John Cage, the “prepared” piano 🔩🎹🔩

I have never heard of a “prepared” piano before discussing it in this class. To be honest, seeing the piano all geared up like that makes my heart ache a little. John Cage invented this Frankenstein piano by placing different screws, nails, and other material among the strings in order to transform the traditional sound of a piano. The piano thus became a very percussive instrument through this process. Cage provides very detailed specifications for the preparation of this particular piano. The variety of materials used creates a wide range of different effects from the piano such as altered pitches and percussive, nonpitched sounds as well.

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Cage composed a piece for his invention titled Sonatas and Interludes, which contains sixteen sonatas and interludes between sets of four sonatas. The piece featured in our Norton Scores is Sonata V. This sonata is in binary form and revolves around only five pitches from B to E-flat. It is a subtle reference, but the percussive elements, timbre and contour within this piece reflects influence from a Gamelan Ensemble. Cage’s style is truly unique and he has made a name for himself through his trademark of interpreting and transforming music to encompass the foundation of this art form: noise. This piece is both soothing and eerie at the same time. If one listens to it without knowledge of what instrument is being used, a piano with congested with screws and bolts will never be the first guess.

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Even though I empathize with the piano and feel its uneasiness of having foreign objects within the midst of its well-structured stings and dampers, the “prepared” piano is an innovative and extremely original idea that I respect. I enjoy this piece very much and think it sounds mysterious and intriguing. I urge all of you to listen to the other sonatas and interludes of this work!

Maple Leaf Rag🍁Scott Joplin

A constant left hand accompaniment that can’t stay away from strong beats and a cordial right hand that can’t stay away from weak beats. Ah yes my friends, this is the sound of a good ol’ rag. For many who have heard the pineapple rag in theory class, the Maple Leap Rag sounds undoubtedly like it was written by the same composer! Scott Joplin is the son of a former slave and the first to make a name for himself as an African American composer. He is mainly known for his piano rags which became a big hit in the 1890s. He is not called the “King of Ragtime” for nothing!

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In a rag, the main melodic sections are called strains. One can tell where these sections are by the subtle, yet prominent transitions between the different melodies, and these sections are usually repeated as well. In the Maple Leaf Rag, there are four sixteen-measure strains that are each repeated. After the repeat of the second strain, section B, the first strain returns briefly and then the piece continues its usual course. The overall form of this rag is A-A-B-B-A-C-C-D-D.

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The Maple Leaf Rag is one of the first rags that Scott Joplin composed, and it is also one of the most famous and influential rags. This piece became a model for other ragtime composers; influencing future works with its melodies, rhythmic patterns, and harmonic progressions.

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I enjoy this piece immensely because I love rags for their simplicity and jolliness. Listening to this piece along with any of Scoot Joplin’s rags always puts a smile on my face and gets me in a good mood. The characteristics in all of his rags seem to always give me a sense of start and stop, conflict and resolution. Joplin’s rags use syncopation and unprecedented presentation/resolution of harmonic progressions to dictate the beat and flavor of life. At least that is what this piece makes me think. Let me know what you think of when listening to this piece. 🙂

Vltava from Má vlast

Vlatava, The Moldau, is a river in Prague. This nationalistic piece by Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) is one of the six beautiful symphonic poems in his collection titled Má vlast (My Country). The poem that is set to this piece is quite majestic and reading it before listening to the piece helps bring the music alive and awakens the imagery painted by the instruments.

“Two springs pour forth in the shade of the Bohemian forest, one warm and gushing, the other cold and peaceful. Coming through Bohemia’s valleys, they grow into a mighty stream. Through the thick woods it flows as the merry sounds of a hunt and the notes of the hunter’s horn are heard ever closer. It flows through grass-grown pastures and lowlands where a wedding feast is being celebrated with song and dance. At night, wood and water nymphs revel in its sparkling waves. Reflected on its surface are fortresses and castles – witnesses of bygone days of knightly splendor and the vanished glory of martial times. The Moldau swirls through the St. John Rapids, finally flowing on in majestic peace toward Prague to be welcomed by historic Vysehrad. Then it vanishes far beyond the poet’s gaze.”

The beginning of the piece, titled “The Two Sources of The Moldau,” is peaceful as the river theme is introduced. There is a continuous flow throughout the first section by the sequences of sixteenth notes played amongst many of the instruments. Even the melody, played by the first violins, has a upward flow to it.

The second section is the “Forest Hunt” which is marked by the entrance of the horns, the hunting horns. There is great charisma in this section as the enthusiastic horns are supported by the constantly moving strings. The horns die away and the strings slowly transition into the “Peasant Wedding.”

The wedding section is in a joyous 2/4 beat and thus is very buoyant and happy. The rhythmic themes in this section are folk-dance rhythms that reflect the patriotism of Bohemia. The river passes the wedding feast quickly and moves onto the next section of “Moonlight: Nymphs’ Dance.”

This section is majestic. The strings are playing ever so lightly while the flute floats sixteenth sequences int he background. The harp chimes in occasionally which adds even more to the moonlight setting. The first river theme returns at the end and is followed by a sudden shift to an intense section of what seems to be distress. This may be depicting The Moldau swirling through the St. John Rapids.

The ending is triumphant and joyous as The Moldau arrives in Prague. There is a great rejoice in the end as heard from the explosive percussive accompaniment and horns. The whole piece ends with a return of the peaceful flow of the river. The upward and downward flow of the strings’ line symbolizes the vanishing of the river into the distance, “beyond the poet’s gaze.”

I truly love this piece after really listening to it and reading the poem. There is so much beautiful imagery painted into the music; Smetana did a marvelous job composing this piece to represent and honor his country.

Die Walküre, Wagner

I am quite enamored with Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen now that I know it exists.

This mythical, tragic drama is powerful in so many ways, and the music is written exquisitely and tailored nicely to the story’s content. Wagner begins this tremendously famous opera with a build of anticipation from the orchestra using trills and quick rhythmic movement in the woodwinds. These exchanges of trills lead to the entrance of the leading motives, or leitmotifs, played by the horns and other brass instruments. Wagner coins this well-known motive throughout this opening song; the motive can be heard several times and is always played with energy and triumph. At one point, the Valkyries are laughing but on pitches and in time with the orchestra, which adds to the joyous moods and playful manner of the sisters.

The Valkyries’ opening piece is vocally demanding of each woman. Not only are the melodies taxing range-wise, but the diverse mix of eighth note and sixteenth note motives combined with the constant upward leaps to high soprano-land all require proper technique and control of one’s voice. The layers and rapid rhythmic movement of the orchestra also calls for full, resonant voices in order for the performers to be heard.

The final piece of this opera is one full of themes depicting the certain elements of the scene. The last scene is the tragic farewell between Wotan (the king of Gods) and his beloved daughter, Brünnhilde, who disobeyed him. The themes of the last scene include: Magic Sleep, Magic Slumber, Magic Fire, Siegfried, and Fate. These themes are depicted in the music through tempo, rhythmic motives, an emphasized melody, and changes between minor and major keys.

I thought that the version of the opening and ending scenes we saw in class were really cool. The set was very clever and visually stimulating. The last scene is my favorite because of how the stage set slowly shifts to display Brünnhilde outward toward the audience with the magic fire surrounding her. What a powerful scene; I will never forget it!

Don Giovanni “Madamina, il catalogo è questo”

“Madamina, il catalogo è questo” is a famous bass aria in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This aria is very comical and the music is cleverly composed to musically depict the women described in the song.

Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant, is proudly exclaiming his master’s catalogue of women in order to dissuade Donna Elvira (a victim of these conquests) from pursuing after this womanizer. The aria has two main thematic sections: the first states the (ridiculous) number of women that Don Giovanni has conquered in various countries, and the second thoroughly describes the many women on this list both in personality and physical aspect.

The accompaniment in the first half of the aria is very fast paced with groups of eighth notes mostly in the right hand and simple chords and arpeggios (and sometimes eight not groupings) in the left hand. The melody of this section is monosyllabic and rhythmically driven. He breaks this fast-paced rhythmic theme at the end of the first section when he begins to list the physical characteristics of the women using sustained half notes, which leads into the next section.

The second section is slower and is monosyllabic and in some instances polysyllabic. The theme of this last half of the aria is the descriptions of the women Don Giovanni prefers and seeks. Mozart utilizes excellent word painting in this section. He juxtaposes two distinct types of women by their physicality–big and tiny. These two physical descriptions are emphasized by a contrast in note values in the music. The big, tall women are paired with longer notes (quarter and half), and the tiny, short women are expressed using melodic lines of sixteenth notes.

Overall, this aria is not only repulsively funny through the lyrics, but also engaging through the music. I especially enjoy the performance by Ferruccio Furlanetto (Leporello) and Solveig Kringelborn (Donna Elvira) in The Met’s production of this opera in 2000 with the famous cast of Bryn Terfel as Don Giovanni and Renee Fleming as Donna Anna.

From Up on Poppy Hill

From Up on Poppy Hill is a Studio Ghibli production, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by his son Goro Miyazaki, is one my favorite Miyazaki films. It is a simple but enticing story about two adolescents developing a relationship in the midst of trying to save the building that holds their high school’s clubs (called The Quartier Latin), while also facing the mystery of possibly being siblings.

Satoshi Takebe composed the music in this film. Although the setting of the movie is in Japan, some pieces in the film have some French and jazz influence. The vocalist for the film score is Aoi Teshima. She has a silky and airy voice that is soothing and smooth in ballads, and light and whimsy in upbeat songs.

This movie is very cute and aesthetically pleasing, and it is mainly because the music was well composed and bolsters the plot of the story. The story has a good balance of funny/easy-going scenes and serious scenes. The whole film has a sea voyage and nostalgic hometown theme. Most of the film songs have a nostalgic-feel to them and are peaceful ballads.

My favorite pieces in the movie are The Escape and The Breakfast Song. The theme song Summer of Farewells encompasses the sea theme very well. An important development in the story is that the female protagonist’s father was killed in the Korean War on a supply ship. She raises signal flags every morning to honor her father; thus, the significance of the sea plays a large role in this movie. The theme song is waltz-like (1-2-3) and has wave-like motives throughout.

This animation is produced very well. In my opinion, this is one of Miyzaki’s best works, so if you are looking for a feel-good, aesthetically pleasing movie—this is it! 🙂

The Breakfast Song

The Escape

Summer of Farewells

 

Singing in My Heart Language

I have spoken Mandarin ever since I was a baby and I have always admired the beauty of this language. It is my heart language and is so dear to me in so many ways. The very first musical memories I can recall are of me singing Chinese nursery songs as a child with my grandma. I absolutely loved singing in Chinese as a child. Maybe it was because my grandma would put on shows in my house featuring me and only me, but nevertheless ever since then singing in Chinese has always hit a soft spot in my heart.

I often think about how different it is to sing in different languages compared to singing in English. I know from experience that singing in a tonal language like Chinese is completely different than singing in English, Italian and other romantic languages. Mandarin consists of four tones that when combined with words create a phonetic pronunciation of a character that can represent multiple meanings.

Whenever I speak and hear Mandarin I feel like I am singing in a way. Think about it: pitches are tones that you manipulate and use in some sort of succession to create a melody. I feel so natural talking in Chinese, but when I really listen to myself speak, I realize that I am more expressive and place my sound more forward . I am more nasal and this causes the frequency of my speech to be higher in Chinese than when I speak English usually.

Singing in Chinese is a challenge sometimes…since singing is just vocalizing tones; the tones implemented in Mandarin must be completely ignored in this setting. That is why when I hear Chinese songs, half of the time I don’t know what the song is about because traditional tones are ignored and modified to accommodate the pitches in the song.

Regardless of my limited Chinese vocabulary, I still love to sing my heart language. It makes me happy, it makes my family happy, and it brings inexplicable joy to my heart.

Ella Fitzgerald~

The Queen of Jazz. Lady Ella. First Lady of Song. All of these are names for a legendary voice of jazz–Ella Fitzgerald. Everyone knows who she is (and if you don’t…well, you will now).

Ella was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917. Both her parents (biological mother and stepfather) died when she was 15, and she became homeless after struggling in school and escaping from reform school. Two years later, her voice was discovered during Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She sang Connee Boswell’s rendition of “Judy” and after completely shocking the audience over and receiving a request for an encore, she sang another Boswell song, “The Object of My Affection.” Her debut caught the attention of bandleader Chick Webb and she sang with him and his orchestra until 1942 when she began her solo career.

Her own unique style began to develop in her solo career. Her ability to scat like any instrument became a highlight of her vocal technique. Her career took off as she started touring and appearing on popular programs such as “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Tonight Show.” She faced racial discrimination in the 50s, but received help from a fan, Marilyn Monroe herself. Monroe got Ella a gig at a very popular nightclub called Mocambo, and personally sat at the front able every night.

Fitzgerald became world renown and toured all over. In 1958, she became the first African American in history to win a Grammy Award. In her lifetime, she won a total of 13 Grammy Awards along with many more prestigious awards including the National Medal of Arts presented by President Ronald Reagan.

In her career, Ella released over 70 albums and is particularly known for her release of multiwork jazz songbooks that are prestigious collections of American song today. She has an incredible vocal range (spanning three octaves: D-flat 3 to D-flat 6), and her pure vocal quality, technique, and unique scatting style is unmatched and truly a treasure as an American jazz vocalist.

 

Dido’s Lament: Aria

This aria is part of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. The piece is well written to emphasize Dido’s pain and suffering. It features a 5-measure descending theme in the bass and acts as a ground bass because it repeats eight times throughout the aria. The chromaticism implemented in the solo melody line often creates dissonance with the ground bass which brings out the lament of Dido. In the beginning, the melody paints the text through descending lines and chromaticism. The words “remember me” is dominant throughout the second half of the aria and is characterized by repeated notes. There is more chromaticism in the beginning of the piece because Dido is lamenting over her decision to kill herself and how that will affect Aeneas her lover. She then asks him to remember her, but not for her fate, and there is no chromaticism in the melody because it is nearing the time of her death and her lamenting is almost over.

I think Purcell did an excellent job with word painting in this aria. The true spirit of lamenting is exemplified in the harmonies and melodic lines of this piece. The Norton Score recording of this aria is well done in my opinion. The singer has a rich and full voice that adds just the right amount of darkness to her tone. She has great intonation and even though her dark tone adds to the lament, her voice’s clear resonance still allows the distinction of dissonances between the melody and the bass.

This aria is an excellent piece of vocal work and I would love to learn it and sing it one day!

Il bianco e dolce cigno Review

Il bianco e dolce cigno (The white and sweet swan) is a madrigal written by Jacques Arcadelt in 1538. This piece is in beautiful four-part harmony consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass. These voices are mainly homophonic because the text plays a crucial role in the message of the piece. Arcadelt cleverly sets the important words in the text to distinct shifts in harmony. This technique is called word painting and highlights this particular work.

The piece is about a “swan song” which comes from the story that a swan sings just before it dies, but because this is a madrigal, there is a humorous aspect to the piece. The music of this work is very well organized and harmonized and almost masks the underlying sexual reference of the poet’s death in the story. The text is erotically humorous and this hidden (but not really) metaphor of the piece can be immediately heard by the listeners of that time. However, for people who are not familiar with the inside jokes of the sixteenth century, the death sung in the text is a metaphor for sexual climax. Surprise!

Other than the humor Arcadelt instilled into his piece, he still wrote a harmonically, well-structured vocal work that exhibits an innovative execution of word painting. The harmonies in this piece are very pleasant and the Norton recording does not do this song any wrong. The voices in the recording are extremely pitch accurate and pure in tone. This ensemble technique allows the homophonic chords to ring clearly which allows the listeners to distinguish the quality of the chord. The discrimination of harmony benefits the word painting heard in this piece.

I personally enjoy this piece because each voice part plays significant roles in telling this humorous story. The harmonies and textures of the piece are well thought out to feature the important parts of the text.