The Day the Music Began

On Sunday, 14 October, Jeffrey Phelps, cello and Lee Jordan-Anders, piano, performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major, Opus 69 (1808) and Claude Debussy’s Sonata (1915)

This speech is Karl Paulnack’s welcoming address for incoming freshman students. He addresses that music isn’t apart of arts and entertainment rather music is an invisible force that helps us piece ourselves together. Paulnack believes that music is an essential part of life and goes to prove it by telling his experiences with it. He describes the first moment he truly understood music and the impact it has on people. Paulnack portrays the day after 9/11 after he struggles to find any meaning in being a pianist. After a long time of questioning himself he observes the city and notices something. He sees that in this time of grief and sadness people are singing. From this he learned that music is a form of expression, it allows people to express their feelings when they have no other words to describe them. Paulnack goes on to describe what he says was the most important concert of his life. He and a friend were playing a concert at a nursing home. During their performance, one man began to cry, it was at that time Paulnack knew the man was a veteran. After Paulnack and his friend finished the piece, they announced that the piece they were playing was Aaron Copland's Sonata, which was a work

Classical music, as the name suggests, is a well-established kind of music, at least in the West. Classical music concerts take place in every cultural center, and they take many forms, from a solo to large symphonic orchestras, from a sonata to an opera. This kind of music has many fans, especially among circles of intellectuals. But how did this great kind of music start? What made the great composers compose? And how was this all used before the time of recorded music and portable mp3 players? These are the questions we are going to examine today.

Beethoven contributed one of the most significant musical developments through his fifth and ninth symphonies. He used a musical motive as the basic of his entire piece. (Beethoven described the motive as “Fate knocks at the door”.) It was the first time in history that anyone had done such a thing for a multi-movement piece. Beethoven’s contribution has become a norm in the music world, even to this day.

I saw a Beethoven concert online which took place on May 7th, 2015 in Chicago, to celebrate the anniversary of Beethoven’s glorious masterpiece Symphony 9. The concert was a classical concert which was conducted by Ricardo Muti who has remained a conductor for Philharmonica orchestra (London), and Philadelphia Orchestra. The concert was directed by Duain Wolfe who is and Americal Chorale conductor as well as the founder Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Children’s chorale. . Some of the artists who participated in the Orchestra were Camilla Nylund (played soprano), Ekaterina Gubanova (played mezzo-soprano), Matthew Polenzani (played tenor), Eric Owens (played bass-baritone), and the rest of the artists were from Chicago Symphony Orchestra. All the musicians were dressed formally in black suits with white shirts, or black dresses. The symphony was played in four movements: Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso, Scherzo: Molto vivace, Adagio molto e cantabile, Finale: Ode to Joy.

Ta-Ta-Ta-Taaa. Ta-Ta-Ta-Taaa. The famous motif and most iconic statement from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, it was viewed as if “fate [was] knocking at the door”. My first experience with classical music was watching the film, Disney’s “Fantasia 2000”, featuring the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I had never heard an orchestra before, but it lured me in like a duck to water. The TV had my undivided attention; I could not look away. I kept watching it over and over again, enjoying the music with the same enthusiasm.

“In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered” – Herbie Hancock. Looking back into history, you could create a timeline of events with nothing but song titles. Music was not just music, it was a lifestyle. Every major event in history has numerous songs that go along with or describe the happening. In the following paragraphs, I will describe aspects and elements of music for pre-World War II, World War II, and post-World War II. One could say that music was a form of expression throughout the times of war, and the songs produced during this time period clearly express all aspects of life before, during, and after the war.

Beethoven and Lennon both changed the world with their music through their influence on their contemporaries and connection to society. Every composer born after Beethoven “was influenced in some way, major or minor, positive or negative (or both), by Beethoven’s music” and his “achievements influenced everything that has occurred in Western music since his lifetime” (Sachs 169). Similarly, Lennon’s “brutally confessional solo work [was] a huge influence on subsequent generations of singers [and] songwriters” (John Lennon Bio). Beethoven and Lennon changed the musical world because every musician to follow in their respective genres, Beethoven in composition and Lennon in rock & roll, was

story of music, the public, and the society. It is an indispensable part of music, in which

The performance of the Symphony No.9 by Beethoven, conducted by Lenard Bernstein, was a magnificent piece that captured all the emotion of the people, from the sorrow of those lost in the war to the joy of the freedom they had just acquired. This piece was placed in Berlin to celebrate the uniting of East and West Germany. It was performed in the restored Schauspiel house, which had been completely destroyed during the war. It was restored to be one of the world’s finest concert halls. This performance was such a large, historic event that it was televised in over 20 different countries. Lenard Bernstein even took this event as seriously as to change the lyrics of the last movement from the German word for “joy” to the German word for “freedom” to commemorate the momentous occasion.

Over four thousand people attended Bizet’s funeral where his fellow composers gave impassioned eulogies, some even moved to tears by the tragic event. After the burial, they held a special performance of Carmen which the press, only months after they judged it to be too risqué, heralded as a masterpiece.

In my first week of Beethoven and Revolutions, I have learned more about Beethoven than ever before. Before this class, I knew Beethoven was important, but I never really appreciated it. On the first day of class we watched a clip from the King’s Speech, and I believe it changed how I felt about Beethoven. I had not realized how powerful his music could be in the right sequence. Being in band for seven years, they never showed us anything that would excite us about Beethoven, it was the usual background information.

Have you ever stopped and thought about the music that serves as a back drop for major cultural movements in society. It has been a part of every major movement that has happened throughout history. Those in charge or lead these movements know that music can add additional power and emotion to help the cause. When you watch a documentary about the civil rights movement or the vietnam war there is always music in the background and as your listening to the narrarator its subconciously affecting you and adding an emotional edge to whats going on. It makes you feel like a part of the protest, and makes you want to get invested

On Friday, October 30th at 7:30PM, I attended Western Kentucky University’s symphony. It was held in Van Meter Hall. The event was named “It’s time for a treat.” The symphony was conducted by Dr. Brain St. John. Before it began, I read over the program that was handed out to find out basic information about the concert. The history of the pieces helped in understanding them. The concert featured many well-known works of famous composers such as Camille Saint-Saens, Modest Mussorgsky, and Berlioz. The three pieces that are the most memorable in my mind are “Overture to La Cenerentola”, “Là ci darem la mano”, and “March to the Scaffold” from Symphonie Fantastique.

Drenched audience members, lawn chairs, and picnic baskets are not typical of a symphony performance. However, they all played a role in the North Carolina Symphony’s performance of the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven on Saturday, June 24 at Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheater. The evening had a wet start as audience members ran through blinding rain and harsh winds from the parking lot to reach the amphitheater. Concertgoers feared that the show might be cancelled. The performance eventually occurred after a fifty-minute delay, although the original program was shortened to accommodate the rain delay. The outdoor setting and the rainy weather affected every aspect of the performance, including the venue, audience, performers, and musical works.