Adam Sullivan Music Theory Blog

The Pipe Organ: Controlling the Sound

2015-02-23T19:35:00.002-05:00

Hello, I’m Ginny Moe, this is Adam Sullivan's Music Theory Blog and you're listening to an episode of The Pipe Organ: its development and design.

Last month's episode was on the basic two types of pipes: how they work and how they sound. You can access again it online anytime. This month's episode is on how the organist controls which pipes actually sound at any given moment.

Pipe organs makes sound when air goes to pipes, so we start with the blower, which sends air to a windchest which is attached to every pipe, with most pipes actually sitting right on top. When one pipe is played it doesn't take much air but when many pipes are played at once it takes a lot of air, reducing the air pressure. So the blower sends air to the windchest through a reservoir, which keeps the air at a constant pressure whether one or 100 pipes are sounding. If you look down on the top of the windchest, you can tell it's not just a big balloon with a lot of pipes sticking out haphazardly. The pipes are arranged in rows and columns, with the toe of any pipe fitting into a hole on the windchest through which wind enters the pipe.

Each column on the chest holds a rank, which is a set of pipes of matching design and sound. Each rank has one pipe for each note, and ranks are usually arranged in order on the chest from the lowest and longest pipes at one end to the shortest and highest at the other end. Two ranks of pipes require two columns and two pipes for each note, three ranks require three columns and three pipes, and so on. The rows on the chest correspond to the notes. Each row holds all the pipes which sound a certain note.

On the sides and ends of the windchest are several kinds of machinery controlling tubes of air inside the chest which allow routing of air to various pipes. These controllers are adjusted through linkages to the console, where the organist sits directing air traffic in the windchest.

Modern consoles normally have one pedalboard and several manual keyboards. The pedalboard has 32 keys, arranged like piano keys but bigger, for your feet, the lowest key being two octaves below middle C, the highest the G above middle C. Each manual keyboard has five octaves, starting at the C two octaves below middle C and going up 61 notes to the C three octaves above middle C. In addition, the console has stops, usually on the sides of the manuals, but sometimes above the top manual. And most organs have pistons, which are little buttons below the keyboard and knobs down by the pedals for the feet to play.

Now how does this console give signals to the windchest?

Stops control a channel of air under a rank of pipes. When a stop is engaged, or pulled, by the organist, air flows into the channel and is available for all the pipes in the rank above the channel. If two stops are pulled, air flows into two channels, three stops pulled and air flows into three channels. If many stops are connected to a keyboard, the channels will be dispersed in columns over several windchests for ease maintenance.

Keys control the rows of the windchest, and every pipe designed to sound the note corresponding to a key is in the the entire row controlled by that key. When a key is pressed, pouches under the pipes in the row open, and if air is in a channel under any pipe, the air is released into a pipe sounding a note.
So, for example, a windchest with eight ranks has eight columns corresponding to eight stops on the console, and on manual windchests, it has sixty-one rows corresponding to the sixty-one keys on the manual keyboard, for a total of 488 pipes. When one stop is pulled, and the organist plays one key, the windchest is signaled to send wind to one rank, and one row. Wind is released to the pipe at the intersection of that column and row, and the one pipe sounds. When two keys are played, two pipes get wind, three keys winds three pipes. If another stop is pulled, another channel of air is available, and one key sounds two pipes, one in each rank, the same note, but different in tone quality. Playing two keys sounds two pipes in each rank, playing three keys sounds three pipes in each rank, for a total of six pipes.

The third main control type on the console, ubiquitous in modern pipe organs, is combination action. Most often it is entirely at the console, for it signals several stops to engage (or disengage) simultaneously. Combinations are activated by pressing the pistons underneath the manuals or near the pedals.

To summarize, in a pipe organ, the blower sends air through a reservoir to the windchest. Pipes sit on the chest arranged in columns of ranks and rows of notes. Organists control which pipes sound by sending signals from a console to the windchest. The majority of these signals are of three types: Keys, controlling rows of notes; Stops, controlling columns of ranks, and Pistons, controlling combinations of stops.

That’s all for this episode, I'm Ginny Moe, and this is Adam Sullivan's Music Theory Blog. Thanks to Adam for hosting this series, The Pipe Organ: its development and design. I hope you’ll check in again next month, when we’ll begin looking at how the sound and design of the pipe organ developed throughout history.

That’s all for this episode. I hope you’ll check in again next month, when we’ll begin looking at how the sound and design of the pipe organ developed throughout history. I'm Ginny Moe, and this is Adam Sullivan's Music Theory Blog (sulliadm.blogspot.com). Thanks to Adam for hosting this series, The Pipe Organ: its development and design.

Hear! Hear! Suggested Listening of the Month!

2015-01-31T14:55:00.001-05:00

Hi, and welcome to this months segment. This month, I would like to talk about the wonderful and powerful music created from the Organ. This will not be limited to the pipe organ, I will try to include as much variety as possible, and show how music with the Organ has evolved over time. If you haven't checked out Ginny Moe's blog about the Pipe Organ, I suggest you check it out now. It's both informative and interesting, but it is not necessary for todays purpose. Let's get started!

1. Now, as we all know, I cannot mention the Organ, with out mentioning both Johann Sebastian Bach and his Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bach's unparalleled use of contrapuntal ideas and brilliant ideas shine in this piece, in the darkest of ways. Many associate this piece with Halloween or things similar. But few who know the classic motif, have listened to the piece in its entirety. I would suggest a full and critical listen of this piece to truly hear its brilliance. This was written in sometime between 1703 and 1707.

Here's a version played a little faster than usual.

2. Next up, is a piece composed by Felix Mendelssohn. It is his first Organ Sonata in F minor. It features a more dynamic use of the organ in Mendelssohn's way of writing for the instrument. This piece is also played on a traditional pipe organ. I particularly enjoy the use of the left hand accompaniment in this piece. It seems more individualized than previous organ compositions.

3. Jumping ahead in time, lets go to 1935, when the worlds first Hammond organ was created by Laurens Hammond and John Hanert. This revolutionary organ, found its place among many different styles in the 1900's. More commonly, it is associated with jazz and progressive rock. Here is a piece by Steve Winwood in 1966, which features the Hammond organ in it's prime.

4. Here is a piece written by Kansas, a progressive rock group of the 70's. It was one of Kansas's biggest hits, and it features the organ used in a more subdued manner. Playing an interesting accompaniment and syncopations, it really shows how diverse the organ is. There is also an organ solo in this song, which I believe took the organ to a new level in how it is used sparingly.

5. Today's last piece is written by Nobuo Eumatsu. The organ has even found its way into contemporary video game music. Nobuo uses the dark and scary associations with the organ, to create this dark and sinister track to accompany the video game's villain "Kefka" of Final Fantasy VI. It features a whole section of just the organ in itself, as well as contrapuntal ideas of earlier composers. This piece is actually written by Nobuo, but performed by the Distant Worlds Symphony and conducted by Arnie Roth. Hope you enjoy!

This marks the end of this months segment of "Hear! Hear! Suggested Listening of the Month!". I hope you enjoyed our time together, I know I enjoyed writing this for you. Let me know what I'm missing, or what you think in the comments below. Take care!

The Pipe Organ: Development and Design

2015-01-17T23:09:00.001-05:00

Written by: Ginny Moe

The design and music of the pipe organ are a result of its history as builders responded to changing societal needs but more importantly as organists, composers, and organ builders learned to take advantage of developments in science and industrial techniques. This session is on the two main types of pipes and how they speak, or make sound.

At its most basic the pipe organ is a set of pipes similar to flutes or clarinets through which wind blows to make sound usually musical sound and which, in the modern organ, is controlled by an organist who plays a keyboard shaped like a piano keyboard.

Almost all pipes on the modern organ are of two types. Flue pipes comprise the majority of the pipes, and they are almost always made of either metal or wood with a foot through which air flows into the pipe. Most organs also use reeds (sometimes called reed pipes) in which the speaking mechanism is covered by a boot into which air flows, vibrating a tongue. As an example, I currently play a pipe organ which has 17 sets (ranks) of flue pipes and 4 ranks of reeds, plus some extras which combine several ranks of flue stops.

Now the sounding mechanism of these two types pipes is very different. In the flue pipe air enters the foot of the pipe through a toe and is directed toward the mouth of the pipe by a languid. Air goes outside the pipe at the mouth, and the the speedy air outside the pipe reduces air pressure inside the pipe, drawing the airstream into the pipe. This is the Bernoulli effect in practice; the same reason jets can fly. IT IS THE AIR ITSELF WHICH VIBRATES, setting up sound waves.

By contrast, in the reed pipe a shallot extends into the boot. An aperture in the shallot is covered by a tongue. The boot surrounds this mechanism, and air enters the boot through a toe in the bottom. The wind presses the tongue against the shallot, and the tongues bends to cover the the aperture. The tongue springs back, allowing the wind to enter the shallot, and again the Bernoulli effect is observed, and sound is produced by the vibrating tongue. Here, IT IS THE TONGUE, OR REED ITSELF, WHICH VIBRATES.

Since the wind itself makes the sound in flue pipes, the pipe, which shapes the trajectory of the wind, directly affects the sound, and the most noticeable difference is made by the width of the pipe. Very narrow pipes generally produce more overtones, like bowed string instruments, and are called string pipes. Very fat pipes generally produce fewer overtones, like flutes, and are called flute pipes. And the most important pipes in any organ are the medium width flue pipes, called diapasons or principals. Various modifications around the mouth of the pipe also change the sound. The number of strings, diapasons, and flutes varies, but as an example, my current instrument has three independent string ranks, six independent flute ranks, and seven independent diapason ranks.

The reeds make a very distinctive sound, but most of them sound more like each other than they sound like any flue pipe. Usually they are louder, and the variation in sound is mostly caused by different shaped and length tongues and apertures in the shallot. What are often called reed pipes are properly referred to as resonators, and they amplify and change the sound. They are designed in many inventive and sometimes bizarre shapes, some of which make a difference in the sound quality, or timbre.

To summarize, organ pipes are normally either flue or reed pipes. In flue pipes, the air vibrates, and in reeds, the tongue vibrates. Most organ pipes are flues, and the length and shape of the pipe make changes in timbre, or sound quality. The most important pipes are the principals, or diapasons, and if you think of the sound of a pipe organ, you are probably thinking of the sound of the diapasons. They are of medium width, and the narrow pipes are called string pipes, while the fatter pipes are called flute pipes. A few reeds are usually part of a pipe organ, providing distinctive solo stops and fiery color. In them the sounding mechanism is covered by a boot, inside of which a tongue vibrates against a shallot to produce sound, which is then shaped modified by a resonator.

Check in again next month, when the subject will be organ keys, and various ways the keys control the pipework. I am Ginny Moe, and this is a series on The Pipe Organ, and how its design developed throughout history.
Twitter: @GinnyMoeRHSCwebsite: GinnyMoe.net

Hear Hear! Suggested Listening of the Month!

2014-12-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

Hello! This is Matthew Harnage, and welcome to my first installment of "Hear Hear! Suggested Listening of the Month!". Today we will be looking at 5 songs to bring in the new year. I will be covering a wide stylistic base today. I hope you enjoy these pieces of music for what they are.

1. We'll start with some good ole fashion hard rock. This piece was chosen by loudwire.com to be the best rock song of 2014. It features Pete Loeffler and Dean Bernardini's aggressive guitar and bass work which fuels drummer Sam Leoffler impressive percussive playing. This song builds like and emotional riot. Hope you enjoy Pete Loeffler's vocals on this one!

2. Now we'll bring it down, with some modern classical music from John Luther Adams. This piece was recorded by the Seattle Symphony for Cantaloupe, it also won the Pulitzer Prize for music this year. Here is John Luther Adams, with "Become Ocean".
3. Now I know a lot of people seem to dislike popular music, but this is one song that no one has ignored. While it may have been overplayed by some, it's catchy chorus and rhythmic nature are both entertaining and uplifting to listen to. This song was Billboard Magazine's #1 song of 2014. Here's "Happy" by Pharrell Williams! Try not to clap!
4. Now here is a piece of music from a Leipzig-based producer Gunnar Wendel, under the alias Kassem Mosse. His music is known for the warmth originating from using his analog equipment against today's more common digital approach. The album this song originates from was sold out almost instantly after releasing early February 2014. Here is Kassem Mosse's "Untitled A2".
5. Now this song isn't from 2014 but from a Japanese composer Rentarō Taki in 1901. A beautiful melody along with a great swelling emotional side, this piece represent the nostalgia of going from 2014-2015. Here is Kojo No Tsuki (Moon Over a Ruined Castle) arranged for Flute and Harp. Let me know your favorite songs to bring in the new year in the comments below. Have a wonderful new year! And I can't wait to see you next month!

Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest

2014-12-13T14:42:00.001-05:00

I've decided to quit apologizing for the long breaks between posts, as the frequency with which I post an article is about as often as I get a good night's sleep and have a day to sit back and figure out where the heck I am and what the heck I'm doing! That said, finals are bested, the Fall 2014 final grades are in (at least the ones that matter), and I'm flying high for Christmas break. What better time to write about one of the most fascinating Italian Baroque composers, whose music seems to be heard more often at the holiday times anyway. After all, he did write a whole concerto about Winter.

Antonio Vivaldi was a later Baroque composer, born in 1678 to a humble family in Venice. Whether due to the fact that he was a sickly baby, or the fact that there was an unsettling earthquake the day of his birth, the newborn Antonio was baptized immediately and dedicated to the priesthood in the off chance that he survived to adulthood. As a child, he studied violin and composition from his father as well as from the music director at St. Mark's in Venice.

Despite his obvious musical talent, his infant vows were kept, and after 10 years of study, Vivaldi was ordained as a priest in 1703, at the age of 25. He was much more interested in his music than his priestly duties however, and used his continuing poor health (likely severe asthma, based on the symptoms he described in his correspondence) as a bonafide reason to be granted an exemption from performing mass, and other expected activities for a newly ordained priest. However, Vivaldi did not expect to give up public service completely. Shortly after his entry into the priesthood, he became the violin instructor at the Ospedale della Pieta, an "orphanage" for, in most cases, the illegitimate daughters of noblemen, who were unwilling to acknowledge their daughters' parentage but were happy to provide the best support and education for them.

Vivaldi, whose red hair inspired the nickname "The Red Priest," worked with the Ospedale for over 30 years, teaching general music and strings, as well as composing much of the repertoire that the girls played. Later on, he was appointed music director for the entire program. Under his tutelage, the orphanage's orchestra and choir earned international acclaim. This employment justifies the complaint that I have occasionally heard about Vivaldi's work--it's at times very note-y, and seems to play like a technical etude. Well, that's what many of his concertos were. They were written as part of his curriculum for training his young violin students, and often intended as nothing but passage work etudes. The fact that he was able to write etudes which stand alone as respectable solo works is in and of itself a tribute to Vivaldi's genius.

Some of the characteristics of Vivaldi's concertos--the most famous of which by far are the four violin concertos which make up the Four Seasons--are indeed the technical passage work, the abundance of harmonic sequences (most likely included as part of the girls' music theory education), and a descriptive style reminiscent of word painting techniques of early Italian madrigals. These concertos became widely popular throughout Europe and inspired many transcriptions and arrangements.

Although he maintained his position with the orphanage, later in life Vivaldi began to travel more and also gained success in the opera scene, a portion of his work which many musicians today are unfamiliar with. By the end of his career he had published somewhere between 50 and 100 operas, many of which are lost today. Despite his religious training, Vivaldi actually had issues getting some of his works past the censor boards, because of librettos which included cross-dressing and homosexual relationships.

Because of his work with the orphanage, Vivaldi managed to avoid being locked into the patronage system so common in the Baroque period. However, a great part of his income was generated through commission work for private individuals as well as performing for audiences as prestigious as the Pope. As a priest, he never married, although he maintained a close friendship and suspected romantic relationship with a young singer, Anna Giro. Vivaldi protested whenever insinuations were made, and there is really no evidence for or against a liaison between the two.

Antonio Vivaldi, circa 1725

In 1740, the 62 year old composer left Venice permanently with the intent of taking up residence in Vienna, Austria, most likely to work in the court of Emperor Charles VI. who had expressed great interest in his work. Unfortunately, the emperor passed away and Vivaldi had no source of income in the new city. Ill health prevented him from becoming active in the music scene of Vienna, and in the summer of 1741, Antonio Vivaldi passed away and was was given a pauper's funeral without any music.

Much of his fame was forgotten in the following years, and it wasn't until the efforts of performer/composer Fritz Kreisler in the early 1900s that interest in Vivaldi's music was revived. Over 600 of his works have been cataloged, and as of ten years ago, more were still being discovered. Conversely, only 3 portraits of the composer have survived.

Review: World of Bow

2014-12-08T00:07:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome back to my review series. I know that it is unusual for me to post multiple times in a month but to make up from the dry spell, I'm posting this review on top of the previous. I have one more but I need a little more time for get it ready to be posted so stay tuned. For now, please enjoy this review and don't forget to subscribe or follow us on social media if you have not done so already!

For those whom may not be aware, World of Bow is a bow warehouse site. From first glance of the site, this site looks like it was stuck in 2003 when it started. However first glances are simply that because the quality of their products outweighs the exterior. It is a clean, slick look but it doesn't seem very enticing or helps make me want to buy from them. If it wasn't for the recommendation I had from multiple trusted friends and teachers, I would have overlooked this gem. I recently needed to order a bow to complete some local gigs, not to mention my student bow looks like I’m using dental floss on a stick. After being pushed to try them, I went and ordered two bows: A carbon fiber bow and a Brazil wood bow.

Their selection of bows has some variety. They range from professional to amateur bows, various types such as a Snakewood, Pernambuco, Brazilwood and carbon fiber. They also offer a variety of sizes, though the smaller bows do not have as much to choose from. Something also great about them is they offer baroque bows alongside modern bows, which caught me off guard! While I feel there should be more selection for the smaller bows, the selection is one of the best I’ve ever seen. There is a lot to look and choose from the site.

The prices of the bows are also reasonable too. I will come back to the quality of the two I ordered, but they are definitely worth the money I paid for them. They all ship 2 day express for $10! The packaging was wrapped in 3 layers of cardboard and the bows themselves were compressed together. They were made to handle the extremes of rush shipping! They came in one piece, and no damage to the bow.

Now the most important question of all: Are they worth the money? In short, the ones I ordered are well worth the money. Here are the links to the two I ordered: The Brazil wood bow and the carbon fiber bow. I opened the large triangle package like a little boy opening his large Christmas present, full of hopes and anticipations. As I previously stated, the care in the shipment was beyond what I expected but the bows were something different. I will review them independently but a quick summery from my first impressions was wow. Granted, I had been using a low quality student bow for the past 3-4 years (the last year being pretty bald) but they did do a good job of showing me what to look forward to later down the road. My only complaint so far is with the carbon fiber feeling very off putting. In comparison to the other bow, it is balanced roughly the same but it feels like it is too frog heavy. *Edit* After playing it for a full 3 days, the carbon fiber is a lot better but it keeps losing hairs. Not sure why, but I update once I have found a solution.

Before I end this review, I just wanted to say that the reason I’m not reviewing the bows themselves is not only are they too new and I haven’t quite gotten use to them, but I actually ordered the wrong bow. It is nothing to do with World of Bow, but rather I clicked the wrong carbon fiber bow. I’m happy with it but in order to review it from the proper competitors instead of comparing it to expectations from other bows, I will need some more time. I will go into a detailed review of them once I’ve had time to adjust. It is still a great bow, but my expectations have to shift in order to review it more accurately. However, this issue does lead me to my final thoughts.

The biggest thing I can say from this is consider expectations and then throw them out the window. There are a lot of great businesses that simply do not have the means to be over the top in terms of visual pleasure or customer convenience but that should not stop you from trying something new. World of Bow would fit into this sort of site. The site looks a little outdated and can be clunky at times but the service and customer service is beyond anything that one could imagine. The bows, while suspiciously cheap are well worth the money. I believe that the prices of similarly priced bows would be 3-5 times as expensive. Keep an eye out for my World of Bow because if I can save up enough money, I will be back for that Baroque bow! I give World of Bow a 4 great bows out of 5!

Review: Magic Rosin® X

2014-12-06T23:35:00.002-05:00

Recently, between being swamped by end of the year school stuff (juries, exams, etc.), I needed to take a small break from the site in order to make sure that I was not overwhelmed with work. However, over the next couple of days I am going to upload a series of reviews that I have taken way too long to perform. Some are because of testing reasons, and others are from simply having too much work and not being able to write them. I am planning on bringing this website into its own thing in the semi-near future but first comes school and my jobs/internships. Now that I have a small staff of writers, editors and a web manager I hope to start making content more consistent but I will need everyone's help. If you have not subscribed to my newsletter then we are starting our own next month. Feedburner has completely dropped the ball on us, so we have decided to start anew. Email "Newsletter" to Sulliadm2@gmail.com and we will add you to our new custom made newsletter. It will be once the month and will be easier to read than spamming every post to you after being posted. I will be updating the site soon so anyone who wants to pass by and join can. Anyways, on to the review!

Today is the first day of my review mayhem. As stated above, I've had a lot on my plate the past few months and over the next couple of days, I will be releasing reviews of products that should have been reviewed before now. On this review, we have Magic Rosin® X! Those whom have been following me for a few years now know that Sarah West (creator of Magic Rosin®) and I have gotten to become great friends as I have continuously reviewed her rosins. Just before she released her newest rosin, she asked if I would review it for her. How could I refuse? Free sample of the next step in her company and being one of the first to test it… I was ecstatic and I still am. However, there is a reason to why this review took as long as it did. I felt obligated to test, and retest and retest this rosin over the past 3 months so I could make sure I was saying something that could be considered an accurate review. I think I finally found a way to express my opinion effectively and clearly.

Just as a heads up, I know this review will sound very negative but it should not be taken that way. A large part of this review went into testing the major difference between this rosin and Magic Rosin®'s 3G and 3G Ultra formulas. If you have never used any other Magic Rosin® rosin, then click to check out my 3G review or the 3G Ultra review but the basic premise is the brand is made for all instruments. This rosin has kept the same quality and distinctive feel that many have learned to grow attached to but with some changes. They all are very smooth and crisp rosins and work fairly well on all instruments. 3G formula has more than enough bite for the higher strings while not making it sound crunchy but tends to be a weaker rosin for cello let alone bass. 3G Ultra has a better amount of bite for cello while not overdoing it for violins and violas. The problem that some have seen is it is not strong enough, and that is what the majority of this review will be centered around.

The first thing that was noticeable about this rosin was the claims on the site and from Miss West herself. As stated on the website, “At long last,after much research and development, we are very pleased to introduce MagicRosin® X, the grippiest Magic Rosin® formula.” When they say it is the grippiest, they really mean it! This is probably the strongest rosin I have ever used on my bow. This leads me to the first, and only serious complaint I have against the rosin: It might be too strong for anything outside bass. Personally, I use either Magic Rosin® 3G Ultra or Jade, depending on what I have near me. Jade is something that I see as being a too weak, while Magic Rosin® 3G Ultra is exactly what I like. The new X formula is roughly twice as sticky as the Ultra. There’s nothing wrong with that if you want more bite but personally I want a rosin that is a mix between sticking to the strings and fluidity. A strong opinion to hold but this is the reason I had to tested it so much.

In my initial test, I used my student Brazilwood bow. On this bow, it was simply too thick. I could not move the bow without crunching everything and anything I attempted. There was a flaw in this test: I was using a balding bow. It was roughly ¼” of hair, and some were black hairs. Following the basic principle of physics, the more surface area an object has to contact another then the pressure and energy from that one area would be dispersed more and thus grabs the string. However the less hair, then the same amount of energy would have to be disperse over a smaller area, causing less stability and more energy to be released over a smaller area. This means that I could not effectively test the rosin on that bow without rehairing or purchase a new bow. This lead me onto my next test: Testing on new bows. I had been planning on upgrading bows for some time so ordering them was not out of my way. Using fresh bows from World of Bow (review of the company will be available by clicking here when online), I rosined them with the Magic Rosin® X and tested them. I cleaned the strings with some bow tonic, rosined the bow and played for a bit. It felt really thick to me, sticking to the strings about the same as before. The only error I can come up with in this test was the rosin being to “fresh” on the bow and not really in the bow hairs, but I believe the coating of rosin on the strings would theoretically counter this but I will note it for later research. The biggest evidence came to me whenever I did my final test.

I decided after the first test that I should see how the target market would react to the rosin. This lead back to the high school I used in my previous tests on. I borrowed 4 bass players and 6 cellist in order to test if my theory was correct to an interesting surprise. The cellist loved the new rosin as much or more than the 3G ultra, which is what the teacher uses in his classroom. They applauded the stronger grip on the string but for them wasn’t sacrificing in terms of quality sound. From my point of view (that being the listener of this test) it came off as a stronger bite but not really any clearer quality sound. To me it sounded like it was a grittier but not enough to be noticed by the students. Plus in their minds, at least from what I’ve gathered from coaching most of them for 2-3 years now, louder equals better as long as it does not cause a distorted effect. This is not always the case but if you are into that sound then this is the rosin for you. There is one more thing I need to touch on however.

Something that I also tested was how this new rosin would compare to other bass rosins. Something that was explained to me from various teachers in South Carolina String Educators Association was they felt like the 3G Ultra was great for Violin, Viola and Cello but was simply too weak for bass. The initial testing I did of the rosin (which you can see by clicking here) shows that the students I used then felt the same way. They feel like the quality is there, but the grip was not enough to cause the strings to vibrate effectively. After noticing there was a lot more grip to this rosin, I compared it to two other bass rosins that are standards in their field: Pops and Carlson. They are on two opposite sides of the world in terms of rosin. Pops is a strong rosin that can become gritty at times but is more stable and can really pull the lower end out of the bass when needed. Carlson, on the other hand, is an equally strong rosin but can achieve a similar strength sound without the gritty sound. The cost is the lack of stability from the rosin’s formula. It can be very temperamental in higher humidity and that causes the rosin to not stick very well or in some rare cases stick too much.

The reason I bring all this out is the results from this test. The Magic Rosin® X came out literally in the middle for all the bass players. They all called it the happy medium between the two rosins. It was sticky enough to cause the clear and concise sound that Magic Rosin® is known for but without the cost of being temperamental or being too strong. Whenever I fiddled around with the rosin samples on one of the basses, I noticed the same thing. It was clear and worked well but fit as a natural middle ground between the two other rosins. As far as I’ve noticed, the rosin seems to be very stable and if it is like the other Magic Rosin® types then it should be very stable.

With everything else said, there is one more thing I need to get out of the way before I give my final verdict. This sample of the rosin is very flaky. I do not know if it is from the sample or the recipe but it chips a lot easier than the others have. Not enough to cause it to shatter from bumping it with the frog but if you have used the other rosins then it will be noticeable.

Other than that complaint and the bulk of this review, it is a great rosin. Magic Rosin® has kept their quality up high when creating this product. It has all the signature qualities: the clear rosin with the beautiful images inside, the lack of dust that makes it very friendly to those with asthma or allergies and the longevity of the rosin for the amount. The only thing that should be considered before trying it yourself is if you like strong rosin. For those who have used the 3G Ultra and would like something stronger then this would be worth trying. If you are a bass player looking for a good middle rosin between the previously mentioned then this would be a great place to start. I give Magic Rosin® X a 3 chunks of rosin out of 5 for cello and a 4 chunks of rosin out of 5 for bass.

Music Theory 101 #7: The Basic Skills of Music; Timbre

2014-10-20T13:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, no more playing around! I will finish this post today. I've been busy with the convention, and being sick but today is the day I finish this post and get to finishing the series for the new one I have planned!

Continuing on from where we left off way too long ago, we shall talk about timbre, or more commonly called tone color. Timbre (pronouced tam-ber) is basically the characteristics that make any instrument sound the way it does. Think about it as if this would be the instrument's accent. Every language we speak has an accent to where it was created, and there is no difference with musical instruments. The major difference here is the science behind why it happens.

Looking on to why this happens, we have to get some what technical about how it works. The basic explanation is the sound wave itself has changed shapes, which then changes how we hear it. Think about the differences between the four basic sound waves: Sine/Cosine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth. Each one has their own definite shape and sound very different. There is A LOT that is involved into explaining that, and if you are interested then click here to read what HyperPhysics.Edu have done on the topic. For those whom don't want all the details, there are two basics things to consider. The first way to analyze a sound wave is by analyzing the harmonic content of the sound, or how the overtones and harmonics are heard in relation to the primary sound wave. An organic sound wave (that being by a live instrument) is created by playing a primary frequency or fundamental pitch. That then triggers all the overtones, harmonics, and in the case of instruments with strings, similarly divided strings to play simultaneously. Sometimes these overtones and harmonics can be directly heard while other times aren't even recognizable. The second way is how the sound wave envelope is created. Every instruments has a certain way to make sound. For example, a cello normally has to bow a string. The energy to get started with the bow moving across the string helps define strings musicians because of the "lag" from the energy transfer. Compare to guitarist and pianist whom strike the string with their fingers, pick or by a hammer. The energy is transferred differently, and is creates a different sound. In case you are interested in hearing so, then check out this piece. It has played piano and bowed piano.

After all the scientific gibberish followed by a crazy videos, what does this all mean for a simple composer? Why should timbre matter this much in my piece?

Because it can change to context of your piece extremely. The best example I think I've ever seen are these two videos: Both of a song called "Raining Blood" by Slayer. This first one is the studio version of the song by Slayer (in case the video doesn't do this automatically, skip to around 0:30 to avoid the intro)

Now let's show what happens when you go from electric guitar to another guitar-like instrument and play the same song:

The differences are really staggering here. This is a bit of an extreme juxtaposition of the song but it does show what is possible. Another example I like to share (that is a little more socially accepted) is orchestrated version of Stairway to Heaven. This one is by Triple Door Cello Quartet

Finally, let's look at one from a classical example. While this isn't the best example I can think of, this one combines the past topics to express itself.

If you would like another example, listen to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. He does a lot of things in terms of building timbres up and pushing the limits of the instruments and musicians. I hope this was worth the wait! I am really sorry about the delay on this one but between the convention (which I will share the videos once they're available to me) and being sick, I was loaded down. However, once we finish this series and then go into our next series: Explaining how all these topics and more convert into composing. Perhaps even some workshop like episodes and analysis. Also, if anyone is interested in listening to me break down music books and explain them differently then let me know! Thanks for reading!

Jean-Baptiste Lully: the Italian Frenchman

2014-10-04T15:17:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted, and I'm afraid I've rather forgotten the elaborate plan I had for conquering the Baroque period. Getting married will do that to you. So rather than go into great detail on the technical side of things, we'll look at the lives and works of three major Baroque composers from three different countries: the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully; the master of the Italian baroque, Antonio Vivaldi; and likely the greatest genius of them all, the German Johann Sebastian Bach. Hopefully this will cover most of the ground needed to properly understand this pivotal period in music history.

Interestingly enough, while Lully is known for being a pioneer of the French baroque style, and especially of French opera, he was actually born Giovanni Battista Lulli, an undeniably Italian name, in the undeniably Italian city of Florence. As a child in a working class family, he picked up enough skill as a dancer and a violinist to earn extra cash as a street entertainer. When he was 14, he caught the eye of a passing French nobleman who had been instructed to visit Italy and bring back a companion for his royal niece, who needed practice with her Italian.

So it came to pass, that in 1646, the boy moved to Paris, and very quickly fell in love with the people and the culture of France. As a court entertainer, Lully had the opportunity to work with the best French composers of the day. It was not long before he began to develop a distaste for the practices and styles of the Italian music of his childhood.

When his employer moved away from the city, 20 year old Lully resigned in order to stay in Paris, making his living by writing and dancing in court ballets. It was one of these performances in which the young dancer impressed the 14 year old Louis XIV, who was to become Lully's lifelong patron. At this point, France was for all practical purposes ruled by the young king's guardian, which left Louis free to pursue entertainment. Ballet and music was one of his passions, and he took an instant liking Lully. It was not long before Lully replaced an older, and much more experienced, Italian composer as Louis XIV's personal music director.

Because the king's guardian was an Italian cardinal, there was considerable Italian influence in Paris at the time, including several productions of Italian opera. Many of the French noblemen did not appreciate this art form, and Lully whole-heartedly agreed. He took it upon himself to collaborate with various French poets and playwrights and create a whole new breed of opera.

These productions were in the French language and moved away from many of the Italian operatic practices. Instead, Lully mixed recitative and aria together, used more natural and predictable poetic forms, and scored his works for a variable ensemble.

In 1661, the year that Louis XIV took over the rule of France upon the death of his guardian, Lully
finally was granted full French citizenship. It was at this point that he changed the spelling of his name to reflect his love for his adopted country. For the next twenty years, Lully produced operas and ballets for the royal court and the people of Paris. He continued to hold considerable influence through his position in court, and was fairly proud of the fact. By 1681 he was signing his works: Monsieur de Lully, escuyer, conseiller, Secrétaire du Roy, Maison, Couronne de France & de ses Finances, & Sur-Intendant de la Musique de sa Majesté. (Don't ask me to translate all that!)

Unfortunately, in 1683 the king grew disenchanted with the entertainment that Lully provided. The new queen brought a much more puritanical air to the court, and Lully's liberal lifestyle choices were suddenly not nearly as acceptable as they had been previously. He retained his position at court but lost some of his friendship with the king.

Sadly, it was also his career that indirectly ended his life in 1687. As a baroque conductor, he did not use a baton but instead a staff which he thumped on the ground to keep the group together (similar to a middle school orchestra director banging his pen on the stand). Unfortunately, when Lully was conducting a piece in celebration of Louis XIV recovery from surgery, he impaled his own foot with the end of the staff. Whether this came about through carelessness or a little bit of pouting, it didn't end well... his foot developed gangrene and he died shortly afterwards from complications.

Despite his undignified exit from this world, Lully did much for the musical world of France during his life time. He brought liveliness and attitude to instrumental works, and made the whole genre of opera accessible to his country. He also introduced the French overture style, which carried over into much of baroque and classical music, French or otherwise. Even Beethoven used it to open his Pathetique sonata. This particular style was a slow, stately march in duple time, often used an an introduction or overture to a larger work. It is characterized by frequent dotted rhythms in the melody and thick, chordal accompaniment.

A classic example of Lully's French Overture style is the overture to his 1670 collaboration with French playwright Moliere. La Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a comedie-ballet, or the French version of the ballad opera. The premier of this work boasted a start-studded cast, including both Moliere and Lully playing roles.

CD Reviews: Led Zeppelin 1-3 2014 Deluxe Remastered Set

2014-08-06T21:34:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone! I'm really sorry about the delay in the music 101 series. I've been working on the presentation for Sept. and getting it perfect have been time consuming. However, I'll have the next one soon though! Just as a fair warning, I know my "English" is normally pretty bad, but the video with this was a rushed project to go with some friends of mine. So what I say doesn't line up with what I've written exactly. I made sure that it does make some sense though, and this follows the outline pretty well. If you want me to do more reviews then I will! I have a book that I've been working to finish in the works now and hopefully will have out before the convention. Otherwise, enjoy and see everyone soon!

Hello everyone, my name is Adam Sullivan also known as Sulli00700 and welcome and welcome to this review. As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a Led Zeppelin fanatic. My parents grew up listening to it in high school and college. Once they thought I was old enough to be introduced to rock n roll, this was where they started me off. So naturally, I've collected a few things over the years and I've become a fan. After strolling through Target about two weeks ago (from the beginning of writing this review) and while looking for some stuff for college I just so happened to come across these beauties! That's Led Zeppelin I, II & III and they have been remastered for 2014 and we're going to take a look at them right now.

Back in March of 2014, LedZeppelin.com (http://bit.ly/1fwgoMR) announced Atlantic Records was to release remastered versions of Led Zeppelin I, II and III. It was also said to be remastered by Jimmy Page himself and was to be featured on CD, vinyl, digital download and not to forget box sets. Jimmy Page has gone on to say, "The material on the companion discs presents a portal to the time of the recording of Led Zeppelin, /.../ It is a selection of work in progress with rough mixes, backing tracks, alternate versions, and new material recorded at the time”. While I haven't been able to find the vinyls or the box sets in person, I have found them online, not to mention we have these three to look at. So then, the really big question is, "Are they really worth buying?"

Visually, these albums look really pristine. Clearly updated versions of what made the original albums so great. It even goes as far to have the working pin wheel from Led Zeppelin III. However, these have more art than the originals did. The back panel the CDs have an inverted version of the front, and the inside has the original back panels plus what was meant to be inside art for the vinyls. (Update: Turns out that they are actually art in the insides of the remastered vinyls.)

Hidden inside the tri-folds of the albums is an album with a bunch of pictures of the band around the time the album were being produced and while they were on tour. Not to forget a little bit of technical information. This is where we run into my first problem. Now don't get me wrong, these are really nice but do we really need this many pictures? Personally, I would like a little more technical information than the half a page in the booklet and the 12 photos. Same thing goes for the print on the CDs as well, they're just the generic Atlantic Records image. One may argue that it's out of nostalgia but I personally feel that Atlantic Records was going for a more unique feel to these albums, seeing they were re-release with the bonus material. Over all, however, this is more of an opinionated nit-pick of mine and will not be weighed against them heavily.

All three albums feature remastered audio from the original albums as one would expect. There's a bit of a controversy on how alike these three sound to the original 1991 remasters that were released onto CD. However after doing a little bit of research into the situation, I found the previously mentioned LedZeppelin.com article states that they are indeed based off the original 192kH/ 24bit transfers. (Note: I did not say the 1991 albums, but the rough transfers that the albums were based on.) With that said, since it is based on the same source material, they are going to sound alike. Controversies aside, what really sells people on these albums are the companion disks. Led Zeppelin I having this never before released concert from Paris. It happened approximately two weeks before Led Zeppelin II was released. Led Zeppelin II and III have the previously stated bonus material. Led Zeppelin II premiering a song called "La-la" and Led Zeppelin III premeiring two songs; " Jennings Farm Blues" and "Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind".

So then, all that remains is the big question: Are they worth it? If you already own the original remasters and you're simply looking at it because you heard they were being remastered then I would not recommend this for you. However, if you are big into Led Zeppelin or interested in collecting bonus material then I would highly recommend this for you. My only complaint is the price, they're a little over priced in my opinion. Now don't get me wrong, as I said in the beginning I bought these from Target so naturally they're going to be a little over priced, paying $13 plus SC sales tax a piece. The reason I mention this though, is I cannot find them online or otherwise less than $12. Personally, I feel like the deluxe would be more reasonable around $10 each. $10 would be where I would say they are definitely worth it. However, what really drives in the issue is with the box sets. I cannot find them online for less than $120 dollars. This is where I think they are pushing them just a bit. Don't get me wrong, they are great albums, but $120 per set is a little "out there" in my opinion.

All this aside, it's time to rate them! All things considered, I gave Led Zeppelin I a 3.5 "rocking Jimmy Page solos" out of 5 and Led Zeppelin II & III an even 4 "rocking Jimmy Page solos" out of 5. The reason for knocking that half point of Led Zeppelin I is because of the live concert not worth as much compared to Led Zeppelin II & III. I would have kept that point (if not made it 4.5 out of 5) if it was the same as II and III and had the rough tracks and/or never before heard albums from the original album. That little bit aside, I think they are all still great albums to add to your CD collections.

Major Announcement and Interview with @Kidstruments

2014-06-23T23:47:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts lately but between Faith's getting married in the next couple of weeks and I've been setting up for a new series plus running Team Young Spark as we head towards our first couple of major events... Life's been a little overwhelming. But seeing there has been 90+ views on the "Music Theory 101" series thus far, I think it's safe to assume that I will finish this season of it. The next series I'm going to do is a tutorial series on using and making the most out of Audacity. While it isn't the best program to do a lot of complicated audio manipulation, people underestimate its potential. By the time the series begins to trickle out, I should have released an animation project I've been working on with my friend Benjamin and everything audio related has been mixed and mastered in Audacity. Also, I want to revisit the Finale Tutorials but teach over 2014 this time.The original series had such a positive reception that I wouldn't imagine not doing it but I need to save up for 2014. Leave a comment if you would like to see more of them (and they will be actual lessons this time, not randomly teaching tools!)

The first major announcement is that I've been accepted as a panelist for Derpy Con South as my alias Harmonic Inferno, and I will be giving 2 lectures: One on the series I've been working on here (Music Theory 101) and the other an open discussion on arts activism. I wanted to make sure that if anyone here was interested in coming out to the convention and hearing them that you were aware in advance. The other thing I wanted to announce was Faith will be getting married in the near future. I mentioned it briefly before, but I wanted to make sure I gave her a major congratulations for her milestone with her fiance but for all the help she's done in building this site back up. Now without further ado, let's get onto the interview!

Adam: Explain what Kidstruments Fund is? How was it started and how long has
it been around?

Kidstruments: Kidstruments Fund is an organization that helps kids play instruments in school band or orchestra. It was started when my 6th grade orchestra teacher's violin broke. It was very sentimental to her and I raised money to try to fix it. She did not take the money but in the process I learned that there are kids without the sufficient funds to rent an instrument. I had this money and nothing to do with it, so I used it to start Kidstruments. Kidstruments has been around for 3 months now [as of the time of this interview].

A: What all does Kidstruments Fund do to help/ benefit the music community?

K: Kidstruments helps the music community by helping others playing music, by expanding the community (in the future hopefully greatly) and making more people to play the music that other people write. Now, as for the normal community, it shows people that little people (grammar for the win) can make big impacts. It also helps more people enjoy music. It also helps kids in school, because for some, a love of music might be the thing that makes them like school and be a better student.

A: What goals does your group have towards helping the music community at

large?

K: Our goal to the music community at large is to help more and more people not just play music, but write it, understand it, and enjoy it. We try to grow it and expand it. Kidstruments is trying greatly to expand music all over the world.

A: How can someone help your cause?

K: People can help by donating online at [http://kidstrumentsfund.org/donate/] or they can send a check to:

Kidstruments Fund Inc.9425 N. Meridian #201IndianapolisIN 46260They can also follow us on Twitter [@Kidstruments] or Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/Kidstruments]. Finally, and most important, if music people just told other music people about us, I think so many musicians would remember how important their school band or orchestra was to their life, and would want to help kids get the same opportunity. The younger kids, after all, are the musicians of tomorrow.

Music Theory 101 #6: The Basic Skills of Music; Dynamics

2014-06-03T07:59:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone and welcome back to the next episode of Music Theory 101. Sorry about vanishing, but between the end of school, the trip/ meeting in Minneapolis and then getting two major plans set up (announcements ASAP) I literally had no time to keep working. This will be the end of the explanations and salutations though because we have a month’s worth of material to make up in this extended post!

Music Terms:

~Amplitude
~Dynamics
~Forte and Piano
~Mezzo
~Adding -issimo (fortissimo, pianissimo)
~Fortepiano and Pianoforte

Catching everyone back up to speed, we have gone through posting about the basics of music and have made our way through two of the six: Pitch and Rhythm. This time, we move onward to the next topic for discussion; dynamics. Dynamics are the musical equivalent to amplitude. For those in need of a quick refresher, amplitude is the expansion or contraction of the wave’s height causes the wave to have more or less force. This increase or decrease in power can cause our ears to perceive what we hear to be louder or softer. That’s honestly all there is to this one in terms of science and terminology. However, dynamics play a more important role in music.

Music’s emotional weight is primarily built off of dynamic control. It is true to the point of listening to movies. Think to the last movie you’ve seen and how the dynamics of the music played into each point that the scene was trying to make. For example, whenever there is a romantic scene and there is a couple talking, the music backs off but you can hear that they are playing. Once they start to kiss, the music becomes really loud to show that emotion’s weight. The same can be argued for any kind of music. A classical example is “March of the Scaffolds” by Hector Berlioz. The beginning starts out low and quiet until the cellos and bass come in with the motif of the movement. Every time there is portrayed a horrifying moment or a moment of triumph in the movement then the horns play loud. Whenever the thought of his beloved come to him, then it is soft and tender. Modern music examples is the difference between a rock ballad and heavy metal. The difference between trance/chillstep and hard style/brostep. Dynamics control a lot in music.

Now that we know what it is and what they do, why not explain how they are in music. Before we begin however, it should be noted that they are very situational. None are defined by an absolute “loudness” like pitch and other things in music. Dynamics are based off their original words in Italian and use the first letter to represent the dynamic. Forte is considered to be “loud” and is shown by adding an italicized f. Piano is considered “soft” or quiet and is shown with an italicized p. Next thing to know about with dynamics is the mezzo range. Mezzo means medium and if it’s used as a prefix, it means either medium loud, mezzo forte or mf, or medium soft, mezzo piano or mp.

There are also extremes by adding more of each letter into the mix, getting fortissimo, ff and pianissimo, pp. When you add the -ssimo suffix; meaning very, you can create more extremes for your dynamic timeline. You can add more letters to mean more contrast, such as fffffffffff. Just be warned that the mentioning of relations of dynamics are meant to be taken. So don’t expect a cannon like sound from your instruments… Unless you use a cannon. The last thing related to dynamics I want to mention is the case of fortepianos. Fortepiano and it’s reverse pianoforte are used for extreme changes in dynamic that are meant to last temporarily. They are played as they are read. In the case of fortepianos, fp, they should be played loudly and then soft. The reverse is true for pianofortes, though they aren’t as commonly used.

There is one other dynamic term that I will go over during our next episode. I hope this extended post was worth the wait! Keep an eye out for announcements in the next day or two.

Baroque Beginnings

2014-05-19T15:53:00.001-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been full of travelling (Adam), wedding planning (me) and other sundry life happenings that tend to sneak up behind you and trip you when you're not looking (also me). But I'm back for now, and have some interesting topics to get to work on.

In last couple posts in this series, we tied up the Renaissance period of music history, both in the secular and sacred genres. As we move into the Baroque, there is less distinction between the two, and they progress in basically the same direction, so you'll be hearing a lot less about the dichotomy between sacred and secular.

First off, let's examine the term "baroque." Today, it is simply used to describe various styles developed in the arts between 1600-1750(ish). However, it was originally applied to the time period as an epithet by 19th-century art critics, implying that one was wrinkling one's proper classical nose at the gaudy, overly ornamented style of visual art or music prevalent during this period in history. But, as I have been reminded three times in the past couple months by three different history professors, art history is not a linear progression: we are not moving from good to better to best. Each time period had its strengths and weaknesses, and those classical critics would have done well to remember that. Either way, "baroque" is no longer considered a derogatory term and you can use it safely without be arrested by the Politically Correct Police. (Such an organization exists, trust me. Especially on Facebook. They're kind of like the Grammar Nazis.)

If you recall, the Renaissance period finished with a bang, full of crazy dissonance, over-the-top dramatics, and elaborate text painting. Towards the end of the period, there was a group of intellectuals who called themselves the Florentine Camerata (Florence Club) that met regularly to discuss the state of the world, and more specifically that of the arts. One of them, Vincenzo Galilei (father of the more famous Galileo Galilei of gravity and heliocentrism), write a fairly complex treatise on the reasons why the popular music of the day was not as effective as the ancient musics. He also added his two-cents on how music should change for the betterment of society rather than its amusement.

He said a lot of things in this work, a lot of them not very complementary to the current state of the arts, but one of his main arguments was that music should be used to better the state of society rather that simply to amuse or please our senses. Galilei felt that the popular style of text painting was useless in that regard, as it only described what was occurring in the text and did nothing to incite an actual change of heart in the listener. He also argued that the thick polyphonic textures were so complex that they were a distraction from any single purpose. His solution to this problem was for composers and musicians to consider themselves actors or even lawyers, so to speak. Music could be used as language, to convince the listeners to take on a certain "affect" or, state of being.

This led, naturally, to a change in styles. Instead of focusing strongly on contrapuntal textures, Galilei argued for the use of monody, or compositions made up of one primary voice with harmonic accompaniment. This would bridge the gap between single line chants of the very ancient times and the multi-voiced polyphonic works of more recent styles.

Galilei's intellectual theories sparked a radical change in compositional practice, leading to the birth of the ubiquitous basso continuo line that persisted throughout the Baroque period and even somewhat into the Classical (Beethoven himself included a continuo line with figured bass in a few of his compositions). However, I've spent so much time talking about the theory that practice will have to wait till the next post. When that time comes, I'll start by defining the whole basso continuo idea, and then we'll move on to some of the seminal composers of the period.

The Mannerism of Madrigalisms

2014-04-26T14:27:00.001-04:00

In my last article in the series (somewhere around a month ago--apologies for the long wait!), I outlined the trends of sacred music at the end of the Renaissance. This included moving away from the elaborate productions of mid-Renaissance style, and returning to the simpler, more text-focused music for liturgical purposes.

Secular music, on the other hand, felt no such need. In fact, it just got crazier.

Mannerism is a generic term, not restricted to music at all, and in fact is more often used to describe visual art. Nevertheless, it is the perfect term to describe what happened with secular music at the end of the Renaissance, around 1560-1600. According to Webster's dictionary, mannerism is defined as follows:

a : exaggerated or affected adherence to a particular style

b : an art style in late 16th century Europe characterized by spatial incongruity and excessive elongation of the human figures

In other words, taking a style to such an extreme that before long, people will grow sick of it and move away from that that style for good. This is exactly what happened with both art and music at the end of the 16th century. Here is a painting by one of the most famous Mannerist painters, El Greco (1541-1614). As you can see, the proportions are a little funky, the colors are vivid, and the emotions are intense and obvious. Mannerist art can get a little overwhelming, but it achieves its purpose nicely. By the time you get done studying this picture, you'll have a very a clear idea of what the artist wanted you to think or feel.

The exact same thing happened with secular music. Composers were already writing madrigals, and, as we discussed a while ago, one of the characteristics of the madrigal was word painting. By the end of the 1500s, word painting, through either melody or harmony, was taken to such an extreme, and was so married to the genre that the technique became known as madrigalisms.

Madrigalisms included frequent and unusual use of chromaticism, sometimes abandoning what sense of key signature music had developed by this point. One type of chromatic harmony that was particularly unique in that time period was the cross-relation. This referred to a note played in both its natural and its sharp or flatted version at the same time, or in very quick succession. For instance, a five voice madrigal might have the soprano line singing a C sharp at the same time the second tenor is singing a C natural. This type of dissonance is perfect for expressing the intense emotions desired by the Mannerist composers such as Carlos Gesualdo or Cipriano de Rore.

Another choice by composers of late Renaissance madrigals rather than ones earlier in the century was the type of text. Earlier compositions included literary poetry such as sonnets, and the text was always chosen for its sophistication and quality. By the end of the period, texts were chosen for their emotional content, and, if looked at critically, could even come across as slightly manic or unstable. However, once again, they were perfect for the effect.

This madrigal by Gesualdo is one of my examples of the Mannerism in composition. If you take a moment to follow along in the score, you will see the extensive chromaticism and non-diatonic harmonies. A small portion of the text reads:

"I depart." I said no more, for grief

robbed my heart of life...

"Hence in pain I remain, Ah may I never

cease to pine away in sad laments."

Crazy, huh? By the early 1600s, this style had been done to death, and people were ready for a change. Enter... the Baroque! Which we will discuss next time, because I have to get ready to play for an opera.

Oh, by the way... if you're interested, there's a 7:30 pm show on Saturday, April 26 and a 2pm show on Sunday April 27 of Hansel and Gretel, an opera that's actually in English, and has some pretty fun moments. It's in Robinson Hall at UNC Charlotte, and really would be worth it. Even if you don't like opera. Would love to see you there!

Music Theory 101 #5: The Basic Skills of Music; Rhythm: Pt. 2

2014-04-20T22:16:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Music Theory 101 series on ASMTB! I hate that last week was a dud but I had a lot going on I had to take care of (mostly pertaining to updating the site soon!) and posting sort of slipped my mind. I am really sorry about that, but I hope this episode and the updates will make up for this little mishap!

Today's lesson is to continue talking about rhythm in comparison to the six basics of music. If you would like to follow along with the previous ones then I made a tab above (If you're reading this from the newsletter then head on over and show us some love). As I mentioned in the last post, duration is the length a pitch is produced. I failed to bring up that it is not strictly related to pitches, but can measure rests as well. Rests are something that are not commonly mentioned because they are simpler than pitches, however they have an equal amount of importance compared relative to music. Music can be seen as a very carefully planned balance of sound and silence. Composers such as John Cage and Penderecki made sure that it was clear composers and musicians should know these differences. If you are interested in hearing these pieces, check out "4:33" by John Cage and "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" by Penderecki. Both of them are earfuls for two different reasons! Digressing from modern music and back onto my last post, we see that I explained how music is divided counting wise and what the time signature is. Now we need to continue and explain more on these concepts.

Music Terms:

~Dotted Rhythm
~Simple & Compound Meter
~Tuplets (Triplets, Duplet, etc.)

Credit: Music-Mind.com

Music does not only divide two ways, but it is possible to divide it into more divisions. The first way is to use dotted rhythm. Dotted rhythms is when you add a dot after the note. The dot represents adding half of the original value to the note. So if you add a dot to a half note, then you have a half note PLUS another quarter note, making it equal to three quarter notes. Also, adding a dot after a whole note makes it a half note added onto the whole note. If you want to add more dots, then you add half of the last value. So a double dotted half note is one half note, PLUS a quarter note PLUS an eighth note. So you half three and a half quarter notes.

The uses of this makes it possible to have compound meters. The best way to explain compound meter is through actual examples. If we take a look at most music, one can feel music in a two or as in four. This is called simple meter. It is either feeling a beat, or pulse, as "one & two &" or something that can be subdivided into half. All of these include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, or anything related to them. Compound meter comes into play for meters such as 6/8, or 12/8 where the beat is broken into 3. For a more classical and audible examples of this, listen to Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" compared to his "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (Click on the names to hear audio). Eine Kleine is in a simple meter because the division of the beat is in two, versus Jesu which is in 12/8 and is subdivided in three.

Credit: Scaletrainer.com

If you do not want to write a piece that is completely one way the entire time, you can use tuplets. Tuplets is the generic term used to define a rhythm in a different rhythmic subdivision. The most common example of these are triplets. Triplets are when you fit three notes in the space of two, such as fitting three quarter notes within a two quarter notes. The reverse is true as well, you can fit 2 notes in the space of 3. Using a duple, you can fit two notes within three. It is even possible to fit more in a space.

Before this drags on much longer, I'm going to wrap up rhythm here. Later on, I'll write a full post on polyrhythms and other cool things one can use rhythm for. For now however, this will be the end of this discussion and I'll start with the next topic of this series. Until then, this is Sulli signing off!

Alessandro Scarlatti: Supreme Musical Innovator

2014-04-13T16:12:00.002-04:00

Ok, folks, due to prepping for sophmore review, superjuries, end of semester projects, and exams, my brain is complete mush this weekend, and I really don't want to subject you to reading brain mush. So, in lieu of writing the next post in our music history series, I shall make a brief digression and instead present to you a portion of said end-of-semester project for my music history course. Please enjoy a condensed biography of the great Baroque composer Alessandro Scarlatti.

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti is one of the most influential composers of the Italian Baroque period. Scarlatti wrote extensively for the musical theatres of his day: cantatas, serenatas, and of course dozens of full length operas, the genre in which his influence is most recognized. Church music also makes up a good portion of his works, in the form of oratorios and masses. Later in his life, Scarlatti touched on instrumental music, although little survives, and seems to be merely diversionary rather than a primary focus. He left this type of composition to his famous son Domenico. Spending his life rotating between several major Italian cities—Rome, Venice and Naples—and patronized by such kingpins as the Medici family, Scarlatti was able to spread his influence through many outlets and raise the bar for both opera specifically and general compositional practice for the rest of the world.

Scarlatti was born in 1660, in the heart of the Baroque period, to a family already primed to produce great musicians. His father Pietro was a singer, and four of his six siblings were also professional musicians. Scarlatti would go on to continue the tradition, with the composer Domenico Scarlatti as his most famous son, as well as two other children earning their own respect as performers. His family moved to Rome when he was 12, and he married into high society in 1678. Nothing is known of his early musical training, but such training obviously took place, for his first opera, Gli equivovi nel sembiante, was produced shortly before his 19^th birthday. There is some speculation that Scarlatti may have trained under Roman composer Carissimi, who passed away when Scarlatti was in his teens. This speculation is mostly based on the strong influence of Carissimi’s style seen in Scarlatti’s early work.

The success of this first opera threw Scarlatti into the notice of many of the aristocracy of Rome as well as the fairly international audience of Roman courts and ambassadors. Before long, he was appointed maestro di capella, or choirmaster, for the court of the mysterious Queen Christina of Sweden, a noblewoman estranged from her home country upon conversion to Catholicism. She supported Scarlatti in his work as he continued to write and produce operas. He was in some disfavor with the Church at this point for two reasons. First, opera was a controversial subject at the time, with edicts from as high up as the Vatican condemning it as indecent and liberal. There was also some outcry when Scarlatti’s secular musicians were brought in for church performances. The second reason was that Scarlatti’s sister Anna, a popular singer, was accused of inappropriate behavior with more than one church official. Despite these issues, at least two cardinals commissioned oratorios from Scarlatti for Lenten services.

Fame did not keep Scarlatti in Rome for very long, however. Shortly after he produced his wildly popular opera, Il Pompeo, he moved his family to Naples, the city which would become his favorite and eventually the home of his old age. The next 18 years were spent here, writing operas and oratorios, as well as sacred works and chamber cantatas for private performance. It was during this period that Scarlatti began to develop his own unique opera style which in turn would become the prescription for other composers of the genre to follow. Characteristics of Scarlatti’s operas include arias in ternary form, very little music independent of the texts, and the lowered importance of the chorus. Although operas such as La Rosaura and Pirro e Demetrio received most acclaim, some modern scholars feel that his chamber cantatas were the outlet for “the most profound of his musical ideas.”

It was also in Naples that Scarlatti received the patronage of Ferdinando de Medici, and celebrated the birth of several of his children, including Domenico. He even wrote and directed a serenata for the visit of King Phillip V of Spain, a celebration in which his rival, Corelli, also participated but received less than favorable reviews. The serenta, Venere, Adone, et Amore, was composed near the end of his time in Naples, in 1696. The occasion was an annual summertime festival in Naples with the guest of honor being a newly appointed Spanish viceroy, well known to be a patron of the arts. Scarlatti turned out at least two other popular serenatas this same year, working with the poet Francesco Paglia.

In 1702, he visited the Medici family in Florence, but did not find the success he was looking for, and returned to Rome. For the next 20 years, Scarlatti, along with his son Domenico, moved from city to city, searching for the elusive position which would provide both artistic satisfaction and financial stability. While this period was in general a very disappointing era of Scarlatti’s life, there were a few high points. In 1706, he was inducted into the Arcadian Academy, a sort of literary honor society originally formed by Scarlatti’s old patron, Queen Christina. The year after, Il Mitridate Eupatore, one of his most acclaimed operas, was performed in Venice.

In 1722, Scarlatti left Domenico, who was now earning respect as a composer in his own right, in Rome and retired to Naples to live in relative poverty until his death in 1725. Although his later years brought him fewer public accolades than his early successes, there were still those who appreciated his genius. One Neapolitan newspaper stated that “as [Scarlatti] increases in age, so all the more does he acquire new and sublime ideas in his compositions.” His tombstone, with an epitaph written by Cardinal Ottoboni, longtime collaborator with Scarlatti, sums it all up with the title of Musices Instaurator Maximus, or, Supreme Musical Innovator.

Reformation and Counter-Reformation: Why We Don't All Sing in Latin Anymore

2014-03-29T14:23:00.001-04:00

In the previous installment of this series, we concluded with a discussion of the madrigal and how it, in some ways, was the best example of Renaissance style. The very end of the Renaissance, however, brought about some very interesting developments. As history continued to march on, with political, social and religious change, music was right there in the middle of it. There were two topics I was hoping to cover today, but as I wrote the body of the article, I realized that they are each so important to the history and development of music as we know it, that they deserve their own posts. Today, we’ll look at the music of the Reformation and Counter-reformation, the influential composers of this phenomenon, and how sacred music had to some extent come full circle. The second idea, which we’ll explore in a couple weeks—is how secular composers followed the trends of the other arts—visual and language arts—by showing extreme mannerism in their styles.

The Reformation, as nearly anybody would tell you, began in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of Wittenberg Chapel in Germany. If I were to give you the whole backstory leading up to this event, I’d need to start a whole new series. Suffice it to say that Luther and several others began to realize that the one of the reasons the Catholic Church held such a strong cultural hold on the people was the fact that few people any more actually knew what was being taught. All the services—those beautiful masses that we’ve discussed—were in Latin. Any sermons, any scriptures—all Latin. With the spread of the Church across Europe, the large majority of the people who worshiped in the church could not understand a word of what they were told. And if you don’t understand it, you can’t refute it. This allowed corruption and extortion to creep in, and the common parishioner was none the wiser.

In order to combat this corruption, Luther broke away from the Church, translated the scriptures and services into the vernacular, and started teaching the average villager how to understand for himself. He did write a German mass, but he also began to compose and teach simple chorales (a vernacular version of the Latin motet). These were intended for congregation singing, and home devotions, bringing sacred music out of the choir loft and to the people. The texts and melodies were either adaptations of Latin chant, or newly composed by Luther and others in the movement.

John Calvin and his reformation in Switzerland and France produced a generous collection of accessible Psalm settings, and the English quickly followed suit. They dropped the mass all together in favor of a simpler service with anthems in English. There were elaborate versions for trained choirs and special occasions, but the large bulk of the music was sung by the congregation, and required little training. Because music was such a part of devotion for these people, it was the religious reformers that did much of the writing and composing of new pieces for worship. Many of these have become the modern hymns of the Protestant Church.

The other half of this coin is the counter-reformation, or the religious reformation accomplished from within the Catholic Church rather than by breaking away from it. With so much upheaval, the Church leaders realized that things weren’t running as they should, and that it was time to re-evaluate. And here we come to the composer that many consider to be the perfection of Renaissance counterpoint.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born in the 1520’s and lived to the end of the century, working at St. Peter’s Basilica for much of his life. He fine-tuned his counterpoint with such finesse that his sound is like none other. Some of the qualities seen in his work include scoring for 4-6 voices but with each voice utilizing only a very tight-range, eliminating voice crossing. His use of consonance and dissonance was very delicate, with enough dissonance to create a satisfying resolution but keeping the imperfect consonances on the strong beats. This practice went a long way in training the public to hear pieces in either the major or minor keys, leaving behind some of the earlier modes. His rhythm flows easily, not obscuring the text, but emphasizing it. One other strong characteristic includes the elimination of parallel fifths and octaves. Any theory student will have been beaten over the head with this rule, but listening to the full, rich sound of Palestrina’s compositions proves the point.

His most famous piece, the Pope Marcellus Mass, has because the stuff of legend. It is said that during the Council of Trent—a meeting of church leaders to discuss reforms—nearly banned polyphonic music from the church, citing the focus on elaborate production rather than the text. According to the story, it was Palestrina’s mass that convinced the council that polyphonic music could be uplifting and sacred, not distracting. Listen to it for a minute--or 30--and you’ll see why the Council was so affected by this piece of genius.

He had contemporaries that pushed his rules somewhat. Tomas Luis deVictoria is a Spanish composer who brought an exotic flair to sacred composition without obscuring its use for worship. He was one of the first to being using chromatics (sharps or flats not included in the key) as a way of emphasizing words or intensifying cadences.

And so we see how sacred music began with very simple, text-based compositions intended only to enhance the devotion of the participant. Slowly, the various chants and services became more elaborate as artists explored the possibilities of this new medium. In time, church authorities felt that the meaning of the text was being lost, and the complex sacred motets of the early Renaissance were becoming useless for worship. Now here at the end of the Renaissance, the church—both Catholic and Protestant—has found a way to maintain the beauty and complexity of its music without losing the original purpose.

Next post, we'll look at the craziness that was the end of the Renaissance in the world of secular music, and how it paved the way for the Baroque era of Monteverdi, Corelli, Handel and Bach.

Music Theory 101 #4: The Basic Skills of Music; Rhythm: Pt. 1

2014-03-23T21:34:00.001-04:00

Hello and welcome to the next part of the Music Theory 101 series. In our last post we finished our discussion on the first basic principle of music, pitch. For a complete coverage on that topic then click here for the complete list of posts, but here is the quick summary: Pitch is the first of 6 basic principles of music that helps define music. Pitch is the sound that we hear. Think of it as if it’s the clay for our sculpture because without pitch we would not have music. It is the foundation of sound and the foundation of music. Also as mentioned previously, it is measured in Hertz or waves per second. The more waves that pass by a point per second, the higher the frequency is produced and the higher the pitch is. Lower the number of waves that pass by the same point lowers the frequency and the pitch. Finally, the pitch is notated in music by placing notes on the staff. The two common staffs are treble and bass clefs. Each other indicates their own range of notes, and have their own shapes but remember that there are more than those two. There is one more thing I need to bring up. The thing I have yet to mention yet is key signatures, but I will make sure it has its own episode later on after I cover the basic six parts to music.

Music Terms:
Duration (Length)
Note values (Quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, etc.)
Dotted notes
Time Signature

Moving on from pitch is the next thing on is the length of the pitch, mentioned as duration in the first post. As I mentioned, duration is the length the pitch is produced. So it can be played at a certain rate (say 440 Hertz for example) for as long as you want it to be played. However, in order to keep everyone together, there must be a system to make sure that they are together. This is where beats come in. Beats or pulses help define what we feel drives it along. For example, if you've tapped your toe to a piece of music then you understand the way beats work. However, we need to begin by explaining the math behind beats before we combine everything.

Source: PocketMusician

Notes are broken down into values much like fractions are. The best place to start is the quarter note. The quarter note works like a fraction because you combine them and divide them. A quarter note can be subdivided into two eighth notes, or four sixteenth notes. Something good to know is the more it is subdivided, the more flags it will show. So a sixteenth note has 2 flags then an eighth note, which has one. Reversely, two quarter notes equal a half note and two half notes equal a whole note. Just as the smaller notes gain flags, the patter for these is not quite as obvious. The half note looks like a quarter note without a solid body. The whole note is like the half note but without a stem. These are not the only division however because there are other ways to combine them. The largest note value that is notated, but is not the largest possible is a breve (pronouced Brev) or a double whole note. The smallest most commonly seen is a 64th note, or a 16th note of a 16th note. These extremes are not usually used, but it helps to know they exist.

Another thing to understand is how dotted notes work. Dotted notes work as their value plus the value of half of itself. So if you have a dotted half note, then it is read as a half note plus the value of half of itself or a quarter note. So dotted half notes are worth a half note and a quarter note, or three quarter notes. Same for a dotted eighth note. It is worth an eighth note plus a sixteenth, or half its value. So it is worth 3 sixteenth notes in length.

4 notes per measure
quarter note gets the beat
Source: donrathjr.com

Now that I've explained how beats work, and how to visually see them, time to wrap everything together. The way most composers and musicians group beats into manageable groups is the time signature. The time signature is the fraction like section of the staff that shows us where the beats of the piece are. The time signature also makes it possible to break up music into measures. A measure is a section of the staff that is enclosed by two bars. Each bar contains the right amount of beats to follow the time signature.The trick to the time signature is understanding how it works. Each number represents a type of division of time. The numerator (the number on top) represents how many beats are in a measure. It can be any number you want but commonly things are either in 3, 4 or 6. The denominator (the bottom number) is what value gets the beat. There is a limited number that can be used for the denominator because these are the fractions. So in the example above 4/4 time means 4 notes are in a measure and the quarter note gets the beat.

Next time I will go into more detail about how these work together. Thanks for reading and sorry about the delay of this post!

Motets to Madrigals: The Shift from Sacred to Secular

2014-03-15T14:01:00.000-04:00

As promised in my previous article in this series, there is one more expansion of the troping principle that became more or less the final elaboration of the many forms of chant. If you recall, troping refers to the practice of adding extra notes, or even extra text to a pre-existing chant. This was very important to the Church, as they held the original texts sacred, untouchable. It was perfectly fine to expand upon or embellish the text, but in no way could you remove the original content.

Before the 13th century, there was polyphonic (multi-voiced) music but it was all done by all embellishing original chant melodies, with the original sacred Latin texts. However, as music became more accessible to the common man, somebody decided that they wanted things to get a little more interesting. So, instead of a single text with multiple voices, they set a different text to each voice. Motets were often three-voice compositions, with one chant text, and the others simply contemporary poetry. They even went so far as to mix languages. It was not uncommon to have a sacred Latin text being sung in the tenor voice--the voice closest to the original chant, while the other voices were set with secular, sometimes even bawdy, French poetry.

These were wildly popular and used for both sacred services and secular entertainment. This shift continued in conjunction with the shift in worldviews. Up until this time, the Church had been the center of religious, political and social life for much of the world. But as history moved from the medieval times, or the Dark Ages, into the Renaissance, culture changed. Humanism became an acceptable school of thought, and, as in any major cultural revolution, music was right there in the thick of things.

Sacred music was still necessary, and most popular composers wrote masses for the Church. However, they no longer were bound by the original chant melodies. They would take their own secular songs and recycle the melodies for sacred compositions. Melody and harmony also took on new characteristics. No longer were the perfect consonances--the fifth and the octave--the ideal sound. Instead, the people learned to love the rich sound of thirds and sixths. This was particularly prevalent in music of English composers such at John Dunstable, so much so that a French writer termed this sound "contenance angloise" or, "countenance of the Englishman."

Influential composers from this time of exploration and advancement include Guillaume du Fay, who was an important composer of the Burgundian school of thought in the early 1400s. He wrote mostly sacred music but did not hesitate to steal themes and motives from his secular compositions. Another of his contributions was the idea of a very complex rhythmic continuity in his works. He would take a basic rhythmic idea, and use it throughout a mass in either expanded or compacted versions. This practice is called isorhythm, and became a staple of compositions for next hundred years.

As the century progressed, the focal point of compositional ideas moved from the Burgundian region of France to the northern Europe, known as the Franco-Netherlands school of composition. This included greats such as Johannes Ockeghem from Paris and Josquin des Prez from northern France. These composers wrote complex secular pieces, for the entertainment and enlightenment of the well-educated. The idea that their music was so complicated that only a scholar could understand it become known as musica reservata, or music reserved for those who can appreciate it.

One of the most popular song forms of the day was the madrigal. These were often written in 5 or 6 voices, with popular poetry (often sonnets) as the text. Word painting was one of the characteristics of this style. Melody passages or harmonic ideas were used to reinforce the text. For instance, quick rising passages for a line about a sunrise, or low intense harmonies for despair.

This video gives an example of a madrigal from the mid-1500s, titled "Da le belle contrade d'oriente" by Cipriano de Rore, a native of Flanders. The text of this particular work is a Petrarchian sonnet declaring undying love before a painful farewell.

This style, with its complex rhythms and intricate symbolism became the pinnacle of Renaissance music. It also set the stage for further development as cultures and ideas continued to evolve. Next episode, we will meet of one of the most influential composers of all time. Looking forward to it!

Review: Hit Me With Music by Uri Bram and Anu Pattabiraman

2014-03-08T21:04:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! After eight months of waiting, it is time to review a book that you have been waiting to hear about. Today I am going to review Hit Me with Music by Anupama (Anu) Pattabiraman and Uri Bram. Before I start the review, I would like to say thank you to Anu for donating a copy to review.

To begin this review, I feel like there was a few things that I do not think was in all the editions but was in mine. In the edition I read and reviewed there was several cases of double and triple spaces. I have heard of errors like this happening hence why I am assuming it was my computer. Also there was not any page numbers. The Kindle app set there was “locations” instead of page numbers. I could be wrong about it, but just in case this was something with my copy or how I added it to Kindle. If there are any other reports of this happening, then feel free to comment them to me.

With these slight slip ups aside, there was a lot to really like about this book. The first thing I really liked was the diagrams and the examples. They are very useful in explaining concepts as complex as these. Using Do Re Mi from “The Sound of Music” to explain solfege and Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi to explain rhythm had me laughing. They are rarely used together to explain something from a traditional standpoint, let alone in music all together. Along with that, the concept of explaining how intervals are derived and some scales were explained really well. There is a lot of information that is not commonly taught in school unless you are in graduate school or learn to compose. While these are wonderful points, I only have one real “complaint” about the book.

The main thing I did not really like about the book is it appears to be in a sort of “theory limbo”. I would like to view the book one of two ways: A.) from the perspective of a novice wanting an affordable substitution to get me started into music than trusting random people online or B.) A book that expands what I was taught in school by edging the bar forward more. The problem I felt with the book is it falls in that middle, with information a little too advanced for someone new to music or a little of the watered down side to someone whom has been through school. While this is not a bad thing overall I felt like there was not really a clear direction that the book was going in besides providing good information. Whenever I read the Amazon description, I felt like it did not help clarify my question either. Same thing goes for the Kickstarter (yea, I went into the archives and looked over it again). It did not really explain the book as well as it should, which I kind of feel like it missed the metaphorical “bar” by not completely answering the questions it imposed. Again, while this is not a bad thing against the book, it left my “let’s pretend I’m not a musician” side wondering why this did not really happen. In the case of my usual self why were they teaching the ratio of a tritone (augmented 4^th/ diminished 5^th) is 64:45 but not explaining modes, other chord progressions besides the couple that are in here or even 7^th chord construction?

After putting everything into retrospect, I feel like this opinion was swayed more as a bias of expectation than really reviewing. I was expecting one thing and it did not happen. While that counts into the overall score of the book, it will not be taken from the amount of uses that it does have. It is a good book for both groups of people mentioned before: People whom are new to music and want a solid crash course, and to those who are interested into the makeup of music. There is a lot of useful information for those in either party. At the price of $3.99 at the time of writing this, it is well worth the money should you choose to buy it. There are other options for whichever market you are into but very few if any are at this price. With everything considered, I rate the book Hit Me With Music a 4 out of 5 stars. While the information is great and the examples are really great, it shuffles the information that it presents into that “theory limbo”. If you are not concerned with that, then this book is great and is worth buying!

If you enjoyed this review then feel free to share it with family and friends. Leave a comment below to what you thought about the review or suggestions for other reviews in the future! Don’t forget to subscribe for more posts from us!

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Adam Sullivan

2014-03-03T22:07:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the conclusion of this week of celebration! Today marks the 2 year anniversary of ASMTB, and for a lot of people that seems like something that doesn't really need to have a week's worth of spam invested into such a small piece of trivia. To me this means a lot in several different ways from statistically, personally and of course musically. So without further ado, let us start looking into my perspectives on music and then wrap this two part post up with why this celebration even happened.

First off, music means a lot to me. As you have seen over the past music has meant various this to others such as Family, Community, Life, Exploration, Expression and Growth among many other things to the five people who graciously wrote for this series (especially Anu whom I literally asked her the day of to write hers for me). These are very bold and very positive things that were written and I'm extremely grateful to y'all for writing for me (is my "Southerness" showing through yet?). The reason I decided to start this little mini series was not simply because I was wanting others to "cover me" while I acquired this horrendous cold or "cover me" while I wrote 3 papers for school, one being a mock dissertation for my music history class, (all of which have happened this week, and why this was a day late). The true reason behind this series was to show one thing: Defining what music means to us is too bold of a thing to simply describe with a couple of answers. There is no right answer to what it means to us, as long as it means something, and to musicians that really is something.

In order to begin with what it means to me, we should begin with a little bit of my history. I was born into a musical family. I am among the third generation of musicians in my family line on both my mom and dad's family, though we think it may go back farther. Both of my mom's parents were choir singers, my grandfather being a choir director for several churches in my home town for years. My dad's mother was a pianist for many years at a church in her home town before she met my other grandfather (dad's dad). Even after they married and moved to where they would eventually move to and have my dad and his siblings, she continued played piano. These events led to how my parents became musicians. My dad is a guitarist formed from the era of rock n roll, and my mom a classical pianist. They, too, would become "church musicians", playing in churches and smaller venues to never take it as a professional career. My dad would eventually stop playing in order to pursue a career in engineering, though he does play the guitars we have laying around from time to time. Mom would try to become a music major but then not finish the degree (something about understanding Neapolitan chords) and would become an accountant.

Another little tid bit of information that may be helpful is to know that I wound up spending a lot of time with all 6 of them when I was younger instead of simply with my mom and dad. This would have me set up to have a large dose of music from my family over anything else, though baseball was a close second. Even now, I spend a lot of time with my grandparents that are still with me.

The point I'm getting at with these stories is because mine covers all of the examples from before. More literally, music represents family and community. Music has always been one of the factors that kept my family connected throughout the generations of variety. Music has always been a playground of exploration which I feel like I have played around with a lot, though there is always so much more to do. It means growth because music has always given me a ground that has allowed me to root onto. Music means expression because this was always the first thing I went to to express anger or sadness. Music means community because the site you are reading this on was built from vocalizing my thoughts on music. It also means community because that was where I found my few friends that I have. Finally music means life because I honestly wouldn't have done anything else.

There are, two things that music means most to me but you will need to subscribe in order to find out what they were. I am seriously sorry that this article was extended so far behind, but between some family issues and being completely bed ridden by bronchitis, I simply could not produce a post that was remotely comprehensive.

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Anu Pattabiraman

2014-02-28T09:05:00.002-05:00

Dear Music,

I know I don’t do this enough, so I want to take the time to thank you for all the ways in which you enrich my life. To those who don’t know you as well as I do, you may seem like little more than a cryptic pattern of black lines, circles, and squiggles on a page – but I know you are so much more. Here are some of the gifts you have given me over the years:

Persistence: You seemed so hard to tackle, sometimes, but through all the nights you kept me from mastering you unless I slowed down, picked you apart, and practiced you over and over till I spoke the strokes on your pages, you taught me persistence. Whenever I face a challenge, I know now to slow down, pick apart the pieces, and put them back together, with the faith that what I produce will be more beautiful than the ugly challenge it originally was.

Expression: On all those days I was feeling down, the ones on which I felt elated, and the ones where I was melancholy, nostalgic, or pensive, you provided me with a way to express what I couldn’t find the words to say. Regardless of whether there was someone to speak to, I knew there was someone through which my feelings could speak.

Mentors: I needed people to help me explore your depths and innumerable nuances – people who knew you better than I did. The teachers you provided gave me the courage to challenge myself to understand your intricacies, when I would not have had the bravery, energy, or wherewithal to do so on my own. To this day, they remain my closest advisors, whom I can always reach out to for wisdom, courage, or inspiration.

Friends: My closest friends are ones I’ve made through translating your miniscule black strokes into great symphonies and choruses on grand stages. You showed me the bonds that could be forged between people when they listen and respond to each other, when they emote together, and when they each contribute their own small piece to a masterful work of art.

Contribution: You have enabled me to bring joy to countless lives through communicating your beauty to others: to my family, to the sick, to the elderly, to children, and to any who pause their lives to come to a concert and hear something they have not heard before. The gift you have given me to bring meaning into other people’s lives is the one I most cherish.

Growth: Somehow, you continue to surprise me with the infinite forms you can take. From piano, to cello, to voice; from classical, to jazz, to musicals; from world-renowned stages, to weddings, to coffee shops; from my neighbors’ houses, to the local church, to the streets, there seems to be no end to the places where you pop up, and the places where you take me.

I’ve enjoyed our journey so far, Music; so take my hand, and lead me to wherever you choose to take me next. I will gladly follow.

Yours,

Anu Pattabiraman

Alto and Co-Author, Hit Me With Music

Boston, MA

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Kurt Baer

2014-02-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

Kurt Baer

PhD Student

Ethnomusicology

Indiana University-Bloomington

To be honest, I am not sure how music has changed my life, as I’ve never really been in a situation where I did not have some sort of music that I was interested in. I can not think of a time when music has not been an important part of my life—I listened to contemporary Christian music all of the time as a kid (it’s what we had at the house) and started playing saxophone as soon as I went into middle school, and haven’t stopped playing, listening to, and studying music since.

One thing that I can say that music has done for me is given me a way of opening my mind toward understanding others and accepting difference. While any aspect of culture could well serve the same purpose, music provided me with some of my most memorable experiences in accepting, understanding, and ultimately appreciating cultural difference. Time and time again, new types of music have challenged my preexisting aesthetics and worldviews. From when I just happened to download a Cannonball Adderley track as a middle school student, starting my headfirst dive into jazz all the way to my first exposure to the likes of Philip Glass, Alban Berg, and John Cage.

As a music student, forcing me to reckon with different aesthetic values and systems to my first forays into “world” music that taught me how unnatural and arbitrary the ideas about music I had been studying in music school actually were. Music has served as a tool for opening my mind and attuning myself toward ways of being other than my own. Each experience of listening to something that sounds ”weird,” upon closer inspection, has provided me a means of glimpsing different modes of understanding and ways of being that are just complex, just as important, and just as arbitrary as my own. Perhaps a bit like taking the red pill and finding out you are in the Matrix, this exercise of learning how to understand different types of music can help up new and different ways of seeing the world. While it is admittedly one way of looking at these issues among many, listening to, playing, and studying music has served me as one of the primary ways that I have been able to investigate my own aesthetic and cultural assumptions and make the move toward at least trying to understand and appreciate things that operate in different systems and under different assumptions.

Gaining this type of understanding—an ability to appreciate, and perhaps even understand and embrace, other value systems than the ones that we are most comfortable with— is in my opinion, incredibly important. History is filled with instances where cultural difference has been taken for cultural inequality because people are not willing to understand it for what it is and instead judge it based upon the qualities of some other system. Music has provided me a space in which to begin figure these issues out. In learning to understand the aesthetic system behind Balinese gamelan music, aestheticizing silence and appreciating random chance in the music of John Cage, perceiving the nuances of the development in a Beethoven sonata, and appreciating the artistry in Snoop Dogg’s flow, I have better been able to understand the presence of many different cultural and aesthetic systems, which in turn has allowed me to investigate my own personal tastes and cultural assumptions and recognize them as such. This process of understanding —or learning to understand—myself and others has been immensely rewarding to me, opening me up to new experiences and shaping and enriching my life in important ways.

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Jason Nyguyen

2014-02-25T22:00:00.001-05:00

Jason R. Nguyen

Dual-PhD Student

Folklore & Ethnomusicology / Communication & Culture

Indiana University-Bloomington

I come from a family that appreciates music and can even be considered musicians (my mom loves to sing and my dad has been known to pluck out a few tunes on the guitar), as long as one doesn't use the highly professionalizing mentality of music practice in the United States. Of course, they generally bought into this latter mentality, because the ability to perform music (especially classical music) in highly skilled ways suggests in our culture that you are intellectual, cultured, and successful. As a Vietnamese immigrant family, these were important qualities that my parents wanted to confer on their children, so my two sisters and I started learning how to play the violin since about kindergarten. I dutifully played violin throughout primary school and into college: first chair at my high school, first chair in the county, second chair when I got to college. So I've had a successful run as a musician.

But by the end of college, violin had become less important to me. It started to have less relevance in my life. Since I didn't plan on going to a music conservatory, violin and classical music had very little relevance to my social life, and I had already proven my prowess well past the point where greater skill could provide further social capital for someone not planning on a career as a professional violinist. So what was the point? Did I just waste all those years of my life?

Of course not. I wouldn't have traded those experiences for anything. But I think we have to think differently about what music is and what it does to truly understand its value and for me to make my case about the importance of music in my life. We have to understand that our society tends to privilege virtuosity and great skill in music as the reasons for doing it, when those values don't really add up to much of anything in terms of social or financial capital unless you're the absolute best of the best. No, playing violin was at its most valuable to me when it was part of a web of social relationships, when I was participating as part of a group of people trying to achieve an end together: perform an opera, learn a hard piece together, enjoy each other's company, have fun, etc.

Tom Turino refers to "participatory music" in Music as Social Life as being "about the opportunity of connecting in special ways with others and experiencing flow" and "not merely the informal sideline to the 'real' event [...] but rather they are at the center of social life" (2008, pg. 35). This approach to music and its possible value goes against the grain of an individualistic and market-oriented society, but I think it is at the center of finding value in music for anybody but the most elite of musicians. Indeed, my outlook on music in general has shifted entirely from that of my parents. Not simply a tool to teach me discipline or a social practice that confers a certain amount of respectability, music needs to matter in the social relations you make. What ties I still have to my days playing the violin are ties to people: friends I made in the orchestra and wonderful, dedicated teachers. Consequently, when and if I have children someday, I will most certainly urge them to play music, but I will point them towards music and dance that they might enjoy outside of such specific contexts. Perhaps they will learn to play the violin as I did, or maybe they would prefer to beatbox and rap. Maybe one will find greater joy and camaraderie in the school band, while another decides to start a punk rock band.

For me, music doesn't so much change a life as interweaves inextricably with it. It is meaningful when one can't imagine anything before or after it. What was my life before music? There wasn't one.

Poster's Perspective: Music According to Elizabeth Davis

2014-02-24T19:03:00.000-05:00

Hello. It's an honor and a pleasure to be asked to submit to this special anniversary week at the blog. For those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm Beth, a cellist and composer living in Columbia, MD, playing in a few of the community orchestras between Baltimore and Washington, DC. When Adam asked if I'd like to write an a article on the theme, celebrating the blog's anniversary and sharing my music experiences, I jumped at the chance.

In a word, music to me means collaboration - from joining a community orchestra when moving to a new town to composition projects that literally span the globe. More about that in a minute.

From my earliest school days in the choir to the orchestra concert I played in last weekend, I have always thrilled to be part of a greater whole. Nothing quite compares to slipping into the gestalt of seventy-odd people converging under the maestro's baton into that perfect moment when it all comes together. Whether it's the ethereal shimmering of a solo woodwind whispering above the muted strings or the enthusiastic, almost tribal rhythm pounding out in the low brass and percussion, being up in the middle of it, playing as a part of the whole, is an experience that you just wont get listening from the audience. And it doesn't just happen overnight. Every practice we have adds to the cohesive connectivity and reinforces musical and friendly bonds.

Music is also a way I can plug in to a new community. I've had to move many times following my spouse to new jobs in new states. And every time we resettle, one of the first things I do is find a local group I can join. I've yet to wind up somewhere that DIDN'T have a community orchestra nearby. Joining gives me an instant community of fellows who also love playing and I'll often end up playing in other chamber groups with members as well. My current string quartet for instance includes the orchestra's 2nd chair first violin and the principal violist who also conducts the ballet where I am now principal cellist. I even work as program assistant for a non-profit that will be playing a concert in Alexandria, VA this summer and Argentina next fall.

I'm currently in the middle of a project that has grown into quite a collaborative effort. It first started when I told one of the dancers where I was playing in the pit that I'd write a ballet for him. It has now grown to not only be slated to be performed by that ballet school and orchestra, but also be recorded by a youth orchestra on the other side of the country with a conductor who works predominantly with Czech ensembles (the conductor was a fellow student at college, he put me in touch with the youth orchestra director). My video editor is a high schooler I met through a fan base for The Piano Guys; my text editor is someone I used to play Dungeons & Dragons with when she was a teenager who now teaches creative writing in Michigan and wrote a poem I am currently setting to music for a tenor who works in Munich, Germany. You can find out more about this project HERE (http://kck.st/OuRmsh)

Finally, as Faith noted Sunday, music is family. These days I get to collaborate with music family members I would have never met without having music so much in my life.

Elizabeth Skola Davis