We will begin this week's bog with something different. Here is documentary on Romantic literature. We've discussed Romanticism in music quite a bit in class and to give you some context I'd like you to see watch this rather spicy documentaryon some Romantic writers.
I think you'll enjoy The Romantics. Warning: this gets into some "mature" subject matter and some rather graphic scenes of medical proceedures (but then this is a nursingschool so its probably easy for you to take).
The Rock band Rush set part of Coleridge's poem to music in their epic "Xanadu". Check out this live performance and listen for how they set the text.
Now that we have taken time to rock, let's get back to our documentary:
RICHARD WAGNER (1813 - 1883)
The king of the operatic spectacle, Wagner is legendary in the history of opera. Here is a radio broadcast about the premiere of The Ring. This is from a series called "13 Days When Music Changed Forever." If you like this episode, you should check out some of the others, too. Please click the link below:
This week I am going to direct you to an excellent web site by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra that is dedicated to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. We talked about the famous 5th in class but this symphony is equally (and perhaps more) important. It was originally written for Napoleon but then Beethoven changed his mind.
Go to this website, explore for a while and then email me a report on what you found interesting. It should be roughly 2 - 3 pages double-spaced.
You should all go out and rent Amadeus this week. It's a great (if somewhat inaccurate in places) movie about Mozart that I'm sure you will all love. It stars Tim Curry...yes, the from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In the meantime watch this excellent BBC dock-drama/biography on Mozart. It focuses on the last years of Mozart's life, his financial problems and his troubled relationship with his father and sisters. The "interviews" are obviously staged but I think it is very effective at bringing Mozart's music to life for the modern day viewer. Get ready to weep at the end.
Mozart represents the perfection of the Classical period but this biography claims Mozart was the first Romantic. Let's see if you agree, especially after we finish the Romantic period in a few weeks.
Mozart's charming music is easy to listen to and enjoy. I hope you will begin your lifelong love affair with Mozart staring this week. Enjoy:
Now it is time for this week's Music Quiz. Click below:
This week we will be looking at the teacher (Papa Haydn) and his best student (Mozart). Along the way, we will watch Leonard Bernstein explain Sonata form and help you all become expert listeners...which you will all prove by unanimously getting an A+ on the Music Quiz afterwords!
JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 - 1809)
Enjoy this spirited performance of Haydn's Fantasia in C by Malcolm Bilson:
SONATA FORM
Even some musicians don't really understand Sonata form, possibly the most important musical form in history. Well, my gentle and balanced students, you will all be experts in Sonata form after a visit with conductor, composer and teacher Leonard Bernstein:
Lets listen to the Beatles play "And I Love Her." See if you can follow the ABA form.
That was from the movie Hard Days Night, by the way. A good movie.
OK, now back to Lennie and the New York Philharmonic.
The basis for Sonata form is an ABA structure but this structure is also very common in popular music today. I would like to call this final part of this week's blog:
LED ZEPPELIN, DIZZY GILESPIE, SONNY ROLLINS AND VAN HALEN JAM ON SOME ABA
Here is another example of ABA form from the psychedelic 60s:
Jazz has a lot of songs that are in ABA form. Typically, first they usually play a "head", which is the written out part of the tune, with the melody and chords ("changes"). After that different soloists will improvise melodies based on the "head." After that, they return to the "head' once more. In a way, if you look at the "head" as A and the improvisation as being B, you can see that this is an ABA form.
In this next video clip we will see Dizzy Gillespie playing " A Night In Tunisia". The "head" itself is in ABA form with a coda added to the end. The A section of the "head" has a Latin feel and the B section is swing. Actually, to be exact, the form of the head is AABA, much like Sonata form.
Here is a clip of Sonny Rollins playing "My One and Only Love". The A section of the "head" is in a a major key, while the B section is in minor. The form of the head is AABA. See if you can follow the form on the head. For even more of a challenge, see if you can follow the form even through Sonny's improvisation.
Here is an interesting thought. In Sonata form, we consider A to be both the exposition and the recapitulation and the B section to be the development. In a way, this is what Jazz musicians do with their improvisations. They "develop" ideas from the "head" in their improvisations in the B section.
To make this very clear, look at the following chart:
Sontata form in classical music:
A: Exposition
B: Development
A: Recapitulation
Typical Jazz arrangement:
A: Head
B: Improvisation
A: Head
The main thing that is missing from Sonata form in Jazz are the key relationships but at least you can see how ABA as a structural form is still prevalent today.
To end our discussion, let's look at Van Halen's "Jump", featuring one of Eddie Van Halen's greatest guitar solo's. Eddie is the master of the 20 second guitar solo. I consider this song to be an example ABA form due to the key relationships between the song itself and Eddies guitar solo. The song itself is in C major but the guitar solo is in B-flat minor, distant key from C. This key change really showcases the guitar solo and calls attention to the listener that something new is happening.
If you listen to Van Halen, you will notice he does this a lot. Here is another example from the same time period:
In my opinion, Bach was the greatest composer of all time. The perfection of his music is undeniable and his genius is undisputed. If you take a music theory class, most of what you study will be based on what Bach would do. Spending time with his music would benefit anyone, musician or not. Although they were both born on the same year, Bach wasn't the international sensation that Handel was during his lifetime. Bach lived a humble life and worked hard and was not fully appreciated until long after his death when composers in the early 1800s began to appreciate and study his work. Beethoven knew enough to study his work, as you can hear in his fugues. Although not the celebrity that Handel was during his life, Bach left behind a legacy of work that has never been equaled by any composer. Just the sheer amount of music he wrote is staggering, not to mention that all we have of it is perfect and lovely in every way. Bach represents the pinnacle and perfection of the Baroque period.
Here is a brief biography on Bach:
Here is an excellent radio broadcast from a series called 13 Days When Music Changed Forver. This is the episode concerning Bach (of course).
Here is a live performance of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. This is one of the most heartbreaking arias in all opera. Weep Along with Aeneus as she accepts her fate. You can find the whole opera on YouTube if you are interested.
We will learn about Bach next time but of the two composers (born on the same date) Handel was the more popular in his time. He was a true star and became the toast of the musical word. Bach on the other hand, humbly lived the life of a provincial musician, toiling all his hours away teaching, writing, rehearsing the choir and fixing organs. We will give him his due next week but now let us take a closer look at the composer of The Messiah. You might mostly think of oratorios when you think of Handel but he wrote a lot more than that. These days some of his operas are being newly appreciated by a modern audience. I might recommend Theodora and Handel's last oratorio Jeptha. I also really like his L'Allegro, ilPenso ed ilModerato, which is an oratorio based on poems by Milton that promotes classical ideas of balance and moderation. (Good advice for those wild college years.)
This biography is in five parts but worth every second of your time. The name of the documentary is "Handel the Conquering Hero"
In class this week we heard a Motet by Josquin de Prez. Here is an NPR radio broadcast about Josquin's Missa Pange Lingua Mass. In this broadcast, Ted Libbey illustrates how Josquin incorporated Gregorian chant from the Medeival period into his music.
Next, watch this documentary on the life and music of Giovanni Palestrina. It also explains how Gregorian chant evolved into Polyphony. The documentary is in seven parts.
