Mensural notation

On November 5,2016 Olney Central College’s music department held its fall concert in the Dr. John D. Stull Performing Arts Center. This concert featured many vocalists and musicians between the concert band, the concert choir, and the jazz band. The performances feature many different composers. Overall, the concert band sounded really good. For this concert, the director chose songs that would reflect different stages of life. I liked this theme and the song choices just for how the rhythms,…

Have you ever been beaten, bruised, and chained to something in a dark basement? If you answered “yes” to the previous question, then congratulations! If you answered “no”, then you need to get out more. Today, I am here to discuss music for the eighty-three billionth time. So let’s get on with it. Let me introduce our two composers. First, we have Claude Debussy. And next, there is Igor Stravinsky. Now, you might be thinking, “Why did our history lesson start off with a question about chains?”…

I. Mars, Bringer of War- The use of dynamic changes like crescendos and decrescendos really create a sense of excitement throughout the piece. The triplets played by all of the horns also add to this excitement. It seems as though John Williams, the composer for the Star Wars movies, took a lot of inspiration from this piece of music. The low reed sound at around 3:20 creates a mysterious and almost foreboding feeling. The finally with the sharp staccato rhythm really brings the piece…

Consequences I felt like throwing my violin at the wall. I had spent hours and hours getting my scales in tune, and I was still putting my fingers on the wrong places on the fingerboard. Rubbing my eyes, I put the violin down in its case and looked outside the window. It was pitch black outside, so that meant that it was very late. I sat down on the nearest chair, which creaked as it took my weight. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought to myself “What am I doing this for? I don’t like…

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Students of all grades and interests gather in the band room before school begins. They compare homework, discuss conclusions, greet friends, make plans together, practice, or just hang out. New students feel that there is something special going on and hang around to see what it is. They could read or learn stories about past band member’s ones who achieved amazing results during high school as well as ones who are doing wonderful things in colleges and careers. They feel connected, not just to…

MUH 171 9:30 AM Eastern Kentucky University Department of Music MUH 171 Music Appreciation FA 2016 CRN 11061 SYLLABUS Tue/Thu 9:30 AM Foster 100 (3 Credit Hours) Prof. James Willett james.willett@eku.edu Foster 306 phone 622-1345 A. Catalog Description: MUH 171 Music Appreciation (3). I, II. May not count toward a major or minor in music. Provides the general college student with a cultural background in music. Masterpieces of music, composers, and techniques presented through…

Richard Rodgers was very involved in music since an early age, he actually started playing piano at age six. He had already written two popular songs before going to University, but his success was heightened after then. He wrote music for two amateur shows before he started working with Lorenz Hart in 1919, but they also wrote many shows. Rodgers and Hart won acclaim for a review in 1925. They wrote nine stage shows between 1935 and 1942, the most famous of these being Jumbo (1935) and On Your…

In the poem, “Player Piano”, John Updike demonstrates a lot of feeling and emotion of an unhuman piano. By having detailed imagery of sounds, figures of speech, and rhyme, he portrays the reader into the picture of a machine-like device that has its own natural music language. This 12-line poem recalls the life and achievements of a player piano. In the first and second line, there is a lot of assonance (the repetition of sound in a vowel) and consonance (reassurance of similar sound) that are…

Listening to this piece brings back many memories from a high school All state year that Dr. John Lynch was conducting the band. I remember seeing and hearing this piece for the first time, loving every moment of rehearsal and simply relishing in the moment. Throughout there is such beauty and richness reminding me of Russian Christmas Music by Alfred Reed. The opening idea is beautifully orchestrated and the bells chiming allows for my imagination to wander to depict a scene of a town amidst…