Blog #1

I have always remembered knowing the star spangled banner. The first time I remember having to learn it was in my music class in the first grade. we had a big concert coming up with the kindergarteners and the second graders. We were supposed to sing two songs on our own and one song as a big group with all of the grades that were included in the concert. One of the songs that we were supposed to sing on our own was the star spangled banner. I remember singing it repeatedly in class to make sure that we learned it. After that concert I have always remembered knowing the star spangled banner. The national anthem means a lot to me considering what is going on in the world. In certain countries they are not aloud to have the freedom of speech or they are sheltered from certain content because their government does not want them to be able to come up with ideas that challenge theirs’s . So, the national anthem means freedom to me.

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Blog #2

I thoroughly liked both versions of the star-spangled banner. The one I would prefer to listen to is the version that was sung by the south city voices. This one made me listen longer because you could really hear each pitch in the harmony. Being able to hear every note almost made the harmony sound very raw and almost like it was clashing with each other. In the Stravinsky version of the star spangled banner I cannot hear the slight change in harmonies. The whole song to me sounded as if it was all on the same harmony. No, I do not feel that either the Jimi Hendrix version or the Stravinsky version of the star spangled banner are offensive. I feel like each version that is played show the creativity in the way a song can be manipulated. The base of the song is still the same as the original song, but each person has put their own twist on how they want it to sound. I feel like people would find the different versions offensive because it is not the original song. The song has so much history behind it and why it was written and changing the song can seem to people as if the reason it was written is not important anymore.

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Blog #3

After listening to Hildegard’s “Play of Virtues,” I did like the story behind the music. It really told a story in just 4 short minutes and you could feel the emotion behind the music. I also liked how the octaves that were sung matched the person that was being played. The victory virtue sang at a high pitch because of the heavens won the battle. Yes, melody is an important part in film music because it is what people will mostly remember about a song. In the Princess Leia song it makes me feel joyous or like they have won an war. In the Darth Vader theme song, The song made me feel like they were preparing to go to war. Yes, I do feel like these songs have a better impact on me because I know where the music is coming from and I can go and watch the movies if I want to. Yes, I can appreciate Hildegard’s music because it is a beautifully written and shows a lot of different emotions during the song.

BLOG #4

Yes, the eagle dance example was very entertaining to me since I do have Native American culture that I grew up with. Yes, I did notice the vocal quality. No, I do not think this is the kind of vocals one would use for pleasure now-a-days, but there are some people who do like music like this piece. Yes, having the dancers along with the music does help with understanding the song. It helps understand and display the type of emotion that is trying to be expressed in the song. Watching the Bobby McFerrin video was very entertaining to me because that was the first time that I have seen someone do music in that type of way. The vocables are different because in the eagle dance they are more from the heart and display culture and in Bobby McFerrins video his vocables were whatever fit the beat he was trying to create. McFerrins vocables made me feel warm and happy on the inside because it was something that I have never seen before. The eagle dance made me feel like I was preparing to celebrate at an event.

BLOG #5

The piece of music that I have chosen for this assignment is Yellow Submarine by The Beatles. The melody of this song is “we all live in a yellow submarine” And this line repeated through out the entire melody the song. This part of the song is more “catchy” than the rest of the song because this is were the song turns homophonic. The beginning of te song starts monophonic and is a very calming sense Then when you get to the melody part, the song has harmonies in the beat and it makes the listener pay more attention to that part because that is the part that they most wanted one to remember. This is the main reason why I chose this song. It was just so catchy that I would always sing it as a child.

Blog #6

Yes, I enjoyed listening to the two examples, even though, I do not like crickets very much. I liked how in class you let us just listen to the music and explained it to us and them we got to listen to the music and see it performed at the same time. I personally liked when I got to see when the music was sung and performed at the same time. I really liked the Il est bel et bon. I did not understand what was happening at first, but after it was explained what was happening in the video about the piece I really liked the expression that the singers were putting on as if they were the women talking. Yes, the word painting did help me understand what was happening. With the language barrier, having the word painting helps put the piece into context. I may not be able to understand what they are saying specifically, but having the word painting did help me understand the humor in both of the pieces. I was able to understand the music better when I was watching the music be performed. Just listening to both pieces I would find myself being confused in the music itself. When the song was presented to me by the video I could see who was singing what part and by the facial expressions on the singers I felt as if I was understanding what they were saying.

BLOG #7

There is some text painting in my chosen song, Yellow Submarine by The Beatles. The first one that I heard was at the beginning of the song the music started out slow paced and kind of anxiously excited. The lyrics were telling a story about how there was a man telling them about his submarine adventures. The second example I heard in the song was in the chorus. The lyrics were telling the audience about the submarine adventures. The music sped up and started to sound like the working of a machine. This song uses a lot of text painting so you can imagine the lyrics that are being sung about.

BLOG #8

In the song, The yellow submarine, the piece has quite a few dynamic changes going on through out the song. At the beginning of the song, it starts off at a low dynamic. The writers did this because it is telling a story and they want you to listen to words that are being sung. The song get a higher dynamic when the chorus is being sung. It gets louder in the chorus because they want you to feel the togetherness that is being sung. They want you to think about being with your friends, all talking to each other. Usually that can be a loud time. Yes, when the dynamic get louder it does make the music more interesting to me. It makes me pay more attention to the song because I begin to wonder why the music is becoming louder. In the song, the timbre of the song is bright and happy. The writers of the song wanted the song to have a warm feeling of happiness. These changes in timbre occur also when the chorus happens in the song and when the music has a louder dynamic.