Ludwig Wittgenstein

When a person listens to the performance of an orchestra, they are not just hearing the richness of the cello, the frantic trills of the flute, or the low rumbles of the tuba, they are listening to a culture. Each player has the same beginning, a new sheet of music. Ultimately, it is up to the individual how they perceive and produce a score. They can copy how another player articulates a certain measure or how they slur a string of notes because there is no one way of playing. When each…

The conditions that composers had to work under during the Baroque era were very difficult. Johann Sebastian Bach had to overcome many obstacles to get to where he wanted. Some of them were that he was not free to create his own music, the Duke Wilhelm only wanted him to practice the Hymns he did not think that they needed new music he just liked the old hymns. Also, the concertmaster was about to retire and he was the most qualified person to fill his position but they only lied to him. They…

1. Affective Listening: Describe the music listened to for this week and reflect on your reactions to the music. Things to consider may include your familiarity and previous exposure to the works, your emotional reactions to the music, thoughts that occurred to you while listening, memories associated with past listening or performances, unique compositional aspects such as instrumentation, phrasing, structure that stand out to you, etc. Both of these compositions differ from our previous…

The genius of the ingenious New York city-based jazz trio The Bad Plus can be heard again on their twelfth studio album entitled “It’s Hard”, a collection of covers that originally inhabited the pop, rock, country, jazz, and electronic music universes. Its concept contrasts with the last year’s mandatory album, “The Bad Plus Joshua Redman”, whose tracks were composed by the members of the quartet. The album opens with “Maps”, an original song by the American indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs,…

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel is French and lived from the 7th of March 1875 to the 28th of December 1937. He was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with and along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was known as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire. He was not well regarded by its…

During the medieval times, which was the period between c1150-c1400, the music created started out in the form of a monody, which meant music was written as a single line. This is the earliest period where we can be pretty sure of how the music that survived actually sounded. The manuscripts for music during this time were often influenced by religion through the churches, which was a common place of learning. It was during the 11th to 13th century where monody music turned into organum music,…

Joseph Willcox Jenkins was born to William Jenkins and Genevieve Brosseau in the city of Philadelphia in 1928. Jenkins was exposed to music starting at a young age, likely receiving interest and exposer from his mother, who played piano and sang. Beginning at age six, Jenkins took piano lessons from his mother. As part of his piano instruction, Jenkins recited melodies on the piano and transposed the melodies into different keys as. This practice gave Jenkins a great leap into aural skills…

Beethoven was an interesting character. He has gone through much in his lifetime that it is understandable that his character is an interesting and complex one. In Chapter 27 of Downs’s Classical Music, Downs gives his interpretation of Beethoven and what kind of person he was. From what was gathered in this chapter, Downs is not just stating the facts, but gives Beethoven a variety of personalities. In my sense of the composer from Downs’s text, Beethoven was an infant prodigy turned to a…

The 20th century was trivial in the world of music. It lead to the development of new genres and musical concepts. Composers around the world wrote beautiful pieces that forever influenced music. Of these composers, many consider Arnold Schoenberg to be one of the most important musicians of this era. Although the majority of people in the 20th century did not appreciate Schoenberg’s extremely modern work, his pieces led to much innovation in the world of music. He wrote numerous works of…

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concerto V for Flute, String Orchestra and Basso continuo Op. 10/5, RV 434 This famous Italian Baroque composer has been recognized and appreciated for the amount of works he produced and the unique characteristic style he infused into his music. In this particular genre he is most often known for the group of violin concerti collectively called “The Seasons.” In the roughly 300 solo concertos he wrote, of which about 230 are for violin, he became the first…