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.