Personal Narrative Essay

When looking throughout the history of music, there is no name with a larger impact than Bach. Writing over 200 pieces throughout his 65 year life. Many people know the names of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms; but only a select few know the specifics about these land mark composers. “Most would say that Beethoven should have been named called ocean instead of brook” Bach in German. During this papers I will be giving a brief look into the life of one of the most prolific composer that ever lived.

In 1894, a young, quietly colorful Charles Ives enters Yale University. He enters with a strong musical foundation provided by his father and community and a vision of what he thinks music can be. Horatio Parker, Ives’s composition professor unashamedly informs Ives that his vision of music seems blurry, perhaps even nauseating, to the astute, cultured musician. Ives quickly develops anger towards Parker’s traditional tutelage and rarely recognizes the positive effects Parker has on his compositions. Here begins the battle between new and old that Ives and Parker embarked upon during Ives’s college years, however the story starts and ends far from their four short years together.

What is music? Denotatively speaking, music is sounds combined in such a way to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music to me is something that I rely on to get me through everything, it is the thing that has shaped me into the person I am today. But, if I asked you how many symphonies Beethoven had written, could you tell me? To be blunt, probably not. Not only is this a problem with people today, it is a recurring problem with our youth. In Daniel Felsenfeld’s essay “Rebel Music,” he explains the fault in our youth when it comes to being musically cultured. Throughout his essay he acknowledges how he was a stereotypical teenager who just listened to whatever was on KROQ. However, he also talks about how he changed and cultured himself, unlike all of his peers. In his essay, Felsenfeld proves his message that younger generations are musically uncultured through his use of allusions, connotative diction, and critical tone.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are two of the greatest composers ever to write music. Both men lived in the early 18th and 19th century, but their music and influences are still felt today. The men faced similar experiences, yet they both lead very different lives. All together the pieces that these men composed amounts to over 300 published, and unpublished works of art. The people of their time period often had mixed feelings about these men, some “complained that Mozart’s music presented them with too many ideas and that his melodies moved from one to the next faster than audiences could follow, yet the ideas themselves seem effortless and natural, clear and

Felsenfeld takes his readers on a journey from being an uninspired teenager, into the world of an adult “rebel” composer. Although Daniel was in piano lessons at a young age, he just couldn’t seem to spark an interest in the classical music that was being put in front of him. He continued the lessons through high school, and only had enough skill to make minimal money in piano bars and orchestra pits. Daniel regularly hung out with a friend, Mike, whose house he would go

Born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on the 25th September, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the composer began his descent into classical music at the age of 9, before later moving on to study at the Petrograd conservatory. Throughout his life he compiled 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets and 36 film scores as well as many other compositions. Within his musical work and the course of his career Shostakovich managed to both adhere to traditions set within classical music as well as dissent from them, I will be exploring these.

The effects of Mozart on today’s society can be seen just about everywhere. In marketing, they play music to make the consumer want to buy their product. In restaurants, they play music to help the customer feel relaxed in their establishment. People listen to music while driving cars. It seems that music permeates almost every aspect of our everyday lives. When people think of the birth of modern music, they often think of classical music. And when people think of classical music, they think of Mozart. During the 18th century, the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a total number of six hundred and fifty works. When he was younger, he toured Europe with his father, Leopold, and his sister, Nannerl, playing for Europe’s elite of the time. He put forth some major musical contributions that shape modern music today (Fiero 324,326). Classical music is the great grandfather of all modern music. Some people enjoy

Many people compare the musical works of Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart because of the styles of music that they produced. They were also similar because of their age and the music period in which they created in. Throughout their lives these two composers had vastly different customs and behaviors. Each composer contributed to their own unique styles of music, however they continue to be a musical inspiration in today’s world. Many people of the early classical music period reacted differently to both of the musician’s works because of the unique way they chose to create and present their music. These musician’s created a lasting effect on the musical world that we see today.

From the time Ludwig van Beethoven was a young child, everyone around him could see that he was extremely talented. His name is known all around the world and when people think classical music, Beethoven is one of the first names that pop up. Long after his death in 1827, his music is still listened to. Soon to be mothers are sometimes told to allow the baby to listen to classical music, especially by Beethoven, to help with brain development. College and high school students are told we can benefit by listening to Beethoven when studying. Even in some modern songs, you can hear Beethoven’s legacy living on. Beethoven was an excellent composer and wrote pieces that defied the norm of the Romantic Era. Many artists today may not realize that

Friday night, lying in bed, eyes closed absorbing the legendary lyrics of The Kinks with the Pontefract cake-like disc rotating on the retro record player you bled your parents dry for. This is as close as the discerning music fan will get to real musical talent. Truth is, young people will never understand the sensation of music in the decades owned by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or The Searchers, instead the quality of modern popular music now has collapsed into a never ending and monotonous spiral of auto tuned sounds and sub-standard ‘talents’ who pale in comparison to the musical artists of last century.

The world of classical music has many famous composers who created masterpieces that people have enjoyed and loved for centuries. Among them are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, two of the most well-known composers of the classical era. Their pieces were not only amazing in their own rite, but they also shaped the modern music we know and love today. We cannot deny how brilliant and talented both composers were. We also cannot deny how different they were musically and personally.

Baroque music tends to be complex, but with a very organized system of forms and harmonies that is the basis for almost all music from what is called the “Common Era,” the period between 1700-1900. The Common Era developed throughout the nineteenth century, but after 1900 music entered an age of experimentation; music perhaps became a postmodern art genre very early on. Baroque music all sounds similar, although the educated listener can tell Bach from Handel without difficulty. In the realm of contemporary music, however, entirely atonal music from Schoenberg and Webern can easily exist alongside French Impressionism and Copland’s American neo-Romanticism. Today’s composers are similar only in that their styles, and entire musical languages, are radically different.

The popular culture of music has changed dramatically over the course of sixty five years. Since this time, new genres of music have been introduced, existing genres have changed, and fixed stereotypes have been associated with certain genres of music. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and is portrayed almost everywhere in first world societies, including on television, radio, at shopping centers, sporting events and in every area of popular culture. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and continues to strive and develop into more and diverse areas of culture.

At this time last year, I would have considered all music before the 20th century to be classical. However, after taking a Dual Credit Music Appreciation course, I realized that “old” music cannot simply be grouped into a single category. There are so many differences that I had no idea existed. Throughout the years, music has changed and evolved, meeting the needs of listeners and performers. Different composers have been catalysts in this change as they have developed new styles and genres. Even though the classical period is directly subsequent of the baroque period, baroque and classical music have countless different qualities and characteristics.

Around 8 p.m., almost bedtime, my dad would turn on the record player and surround sound blasting anything from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Energized by these upbeat rhythms, my sister and I would listen, sing, and dance until exhaustion set in. Music was introduced to me at a young age, and while my tastes have changed over the years I have always appreciated the variety of classical music.