Today we continued discussing the tests and focused on the various terms. We also dealt with the list of pieces of music and did some listening at the end of class. We again covered a wide gamut of music including early music, serialism, and American musicals. In fact we discussed Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and Irving Berlin. My questioning of the lasting value of Irving Berlin was gently questioned when a student pointed out that as long as we sang "God Bless America" and "White Christmas" Irving Berlin would always be remembered!
Our brief discussion of Gershwin took us to a funny story involving Ravel, followed by the acknowledgment of Porgy and Bess as the culminating work of Gershwin's career. Speaking of Ravel, we discussed Bolero and how it is used in helping autistic children. It has two themes plus rhythm and was composed in reaction to the excess development style preferred by the Germans. Ironically Bolero does indeed develop but not in the traditional way.
In discussing Richard Rodgers we listed several musicals including King and I, Sound of Music, South Pacific, State Fair, Oklahoma, Cinderella, and many others. He worked with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein and before that Lorenz Hart.
Our talk of early music revolved around Machaut and went into Gesualdo and finally Buxtehude. We spent some time on the Concerto Grosso concept in the Baroque and had a brief discussion of the Mannheim School which is considered the beginning of the symphony. The Stamitzes (Johann and Carl) were part of the Mannheim school and helped develop the orchestra, particularly the clarinet and the violin.
There are plenty of things left to discuss such as opera, lied, expressionism, modes, isorhythm, avant garde, and many composers, but at the same time we have had some healthy discussions. One thing we spent time on was neoclassicism. Of course, I tricked the class by playing Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. It sounds rather Mozartian at times but a careful listening reveals enough modernisms to take it out of the Classical period. Yet many composers of the 20th Century seemed to enjoy the "looking back" idea and adopted several of the concepts of the classical period. Probably the most well-known was Stravinsky who spent the middle of his illustrious career writing music in a neoclassic vein. Other composers who experimented with this idea include Respighi, Hindemith, Barber to an extent, Ravel, and Lukas Foss.
After listening to some music we ended rather stimulated to learn more music (at least that is my wish!). Time to discuss early music.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Prokofiev was tricky. Though you did warn us before hand that if you played him it would be hard to tell. I gussed that it was neo classical but not the composer. My favorite work of his is March Op. 99. I'm a little biased. You'll see why if you listen to it.
ReplyDeleteAfter a day and half off the internet, our service was finally restored and I have read/watched the videos on this installment. Over the weekend I'll be listening more and will come back on and make a more coherent comment.
ReplyDeleteWent to YouTube and listened to the Prokofief.
ReplyDeleteEven during my former college days I didn't listen to a lot of Mozart, and didn't have the inclination to listen to his works while raising my children (silly me). So I'm not terribly familiar with Mozart.
I already knew the secret, of course, that this piece wasn't Mozart, but I still think I would have quickly began to suspect that Mozart wasn't the composer. There was a modern-ish chord change soon after the beginning, and these sorts of chord changes and more contemporary devices were strung throughout the work.
If I were to have had any doubts that this was a more contemporary piece, I might have wavered during the 3rd movement...but then it was so short that that would have been a clue.
Do like it, though. A lot.
Esther
I thought the discussion on Prokofiev applied to our earlier discussion on what will happen to music in the next hundred years. Prokofiev definitely sounded like Mozart and the piece was composed some 150 plus years after Mozart's death. I think this shows that we will probably see a revival of older styles again.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this class...listening examples always help to stimulate my brain! Comparing music of different time periods and hearing the change is also very interesting to me.
ReplyDelete