CHAPTER 7: First, watch this video: http://youtu.be/CBwh1OXw6uI 1/ As you watch it,
CHAPTER 7:
First, watch this video:
http://youtu.be/CBwh1OXw6uI
1/ As you watch it, consider these three questions: How is this music different from almost all the music you have heard before? For what purpose was it created? What feelings or attitudes does this music encourage in you?
2/What was your reaction to this music? Did you miss the excitement that music can sometimes create? Were you more relaxed, thoughtful, and comfortable than usual as you listened? It’s something to think about.
CHAPTER 8:
Watch and listen to the music on this video.
http://youtu.be/QPJElcjM1OU
Notice the intricacies of the melodic lines and how they weave around each other. Also notice the pictures that show the clothes worn by people during those years. Finally, notice the translation of the poem that the composer, Machaut, used in a love song. What is your reaction to this song, compared with today’s love songs?
CHAPTER 9:
Watch and listen to the music on this video.
http://youtu.be/95DJ7oqTWK8
It shows the notation for a short vocal work for a small group of singers. Six voice parts are needed, three for females and three for males. Even if you can’t read music, you will have no problem keeping up with it, because you can follow the words, which are in English. The composer, Thomas Weelkes, wanted the music to resemble what’s taking place in the text.
As you follow the video, note four instances where the music depicts the words being sung.
CHAPTER 10:
This video introduces you to some of the characteristics of music created in the Baroque period. Note its major points as you watch it.
http://youtu.be/PKgG_Ti1ja0
CHAPTER 11:
As you listen to this duet from a Baroque opera, compare it with the aria “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” in Messiah, which you studied in Chapter 11.
http://youtu.be/4pjXfChGWds
Think of three ways in which it differs from that aria.
CHAPTER 12:
As you listen to this duet from a Baroque opera, compare it with the aria “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted” in Messiah, which you studied in Chapter 11.
http://youtu.be/4pjXfChGWds
Think of three ways in which it differs from that aria.
CHAPTER 13:
First: Watch this video.
http://youtu.be/soIQ52hkMXw
Write down four things that you noticed about it
CHAPTER 14:
1/ Listen to the first two minutes of the music on this video.
http://youtu.be/TKthRw4KjEg
What do you notice about its
Beat and tempo?
2/ Texture?
3/ Dynamic levels?
4/ Major/minor key?
CHAPTER 15:
1/ Here is a game attributed to Mozart in which players can “compose” a piece of music by rolling dice.
http://youtu.be/d2ywH0TxseQ
Today we don’t need to roll dice (unless we want to), because the computer will do that for us. Roll the dice once for each measure. The number of the dice will indicate which of the eleven possibilities on the chart to use. You can accept the first measure of the melody, or reject it and roll the dice again. Whatever the dice suggest for the various measures, you will end up with an acceptable melody consisting of thirty-two measures of music in the Classical style of Mozart and Haydn.
How is this possible, when it can’t be done easily in the Baroque style or in the styles that styles that later followed the Classical period? Examine the video and answer these questions:
Does this indicate that some of the basic aspects of the Classical style are so logically structured that simple, short versions of it can be created using a systematically prepared system? Why or why not?
2/ Does this “game” mean that all the possible notes in measure 15, for example, are going to consist of just certain notes and avoid others? Why or why not?
3/ Does it tell us that the short piece created by rolling dice is not as creative as most pieces of other music? Why or why not?
CHAPTER 16:
View this video to gain a sense of life at the palace of the emperor in Vienna in the middle of the Classical period. The video will be more understandable if you keep in mind a couple of points. Antonio Salieri was the designated composer for the emperor’s court. Now an old man, he is reminiscing about his first meeting with the young Mozart, who, at least in Salieri’s eyes, was an adolescent troublemaker. He was jealous of him as a person but admired his musical genius. He is especially embarrassed when Mozart comes along and makes many improvements in a piano piece of his that the emperor had been trying to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSYCh0In3k
What do you observe?
CHAPTER 17:
Listen for about three minutes to each of these two videos. After you have listened to both, jot down five ways in which they are different. Consider such things as number of players, type of accompaniment, nature of the music each them presents, number of players featured, performance situation, and the like.
Video 1: http://youtu.be/hb5MSJcBb9o
Video 2: http://youtu.be/XrqP9lm_B9c
CHAPTER 18:
Listen to the first 2:50 of this video and answer the following question about the differences in the style of music for the statue and Don Giovanni:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cb1QmTkOAI
How does the nature of their respective voice parts differ?
CHAPTER 19:
1/ First: Watch this video:
http://youtu.be/7Gtqsm5gH24
After a couple of minutes, see if you can answer these questions about it.
How many players are performing the music?
2/ Are they all playing the same instruments?
3/ Are they all playing the same melody in unison?
CHAPTER 20:
1/ This video has two different themes in its opening minute:
http://youtu.be/qzieo9-ItuE
As you listen to that minute, decide on your answer to these three questions:
Is the tempo of the music basically the same for both themes?
a. yes
b. no
2/ Does the music change from minor to major?
a. yes
b. no
3/ Is one half of the music somewhat louder than the other?
a. yes
b. no
CHAPTER 21:
Listen to the first minute or so of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. In fact, you could listen to it twice. Decide on three things that impress you about that short segment of music.
http://youtu.be/jv2WJMVPQi8
CHAPTER 23:
Watch at least two minutes of this video. It shows a man singing a song. As you watch, notice at least four things that make the song different from a typical song such as “America,” “Happy Birthday,” or a church hymn.
http://youtu.be/RcxEqn5CQlA
CHAPTER 24:
1/ Listen to the first two minutes of each of these videos of two different piano works.
First Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PqWO3HQxeg
Second Video: http://youtu.be/cIxGUAnj46U
As you listen to each piece, be thinking about the answers to these questions:
Which piece was created to show off the performer’s playing ability?
a. the second
b. the firs
2/ Which piece was created to express emotions and feelings?
a. the second
b. the first
3/ Which piece is a theme and variations?
a. the first
b. the second
CHAPTER 25:
1/ Start listening to this video at 2:50, and then listen to about 4:06 minutes of this section of the fifth movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.
http://youtu.be/cao6WyF-61s
As you listen, think about the answers to these questions:
Why is the “Dies irae” theme played in low notes by brass instruments? Why not cellos instead? (If you don’t remember what the “Dies irae” is, you can refresh your memory on it by checking in Chapter 7.)
2/ Why did Berlioz also include a bell that tolled every so often?
3/ Why is the tempo quite slow and deliberate?
CHAPTER 26:
Listen to several minutes of Mimi’s aria in La bohème.
http://youtu.be/-73CqpLsglE
As you listen, choose three things that you noticed about her singing. Is it loud, strange, beautiful, strained, artificial, or other qualities?
CHAPTER 27:
1/ Watch and listen to the entirety of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHj-eekdNU
It’s the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Yes, that’s a long time for one piece of music, but we’re now talking about the symphony in the Romantic period, which is noted for long works. But it is a really exciting piece of music. Here are three questions you can think about as you watch the video.
What did the composer do in the music to build up to and execute an exciting conclusion to the movement?
2/ How did he achieve a real contrast between the first and second themes in the first several minutes of the movement?
3/ What did the conductor do to encourage and motivate the musicians to play the music expressively, both when it was loud and fast and when it was tender and sort of sad?