The Sopranos

their children’s hands as I walk by just to be surprised by my warm smile and greeting . Hip hop culture runs through my veins and deep bassy drums influence my dance. I am all too familiar with the sweet song of a jazzy saxophone and the shrill soprano notes of a gospel singer. I have too many cousins to count and I don’t know if they’re all blood related. As of a mere forty years ago, my aunt was the first in my family to walk across a stage and receive her Bachelor’s degree. Even more recent,…

Beethoven was born during the Classical era, so naturally he would learn violin. He was far more advanced in his piano skills, but he did have knowledge on playing the violin and the viola.The violin and the viola have similarities and differences. One of the similarities is how they are positioned: held horizontally (parallel with the floor) and is angled to the left of a straight forward position, placed on your left collar bone (some prefer the soft spot just behind the collar bone), and…

introduced, in the Habanera, the nature of her character is quite apparent. The Habanera, or "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ("Love is a rebellious bird"), is one of the most famous arias from Carmen. As Carmen enters in Act 1 scene 5, the mezzo soprano, The aria takes the form of a descending scale followed by the same phrase in major and minor keys. This technique emphasizes the meaning of the lyrics, which are that love is untamable, a sentiment which is expressed throughout the…

Is auto tune making real singers obsolete? The invention is making everyone into singers. Autotune is a audio processor that measures and alters vocal pitches and along with intents to make them sound better essentially. It is literally found everywhere in all types of music. Real singers are a commodity in today's industry due to the overuse of autotune. In the history of singing western society solo vocal performances has continued to rise from unlikely causes such as auto tune. Similar to…

‘Be careful what you wish for’, aptly describes what happens to Roderick in Rome, where the desire to see the great works of art result in the young artist experiencing “an indigestion of impressions; I must work them off before I go in for any more” (103). Accordingly, Roderick tells his patron he can no longer look at “other people’s works, for a month — not even at Nature’s own” (103), but instead he is driven to see his own creations. The time spent in the eternal city seems to both men like…

Absurd Feminism Despite not being a playwright of the absurd, several elements of absurdism are seen in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. This is seen throughout the play in things like the ambiguous ending and the general ambivalence to violence shown by Angie. The most prominent example of the absurd in this play is in the dinner scene between the historical figures at the beginning, which seems to follow most of the rules of the absurd and its tropes, however this is not the central focus of…

Up to this point, Dvořák’s international reputation continued to grow, but he remained a humble and religious man. In his own words, Dvořák said, “I am just an ordinary Czech musician, who does not love such exaggerated humbleness, and although I have moved quite enough in the great musical world, I still remain what I have always been – a simple Czech musician.” In his manuscripts, he would begin with the date and “With God” and end with the date and “Thanks be to God!”; “God be praised!”…

Handel’s “Messiah” is a beautiful piece of music set to biblical literature. Today most people recognize the “Messiah” due to its presence during the holiday season. It is currently used to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. However, in the 18th century, it was not performed during the holiday season like it is today in the twenty-first century. The “Messiah,” written in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, is full of scriptural text. Specifically, “Pifa(13), Recitative(14a), Accompagnato(14b),…

The city of Iowa City has become legendary for their creative writing and literary works. The University of Iowa has contributed to this legacy and made it world renowned; their unrivaled approach to language, writing and literature has solidified it 's spot at the top among schools. Iowa City has always placed an emphasis on creative writing and literature. In fact, writinguniversity.org has gone so far as to say that, "For 80 years, Iowa City has been teaching the world to write." It is true,…

This musical work contains four instrumental parts with the highest instrumental part doubled by a soprano voice embellishing that part. “Thus scored, for one singer, an instrumental accompaniment Dalle Piu Alte Sfere is, what the locals would have called a frottola, a homophonic accompanied song” (L11, 19:06). The text sung solo is clearly heard and…