Nolan's Mus 116 Blog

(from blog prompt 9)

Covid-19 has made life more difficult for everyone, especially those whose careers rely on live entertainment, such as musicians. While it is uncertain when in-person concert gigs will be an option for musicians to make a living and gain exposure, there are other options for musicians in the meantime. Luckily, live music is still a possibility with technology, and musicians can livestream their talents using applications such as Instagram, Facebook or Stage.It. Although it is not the ideal way to experience live music, livestreaming is one of the best ways for musicians to adapt to a socially distanced world.  Of course, live music isn’t the only medium for musicians to share and profit from their abilities. Musicians can still upload their tracks to Bandcamp, Spotify, and SoundCloud; Services which have implemented easier ways for listeners to support struggling musicians, such as Spotify’s “Artist Fundraising Pick” feature. However, musicians are not limited to selling music; They can find more creative ways to get income, such as selling merchandise. Musicians can take advantage of these strange times by working on their branding as a musician, practicing, and preparing for future concerts that will advance their career and compensate for the loss of income that Covid-19 has brought. There is never a time for a musician to stop learning new techniques and getting better; musicians could even learn a new instrument and expand their horizons that way. They could use some of their creativity to create a colorful website that showcases their abilities with an option to donate or buy tracks, or create a Patreon that gives listeners an option to support them if they already have a following. A website plus an active social media account could give musicians a fanbase and advance their online career, giving them a gateway to finding commission work. Online clients could ask musicians to record a particular song, play a written part, or anything else musicians offer on their website. In this technological age, it is beneficial for musicians to have an online presence in general, and Covid-19 has given them the unlikely opportunity to focus on that aspect of their career if they haven’t given it much prior thought. During these strange times, is important to remember that there is never a reason to give up, and even if a musician has to resort to delivering pizzas or working retail to survive, they will be successful in their musical endeavors as long as they stick to them.

(From blog prompt 5)

For this exercise, I chose “A chantar m’er” by Countess of Dia. About a month and a half ago, I listened to the recording on repeat for about 30 minutes, as the recording is quite short. During the first 10 minutes or so, I found it quite difficult to recognize which part of the recording I was listening to, as the piece is texturally and dynamically uniform from when the solo voice enters to the end. However, upon further listening, I began to notice more complexities in the solo voice part. For example, I noticed that the high point in the vocal line (a C during the line “Qu’a-tres-si’m-sui”) is quite prominent, and I began to appreciate the legato singing style with lines such as “no vol-ri”. Near the end of the 30 minutes, I attempted to pay closer attention to the vielle to see if I would notice any sort of recurring theme. While doing this, I realized that the piece has no discernable time signature or recurring melodies, which is something that is quite unique to renaissance era music.

Today (December 9th), I repeated the same exercise with the piece “Voiles” for solo piano by Claude Debussy. The first aspect of this piece I noticed was the dreamy tone, complimented by a slow tempo and light, fluttery texture. The piece rises and falls in energy until a dynamic peak about halfway through, where a showering of glissandos begins and continues until the piece dies away, ending even quieter than it began. During my third time listening to this piece, I realized the tempo was very inconsistent, gradually speeding and slowing throughout the piece. The harmonies presented are also very dissonant, contributing even further to the mystical and fantastical sound of the piece. Around the fourth or fifth round of the track, I was beginning to dose off, not because the piece was uninteresting, but because it acted as some sort of eerie lullaby. Similar to the previous piece, “Voiles” is through-composed, meaning it has no repeated sections. This mimics the properties of a dream in the sense that it slowly changes throughout, there are no discernible sections, and it ends gradually with no closure. Repeated listenings of this piece blend together in a way, as it becomes difficult to tell where the piece ends and begins due to its graceful movement and similarities throughout.

(Optional blog prompt B)

On May 29th, 1913, the premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” descended into chaos, as the audience was shocked by the radical nature of the performance.  Although it is unclear to which aspect of the performance the crowd’s rage was directed, it was most likely the combination of an untraditional use of dissonant harmonies and a never before seen take on stage choreography. According to the BBC article “Did The Rite of Spring really spark a riot?”, the crowd was anticipating an uproar, as there was controversy surrounding the ballet’s choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, in relation to his previous contribution to Debussy’s ballet, “Jeux”. Clearly, Upper class citizens of the early 1900’s (of whom the audience almost exclusively consisted) were less open to experimentation in music than the general populous of today, who have instant access to any type of music, making them less protective of the sanctity of a single genre. Many people during this period, which can be called the contemporary revolution, still had rigid views on what was acceptable to include in music and art, while others were beginning to adopt contemporary art as the new normal. This clashing of opinions was a likely catalyst to the riots that took place. A similar event occurred on November 27th, 1926, when the violent and sexual subject matter of Bela Bartok’s “The Miraculous Mandarin” caused the audience to protest after the curtains closed. The story of the ballet surrounds three thugs who use a prostitute to lure men into their room and mug them. The story ends after “the mandarin”, whom the prostitute immediately falls in love with, is brought into their room. He is brutally stabbed and beaten before dying in the girl’s embrace. Unlike the premiere of “The Rite of Spring”, the audience at the premiere of “The Miraculous Mandarin” were not prepared for the obscene subject matter of the ballet, and the show’s closing was met with booing and whistling, which eventually led to protests and moral outrage in Cologne, Germany. Unfortunately, the crowd was unable to look past the graphic nature of the ballet, and the beautiful theme of love amidst a corrupt world was overlooked. There is a reason these two ballets are still remembered, however; They were both revolutionary, testing the boundaries of what was acceptable in their period while expanding the possibilities for music in the future.

https://muswrite.blogspot.com/2014/05/bartok-miraculous-mandarin-suite.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3w63/

(Expansion of prompt 3)

Upon first listening, the first section (aria) of Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of “The Goldberg Variations”  has a much fuller sound than the 1981 recording of the same piece. The 1981 recording is much quieter, and Gould plays the aria in a much more delicate fashion. However, the audio in the 1981 recording is much less compressed, meaning there is a larger dynamic range in this recording. The 1955 recording is also recorded at a lower frequency, and has a rather damp sound because of this; The higher frequencies only appear in the 1981 recording, leading to a tinnier but fuller sound overall. Additionally, there is less reverb present in the 1955 recording, and the 1981 recording has much more echo. This is most likely because the 1955 version was recorded in a smaller room than the 1981 version, which is recorded in a seemingly large room according to its visual component. The recording quality is not the only aspect that sets the two recordings apart; Gould also plays the aria nearly twice as slowly in the 1981 recording. This leads to a more dramatic sounding performance, as the 1981 recording is also more liberal with the tempo than the 1955 recording, which keeps a consistent tempo, as if a metronome was used. The pianos used in the two recordings even seem to be tuned differently; Although it is hard to tell which piano is out of tune, the 1955 recording sounds slightly detuned compared to the 1981 recording. All in all, it is clear that Gould is a much more experienced performer in the 1981 recording just from listening to the differences in the two performances. While the 1955 recording remains true to Bach’s original composition, and is technically and rhythmically perfect, Gould truly puts his heart and soul into the 1981 performance, injecting his own emotions into the piece and making it his own.

Latin American music is music that is created by any Portuguese, Spanish, or French speaking people that reside in the United States of America, whereas Latin music is created by people who reside in Portuguese, Spanish, or French speaking regions. Dr. Munarriz considers the term “Latin American music” to be problematic because it does not refer to music that is created in Latin America, which are regions south of the United States, but instead to music that is created by an assimilated community. I don’t necessarily think the term is problematic, despite the confusing name, as Latin music created in the United States borrows elements from Latin music but is ultimately different, as Latino cultures differ from Latin American cultures, resulting in an altered style and sound. An ostinato is any repetition of a rhythmic musical pattern that gives a musical piece its structure, and it has been used in Caribbean and Latin American music with rhythms such as habanera. The habanera pattern usually brings a fun, lighthearted tone to any music in which it is used, and can be easily identified in tango music as well as ragtime and blues music. Patterns such as this can be traced back to African cultures, and have been used in a wide variety of Latin American and African musical expressions. Habanera is most prominent in the Latin American genre “Contradanza”, which became popular in many South American countries, mainly Cuba, in the 19th century.

Music universities of today have a strong foundation in European classical theory. In the near future, it would be interesting if musical elements and teachings from different cultures were integrated, although this would be unlikely in the next 3-5 years. Music schools of the near future should at least grant students with access to resources that give information on intercultural scales and rhythms, so that they could compare objective, mathematical theory to that of different cultures. I would like to see the definition of music theory become separate from 18th century European harmonic style, because there are many cultural interpretations of music theory that the music students of today are missing out on. I also think that digital music technologies should be a staple of all university music schools, as they allow for a divergence from the rigidity of classical European harmonies and theories. It would be intriguing to see how musical practice would change if teachings in western musical theory were to drift from its classical European origins.

On October 22nd, I watched a livestream of “The High Quadra Ramblers” performing at Hermann’s Jazz Club. The duo consists of Kaitlin Chamberlin on banjo and vocals and Mack Shields on fiddle/mandolin and vocals, and the concert is performed on a small stage in front of a red brick wall.

The songs performed by the duo are all exclusively of the bluegrass genre. They vary tremendously in tempo and dynamics; songs such as “Love song” are very slow and almost melancholic, whereas songs like “Kitchen girl” and “Wait a while” are fast-paced and joyous. Although there are only two performers, the concert is quite texturally rich and complex thanks to the performers’ smooth vocals combined with their quick playing style. The music is mostly driven by the instruments rather than the vocals, which are hidden in the background most of the time; some songs consist of instrumentals alone, but the combination of the plucked banjo and bowed fiddle provides a full and consistent sound. The players frequently defy the listener’s expectations by changing tempo and tone in the middle of some songs, such as “Cumberland gap”. 

Throughout the performance, I was completely mesmerized by the perfect coordination and synergy of the duo’s playing. I was also quite surprised by the range of emotions the two players were able to convey while staying true to the bluegrass genre, playing carefree and lighthearted tunes like “Kitchen girl” one minute and bittersweet ballads such as “Wait a while”. I could tell the two performers were enjoying themselves during the entire show, as they held perfect coordination and beautiful chemistry for the entire hour and a half, as if they were completely lost to the music. One of my favourite moments was when Mack Shields started shouting out adlibs such as “Yee-haw” during the end of “Kitchen girl”, which is particularly quick and intense. This addition provided a more satisfying ending to the tune, as there is an accelerando during the whole song. I thought it was very interesting that Shields switched to playing a mandolin for the song “Maizeville”, which is a very soulful Kentucky tune. I appreciated the encore at the end as well, where they played a short lighthearted tune to end the show on a positive note. 

Although I am not typically a fan of bluegrass music, as I am not exposed to it very often, this concert was a pleasant change of pace from what I am accustomed to. The performers demonstrated flawless technique, and it is very clear that they are quite passionate about their craft.

https://www.facebook.com/hermannsjazz/videos/vb.109462432449577/405740303751126