Music in Television

Music plays an important part in television. For my hour of television I watched Law and Order SVU. The music made the show more suspenseful when there was a dramatic scene. The music adds emotions and a deeper sense of feelings into the show. The television shows would not be as exciting and popular if music was not involved. Music sets the scenes in television, just like movies.

10 Things I Hate About You

I watched the scene in 10 Things I Hate About You when they are coming back from the party. On the drive home Kat and Patrick where in the car. Their theme song came on when Kat was talking about starting a band. Their theme song is "Cruel to Be Kind" by Letters to Cleo. This song also comes on when they are at the dance together. The song fits the time and place of the scene. They are high school students in the late 90's and the song would have been played during that time. The next part of the scene is when Kat realizes she is starting to like Patrick and the music that is playing in the background is very quiet and subtle and a romantic vibe to the song. Then when Kat goes to kiss Patrick and he rejects her the music gets very loud and has a harsh sound which helps create a sense of climax of the scene. The music helps prorate the face that Kat is pissed.

Music in Movies

I watched Twilight for my Music in Movies blog. In the movie the music plays an important roll. The music adds depth and emotions to the film. I could not imagine a movie without music. In Twilight the music would add suspense or romantic emotions during the sceene. During the sceene where James attacks Bella the music adds depth and suspense. It makes you more into what is going on. On another note about music in movies, one of the reason "scary" movies are scary to me is because of the music. I do not think I would be scared in movies if there was not any music. Sometimes the music forshadows what is going to happen in the next sceene. Then other times it makes you jump. I do not think movies would be as popular as they are today without music.

Computer

I listened to "As Things Were" by Paul Lansky. The song was different. It had a ringing bell sound that was played during the whole piece while random letters were said. The bell sound started off quiet and soft then as the piece progressed the bell noise started to get louder and more intense. There was a main rhythm to the louder bells then there was another bell sound that was quieter that did three notes that went lower on the scale. The song was nothing like what I have heard before, all because computers have entered the music world.

Old Sound Recording

I listened to a song from Perry's Victory called "Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal" by Captain Pearl R. Nye. The song had some interference noise in the background, but the singing was clear enough to hear and make out most of the words. The start of the song was the hardest part to understand, but as Nye kept singing the more words I was able to understand. The song was all vocals and no instruments.

Notation

When trying to come up with a new way to write a notation, I was kind of stumped. I thought about putting a picture of the finger chart underneath the note. I thought that would have gotten to complex when there is runs and 16th notes. Then I thought of getting rid of the scale and only having pictures, but again the whole picture thing got to complicated. Personally, I think the way that music is noted today is a great way, it is easy to read and comprehend. The music sheets are universal which makes it a lot more versatile.

Two Songs

The first song I listened to was from Naxos. It was the first movement from Clavierbung II- Italian Concerto/Overture (Partita) in the French Style (Weimann) in F Major called Allegro by J.S Bach. As the name of the piece implies the piece had a fast pace about 120 beats per minute. The piece had a structure of A B C B’ C’ D B” C” D’ A. The intro of the piece was a few notes than a pause, then a few notes than a pause. Then went into the first verse then had a bridge into the chorus. Then it went into a different section D. Then back to the second verse then a bridge into a little different sounding chorus. Then went into a little different sounding D, and then ended with the intro again. The music was mainly conjuct and homophonic texture with a melody and accompaniment.
The second piece was from my own collection. The song selected was “Days Go By” by Keith Urban. It has a structure of A B C B’ C D C’ B” C Section A is the guitar solo introduction to the song. Section B and C and there derivatives are fast pace about 120 beats per minute maybe a little faster. It seemed to be a little faster than the last piece. Section D slowed down to a moderate tempo. Then C’ slowly accelerated back to a pace of 120. The song has a conjuct and homophonic texture. The song was in 4:4 time, mainly quarter notes were played within the song.

Electrophones

I listened to 4 different genres of music which included country, rock, jazz and dance/electronic. The first genre was country. Most songs did not have any electrophones in the song. There was a Keith Urban song and a Kenny Chesney song that had an electric guitar, that was the only electrophone. The next station was rock. There were a lot of electronic guitars and keyboards in almost every song. There were a few songs that the electric guitar was the main instrument. The next genre was jazz and there were a few songs that had a keyboard instead of a piano. There was no electric guitars or any other electrophone. The last station was dance/electronic. I picked this station because I expected that there would be a few electronphones present. There was electric guitars, keyboards and some other instrument that might be more of a computerized instrument, not quite sure what category of instruments it would be considered.

WGUC

I have heard many different types of aerophones in the hour of listening to WGUC radio station. The first song was "Fantastic Toy Shop" by Ottorino Respighi. The conductor was Neville Marriner. The piece was played by an orchestra, and the areophones were flutes, clarinets, oboes, trumpet and I think a tuba and a french horn. The woodwind instruments had the melody while the trumpets, tubas and other brass instruments had the accompaniment. The second song was "Toward a New Life" by Josef Suk. The conductor was John Williams. The piece was also played by an orchestra, and the areophones were flutes, clarinets, oboes, trumpet,tuba and a french horn. There were a lot of brass instruments in this piece. Unlike the other piece the horns played the melody while the woodwinds had the accompaniment. The next piece was "Concerto for 2 Mandolins" by Antonio Vivaldi. The conductor was Trevor Pinnock and soloist were James Tyler. By the title name I did not think there was going to be any areophones, but I was wrong. There were flutes and clarinets that played with the violins. Unlike the other two songs, the areophones were the focus of the song. The last song I listened to was "Concert Rondo "Krakowiak"" by Frederic Chopin and conducted by Kazimierz Kord. The areophones in this piece was clarinets, flutes, oboe and a french horn. The clarinet had some melody solos and so did the flute. The main instrument in this song is the piano, which is not an areophone.

Keyboards

The first keyboard that has had an impact on music is the piano. The piano has become a symbol for music. It has helped shape music in what we know today. I think almost every genre of music has a piano playing some where in the song or piece. I think it is amazing that people still play the same design piano as musicians played back when the piano first came out. Today, the piano has inspired musical instrument inventors to take the idea of hitting a key and producing a tone to a whole new level. Keyboards can produce almost any note from any instrument that the musician would want. I like the idea that different tones and sounds can be produced from pressing a key, but I also think that producing a wind instrument or brass sound from pressing a key is kind of taking away the art of playing the instrument. The skill that comes from playing a wind instrument or brass instrument is unique to that instrument and being able to play that tones by pressing a key and not playing the instrument is kind of depressing. I am not saying that playing a wind or brass instrument is harder than a keyboard, I am just saying it is a different skill. If a keyboard could play all the instruments with a push of a key, what will happen to the instruments that the keyboard has replaced? I think that the advancing technology of a keyboard is interesting and it has effected the music world by producing many different sounds, I just hope that one day it does not replace all the musical instruments.

Guitars

I listened to four different genres of music during an hour period. The first station I listened to was country. I was able to listen to a few songs. All the songs I heard on the country station the guitar was the main instrument and most songs had more than one guitar. The guitar had its own solos in the songs and was played almost the entire song. The next station I listened to was hiphop/rap. The guitar was nearly absent in almost every song. The next station was jazz. No songs I listened to had a guitar present in the song. The last station I listened to was a rock station. The rock songs were more like the country songs when it came to the role the guitar played in the song. The guitar was usually the dominate instrument and had some solos. The guitar even out-shinned the lead singer. The guitar has different functions in different genres. Country and rock show off the wide range of sounds the guitars produce, whereas the jazz and rap genres do not include guitars. I am more of a fan of genres that include guitars.

Listening To DPR

When listening to DPR for an hour, I was able to hear four songs, “Spanish Gypsy’s” by Emogo Moody, “Contours” by William Sincock, “Francesa Da Rimini” by Peter Chiykowski and “The New York Phil Harmonic” by Leonard Bernstain. The first song was upbeat and fast past. This song did not have that many chordophones playing, the main one I heard throughout the piece was the violin followed by the ukulele. The second song consisted of violins, cello and violas. There were also pianos and a bass. The third song was my favorite out the four songs. The piece had an interesting story behind the music. The story was about two people who are in true love, but the women is secretly in love with her brother-in-law. The brother-in-law and wife have an affair and are sent to hell. The song focuses around the couples’ journey through hell and the nine stages of suffering. The chordophones in the song was the piano, violin and bass. The last piece had mainly violins played in a fast, upbeat tempo with the piano.

Membranophone

I decided to make a drum like membranophone. Luckily, it was garbage night so I got my idea using an empty small garbage can and a trash bag. It was very hard to produce a solid sound because the garbage bag would not get taught, without starting to break my roommates garbage can. I held together the trash bag with duck tape. My drum was played with a pen, and it produced an okay sound. I would have liked the trash bag to be more tight on top of the garbage can.

Journal Three: Jones Soda Idiophone

I created an Idiophone out of Jones Soda bottles. I first was looking for tin cans or supplies to make a rainmaker. I did not have any tin cans around the house and I did not have a paper towel roll to make a rainmaker. So instead, I used the Jones Soda bottles that we had on display in our kitchen. I filled five bottles all with 1/4 ratios to each other. The first bottle had 1/4 cup of water and the last had 1 1/4 cup of water. I played the Jones Soda Idiophone with a fork. I had to add and subtract some water to try to get the right tone.

Journal Three: S.H.R.M.F

I do not have a favorite song, so I decided to pick the next song on Yahoo Music to describe. The next song that came on was Kellie Pickler “Best Days of Your Life”. Appling the S.H.R.M.F concept from class, I can describe the song.
Sound: The texture of the song is homophonic. There is a melody and accompaniment.
Harmony: The song is in major. It is upbeat and sounds happy. The song is also diatonic.
Rhythm: The rhythm is an upbeat, fast tempo.
Melody: The song is mainly steps with some skips. The contour of the songs starts climbing up goes back down and stays down then starts climbing back up again throughout the whole song.
Form: The song repeats the main chorus and has verse.

Journal Two: Music I Have Heard in a 24-Hour Period

In class, we discussed the topic, “What is Music?” To me music is organized noise and good music is organized noise that is easily listened to without hurting one’s ears. I started paying attention to what music I have heard in a 24-hour period. I started listening Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 6:30pm until Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 6:30pm. I like to listen to music when I am at home cleaning, working on homework or just hanging around with my friends. Since Saturday was a weekend night, I heard a lot of music. I heard everything from rock to country to screaming music. I started my night by listening to “Today’s Big Hits” on Yahoo Radio. I heard songs like: The Climb by Miley Cirus, Never Say Never by The Fray, Fire Burning by Sean Kingston, Battlefield by Jordan Sparks, Day ‘ N’ Nite by Kid Cudi, Closer by Ne-Yo, Me & U by Cassie, I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, Fallin’ For You by Colbie Caillat, Calle Ocho by Pitbull, Sweet Dreams by Beyonce and Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. When I went to go hang out with friends, each house had a different type of music playing. At one house there was songs by Journey, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Flogging Molly and some newer rock music that I did not know the artist or song name. At another friends house they played country songs. There was Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, George Straight, Tim McGraw and other country artists. Walking to my friends’ houses, I heard other people playing music, some rap and screaming music. Saturday I heard many different types of music and was mainly music that one would hear on the radio. Sunday I heard the same type of music that one would hear on the radio but I also heard my neighbors playing their guitar. Hearing my neighbors playing was a nice change of music from the radio because it was a different beats and no singing which in my opinion is nice sometimes. While doing my homework and writing this journal the bird outside my window was chirping and to me that is music. The song the bird was singing was peaceful and easy to listen too. I have realized that I listen to a lot of music.

Journal One: Sitting in Silence

On Saturday, August 29 2009 from 6pm until 6:30pm, I sat in my room in silence listening to everything around me. There were many different sounds coming from inside and outside my house. Inside my house, I heard the clinking and banging of pots and pans of my housemate cooking dinner. She also had on some Taylor Swift music playing in the background. There were people talking while passing my room. I heard the fan on my computer humming, which actually got a little annoying after listening to it for a full half hour because it never turned off. I also heard my AC fan kick on and off periodically in the half hour. My phone kept beeping and played Kellie Pickler song, which is my ringtone. There was also beeping coming from my computer saying that I had an instant message. I also heard the water running in the shower and the toilet flushing, while my housemates started getting ready for the night. I listened to the noise that my pencil made on my paper while I took notes and the noise I made fidgeting on my bed. There was a lot of noise coming from outside. There were cars and motorcycles going down the street. Air planes flying over my house. There were kids screaming and playing while their parents were talking about what their plans were for the weekend. My neighbor’s dog was barking and birds chirping. The birds’ chirping was very peaceful and a lovely sound. The bird was singing a nice little tune. Overall, there is a lot of noise that can happen in a half hour if one would just listen. I did not expect to hear as much as I did in a half hour.