One Hour of Television

On Friday, November 20, I watched an hour of television from 1:48-2:48 and noted all of the music that I heard while watching. When I st/.arted watching, one of my favorite shows, Malcolm in the Middle, was on. There was background music throughout the show that was faint and not long-lasting. For the credits, the theme tune was played also. The next show that was on was The Bernie Mac Show, and I heard the introduction theme song. When I saw the first few seconds of the episode, however, I changed the channel to Nickelodeon because I had seen that episode the previous day. On Nick, Spongebob Squarepants was on. In this episode, I heard the odd, cartoonish background music, and Mr. Krabs and Spongebob sang a song together. Another episode of Spongebob was on next, and I heard the same background music.
In this hour of television, probably 90-95 percent of the commercials had some kind of background music in them. Some of the commercials I saw that had music in them were for Burlington, Alka seltzer, Movies on Demand, Dave Dennis Jeep Dodge, Walmart, Jam Band Musical Microphone for babies, Style Lab Jewelry Design, Legos, Nintendo DS, and Tony Hawk Ride for gaming systems. After this hour was completed, I was shocked at how much music I hear on TV on a daily basis and never recognize it.

Movie Music

The movie I watched was a Disney classic: Mulan. I have been watching this movie ever since I was a little kid, and I think what makes it so good is largely due to its soundtrack. In my opinion, the Mulan soundtrack is one of the best Disney soundtracks available right now. There are four main songs featured in this theatrical masterpiece. "Honor To Us All" is the first one and is performed in the beginning when Mulan, her mother, and her grandmother are trying to get her ready to go see the matchmaker. This song fits well because a central theme is Chinese traditions and values, and this song about bringing honor to one's family is symbiotic with the theme.
The second song is called "Reflection" by Christina Aguilara and is sung after Mulan's meeting with the matchmaker. She is pouring out her feelings about how she doesn't know where her life is heading and what meaning her life has. This was all sprung upon her because the matchmaker said she was hopeless and would never bring her family honor.
The third song comes about during the climax of the movie, and it is called "I'll Make a Man Out of You." At this point, Mulan joined the Chinese army in place of her father so that he would not get killed. She poses as a man and trains to battle the Huns, and at the point of this song, the soldiers are training like warriors and are finally getting everything right. The general in charge of his troops had a lot of doubts and didn't think he could make men out of them, but he finally does. Right after this song, they go into battle against the Huns.
The fourth song, "A Girl Worth Fighting For," happens when the troops are marching around the Chinese countryside in their armor. This song is pretty funny, because the men in the army are singing about the women they would like to have, not knowing that Mulan is indeed a woman.
Each of these songs represent a milestone in the movie. They are fantastic songs, and along with these, there is much more background music played in the movie that rocks as well. I would highly recommend seeing this movie.

Old Time Recording

I listened to "You Rascal You" by Clarence Williams from 1931 on the Library of Congress website. The piano is the only musical accompanyment, and it is fairly faint in the background. Clarence William's voice is a little raspy, but not due to him but due to the recording. For being from 1931 though, this recording is pretty authentic and clear. The lyrics of this song are very repetitive, because he says "you rascal you" probably 25-30 times in 3 minutes. I found the meaning of the song to be quite funny considering the upbeat feel to it. He is talking to the man who hit on or cheated with his wife, saying he is going to kill him just for fun, but the song sounds happy. He is obviously angry and upset, but the piano and the pitch of his voice sure don't show it.

New Way to Notate Music

Currently, there are a few innovative ways of notating music other than the most commonly used bar line form. In class, for example, it was discussed that for a flute, there is a notation in which there are pictures blacking out the holes that should be covered with the fingers. This pictorial method of notating music is one of the innovative ways of notating music, and I came up with another way of doing so. Instead of using the normal "dot and stem" approach to writing notes, these notes could be written as letters. For example, an A note would simply be represented with a capital "A". To differentiate between whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, and so on, a color-coded system would be implemented where a red "A" could stand for a whole A note. This system would obviously take some studying and getting used to, and it's not perfect, but its a potential idea.

Rhythm and Structure of Two Songs

The first song I listened to was on the NAXOS Online Resource. I listened to the first part of Sometimes I Feel Alive entitled "There is a Moon Sole" from the CD Julian Wachner: Choral Works Vol. 1. The structure that I could best fit to this song was of the form ABCAC. As far as the rhythm goes I think the song's meter is in 4/4 but then speeds up to 4/8.
The second song I listened to from my collection entitled Good Morning by rapper Chamillionaire. The background accompanyment is from Tom Petty's song "Free Falling," so the song is essentially a mashup. The structure of the song is of the very simple form ABA'BA''B, as most hip-hop songs are formatted (I listen to a lot of hip-hop) in which A is the different verses and B is the chorus. The rhythm was approximately 4/8.

Listening for Electrophones on 4 Different Radio Stations

I listened to four different radio stations for an hour in order to hear electrophones. The first station, 99.1 FM, is a country station and during the 15 minutes I listened to it, I heard 3 songs, none of which used any electrophones.
The second station, 103.9 FM, is a rock station. Of the 4 songs I heard on here, one of them used an electrophone, namely, a synthesizer. The song Jump by Van Halen was played and a distinct synthesizer was played throughout the entire song. The famous sound of this song is made by its synthesizer.
The third radio station, 94.5 FM, plays top 40 songs. Once again I heard no electrophones played. The final station, 102.9 FM, is a Hip-Hop/R&B station and of the 2 songs I heard (too many commercials), one of them used a vocal synthesizer: Bartender by T-Pain ft. Akon. T-Pain is famous for using this vocal synthesizer in his songs.

One Hour of Classical Music on 90.9 FM (#3)

On October 1 I listened to an hour of Classical music on 90.9 FM. Four pieces were played during this time, the first composed by Franz Joseph Haydn called Scherzando #1 in F Major. This piece was heavily string-oriented and I could not distinguish any wind instruments being played.
Henry Purcell composed the second piece, Fairy Queen, which consisted of four movements. The wind instruments I heard were the oboe, trumpet, and either a flute or a recorder.
The third piece was composed by Giovanni Bottesini called the Double Bass Concerto #2 in B Major. As could be expected the double bass was focused on in this piece, accompanied by other string instruments. I heard no winds in this piece.
The Petite Symphony by Charles Gounod was the fourth and final piece I heard, and it was this piece that used the most wind instruments. In this long, four movement piece, I heard the clarinet, bassoon (which produced a very low sound), flute, oboe, and horns, which could have been French horn or trumpet. This concluded my hour of listening.

The Revolutionary Electric Piano

As was discussed in class last Thursday, new instruments were pioneered long after the introductions of the piano, clavichord, and harpsichord. The electric piano (also known as the keyboard) was a revolutionary instrument that followed the production of these instruments. The electric keyboard is a versatile instrument that, for some kinds, can create sounds that do not sound like a keyboard. For instance, as demonstrated in class, some electric keyboards can make banjo, violin, vocal, drums, and guitar sounds with just the flip of a switch or turn of a knob. Also, the loudness of the keys can be adjusted just by sliding a knob up or down. It is amazing that one simple instrument can produce the sounds of around 10 different instruments. Truly revolutionary.
I think that being able to play the electric keyboard would be pretty cool. In my life, I think I have only played a toy electric keyboard, but not the real authentic thing. Yes, my keyboard influence has been pretty sheltered...how sad.

Guitar Listening for One Hour: Four Different Radio Stations

On September 24, I listened to four different radio stations for an hour (15 minutes a piece) in an attempt to hear the guitar use in the songs being played. The first station, 99.1 FM, is a Country station and I heard four songs. All of these songs used the guitar as their core instrument, and from what I could tell, they were all acoustic guitars. I only recognized one of these songs: Chicken Fried by The Zac Brown Band.

The second radio station, 103.9, is an Alternative Rock station and I heard two songs on here. I didn't recognize either of them, but they both used guitar. One of these songs used the electrical guitar and the other used an acoustic.

The third station, 94.5, is a Top 40 station, and I heard two songs. The first one was Punk Rock: All the Small Things by Blink-182 (probably my favorite Rock band). An electric guitar was used in this song, and the second song I heard was a Pop song by the Black Eyed Peas called I Gotta Feeling from their new album E.N.D. This song has background sounds accompanying the electronic sounds. One of these background sounds seems to be a bass guitar.

The fourth radio station I listened to was 102.9, which plays a Hip-Hop/R&B music. From the three songs that I heard, none of them used a guitar, which did not surprise me considering that Hip-Hop music focuses mainly on electronic beats to produce songs.

One Hour of Classical Music on 88.1 FM (#2)

On September 22, I listened to Classical music on 88.1 FM from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. In this hour, I listened to two pieces. The first was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven called Symphony No. 6 in F Major, also known as "The Pastoral" (5 movements). The first movement was heavy on violin and other string instruments such as violas, cellos, and bass cellos. These strings resonated in every movement. The second movement incorporated flutes and other winds. In the third movement, the strings were accompanied by trumpets, trombones, timpani, and piccolo. The third, fourth, and fifth movements were strung together without any pauses.
The second piece I heard was entitled Consort Music (6) composed by Geoffrey Bush. This piece was a string orchestra in six movements, in which the only instruments played are chordophones. The cello, viola. violin, and bass cello were used in this orchestra.

One Hour of Classical Music on 88.1 FM

Beginning at 12:40 pm today (September 17), I listened to an hour of Classical music on 88.1 FM. The first piece I heard was Scottish Rhapsody Op24 composed by Mackenzie, Alexander Campbell. This symphony was very violin based with some wind instruments such as flutes and piccollo. Little percussion was played during this piece. The second piece I heard was Saverio Mercadante's Clarinet Concerto in B flat Major. As expected, the clarinet stole the show. Accompanying the clarinet were violins, cellos, and bass cellos. Repeating sounds were very evident during the concerto, and I heard no percussion instruments. The third and final piece of music I listened to was Leos Janacek's Sinfonietta Op 60 performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. From the very beginning of this piece percussion could be heard in the timpani. Trumpets and other brass wind instruments were used along with flutes and strings. In the middle of the piece, a bass drum could be heard faintly in the background. These three pieces concluded my hour of Classical enjoyment.

Making an idiophone out of simple materials

The idiophone that I created was a set of chimes. Using a clothes hanger, duct tape, shoe laces, cans, and keys, making the chimes was fairly easy. The shoelaces were tied to the keys and cans and then taped to the hanger. Initially, I tried just tying each end of the laces to the hanger, but that was unstable. Then I attempted to use tacs to stick the laces to the hanger, but the plastic hanger was too thick for the tacs to penetrate. I finally settled on the duct tape. A pattern alternating between keys and cans was done, and the items were arranged in a diagonal manner. These chimes are considered an idiophone because it is a percussion instrument without a membrane in which the vibrations through the solid instrument make the sound.

Journal 2: Analyzing A Song

The song from my music collection that I chose to analyze is "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder. The song is homophonic with singing accompanied by instruments such as drums and a saxophone giving the song a jazz and pop feel. Stevie Wonder's singing is very mellifluous and the harmony has an upbeat feel to it, therefore the song is in major. Rhythmically, I would say the song has a slow-to-medium tempo. Between the singing and instrumentals, very few skips are present; the song is mostly dominated by steps, and the contour, if drawn would closely resemble a zig-zag line until toward the end during the saxophone solo where it jumps around for a brief period. For about 90% of the song, the music and tones hover around the same particular space. The drums in the background follow a very repetitious beat, and when the saxophone solo comes in, the beat it keeps is still pretty consistent except for a little flashiness that the saxophonist incorporates.

Silence & 24 Hours

On Monday August 31, I went to the basement of Campus South to read a four page article for my Genetics class. The setting down there is very calm and quiet compared to my apartment that's accompanied by my 5 other roommates. While reading, I payed close attention to what I heard around me for the full 30-40 minutes. The basement is part study area/lounge and part laundromat. A few students were chatting as they waited for the rumbling washers and dryers to finish their cycles. My friend, Steve, was with me at a table doing work of his own. In between the sounds of flipping through our papers, three girls were in the corner of the big lounge room watching Entourage on a laptop. The faint sounds of the show were interspersed with their high-pitched giggles. Steve repeatedly got up from his seat to go to the bathroom, get a drink from the water fountain, and purchase a snack from the vending machine. As he walked back from the machine, he dropped four dimes in change on the table which created a clanging echo throughout the room. At the end of the 30-40 minutes, I was surprised how much I could hear in a quiet setting when I actually pay attention to my surroundings.
The 24 hour clock began at 9am on Monday August 31. Before even leaving my room, I turned on my iPod speakers as I got ready for a shower, and the song that came on was Midwest Swing by St. Lunatics. Great song. In the shower of my Campus South apartment, there is a waterproof radio hanging on the shower head, which is always tuned to a country radio station. Music is a good way to start the day. After my classes ended at 1:00pm up until about 7 o'clock, I heard music on t.v. and on a James Bond video game my roommate was playing. On t.v., coincidentally, James Bond Goldeneye was on and as everyone knows there are the same tones and mysterious tunes in those movies. Also, a Kenny Chesney concert was being broadcast, and I watched that for about 10 minutes. Aside from the usual media sources where music can be heard, I unfortunately overheard my roommate, Sean, singing country music in the kitchen while he made dinner. My other friend, Steve, who I mentioned in the "Silence" paragraph sang a Taylor Swift song while we were studying. Embarassing I know. Looking back on these 24 hours, I can now see how frequently music is incorporated in my life.