Positional notation

In 1960 to 70’s, a bunch of electronic instrument was overflowed in western music world. Many musician started experiment using the electronic instrument as a new method of composition. It was no exception to Steve Reich. Steve Reich, who had disavowed getting interested in and composing classical music, innovated playing tape loop as a significant role in his music. In the most of his music of the late 1960, the ‘phasing process’ - two tape loops of the same recorded phrase are played at the…

“Why don’t you add the motif to your composition?” His voice echoed through the large, empty classroom. Dmitri Shostakovich, my tutorial partner, is critiquing my music! What a dream! Dmitri Shostakovich, a Russian composer and pianist, is my classmate at Williams College. He has been assigned as my partner in the Music Composition Tutorial. I am looking forward to learn more about why and how he composes music in the style that he chooses. His music represents curiosity and…

There are several differences between the texts of a motet and a madrigal; there are also a lot of similarities between them as well. A motet; in classical music, is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. For a Renaissance Motet, the text is very religious; while its expressive style is moderately conservative. The main purpose was for worship; whereas its performance practice was extremely sophisticated, well-practiced, preached to a higher calling,…

After retiring from performing for a live crowd, Gould focused on studio recordings and radio shows. His anxiety while performing at concerts did not disappear after his retirement from stage, instead it shifted to the studio. In addition since he possessed limited amounts of education, Gould resorted to using sophisticated terms while conversing with others. Sadly, often what he said make very little sense as he used these words in the wrong context (Ostwald, 225). This in turn, affected his…

What is extraordinary? The quote stating “We live in an era of language inflation,” is quite true. We throw out the terms “great”, “outstanding”, “astonishing”, etc. to describe others too often. Martin Luther King deserves to be described as excellent, a toddler who just learned to use the bathroom on their own shouldn’t. Yes, using the bathroom for the first time is quite an accomplishment, but what did it do to help others or cause an extraordinary event? Calling someone fabulous or…

Henry Purcell attached significance to major and minor keys to show the listener the intense emotion behind the song. He made sure that by changing the keys the audience would hear the transition in sounds that told his story. Purcell’s changing of keys described fear, sadness, happiness and falling in love which captured the audience’s mind. Henry Purcell way of handling the keys was very clever, for the reason that he was able to draw the mind of his audience. Personally, I feel it made…

There were many different types of methods that we used in primary general music methods this year. Those included all the way from Kodály, Orff-Schulwerk, Dalcroze, Gordon Music Learning Theory, and eclectic. Kodály was a really big part of primary general music methods. It is widely used in everything we do. It was implemented with anything rhythmic. Which includes everything from the nursery rhymes to the most complex song in the song collection. You would use Kodály rhythmic syllables to…

Both of these concerts are undeniably different in atmosphere, sound, and eloquence; however, they do have one common factor. This common factor is the musicality they bring to their audience as well as the joy that is exuberated throughout the performance. The first virtual concert I watched entitled “Slatkin Conducts Appalachian Spring” was not a traditional band much like the other virtual concert entitled “Dr. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys”. Appalachian Spring started out soft…

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…

Taking an online music lesson was the most feasible in my situation because of time constraint and also how expensive music lessons can be in Palm Beach County. PianoOnlineBlog was the source of the piano lesson. The instructor who was a female started the lesson by explaining the key objectives that were meant to teach the student a greater understanding of playing the piano. The objectives were as follow: • Sitting at the piano • Distinguishing high notes from low notes. • Combination of…