Exploring Music 2/3/2015 To explore some of the ways in which music relates to its social, cultural, political, economic and artistic context; To introduce and apply principles of research through critical academic writing To develop competence in information literacy and the principles of documentation If I need help who should I go to? Student Admin, Program Convenor, Course Convenor and Tutors, First Year Coordinator, Student Services, English HELP, www.griffith.studentservices.com.au Five senses of student success Sense of Connectedness, Sense of identity, Sense of capability, Sense of resourcefulness, Sense of purpose Putting aside time to study for each course, class attendance, Having a clear goal or purpose for attending university is also a very strong predictor of academic success and helps protect against dropping out Use your Griffith Email 9/3/2015 Lecture NotesClassical instrumental music: Some Key Contemporary issues The people who effect the way a piece is viewed are critics, audiences and performers Some composers would not be famous unless musicians played them Original context vs later usage The Western Canon of repertoire Established repertoire vs experimentalism vs commercialism of culture The phenomenon of ticket buying is recent Programming conventions have evolved The antithetical concepts of entertainment vs culture From the 19th century composers became aware they needed to communicate to larger audiences The phenomenon of the touring virtuoso Domestic music making and publishing music became prominent Music critics, that we learn how the music was received Orchestras were not a stable entity until the 19th century Growing dominance of a few genres Oratorio, Symphony, Overture/programmatic works, Concerto Handel produced first Oratorios in English Change from public to social function Beethoven saw himself as a very individual person Politics, philosophy, literature, nature as inspiration: Beethovens No.3 Eroica connected with Napolean Contemporary philosophy and society Beethoven is one of the most prominent figures in music, you cannot avoid him, he had a large impact on the musical world Post-Beethoven composers such as Bruckner struggled Excerpts derived from opera e.g William Tell Overture Some retained purity of symphony vs program music in other genres Emerging nationalistic cultures used program music to tell stories Solo artist in dialogue/competition with large orchestra Instrumental equivalent to operatic diva How did the growth of the canon come about? Beethovens symphonies are played frequently but are not one of the most works he played Experimentalists only occasionally were immediately accepted Beethovens Eroica symphony Number 3, The longest symphony to date Larger Structures eg. Extended first movement of sonata form, finale is in variation form Masterpiece of rhythmic and melodic ideas Major conflicts impacted on cultural life eg. World War 1, Russian Revolution, rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany, Great Depression, World War Two Some people wanted to challenge standard genres eg. Debussy Schoenbery avoided sonata form and investigated modality and atonality Modernism in orchestral music grew both from within the concert tradition and also in parallel genres of opera ballet, eg. Stravinsky In the world of visual arts, there is this mentality of different Debussy La Mer and Images pictorial titles, but not programmatic Schoenberg Five Pieces for Orchestra, fragmentary, inconclusive, colours RITE OF SPRING Primitivist setting reflected in primeval rhythms/use of ostinato The rite of spring was meant to depict the way people worship the return of spring Use of dissonance Complex orchestration arising from layering of instrumental groups Division between avante garde and established repertoire during the later 20th century Variations to norm more acceptable if linked to past, eg. Revival of Mahler in the 1960s Totalitarian regimes dictated cultural policy Recordings used to document authoritative interpretations, disseminate music, also for career promotion Broadcasting from 1920s-orchestras/choirs in residence, new works commissioned Ligeti, Atmospheres Music in film creates this powerful form of communication medium: popular musical genres The Heroic Symphony contains much to admire, but it is difficult.. What keeps our instrumental music sustained? Sustainability Innovation Interpretation 11/3/2015 Tutorial NotesExploring Music Lecture Notes 16/3/2015Topic: Opera Opera is very connected to western classical music Opera=Work There is much overlap between opera and musical theatre The essence of opera is that the music is integral and is not incidental as in a musical or play with music oxford music dictionary The term opera not only covers the form of music but the act of performing it Three Contemporary Issues The perception of opera as an elitist, highbrow and extravagant form of entertainment Balancing the elements of opera Opera has a reputation as one of the most effective methods yet invented of losing money Nicholas Payne Opera (highbrow, elite)vs Music Theatre (popular) Styles of vocal production (changing aesthetic fashions) The human voice naturally filling a huge space Expensive/extravagant presentation of unconvincing/irrelevant stories. Traditional funding sources drying up As funding has dried up opera companies have had less opportunity to take artistic risks Strong distinction between serious and comic forms This is progress I tell you Opera has 3 systems to create something that is more than the sum of its parts Visual Spectacle Drama Social issues in the 19th century opera Moral issues of love, duty, heroism and betrayal Issues of class Nationalism Revolution Exploring Music Tutorial 19/3/2015 Question while you are surveying What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject Is this relevant to specific aspects of my assignment topic What do I already know about this subject? What is the authors reasoning? Is each point justified? Is there enough evidence? Look for the answers to the questions you first raised Make sure you understand what you are reading Take notes from the text but write the information succinctly The more sense you use the more likely you are to remember what you read Quadruple strength: Seeing, saying, reading, writing LOOK AT RESOURCES SECTION OF LEARNING AT GRIFFITH What is the distinctive nature of opera? It incorporates many different styles Caro Nome from Verdis Rigoletto Aria=emotions and resistive is like script Flow on effect is lost when there is no multitude of performances23/3/2014 Exploring world music and sustainability: An introduction to the idea of music cultures as ecosystems and the rise of applied music research. Sound Futures- Sustaining Music, Engaging Communities While music research can be traced back many centuries to the Greeks, Arabs, Indian and Chinese one of the defining moments for western musicology was Guido Adlers essay Three important constructs: Research was conducted in the conviction that researchers could be objective and dispassionate Musicology was eager to prove itself as a proper science There were no challenges to an evolutionary idea about music, with western art music at the top Western musicology is still roughly organized around the structure they generated The risk of diversity declining, disappearing or even entire traditions being disappeared is real. What kind of supports structures exists for the music in terms of funding, tax breaks, copyright? What adverse regulations exists such as noise limits, censorship, taxation, visa restrictions Exploring Music Tutorial 26/3/2015 In what environments and for what occasions is music made? Music Exploring Music- Jazz a Hybrid Music 30/3/2015 Hybrid-Anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds Heterogeneous- composed parts of different kinds having a widely dissimilar elements or constituents Indigenous American art form Emereged in southern USA particularly from New Orleans Early 20th century Fusion of blues and ragtime with brass band music and syncopated dance music Eileen Southern, 1983 African concept of rhythm-Regular steady pulse: swing Improvisation Spread of Jazz Overseas Early interest in Europe UK and Aus Imitations of American Sources Homegrown content subjected to jazz processes to produce local jazz hybrids around the world New York City, 1940s Evolution of Bebop- foundation of modern jazz sound Cubop Afro-Cuban rhythms/jazz harmony/improvisation John Birks Dizzy Gillespie- trumpeter, band leader, composer, arranger Luciano Pozo Gonzales (Chano Pozo) Miles Davis, was a significant jazz innovator throughout his career Controversial, visible influential figure in jazz during the 1960S and 70s Modal Jazz- Simple harmonically, emphasis on melody, space, beauty, alternative to playing changes