P_MusicAppre

Music Appreciation

Hi everyone - it may be Monday before I get the correct results - don't worry - I'll make sure you can identify the music one way or another.

"Canon" by D.P. from the film "Daystar"

For Music Appreciation II at Pierce, we will be using the CD package called OnMusic History. It should be in the Bookstore by now - if not, you could order it for the following website: http://www.icubedonline.com/omh/users/students.htm This will bring up a maunal and music list. If you opt for ordering on line, The CD must be ordered from icubed, and will take only a few days to receive. It is a very good course, and you will need no textbook, but you must have access to a decent computer. This will be your coursework, including tests, quizzes and grades. Essentially, this will be an online course for you to do at home, while I add to it from Pierce. It should be the best of all possible worlds for you, as you can really get good grades if you simply do the work. You'll immediately know how you are doing as the grades are almost instantaneous; so you can track yourself and enjoy the course. NOW....go to http://www.icubedonline.com/store/index.htm#omh and order your CD!

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The stuff below is for Music Appreciation I Students (Music 111)

at Granada Hills and/or Pierce )

This course is designed so you can make an analysis of music that is unfamiliar, or in a familiar format, but never heard before.

Here are some things you can use to make a good analysis

Let's start with questions.

How would you define music?
How does it affect your life?
How do you think it affected the lives of people in:

a. the stone age

b. closer history - agricultural society vs. hunt and gather

c. "Big" society - Egypt, Greece, Rome

How do you use music?

Where did this all begin...

Elements:

rhythm and meter

vocal sounds (animal sounds)

musical media (additional to our bodies)

let's explore some of this stuff through listening and discussion-

Play a selection from a CD (any CD will do) (or use one of the pieces below)

What do you notice first about the piece

Anything else?

try an analysis -

Is the piece in a steady rhythm or is the rhythm random?

What about the "melody" - does it have one? If not what's going on?

Who's playing ( orchestra, bagpipes, drums, ....?

Does the piece contain musical sequences - little melodic fragments that"sort of"repeat

Are there rhythmic sequences?

Can you distinguish some sort of "form."

ABA, ABBA, AaBbACAa, .....etc.

(melodyA, melodyB) - like a pop song with verse,verse, bridge,verse and ending

Why bother?

Is there a "hook?" - What's a hook?

Does it fit into a "style?" - What's a style? How do we recognize a style?

Is rap music?

What is jazz?

Where is music going....if it is in motion at all.

Things we'll use to make an analysis

Call and response - the simplest form - you can analyse almost any piece using this form.

Call and response is self explanatory

"Structural Hearing" - all music goes from the I chord to the V chord and back - that is, there is an arch in almost all musical phrases. More often than not, it begins in the primary note or key, goes up five notes and comes back. This is a VERY simplistic explanation, but you can use it when you feel the MELODY or the HARMONY follows generally in that sort of pattern!

Your attention span vs the attention span of a person 200 years ago.

A look at the harmonic series - it occurs naturally (not invented, per se)

dividing a string in half - each half will be one octave higher than the original

using the air in a tube - those "whirley" tubes that kids used to spin around in the air making the harmonic series incrementally up one harmonic at a time, depending upon the speed of the "twirling."
using the vocal mechanism

Tuvan singers-on my website under "Vocal Stuff" - Harmonic singing

Tibetan Monks - Stimmung (a piece by Stockhausen) - see"Vocal Stuff" on my home page

the problem with the "natural scale" (it seems "out of tune" to our ears)
How we have untuned our scales in order to play the keyboard in any key
Vowels and speech vs. music and song
Athletic vs intellectual
Binary vs. analog

This selections below can be used for your analysis, if you like...

Try playing several of them together - it's like making a collage of musical elements - a bit strange, but they all fit together in a mosaic pattern.

Where Is Yesterday by Joseph Byrd and performed by the group USA -

Words - Requiem - from where? What language?

In C - by Terry Reily - maybe the most annoying piece ever written - or is it?

How does this work? (Does it work)
Why (Why not)
When was this written? ( you mean it's written out? )
Very difficult to play (really)
Why might that be true?

Come out to show them by Steve Reich-very slightly out of time with each other

Is this music?
When does it begin to sound like "music" ( if it does? )
Do you have the patience to listen? - Why? ( Why not? )

Wolf Is Dead by Daniel Lentz

This is the most difficult thing I ever recorded -

Why do you think this might be the case?

How does "minimalism" refer to ("rock n' roll")

what sort of "chords" do you hear....what are chords?

Where's the melody....is there one?

Ketchak- Balinese Monkey chant

Is this a chant? (Is there a melody?)
Let's do this in a simple form using the words "Mozart" and "Beethoven

How has "primitive" music influnced "western" music and vice- versa.

Using RealPlayer - try to play this

link for Assignments -

listening page

reading page

links for classical (and other music) below

http://www.calarts.edu/news/jul2004.html

http://www.usc.edu/music/concerts/concertmar.html

http://www.kusc.org/

http://www.kcrw.org

http://www.laphil.com/press/press_detail.cfm?id=1214&ps=1

Concerts

You must attend three concerts and write an intelligent evaluation of each one. That means good grammar, spelling and punctuation. A report with as much detail as you can give would be fine, but taking notes during a musical performance doesn't make the listening much fun. Recreate the program from memory as well as possible: obviously, if you have a program, this will be easy.

This is the "guide" for you to use when writing a report. Use the questions to help you write an interesting "review" of what you heard and saw

I want to know who played, what they played, what instruments they played, etc. Was the music fast, slow or........? Did you enjoy the music or the player(s)? How did the audience react? How big was the audience? How long did they play? What type of music was it? Were they professionals or amateurs? What about the venue? Was it small or large? Was the audience rude or polite. Why?

THE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES STATES THAT IT IS THE STUDENT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO DROP A CLASS. DO NOT RELY ON THE INSTRUCTOR TO DROP YOU FROM ANY COURSE YOU CHOOSE TO DISCONTINUE. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO IMPORTANT DATES OF THE SEMESTER. THESE ARE LISTED IN THE PIERCE COLLEGE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES. THE SCHEDULE LISTS THE LAST DAY TO DROP IN ORDER TO RECEIVE A REFUND, THE LAST DAY TO DROP TO OBTAIN A 'W' (WITHDRAW) INSTEAD OF AN F, AND THE FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING TRACK OF THESE DATES.