Music

For this wrap-up we’re going to do a close-listening to a piece of music and consider how it responds to broader themes in our course. Please listen to the “Dies Irae” of Mozart’s Requiem.  Then read this article from France Musiques. Then write a 250-word response that addresses the concept of composition in the Classical Period. If, as we know, Mozart didn’t complete this piece, but it was instead a posthumous collaboratively completed work, why do historians and audiences adhere to an auteur theory around this piece? What is it in the sound of this piece, in the history of the mass, or in the legend of Mozart that allows a legend like this to persist? Please consider some of the reading and discussions we’ve already had, as well as perhaps doing a little reading on the history of the Requiem mass, and the Dies Irae specifically.

For this assignment, I’d like you explore the ways you usually listen to music and think about what they tell us about the classical tradition. Think about how you usually discover new music. Spotify algorithms? YouTube recommendations? Or maybe you’re old school and read record reviews in a newspaper? In any case, go to your usual source for music discovery and see what they have to say/present as “classical.” Do you get a playlist with pieces that are centuries old? Do you get “new composers?” Think about why the outlet you’re using identifies the classical tradition that way, and then write a short response 250-500 words as to how this outlet defines or constructs the idea of “classical music” in their presentation? Make reference to some of the ideas and concepts we’ve used throughout the semester to support your response.

This assignment is to be a digital media project that illustrates some aspect of European music and the colonization of Indigenous peoples of Canada. The assignment can be a digital photo, playlist, PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, infographic, web page, social media campaign, or any other type of digital object. The date limits of the course are not applicable for this assignment; your subject matter can range anywhere from the distant past to the present day. The only requirement is that the subject matter of the project should be some aspect of the impact of European music (broadly considered) on Indigenous peoples in Canada. Think creatively about the impact that European music in all its many varied aspects has had on the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Look beyond the library to get ideas for this assignment: social media and other online resources are full of creative inspiration.

Amadeus Essay** (100 points). This is a required assignment.  Watch the movie, “Amadeus” featuring the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and write a two-page paper titled, “The Classical Spirit as portrayed in Amadeus/ Immortal Beloved.” Particulars are: No less than two full pages typed, no more than 8 pages. Write in the 3rd person. Define the classical spirit from the text (starting on p. 146). Use at least one footnote at the bottom of the first page (being, the textbook since this and the movie are your only sources for the paper). Discuss musical and societal interactions as depicted in movie A summary may include statements of personal values regarding the music and movie Here is a link for the movie ” Amadeus (mediasite.com)

This week we examined Brazilian Samba, a style of rhythmically-complex music combining musical traditions of Portuguese colonialism, indigenous Brazilian folk music, and elements of African traditional music/dance cultures retained from a period of slavery ending in 1828.  For this assignment, you will view the seminal Marcel Camus film from 1959 entitled, Orfeu Negro, a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus through the lens of music, culture, and race in 1950s Braziliain carnaval scene. (a link is provided in these directions to a YouTube video with English subtitles).  Your task is to construct an essay of three full pages in length responding to the following prompt:  Orfeu Negro represents an examination of Brazilian culture through two equally important perspectives: 1) Music; and 2) Race Relations. Construct an essay in which you choose one of those two themes and discuss how the events of the film help to describe that theme with respect to Brazilian culture. Your thesis statement, and the focus of your essay, should clearly describe your conclusions about Marcel Camus’ (film creator) opinions of Brazilian culture through his portrayal of your chosen cultural element (either music or race relations). Please follow these guidelines when completing the assignment:  a)  Include ONLY the name of the course as a heading. DO NOT include your name at the top of the paper. It will be assumed that the identity of the student writer is the same as the Blackboard account from which it was posted.  b)  You may consult the events of the film and the three required reading assignments for this week as source material for your essay. You may NOT consult any other sources, including other students and online resources.  c)  You should provide both internal citations (Author and page number) as well as a SEPARATE works cited page (not included in the page count) using the MLA style of citation. Here is possibly the only exception in this class about consulting online materials. You MAY consult online resources about proper MLA style citations. You may also cite the movie itself, for which I will provide you with the full citation:  Orfeu Negro. Directed by Marcel Camus, performances by Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn, Tupan Filmes, 1959.  You may cite the movie within your paper by providing the following information: (Camus 1959) d) the paper should meet the length requirement of 3 full pages, double spaced, no larger than 12 font, default margins. Only .docx files and .pdf files will be accepted.  e) paper submissions  with words that cannot be assessed by Academic Integrity software will NOT be accepted. Documents meant to fool or otherwise evade the use of such software constitute a violation of the Academic Honesty policy and will be treated as plagiarism. Examples include but are not limited to: 1. uploading an image of a .docx or .pdf file which does not allow for copying/pasting of words within the file 2. files containing substituted non-English characters disguised to look like English  3. Inserting “white text,” between words

Two online youtube concert video links are listed below. For this assignment you are to write a two-page report on the music you hear. The report should be written in the style of a music review as are written professionally all over the world. As examples of the writing style, two links to professional critics’ work follow. Notice how the reviewers weave information about the work while making comparisons and giving opinions about the playing. The length of the first review is 284 words, well written, but too short for the assignment. The second review is 457 words, which is adequate to the assignment. center.html?ref=music The links below will take you to different concert videos. You should listen to the portions of the videos indicated and take brief notes as you listen. Your writing should be substantially about one of the works. The writing about the second work does not require as much detail, but prominent moments or overall thoughts of that performance should be noted You should critique the playing and discuss formal aspects of the work using terminology you have learned. Discuss the performers’ skill. Discuss striking aspects of their performance. Did they use rubato? If so, how well was it used? Did they play forcefully or lyrically? Were they in tune? Did the ensemble act as an indivisible unit, or were they loose and sloppy? Were you moved emotionally? How? Were tempos too fast in your judgment, or too slow? Or were the tempos well chosen, so that the music breathed, but was still lack exciting. Did any performer stand out? Why? Identify these moments by timings of the video. You may also go into the form and structure of the work, and the techniques the composer uses. As you can see, there’s a lot to think about and to write about, so 400-500 words should not be difficult. You also will be graded on a number of specific points. But if these are not listed with or in the video don’t worry about them: Who is the composer for each work? What works were performed? What is the name of the ensemble, soloists, conductor? Where and when did they perform? What style(s) and/or eras of music? What voices or instruments were used? If an orchestra, state that, no need to list all instruments. Names of ensembles, conductors and soloists should always be mentioned. The paper should be submitted as TEXT IN AN EMAIL, not as a separate attachment. Do not make any attachments in the email and no Google Docs. The length of the paper should be 400-500 words. Do a word count. Be accurate, as your grade will be lowered if you don’t write that many words. Send the email to: class@jefftalman.com REPORT NO. 1 DUE DATE: Noon, December 9, 2020 DO NOT PLAGERIZE. REVIEWS MUST BE YOUR OWN ORIGINAL IDEAS AND WRITING. Students that plagiarize will receive an F. Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 5. Listen to Movement I only. Igor Stravinsky, Symphony in Psalms. Listen to Movement I only.

Beethoven 9 – Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Riccardo Muti 1) In general, the opening paragraph should contain the Five W’s: who, what, when, where, why. 2) The following paragraph should briefly present the works performed as a whole, giving a general overview of the concert in terms of style, mood, instrumentation, audience response, etc. 3) The next section should center around your critical reaction to some or all of the pieces performed. Concentrating in depth on only a few of the pieces might be more illuminating than briefly trying to describe all the music performed. Your comments should reflect your developing musical knowledge. This section should be three to four paragraphs in length to adequately review the concert program. 4) Finally, in the last paragraph, you should close with your own subjective reaction to the concert. Did you enjoy the concert? Why or why not? What were the most interesting parts of the concert? Be particularly aware of your own musical tastes in making this judgment

Write a paragraph response to the following question: Pick one of the musicals shown in the selection provided of Broadway: The American Musical. Write a paragraph describing what stood out to you about this musical and why it is important according to the film.

In MUSIC 117 we examine a variety of styles that are identified under the general understanding of “country music.”. In your final written assignment you are to examine one song that fits your own criteria of “country music” and provide the following:      1. A brief background of the song and its artist, e.g. date of release, album, artist’s bio (very brief)      2. An in-depth analysis of the song’s musical features (melody, harmony, rhythm, form, texture, instrumentation, dynamics)      3. What features make this song distinctively “country” and, most importantly, why?   Your research paper is an original piece of work. It is assumed that all students understand the meaning of plagiarism and that it will not be tolerated in any fashion. Ignorance is no excuse and will not be accepted. If you want to quote the words or use ideas from someone else, you MUST cite your reference and credit the originator of the ideas. Take this seriously because I do. Please see me if you have any questions.

1. Please provide a very thorough and very detailed summary overview of American Popular music. Create a narrative that successfully addresses the salient elements of this genre of music, one that represents what you believe to be important aspects of AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC. Please include in your essay significant singers, songwriters, instrumentalists, practices and events that you believe assisted in shaping American popular music 2.  rap music is now over forty years old, older than rock music was when rap emerged. We are overdue for “the coming thing” .What do you believe is the future of Folk, Popular AND Concert music? Please be thoughtful. YOU MUST ADDRESS ALL THREE . INFORMATION FOR QUESTION 2 BELOW YOU CAN CERTAINLY RESEARCH THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE BE THOROUGH Western music is defined by music deriving from the western hemisphere, to include “the Americas, portions of Europe, Africa, and the extreme eastern portion of Russia (Siberia).” (Wikipedia.com) The term world music, refers to music that is markedly different in form, function and practice than one’s own music. Clearly this is a subjective term, and should be understood as such. To many parts of the world, the music of the United States may be viewed as “world music”. Concerning western music, there exists three fundamental genres of music: folk, popular, and concert (also referred to as “classical” or “art” music by some). Folk music in this context, should not be confused with the more popular folk music that thrived in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. To create a distinction between these two types of music, we refer to the more popular folk music of the 50s and 60s as urban folk music. Folk music in this context then, as a fundamental genre of western music, is music that derives from a specific geographic location; the music of a specific group of people in a specific place in the world. It is music that expresses the lives and times of these people, it celebrates their joys and mourns their tragedies. In a way, it can be viewed as a sort of journal for that group of people. Folk music is the music of the common person, usually deriving from the lower socio- economic levels of a given society. Folk music is not the music of the rich and powerful. Folk music is simple and highly repetitive. It is created and not composed, meaning it is not notated, written down music. It is taught and passed on orally. It is created by amateurs for amateurs. Excessively ornate or complex music is not a consideration in the creation of this music. Many times this type of music may serve utilitarian needs for the given group of people, such as work songs, wedding songs or funeral laments. Popular music, as the name implies, is music that is created for the purpose of being accepted and embraced by as many people as possible. For this reason, popular music tends to focus on more universal topics such as love, so that as many people as possible may relate to such music. In this case, this creates a distinction between folk and popular music. However, like folk music, popular music tends to also be more simple and repetitive. Popular music can be created or it can be composed. In popular music there exists a wider array of talent, from extraordinarily gifted performers, singers, or instrumentalists who possess a supreme command of their music abilities, yet have never studied music formally, to those who are equally gifted, yet have studied music formally, and can read and notate music. One aspect of popular music is what is known as “the hook”, meaning that there exists one portion of the song that is attractive, catchy and memorable, easy to remember, so that you are “hooked” after just one hearing of the song. The primary function of popular music is to entertain, but popular music is not limited to only that purpose. Many pop artists, within the context of popular success, do create compelling artistic music. And, many pop artists have chosen to express social/political messages to draw attention to specific issues in a given society. Concert music, commonly referred to as classical music, is probably the most distinct genre of music. It is usually written by very well-trained composers for very well-trained musicians. As a result, concert music tends to be more complex in nature, and this is one reason why concert music has never been as popular as the other two genres. In order to enjoy concert music, one has to know and understand the music better. There is a necessary investment on the listeners part to focus and pay attention to the music in order to fully appreciate and enjoy it. And, while every person likes to be popular and successful, and whereas there are many classical composers, performers and conductors who strive to be very popular, many times composers and performers of concert music are not motivated by popularity or financial gain, but rather by artistic, self expression, at the expense of popularity. Hybrid music is music that may posses qualities of more than one fundamental genre. Crossover music is music that may begin in one genre, but over time may take on qualities and characteristics of another genre. Please do not confuse this term with “crossover” hits in the Billboard Top 100. Finally, sacred/religious/spiritual music may be categorized in any three of the aforementioned genres of western music. And, whereas such music is most definitely a genre of western music, please note that it is not a fundamental genre of music.