Throughout this course, the composers we studied all had different approached to creating music, and that is why many of them are well known today. The three most notable composers who combine unusual elements in their music were Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Pamela Z.
Frank Zappa was an American artist who had no desire to fit into a single style of music, and he had no interest in creating music for cultural conventions. He created music in the manners he saw fit. His music has influence from rock, pop, modern classical, and jazz music, but his pieces are far from fitting into one of those labels. The most notable album Frank Zappa created that was Jazz From Hell. This album was highly unique because all the pieces on this album were
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Living Room Music is one his most performed pieces because it was fun for both the players and the audience. In this piece, the player use common household items as instruments, often times where house-clothes, and are playing on a set designed to look like a living room. The quartet uses unspecified items that could range from magazines, newspapers, tables, wooden furniture, large books, the floor, the wall or a door. Within in this piece there are four movements. This piece is an excellent example of John Cage’s interest in non-traditional instruments and timbre. John Cage was willing to push many boundaries in his pieces. Although some individuals may not agree with John Cage’s approach to music, I believe his pieces are a great example of using unusual elements to create a music that is characteristic to Cage.
Pamela Z is a composer who performs her compositions with her highly developed voice and computer software. Pamela Z, although trained in classical performance, wanted to find a way to perform contemporary music. In order to perform contemporary music, Pamela Z bought a delay unit and began creating loops using her voice. Z was able to think about her voice in the areas of texture and rhythm, the influence of outside texts, and how she could vary her vocal technique. One of Pamela Z’s most notable pieces that integrates the unusual elements of looping and layer is Gaijin. Gaijin is the Japanese word for foreigner and this
Often music is consisted not only by sounds made from musical instruments, but also by voice and verbal messages. The structure of the voice, or as Roland Barthes describes it ‘the grain of voice’ is the element in a certain piece of music which is responsible for creating the emotions when listening. The grain and the lyrics make the signified and carry out the message. The vocal part of music is formed of words, text, which communicate and make the representation and expression of what it is sung - talked about. According to Barthes the emotive modes of the voice and the changes of the tones from low to high is what delivers the final message and makes us feel the music. (Barthes, R. 1977 [1972]).
The composer that I chose is Charles Ives, an American modernist and musical composer from the 20th century born on October 20, 1874 in a small town of Danbury, CT and died on May 19, 1954 in New York City, NY. Charles Ives was one of the first American composers international renown and had a unique voice in American music. Which today he’s known for his amazing original orchestral music and as an American composer and Musician.
Sonata V of John Cage has binary form which consists of small-ranged irregular phrases. The piece as a whole does not have a distinct melody. The first section has a smooth, repetitive rhythm, and percussive sound of prepared piano is ethereal. There is a regular pulse throughout the first section, and the pulse is delayed in some places with a couple of extra notes (“Sonata V,” 0:12-0:16). The second part is more like the developmental part of the Classical sonata form. It is more dissonant and irregular, and there are pauses between some phrases. The piece as a whole differs from Western music in almost every aspect. Some parts of the piece resemble African drumming (“Sonata V,” 0:47-0:52). However, Cage was actually inspired from Javanese Gamelan, an orchestra of metallic percussion from Indonesia (Forney et. al., 374).
Before entering the exhibition the viewer is introduced to an energetic video montage of all the works with a sound created by Kevin J. Simon. This fast pace hip-hop sounding song at first seems very out of place from the work, but after listening to it for some time you do hear
Rather than a musical composition or visual installation, the work 4’33’’ is a concept in art history. Therefore, I think there is no need to separate music and visual art. To be honest, 4’33’’ is the silence within 4’33’’ that presents ideas to the audience. Cage
There are many great composers throughout the centuries. Each composer has a story to tell that is very interesting, when you dig deep for the information. Every composer has their own way of making, composing and producing music. Irving Berlin is no exception. Berlin is an extraordinary composer, and when examining his story amazing facts are found. Berlin is not just a musician and composer, he is a man of many hats. Berlin’s life is extremely compelling.
1. Narrow your choices down to three composers you’ve studied in this course. Choose one
The first part of this response is to try and identify why John Cage received so much criticism from lovers of traditional music and post war modernists. Cage adopts chance techniques in his compositions and this makes things go awry for him in regard to being referred to as a composer, most critics consider him more of a music philosopher than a composer. Especially after the 19-hour performance of vexations which sadly did not amuse many. The randomness of his compositions makes it hard for him to establish his authority as a composer.
One of the major turning points in Western popular music is rock and roll of the 1950s. This style of popular music was distinctive in its sounds and origins, as it was the first time white music was combined with race music successfully in mainstream media. Rock and roll reflected the social and cultural shifts that were occurring in American society after World War II, and music continues to reflect society and popular culture today. Rock and roll of the 1950s marked the shift of dominant musical influences from European (melodic) to African American music (rhythmic).
Rock and Roll Similar to the popularity of the electronic dance music, in the 1970s the disco movement challenged Rock and Roll place in the media. Disco music first became popular in the 1970s club scene and reached its peak popularity after the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever. During this time, many Rock fans despised the disco craze because of social issues. One of the problem Rock fans had with disco is that lots of people believed that disco music was “gay” music. Another factor that made disco music unappealing to Rock and Roll fans, was the fact that it allowed women to break through the music scene.
He does not create scores with orthodox musical methods and his music can be unpleasant or even irritating to some; yet by using a technological process, he reveals a naturally occurring acoustic phenomena and demonstrates it an unforgettable physical form. In the simplest way one could imagine (play-record-play-re-record-repeat), Lucier successfully guides the audience to pay attention to listening itself, to sound itself, to the space that we stand in, to the effect that the surrounding environment may have upon us. Other composers may deliver emotions or opinions through their works, but Lucier manages to erase all these subjective judgements, triggers a self-reflecting thinking process and initiate a borderless experience that all audience shared
To define a film by a certain genre, there are several elements and signatures that a film will display in order to signify its place amongst the genre. A film from the gangster genre is characterized by violence and lawlessness of american capitalism and The American Dream. The short lived classical era of the gangster genre in Hollywood is also greatly influenced by the production code which manifested the iconic moral narrative of the gangster genre. William A. Wellman’s 1931 film The Public Enemy can be considered a film of the gangster genre when one examines the conflict with the American dream, the rise and fall of the protagonist Tom Powers, as well as the visual storytelling employed to support the narrative.
Frank Sinatra was one of the most if not the most important popular music figure of the 20th century. In a professional career that lasted 60 years, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to maintain his appeal and pursue his musical goals. He came to be known during the swing era of the 1930s and '40s, helped to define the "sing era" of the '40s and '50s, and continued to attract listeners during the rock era that began in the mid-'50s. He scored his first number one hit in 1940 and was still making million-selling recordings in 1994.
Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.
One of the greatest genres of music Rock and Roll evolved in the United States in the late 1940’s early 1950’s. This genre was known to be a mixture of gospel, blues, jazz, western swing, and country music. There are countless altered types of rock songs which means they can use different instruments but a few common instruments are drums, bass guitar, piano, and vocals which makes it a unique genre because although it is the same genre, each rock songs uses its own instruments and it’ll still make rock and roll music. Rock and Roll was a time of change in the dance field and inspired many people in the fashion industry and to mix different types of music to achieve a certain beat and with that, new trends will start occurring in society and