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Ｉ post the other people’s discussion. DO NOT USE ＴＨＥ ＳＡＭＥ ＳＯＮＧ ＷＩＴＨ ＯＴＨＥＲＳ．
two significant responses to two other students’ submissions.
As you are studying 20th-century art music in Ch. 13, you should notice the wide diversity of musical styles and innovations that were created in the 20th century–many of them game-changers. For example, Debussy’s approach to harmony and rhythm sometimes created ambiguity in sound that was quite intentional in his impressionistic programs for his scores. His music and the techniques underlying it significantly influenced later 20th-century composers. Stravinsky exuded an incredible amount of influence over 20th-century composers as well–the first performance of his Le Sacre du Printemps was so overwhelming that it caused a riot (in Paris–what I like to think of as the “hippest” place on earth at that time, no less!). It could have been the end of his career, but instead, it showed other composers what could be done, and they clammered to be like Stravinsky (I believe that’s what the sketch by Jean Cocteau, shown on http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/hhowe/music784/images/Stravinsky04.jpg, is indicating). In fact, even Stravinsky himself wasn’t always exactly like that composer of Le Sacre du Printemps–he continued to explore different approaches to music and think about music in different ways throughout his life.
It should also become apparent, while you are studying Ch. 13, that there are American composers who became established as American composers in their own right, which we had not seen in discussions of prior periods. That is what we will focus on in this discussion.
Please find a performance on YouTube that features music by one of the following composers:
Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings), Leonard Bernstein, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell (someone could contribute “The Banshee”), George Gershwin (classically-oriented, not Tin Pan Alley songs), Charles Ives, William Grant Still, Ellen Taafe Zwilich.
Your selection can be a legitimate performance in a concert setting, or it can be the composer’s music performed legitimately, but used as film score or as an accompaniment for something visual, such as Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” from his ballet Rodeo–anyone recognizes this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tviyAIS9c_U. While everyone should plan to choose a selection that is different from what has already been submitted if you find an example of a piece that is used in an entirely different context (like in a film score or a commercial instead of a concert recording), that would be OK.
THEN, as in previous discussions:
- Identify your selection (composer and title) in the Subject/Title line of your submission. Also, identify your selection more thoroughly within your response. (Don’t forget to give us the link or URL of your YouTube selection!)
- Tell us why you have chosen this selection.
- Comment on the music and performance (or the performers) of this selection.
- Identify which musical element seems to be the most important (rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, timbre (and dynamics), form), and why. Then, to the best of your ability, try to describe how this musical element is treated within the selection.
- If your selection is tied to something extra-musical, like a film, story, or commercial, why do you think it was used in this way? (For instance, I think Copland’s “Hoedown” represents the American West and all things happy and wholesome–an image the Beef Industry would like to embrace.)
- Do a bit of research, using a reputable source such as Oxford Music Online (Grove). Tell us something about your composer or selection that wasn’t given in the textbook or on the YouTube site (and hasn’t yet been given by another student in this discussion!). Make sure to give proper citations and a full bibliographic entry of your source.