

Membranophone

I decided to make a membranophone for this blog assignment. I discovered the perfect item to use, my roommates partially finished can of pringles. I took the top off and put some wax paper that we have on top of it and taped it down with some duct tape. It actually sounded better than I anticipated. I then decided to see what would happen if all of the chips were out of the container, so I emptied them, and the sound was distinctly different, sounding more hollow and somewhat bigger. I decided to make a little beat out of it using a pencil from my desk. Unfortunately, since I am technologically inept, I was unable to upload video of this.

Idiophone

When first presented with this assignment, I had no idea what do use for my idiophone. Once I started to think about it, I discovered that there are quite a few things at my disposal in everyday life to use as an idiophone. I am a big drinker of gatorade, and had several empty bottles laying around my room. I decided to fill one of the to the top, the other about halfway down, and the other almost completely empty. I then adjusted each one to how I saw fight so as to create a better sound. I used a pencil as the device to strike the bottles. I fooled around with it for quite a while, and actually came up with some pretty good beats that I enjoyed.

SHMRF Analysis

The song I chose to analyze using SHRMF is Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen. The song starts out with a clearly nostalgic feel, using a harmonica to set the mood. It accompanies the piano, which provides the main melody and rhythm throughout the song. Guitar riffs come later in the song to provide more buildup periodically. The beginning of the song starts out slowly and definitely gives off the feel of a more reflective mood, and gradually picks up pace further and further into the song. For this reason I would classify it as a minor key, as it gives off feelings of lamentation and regret. The rhythm starts out slowly in the beginning and gradually builds until the end. The melody used throughout the song is a step, and as far as contour goes, I would say it starts out rising in the intro, comes back down during the first verse, and then fluxuates throughout the rest of the song. The form of the song is clearly unique, and there appears to be no chorus at all. As far as I can tell, its just verses strung together with the climax of the song (the solo) coming at then very end of the song.

24 Hours of Music

Over the last 24 hours, I have been concentrating on listening to the music around me. When I awoke yesterday, I decided to turn on Pandora Radio and listen to whatever they chose for me while I ate breakfast and checked my email. Music was again playing when I stopped in the cafeteria for lunch. After class that day, I decided to go to Wal-Mart with a few friends to pick up some food for the coming week, and we listened to a diverse subset of songs to and from the store. Upon arriving back at my apartment, I could hear music playing from the floors above. When I stepped off of the elevator, I discovered that at least one of these culprits were in fact my roommates playing some classic 90's jams. When I was going to bed, I turned on my iPod to help me drift asleep.

30 Minutes of Silence

When I initially heard this assignment, I was somewhat skeptical. I thought to myself, what could I possible hear in the thirty minutes of nothingness? The first five minutes passed by slowly, as I was unable to obtain any sort of idea of what I was listening for or to.

But then, I began to quiet my mind and really focus on the world around me. Crickets constantly chirping gave me a good rhythm to start things out. As I listened more closely, the sound of cars rolling by slowed everything down and I pictured a relaxing summer evening on my porch, even though I was sitting in my apartment up on the fifth floor. Then my refrigerator clicked and began to work quite noisily and fervently, thus offsetting the unwavering crickets. Dishes being clattered and my roommates socializing drew my attention away from the other sounds momentarily, but a loud car horn from an undoubtedly frustrated driver brought my attention back and I again listened to all of my surroundings.

Each sound we hear everyday forms a simple backdrop in our lives. Happening on a constant basis, we don't even bother to take them in or quantify them. There are sounds all around us, we just have to listen. I think it speaks to the constant busyness of our lives, and we just need to slow down, take a deep breath, and that will make all the smaller things come in to focus.