Contemporary Ensemble

Jenny and I attended the Contemporary Ensemble on November 14^th at 8:15 pm.  This concert was held at the Hockett Family Recital Hall, and Jorge Grossmann and Jeffery Meyer were the directors.  The instruments that were played at this performance were the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, bass, harpsichord, and percussion.  Overall, the music that I heard at this concert was far from anything I have ever heard before.  The sounds and beats were unlike what I expected to hear at a “contemporary” ensemble.  When I hear the word contemporary, beats from the techno, country, or pop songs etc. that are widely listened to across various cultures come to mind. Instead I heard beats that were harsh, violent, and abstract.   

The second piece of the program was called Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.  This piece was composed by Lukas Foss, and it included a solo soprano singer, a flute, piano, and a percussion section.  Where do I begin?  This piece was full of surprises and sounds that I have never experienced before.  Similar to the performance, Foss is unlike most of the composers we have learned about in class.  He preferred to create music that did not neatly fall under a classification because he did not want himself or his music to be confined by a label.  Around the time that he wrote this piece he founded the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble at UCLA.  Comparatively, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird demonstrates a lot of similar techniques used in improvisation.  Due to the fact that this composition was composed during the era of the Blues, it isn’t surprising that this piece displays a background in improvisation.  Comparable to Louis Armstrong’s Savory Blues, Foss’s piece also has a melody that is highly syncopated.  His unique use of different mallets, a cowbell, and metal Japanese bowls created for an interesting mixture of sounds.  The melodies he created with these instruments were striking since they are not the typical melodies heard in music nowadays.  The pianist and percussionist played these instruments on the strings of the piano.  For example, the percussionist would run the cow bell across the strings.  This created a somewhat unpleasant sound.  The flute also played a vital role in this ensemble.  It was offstage and out of site for the entire piece, and it represented the actions of the blackbird.  It is intriguing how the flute symbolized the blackbird because when thinking of a bird, they usually are hidden among the branches of a tree yet are still detectable by the music they create.  The vocal portion of this piece was extremely unusual as well.  The vocalist would go from whispering to almost yelling in the same sentence.  This dramatic change in dynamics added to the obscurity of the piece.  

Atmosphere Deroulante, composed by Renato Hanriot, showed many aspects that were similar to pieces composed during the Modernism Age.  Comparatively, The Rite of Spring shows a lot of similarities with Hanriot's piece.  Atomosphere Deroulante is about the unstoppable forces of nature.  The texture of the piece represents this idea quite well.  The piano, percussion, cello, violin, clarinet, and flute did not demonstrate a lot of unity in their melodies and harmonies.  The piano, percussion, cello, and clarinet begin the piece off playing at a very low register.  Then the violin enters followed by the flute.   Similar to the stratification and disjunction found in Stravinky's piece, the instruments in Hanriot's piece are layered as well.  This goes along with the characteristics during the Modernism Age because of all chaos within the piece.   

This wouldn’t be a concert that I would normally attend.  I didn’t enjoy it because the music was difficult to relate to and there was never a steady beat.  Also, the overall tones and pitches that this ensemble developed were not pleasing to my ears.  The percussion instruments, such as the cow bell, would create ear piercing sounds when they were dropped on the piano strings and it would cause me to flinch.  Unfortunately, this performance did not make me want to attend another concert.  I didn’t enjoy the group of compositions in this performance as much as the other compositions I heard at other concerts because it was not soothing.  I prefer to listen to music that is peaceful.

You Raise Me Up

Rite of Spring

The 20^th century displayed many characteristics of Modernism.  Society during this time period experienced a collapse of morality and values, a loss of faith, and had a confused sense of identity and place in the world.  The drastic fluctuating thoughts of the people resulted in a chaotic and futile environment.  Similar to any other time period in history, the artists and musicians were the first to embrace the changes that were happening around them.  Igor Stravinsky, one of the most influential composers during the 20^th century, was able to recreate the struggles that society was dealing with through his music.  In Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, he demonstrates 20^th century aesthetics by tweaking the basic conventions of modernism.   

The conventions of modernism consist of fragmentation, disjunction, and stratification.  Stravinsky creatively produced the song Rite of Spring in which he displayed the society’s struggles through the three conventions of modernism.  Stravinsky embodied society’s lack of morals and values, and chaotic nature through the stratification of multiple groups of instruments. The bassoon begins the piece by playing at a very high pitch, and then an English horn joins the bassoon at the 46 second mark.  For a short while the bassoon will play and the English horn will answer and at the 1:16 mark a violin starts to play by performing pizzicato on the strings.  At the 1:20 mark of the piece more instruments join the bassoon. From this point on the piece becomes very intense.  From minute two to minute three the tempo gradually speeds up and the dynamics gradually increase as well.  During this minute, all of the instruments appear to be “playing to the beat of their own drum”.  There isn't any noticeable unison between the instruments and there is no harmony or melody.  His strategic way of layering the base and the woodwinds created a sense of disjunction between the instruments.  By layering the base and the woodwinds in this way it portrays to the audience that they are not working together, this is similar to the way that the people were acting during this time. 

Throughout part one of the Rite of Spring the pulse is kept constant while the meter is varied.  This can be seen from minute 3:00 to 3:30.  The pulse is the same but when the string instruments begin to play more vigorously and the sound becomes more intense the meter changes from when only the bassoon was playing.  The disjunction of the strings here with the peaceful bassoon portion of the song is drastic.  The inconsistency within the meter and the lack of continuity between the strings and the bassoon represents the hopelessness of society and the anger they were feelings because of their loss of self-identity.  Also, throughout the first three minutes of the song there is a distinct separation between the different parts of the ensemble.  The strings move as one, as do the woodwinds, while the brass works alone.  The sections don't complement each other, but rather take turns taking the lead or fading into the background.   

Stravinsky begins this piece with a bassoon playing by itself.  The bassoon in the Rite of Spring represents a couple of 20^th century aesthetics of modernism.  Normally, bassoons play at a lower register but Stravinsky wrote the song in a way that the bassoon had to play at an almost impossibly high register.  The uncomfortable register of the bassoon portion of this song demonstrates the fluctuating thoughts and feelings of society.  Also, Stravinsky used the convention of fragmentation in the bassoon’s solo by adding grace notes. 

Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist

A central feature that was evident during the Romanticism Age was the unpredictability and random profusion of nature.  This photo clearly depicts the overwhelming power of nature.  The "Wanderer" appears to be standing on some jagged rocks that are protruding out of the ground while peering off into the distance at a vast stretch of mountains.  Unfortunately, more jagged rocks and deep valleys separate him from this beautiful mountain range.  In this photo Casper David Freidrich is portraying the significant power of nature, and most importantly, man's insignificance in comparison to nature.  The "Wanderer's" inability to reach the mountains demonstrates the Romantic ideal that relates to the power and fury of nature.  Despite the intelligence and the brawn of man nature is still able to defeat him, hypothetically.  The Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist is very similar to Freidrich's other photo of a man leaning against the fence looking out into the horizon.  Both pictures put an emphasis on the importance of the sky.  Also, the emphasis on the sky demonstrates a larger perspective then what one may have seen in photos during the Enlightenment.  The larger perspective used in this photo is another factor that affects the significance of the man in comparison to nature.  

Due to the French Revolution there was a growth of nationalism among the people in Europe.  The increased emphasis on individual thoughts and feelings is clearly portrayed in this photo.  Instead of showing a family of people like one may have seen during the Enlightenment, this photo is of only one man.  The presence of only trees and mountains for as far as the eye can see also supports the Romantic ideal of the rise of the individual.  The man in this photo is completely alienated from any form of society.  Freidrich gave the "Wanderer" a very noble and proud pose thus demonstrating the heightened amount of pride in oneself and country.  Coupled with the feelings of pride that the man reveals in this photo, the man, sky, mountains, and mist suggest that it is an ominous place.  Since the man is not facing forward it creates a mysterious feel to the meaning of the picture.  What is the man thinking?  Why is he standing on the edge of a cliff?  The use of darker colors also gives the photo a feeling uncertainty and gloom.  The dark and gloomy feel of this photo suggest that Freidrich received some of his inspiration from the "Gothic" Middle Age.         

The Organization of Sound

On Tuesday October 16^th at 8:15 PM, I attended Ithaca College’s Wind Ensemble production of The Organization of Sound at Ford Hall.  Stephen Peterson and Corey Seapy were the conductors for this concert and there was a guest lecturer named Rebecca Jemian who presented on the history of the different composers of the songs in the program.  The performing group consisted of many different wind instruments including the piccolo, flute, trumpet, horn, oboe, trombone, clarinet, bass trombone, euphonium, bass clarinet, tuba, percussion, bassoon, timpani, double bass, alto saxophone, piano, harp, and the baritone saxophone.      

There were five songs performed during the concert The Organization of Sound.  They included La Procession du Rocio which was composed by Joaquín Turina, Edgard Varése’s Intégrales, J.S. Bach’s Fantasia in G Major BWV, Gustav Holst’s Hammersmith, and William Bolcom’s First Symphony for Band.  I particularly enjoyed the song Intégrales. Although Varése lived most of his life during the 20^th Century “Modernism Age”, portions of this song resemble Romantic Ideals.  For example, Beethoven’s symphony No. 3, “Eroica” is performed on an unprecedented large scale and has huge contrasts in terms of dynamics and instrumentation.  Intégrales developed some of the same characteristics as Eroica throughout the course of the song.  The beginning of the song was soft and peaceful.  As it progressed, the song gained a spooky edge from the blocks, drums, and trumpet and the dynamics became very loud.  All twenty-three different groups of wind instruments came together to create an overwhelming sound.  Then suddenly, there is a very gentle oboe solo.  The contrast between the percussion and more menacing wind instruments when compared to the oboe soloist is very drastic.  These types of contrast were commonly found during the Romantic Age.  It is intriguing that Varése decided to travel down this musical path even though he is considered modernist. 

On a side note, Varése was the inventor of the term “organized sound”.  This explains the emphasis he places on rhythm and timbre in his compositions because the definition of organized sound is ability to group certain rhythms and timbres together.  Rebecca Jemian, the guest lecturer, described all of this information in a detailed PowerPoint presentation on a projection screen in the concert hall.  The guest speaker added an interesting twist that I have never seen before at a concert.  It was nice to learn about the history of the composers and their songs before they were performed.     

I found the piece Hammersmith the most memorable out of the bunch.  Prior to reading about this song in the program, my gut reaction to this song was that it reminiscent of some type of conflict or war.  Interestingly enough the program states that Hammersmith was commissioned by a broadcasting corporation for a military band!  The beginning of this piece is slow and unconcerned.  The deep pitch of the tuba and the slow beat brings about the lackadaisical feelings this song emits.  There is a short section where a trumpet enters and the beat speeds up for a bit but then it ceases.  A few measures later we hear a group of flutes, oboes, and clarinets.  The entry of these instruments gives the piece a lighthearted and exuberant feel, while the lower register instruments are off in the distant background.  Halfway through the piece the song noticeably speeds up and the presence of the timpani is made very clear.  I enjoyed the rhythm of the first half of this piece because it kept me on my toes.  The dynamics shifted from soft to loud numerous times and it kept me wondering when the next big “bang” from the percussion section was going to occur. 

Overall, I enjoyed this concert.  I enjoyed this concert because I was able to get a taste of a lot of different types of wind instruments.  I was especially fond of the immense number of different instruments because the various sounds they produced greatly affected my mood.  I noticed that I typically had a more melancholy mood when the bass or tuba was being played.  Additionally, when the performers with a flute, piccolo, oboe, etc. were performing I tended to have a cheerful disposition.  The intensity at which the instruments were being played also affected how my mood altered. 

The first piece of the program, La Procession du Rocio, showed a few commonalities and differences with the song One Voice by the Wailin’ Jennys.  La Procession du Rocio was commonly used for religious ceremonies, and it served as a welcoming tune.  The song itself is about a festival in which many families gather and participate in activities.  Similar to the last few line “This is the sound of all of us” in One Voice; both songs demonstrate that the community is united.  Also, in both songs common musical themes appear one after the other throughout each song.  Each song is predictable and after a few verses you are able to guess what might happen next.  A distinct difference between these two pieces is the complexity of La Procession du Rocio and the simple structure of One Voice.  Turina’s piece was played by an ensemble of wind instruments with varying dynamics, rhythms, and beats.  The Wailin’ Jennys composed their song with the use of only three voices and a guitar. 

Mozart!

Mozart's Violin Sonata in B flat major, K. 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPANN4hnjzk&playnext=1&list=PL46AF9681B370FAC8&feature=results_video

I came about this sonata in a very whimsical way.  I had a fairly open mind as to what song I wanted to dissect and I merely typed the words “Mozart” and “Violin” into Google and it spit out an array of choices.  I chose to blog about Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat major, K. 8 because I used to play the violin in high school and I love the range of sounds that the violin can create.  Another reason why I chose this piece is because Mozart was only a child when he wrote this sonata.  There are three movements to this sonata; they include allegro, andante, and menuet I/II.  My blog focuses on the allegro movement.    

I enjoy the majestic, yet lighthearted feel that the violin brings to this piece. Mozart’s violin sonata begins with both the violin and keyboard playing in unison.  The violin appears to be playing the melody while the keyboard supports the violin with the harmony.  As the song goes on the keyboard plays for a short section and the violin answers, and vice-versa. The accompaniment of the violin adds a unique twist to this tune, since his early violin sonatas could be played with only the keyboard.  The rhythm of the keyboard and the violin alternate throughout the song.  For example, when the violin is playing short, choppy notes the keyboard is playing notes that are more smooth and flowing.  The keyboard also sounds more prominent in some sections while the violin sounds more prominent in others. The constant tension between the violin and the keyboard resembles the Enlightenment period because this was an age of many new discoveries and debates.  The rivaling parts of the keyboard and violin represent the two people or two sides discussing an issue or perhaps discovering something new.  The texture of the music also seems to point to the idea that there are instances in the song when the violin and keyboard “agree”.  The point in the music when this occurs is when the two instruments seem to be complementing each other the most.

Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat major, K 8 demonstrates a parallel interrupted period and the sentence structure is considered to be 2+2+4.  The antecedent ends with half cadence and has not reached "home" yet.  The basic idea is repeated and the phrase ends in a perfect authentic cadence.  The presence of the basic sentence structures is very evident in this piece.  The sentence structure in Mozart’s violin and keyboard sonata consists of three parts: the basic idea, the repeat of the basic idea, and a continuation.  This sentence structure is represented in a 2mm, 2mm, and 4mm form.  Similar to what would have been considered the norm during the Enlightenment, this song has fairly simple harmonies and it stays with the home key.  Another way in which this song represents the Age of Enlightenment ideals is the song's constant return to the home key.  The Enlightenment placed a great importance upon reason and the ability to find the truth through science instead of religion.  This sonata parallels society during that time because it uses the basic ideas at the beginning of the song and builds off of them.  The light and delicate feel to the song also resembles the music of the Enlightenment.  Also, the form of a sonata consists speaks for the Enlightenment.  The last section of a sonata is referred to as a recapitulation.  This violin sonata demonstrates a lot of growth throughout the exposition and the development and once it reaches the recapitulation the phrases that were presented earlier in the song are finally given closure.    

The Aged Reason & Enlightenment

Out of all of the Enlightenment photos, the picture I found the most intriguing was the scene of a young man and woman who were involved in an arranged marriage.  This photo clearly depicts life during the Age of Enlightenment.  The common characteristic of rationalism that was evident during this time period plays into the mood of the picture.  While the idea that rationalism played an important role in the science world, it was a key part of the social aspect as well.  The fostering of the arranged marriage was due to the benefits that each side of the family would receive.  During that time period the merchants had all of the money.  The arrangement between the aristocrat and the merchant would bring the aristocrat wealth while it brought the merchant higher up on the social ladder.  Their decisions are focused upon the idea of rationalism.  It is an easy and convenient way to create benefits for both parties involved, besides the married couple of course.

 

The thoughts and ideas of the people living during the Enlightenment directly correlated to the music of that time as well.  The music was clean cut, simple, and logical, and it showed signs of the classes coming together.  This is similar to the marriage depicted in the photo in respect to that the moderately lower class merchant created an agreement with the aristocrat.  Another way in which the music parallels society is in the balance and proportion of the instruments.  For example, a string quartet is strictly the combination of two violins, one viola, and one cello.  Each instrument is unique and is valuable to creating the correct sound.  In the arranged marriage, the young man and woman, the merchant, and the aristocrat all played specific roles in the marriage.  While this comparison may be far fetched, it is interesting to think of all the different parallels between the music and society during that time period.