Mona Van Duyn

Harry Partch has undoubtedly always followed his own muse when it came to music. Whether it be thinking outside of the box in creating a new music scale or inventing new instruments. Partch is best known for his philosophy of music. He views music as having two “givens”, but his most famous theory is that music is separated into two independant and distinct poles: there is abstract and there is corporeal. According to Partch, music whether it is “good” or “bad” has two God-given aspects. The…

The Importance of Shape-Note Notation: Past and Present The art of producing music is based solely on its musical notation. The conductor, musicians, and singers each rely on musical interpretation in order to produce the appropriate and desired sound. Throughout musical history, many different forms of musical notation were created in order to help musicians and singers read their music with ease in order to create the most understanding. Two of the most important forms were created in the…

Brian Landrus, a true prodigy in the art of playing deep-toned woodwind instruments, governs an amazing orchestra on Generations, a solid work sparkling with thoughtful arrangements and unusually fetching sounds. The band lineup includes illustrious artists known for their creative contemporary vein such as flutist Jamie Baum, trombonist Alan Ferber, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, tuba player Marcos Rojas, violinist Mark Feldman, vibraphonist Joe Locke, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, and drummer Billy Hart,…

Vincent van Gogh The artist I have selected is Vincent van Gogh. Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853, in Holland. Vincent was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus and Anna van Gogh. Vincent was a very common name in the van Gogh family. His grandfather, his uncle, and a still-born brother who was born a year to the day before him were all named Vincent. Much like his father, Vincent was one of 6. There was Vincent, two brothers, Theodorus “Theo”, Cal, and three…

The UNL Symphonic Band concert, I Raise My Song To You, was on Tuesday, October 13. The first piece was the Overture to “Candide”. It was in a major mode and in triple meter. The piece started off with a quick paced forte dynamic with monophonic texture. In the beginning, brass instruments would play a melody and the percussion and woodwind instruments would play a melody in response. There is a decrescendo about halfway through, and the piccolo comes in quietly playing the high-pitched melody.…

13 "Pathetique" wrote by Ludvig van Beethoven. As many of us known, this piece is one of the most famous pieces wrote by Beethoven. The three movements in the piece each has Allegro con brio, Adagio, and Allegro as their tempos. The dynamics of three movements are also different. In the…

Eschewing hypothetical startles and unnecessary intricacies, “East 97th”, the encouraging debut album by Portuguese bassist Gonçalo Leonardo, provides agreeable listenings through the aggregation of well-composed textures within clarified structures. The record was recorded in New York, where Leonardo lived for a couple of years, and features an international quartet comprising the also Portuguese André Matos on guitar, Spanish Yago Vazquez on piano and Rhodes, and American Tommy Crane on drums.…

The story of Rip Van Winkle, Rip Van Winkle lives in modern day America before the American Revolution. His village is a pleasant village, at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. He has Dutch Ancestry and is a story teller for the children. He is lazy though and his farm is falling apart. To get away from his wife he goes and finds a Dutchman drinking something and he drinks and falls asleep. He wakes up after twenty years and only his daughter recognizes him. The first mythical…

Sir Anthony van Dyck, a young Flemish master in art of his age after working under Peter Paul Rubens and well known for his paintings working under said artists and on his own. With his prodigious skills and high demand, he was well known as a portraitist ¬and church painter in parts of Europe. Having traveled to difference countries for individual works, van Dyck developed a more mature style within portraits which was noted to be his strongest point as per suggestions by his mentor, Rubens…

The inspiration for the clarinet dates back to the 1600s, where an instrument called the Chalumeau was used. It was used mostly in Europe, and its name was derived from Latin/Greek origins, meaning pipe. True to its name, it was a 20 cm long pipe, with 5 holes. It looked much like a recorder, and was not very important to musicians and composers back then. It was different from todays, clarinet, as there was no upper register, only a lower one. It has influenced today’s clarinet, as nowadays…