Unit 5

Period Overview
Step 1

Describe what the scene might look like based on the musical elements used to evoke certain emotions, thoughts or images.
A.  Metemorphosis Five

Listening to this piece, I picture a very tall spiraling tower that goes quite high into the sky. It has many windows so that you can see inside, and I can picture it just being a very tall spiral staircase. At the top is an observatory and telescopes to analyze the sky at night. It is a very peaceful and relaxing sight, both looking at the tower and being on top of it. This piece has a very magical feeling to it, even though it is the same melody repeated over and over again. The ending is nothing dramatic or impactful, it is just a nice relaxing fade with no real elaborate ending.

B.  The Kiss

I really enjoyed listening to this one, as it had a very nice feeling of older manors and mansions. It makes me picture a time long before advanced technology, and there is a large mansion hidden back within a very dark and mysterious woods. When the tempo starts to feel as though it picks up, I imagine that you're approaching the mansion and then tension within you is starting to increase. Once you arrive, there is that relaxing feeling that you made it through the mysterious woods without being injured. Yet it still has a very mysterious and a bit of an unsettling feeling. You then continue into the mansion and walk around it, finding something such as a garden or beautifully decorated hedge maze. That's when the really peaceful and relaxing melody plays, since up until then you had been surrounded by very mysterious and odd things.

Step 2
Provide a free written narrative in response to Musique de tables (1987) by Theirry de Mey (b. 1956) 
This is quite an interesting way to make music, but it really does not interest me as much. On my free write for Drumming I stated that a piece really needs to have a strong sense of pitches and dynamics, which is something I do not really get from this. Yes it is really interesting, and it adds on more as time goes on, but it just does not interest me the slightest. At some times I see that they're playing something but I hear nothing. It seems as though there is a lot of depth behind all of this and the work that goes into playing this, but it does not impact me as much as other pieces. The only thing I could really think of while listening to this whole piece was that your hands would probably be in a lot of extreme pain at the end of this piece.

Step 3
 What musical elements would categorize Imaginary Landscape by John Cage as 'Chance Music'?

The entire piece is based on relying on the music that is on the radio. This makes it chance music because it relies on the musicians and what they do, as well as what is being played over the radio. Over time, the sound of music changes as well as where you are currently living. Certain things are controlled, such as the dynamics and the tempo is set and shown by the conductor. But almost everything else is varied based on what is heard at the time. Multiple melodies and harmonies are being combined in this piece, as well as different pitches and rhythms. There are so many things that you cannot control, which makes this chance music. Each small piece played has a different mood and style. But this, in turn, makes its own mood and style of the song. This piece feels very uncontrollable yet organized. Each person has a specific job/task during this piece and it all comes together to form this very odd and disorganized piece that is all reliant on chance.
 
Step 4
Provide a free written narrative in response to Drumming by Steve Reich

At first, this piece sounds very simplistic and basic. But as time goes on, the piece becomes more elaborate, increasing the tempo and the amount of beats played. It starts out as one singular beat, but then it increases until the point where it feels like organized madness. It also switches people in and out, which adds more effects such as a decrease in dynamics since there aren't as many people playing at the same time. In my mind though, this feels quite boring after a while. After listening to it for 4.5 minutes I have gotten quite bored of it. Even though it changes up a bit, it just feels like one sound being played at different times. Yes the melodies and stuff change up, but it feels as though there is no real substance to the whole piece. This makes me realize how much my mind relies on dynamics and pitches for music, because when a piece is really not as strong in it as others I seem to become quite bored of it.

Period Research
Step 1

Provide notable world/historical events that punctuated the late Twentieth Century

World War II, The Golden Age, The Vietnam War, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his 'I Have A Dream' speech, and the end of the Cold War
Define the following terms associated with late Twentieth Century art and music

Avante-Garde - in the most advanced style
Serialism - technique of composing with a series (usually a twelve-tone)
Chance Music - a type of music in which certain elements are not specified by the composer and are left to chance
Minimalism - a style involving many repetitions of simple musical (in the late 20th century)

Step 2
 Describe the process of preparing a piano for a performance of Prepared Piano by John Cage
It takes at least 3 hours to prepare a piano for a performance of Prepared Piano. The process involves inserting assorted objects such as screws and pieces of rubber between the strings on the piano in order to change the sound of the strings. The instructions state what objects must be placed on which notes, and where exactly those objects should be placed along the strings. Although this seems very detailed, it does not include information such as the size of the objects. It also does not include information on the length of the objects. The sounds also depend on the placement of the assorted objects. To place the objects in the piano, you should use a screwdriver and add or remove the objects very slowly so that you do not damage the strings on the piano.

Step 3
Describe musical effects of Sonata II for Prepared Piano by John Cage
It has a very unique and odd sound that I've never heard before in my whole life. My ears can barely identify the usual piano notes or pitches. The rhythm sounds like a very basic and repeated sound, and the tempo isn't too fast. I feel bad because I can barely identify anything from this piece, but it is quite difficult since it sounds so unique and outlandish. The music is quite catchy but has no real set mood or expression. Overall this is a very nice piece, but it causes me slight discomfort since I can barely identify anything about it.

Step 4
Provide a brief narrative explaining proper audience etiquette to include suggested do's and don'ts, advice on when to clap and when to not clap, etc. 

The do's and don'ts and when to clap can vary between each genre of music. For example, at a jazz concert, it would be appropriate to applaud after a soloist finishes his/her solo. But when going to see an orchestra, it is not appropriate to applaud in the middle of a piece. At rock concerts, it is ok to jump around, yell the lyrics of a song, and scream cheers after every song. But again, doing something like that wouldn't be as appropriate if you attended an orchestra performance. There are generic things in proper audience etiquette that most people tend to understand, such as not throwing things at the performers. But there are exceptions to that, for example, fans threw mud onto the stage of a Green Day concert one time. Getting up to go do something during a performance can be very rude as well. At a rock concert, it does not really matter since they tend to be very crazy. In an orchestra, if you get up in the middle of a piece, it is considered very rude and inappropriate.

The Late Twentieth Century-Chapter 23

Step 1
Notes: However, the truly exciting prospect for new sonorities in music emerged out of technology developed during the war: the production of music by electronic means. Shortly after World War II composers began incorporating the sounds of life into their compositions. This they called “concrete” music because it used actual sound, as contrasted with the “abstract” products of electronic sound generators. Sounds (traffic street noise was a favorite) were recorded on tape, painstakingly manipulated, and then (usually) put on phonograph discs. Musique concrete lives on, in a sense, in sampling, now that technology has made it easy for anything that is recorded — traffic noise, commercial records, special effects — to be put under keyboard control for easy combination.

Step 2

Listen Site Reading & Listening Quizzes: