Saturday, April 30, 2011

All by Mice Elf

At the store today, the combo department is playing the music of Sly and the Family Stone.  Groovy.

Their big hit Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) was released as a single 1969.  The band's sound is a mix of many different styles including motown, funk, pyschadelic rock, and a touch of gospel.  The band was integrated during a time in America when integration had only just become law.

Dance to the Music was released and became a hit in 1968. 

The group was based out of San Francisco and was active between 1966-1983, and was actually a combination of the Stone brothers two separate groups: Sly Stone's "Sly and the Stoner" and his brother Freddie's "Freddie and the Stone Souls."

In 1993, Sly and the Family Stone were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Feed me

A few things rattling around in the ol' noodle today:

Have been listening to Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere album.  Super good.  And I'm only about 5 years behind.  (It's the 2006 debut album.)

The song The Final Countdown is from an album by the same name from the Swedish rock group Europe.  It was released in 1986.  Now you'll all have that keyboard riff stuck in your head.  Dodoo dooo doooooo. Dodoo doot doot doooooo!

The movie Little Shop of Horrors (the one with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin) was based on a musical that was based on a film.  The original film was produced in 1960.  It is black and white and features a young Jack Nicholson as the sadistic dentist.  The film became an off-Broadway musical in 1982, which was then picked up and made into a movie in 1986.  The original ending has the plants winning, eating everyone in sight.  Unfortunately, audiences didn't seem to like the fact that the hero (Seymour Krelbourne) dies (gets eaten by Audrey II) in the end, so a new ending was made for the 1986 movie.  The music is doo-wop/early rock, with a late fifties/early sixties vibe.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Amazing Pipes

Do you know why bagpipes sound the way they do?  They are run by bellows (the bag part) that, when inflated, forces air through the pipes.  The pipes are fitted with reeds (like shawms, remember those?) that vibrate and make the sound.  The drone sound is from one or more long pipes that have no finger holes.  Drones are called drones because their sound never stops.  It is always present while the instrument is being played.

To get the melody part, one of the pipes has finger holes and is played like a shawm or recorder (of course the fingerings aren't always the same).  There is yet another pipe that the play has in his mouth.  The bagpiper blows into this pipe to keep the bag inflated.  Air from bag is forced through the pipes and then the player can make music.  Kind of neat, really.

Anyway, what I discovered the other day is why bagpipes always have the unique melody line.  Because the player does not have direct contact with the finger pipe (the one that makes the melody, it's actually called a chanter) it's impossible to articulate (tongue, separate notes).  So, to make the notes sound separate the player must add in lots of embellishments.  Musicians call these embellishments grace notes or appoggiaturas. 

So now you know.  :)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Hurdy-gurdy

Have you ever heard of a hurdy-gurdy?  Well, besides sounding like something that the Swedish chef might cook up for you, it is an old Middle Ages kind of instrument.

I have always wondered what these were, exactly, and during my shawm  research I came across them again.  They are bigger than I had originally thought, from about the size of a large viola or a smallish cello.  or about guitar sized, if you aren't sure what a viola or cello looks like. From watching players on YouTube, it looks like it does take a bit of skill to get a good sound out of them and to play them well.

They sound a bit like bagpipes, because there is a constant drone.  To play them, the player turns a hand crank on one end of the instrument.  The crank turns a wheel that is rosined and scrapes against the strings (just like violins and other bowed instruments).  To make different pitches, there is a sort of a keyboard, that looks like the stops on a organ or the buttons on a button accordion.  These are pressed, which in turn push wedges that press the strings, to make different notes (also similar to a violin, where the fingers act as stops to create pitches.)  Of course, I'm over-simplifying, but hopefully you get the idea.

They were most popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe, but people all over the world still play them.  Maybe someday I can find one and learn to play it too.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Oh boy, an Oboe

Oboes are those skinny woodwind instruments that many people mistake for clarinets.  Oboes are different from clarinets because they have something called a double reed, where clarinets use only single reeds.  The two small pieces of reed cane are setup against each other and the player blows through them, creating the sound.

This week, I am giving a presentation in my woodwind pedagogy class on the shawm.  Shawms are the instruments that eventually turned into oboes.  They were much louder than modern oboes and had almost no keys.  Modern oboes have lots of keys.  The keys on oboes (hautbois) were added in response to composers writing more difficult music.  And, while the shift from shawm to oboe was happening, musical styles were changing.  Classical music was giving way to Romantic music. Romantic music used more chromaticism (half-steps, less adherance to a tonal center), so the instruments had to be able to play in all keys.

You can still hear shawms.  In North Africa and the Middle East, people play on an instrument called the surna (or surnay or zurna, depending on how you spell it) that is a kind of shawm.  It has a loud, piercing sound and the players use a technique called circular breathing, so the sound doesn't stop for breath. 

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Giant Peeps


    This giant non-marshmallow Peep is my nod to Easter.

NOD.

Giant Peeps do not play instruments and they don't sing.  They just hang out, being all giant and Peeps-y.  Regular Peeps also do not do anything especially musical. 

If you eat sugary Easter candy, remember to brush your teeth before playing your instrument so that the inside of the wind-driven horns do not get ruined by the sugar (unless you play a stringed instrument like a violin or a guitar, in which case you should brush your teeth to stop cavities).

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Best of all possible worlds

In the wind ensemble I am in playing in we are performing the Overture to CandideCandide was originally a satire written by Voltaire.  In it the characters are subjected to terrible misfortunes but are led to believe that this world is the "best of all possible worlds."  This comes from a kind of philosophical optimism, which tells us that in all possible incarnations of the world that we live in, this particular one that we are living in is the best one. 

Candide, the hero, is a student of Pangloss, the philosopher.  Candide has grown up in a sheltered society and is unaware of the evil in the world.  The story goes from after Candide leaves home and we see him grow slowly more and more disillusioned with the realities of life.  In the end, he learns that he must create his own best possible world, because the world won't give it to him. 

In 1956, American composer Leonard Bernstein composed music to turn the story into an operetta.  The libretto (a libretto is the text used in a musical work, such as an opera or musical) was done first in 1956, but a newer version of the libretto was written in 1974.  The later libretto stayed closer to the main themes of the story and is the one we see today.

The music is wonderful.  The showstopper Glitter and Be Gay is a fantastic example of coloratura soprano work.  Coloratura soprano style is virtuosic, agile, and uses lots of large leaps and shows off the singers range and skills. 

There are so many good things about this musical.  It may be the best of all possible musicals...

Friday, April 22, 2011

Master of the Stratosphere

This morning a Facebook friend posted a video performance of Maynard Ferguson's song Gospel John.  The jazz group I play with has this in the book and it's always been a fun tune to play.  Hearing Ferguson's version helped to brighten up the, once again, rainy morning here at work.

Walter "Maynard" Ferguson died in 2006, at age 78.  He was a trumpeter known for his screaming (this is musician-speak for really, really, really high notes) ability.  At age 13, he was a featured soloist with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Orchestra.  In the 1940s, he played with Ellington, Basie, Stan Kenton, Charlie Barnett, and Dizzy Gillespie, and then started his own band in 1945.

Maynard received a Grammy for his version of Gonna Fly Now (the theme from Rocky soundtrack). 

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Saturn is not a single lady

Thanks to a conversation with a guest on the morning radio show that I listen to on the way to wherever it is that I go in the morning, I now have Beyonce's Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) stuck in my head.  Not that it's a bad thing.  It is a catchy tune. 

Single Ladies is a song from Beyonce Knowles' 2008 I Am...Sasha Fierce.   It is about marriage ("If you like it then you should put a ring on it") but it also seems to be about women demanding better treatment from their men.  As in: If you are really as serious about me as you say you are, do something about it!  The dancing in the accompanying video was inspired by Bob Fosse.  Three dancers set to a plain background was the same formula for Fosse's choreography in Mexican Breakfast

I'm not sure what Mexican Breakfast is, I'll have to look it up, but I am familiar with Fosse.  He is known for his clean, snappy choreography, sometimes with a simple prop like a hat or gloves.  His work is featured in the films Sweet Charity (with Shirley MacLaine) and Cabaret (starring Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.) 

Beyonce was originally part of an R&B girl group in the 1990s known as Destiny's Child.  Hits from that group are the catchy Bills, Bills, Bills and Say My Name

Now you'll all be singing these tunes all day. 

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Enigma Burrito Part 1

For my research paper, I've been studying the life and times of three great clarinetist bandleaders.  Among them (Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman) Artie has been the most intriguing.  This isn't because the other two are lesser musicians or made inferior music, or even that their lives were less interesting (all three were fantastic musicians who had real success, and created lasting legacies.)  Shaw is interesting because I can't figure him out.

I'm halfway through his autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella.  He was a smart man.  I mean this in the intellectual sense.  His thought process was well-defined and philosophical, and he had made a commitment to learning. 

What I've been after since I started reading about him is: Why did this saxophone player suddenly decide to become one of America's greatest clarinet players?  He was, in the beginning of his playing career, hired for his saxophone skills, and was, at best, a mediocre clarinetist.

Finally, I picked up a copy of Gunther Schuller's excellent book The Swing Era and was happy to find that Schuller was wondering the exact same thing.  In fact, one of the first things Schuller has to say about Shaw is how odd it was that Shaw made the decision to bring his clarinet playing skills up to par with his rival Benny Goodman.  (Turns out he practiced like a mad man in order to bring his clarinet skills up to par, but it still isn't completely clear to me as to why he chose against his saxophone.)

Goodman's band, at that time, was clearly the superior in swing.  Goodman was the King of Swing, after all.  Shaw had assembled and dissolved numerous versions of at least 8 bands between 1936 and 1955 (he was never satisfied with how they sounded.)  He finally got a break in 1939, when Goodman had taken some months off to reorganize.  This meant, according to Schuller, that Shaw had no real competition for several months. 

Goodman and Shaw were finally on even ground.  But it was temporary.

Tune in next time...
 (yes, it's a cliffhanger)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Gnarly!

I was watching the rerun of Saturday Night Live this weekend.  The musical guest was Cee Lo Green.  I knew this was a rerun, because I remembered the sketches, the song he performed, and because all of the weekend update news headlines were from four months ago.  I've got detective skillz.  ; )  haha

Before going solo, Cee Lo was part of a duo known as Gnarls Barkley.  There is so much good music out there, I don't have time to catch it all.  I think he's considered a rap artist, but it's great stuff!

The song he performed on SNL was a cleaned up version of his F*** You.  On the show, it was cleaned up, and he sang  Forget You.  It's a smooth, poppy, happy sounding tune.  It's a bit reminiscent of late 60s R&B/doo wop.  The song is basically about a guy who is snubbed by a girl he loves because he doesn't have money, so he's just telling her to just f*** off, but the music style neutralizes the vulgarity.  It makes me happy!  I'm listening to it now on YouTube and grinning like a damn fool. 

I think I need to check into other stuff by him.  Listening to Crazy (and other stuff) by Gnarls Barkley, I think I've found a new artist to keep track of.  (new to me anyway, I'm only about three years behind)

Update:  I have now listened to several Gnarls Barkley (and Cee Lo) tracks, and I love them all!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I went down to the crossroads...

Running low on inspiration today.  Must be the weather.  It's cold and grey outside, and raining.  Not pleasant for the middle of April. 

Anyway, I had mentioned Robert Johnson a while ago.  He was a Delta blues musician who was rumoured to have made a deal with the Devil (at the now legendary crossroads) to become the world's greatest blues musician in exchange for his soul.  This is a myth, of course.  He was just a super-awesome bluesman.

Only two pictures exist of Johnson, and it is believed that his death wasn't accidental.  He may have been poisoned by a jealous husband (or girlfriend). 

29 of his songs are recorded, and he died in 1938, at the age of 27.  There is a boxed-set compilation of all takes of his recordings, released by Columbia/Legacy.

"I got to keep moving...blues fallin' down like hail...And the days keeps on worryin' me/There's a hellhound on my trail."

Friday, April 15, 2011

Ring a ding ding

Last night I started reading the German epic The Nibelunenlied.  Why?  Well, I have diverse interests and I can't read about musicians all the time.  The particular translation I have is remarkably easy to understand, as anyone who has tried to read old-world writings will notice that the language is sometimes dense.

Anyway, you may have heard about this story.  Sifrid (Siegfried-he is a prince from the Netherlands) is a dragon-slaying hero who has magic things like an invisibility cloak and a magic ring, and after events happen, he dies, and his wife Kriemhilde (a Burgundian) goes on a tirade to avenge his death and the theft of his magic things.  The second half of the story is about Kriemhilde's vengeance, but I haven't been able to sort out all of the zillions of characters to figure out how this is carried out.  At one point, someone named Gunther loses his head, but that's all I can give you right now.

Anyway, this gigantic story is, in part, the basis for Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) Ring cyle.  Der Ring des Nibelungen was written over 26 years, between 1848 and 1874.  There are four components: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung.  Each set can stand alone, but it was originally designed to be performed as a complete whole.  To perform it in its entirety would require about 15 hours, so it's usually split up over the course of a few nights.

You know that opera cliche with the large, loudly singing woman wearing the helmet with horns?  Well, this opera cycle is where that comes from.  The character the cliche is based on is Brunnhilde, and actually, she wears a winged helmet, not a horned one.  Her big, twenty minute long aria happens in the Gotterdammerung, which, appropriately, is about the end of the world (the end of the world for Norse gods, anyway).  It ain't over till the fat lady sings.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Klezmerizing

I was introducing Klezmer music to one of my clarinet students yesterday.  I still have a lot to learn myself, so basically all I was able to teach her was how to smear/glissando/portamento (there are lots of terms for this effect.  Listen to the opening clarinet lick from an orchestral version of Rhapsody in Blue and you'll hear a smear.  Also, Artie Shaw was a master of them, and used this effect a lot in his soloing) and what some of this music might sound like.

Klezmer music is mostly dance music originated by the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe.  Professional  Klezmer playing musicians are called klezmorim.

The term Klezmer comes from a combination of the Hebrew kley and zemerKley means instrument, zemer means song.  The style of this music has the instruments (modern instrumentation consists of clarinets, accordians, and violins) playing in a distinctly expressive way, making the instruments laugh and cry over the melodies.

Next week, I will be attending a masterclass with someone who knows a bit more about this style, so I will hopefully have more to tell my student about this interesting way of playing the clarinet!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

If it ain't Baroque...

I'm gluing serial numbers into basses.  Fun.  So, my mind is wandering.  In pedagogy class, we are now in the oboe portion and the topic of discussion recently has been Baroque repertoire.  That got me thinking about the Baroque era.  What I remember from my undergrad music history is a bit rusty, so here is some brushing up:

Baroque refers to a time period in Europe that followed the Renaissance.  Its span is from about 1600 to 1750 and the term baroque comes from a Portuguese term barroco that means "misshapen pearl."

The music of this era is characterized by dance forms, polyphony (many voices at one time), counterpoint (note against note), and use of ornamentation.  Ornamentation can be thought of as similar to decorations on a tree.  The shape of the line (melody or tree) should not be changed, but decorated.  Ornamentation used most commonly are trills, turns (grupetto), grace notes.

The fugue as a musical form was perfected at this time, by Johann Sebastian Bach (you've heard of him, haven't you!)  A fugue is kind of like a canon or round.  You know, where one person or group starts singing, then another person or group starts singing the same thing, only a few bars behind. 

Common instruments of that era include the harpsichord (predecessor of the piano, uses keys that are similar to piano keys, but the strings are plucked instead of hit with hammers), flute, violin, an early form of oboe, hurdy gurdy, lute, and viols.

Composers: J. S. Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, Lully, Telemann, Vivaldi, Frescobaldi, Couperin, Rameau, Quantz, Pergolesi, and many more.

The Baroque era ended, more or less, when J. S. Bach died, in 1750.  Styles shifted and the Classical era  began.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

It don't mean a thing...

...if it ain't got that swing!  Doo wah, do wah, do wah, do wah, doo wah, do waht, do wah, do waaaaah!

According to Duke Ellington's trumpet player, Bubber Miley.  He would say this a lot, so Ellington made it into a tune.

No swing?  That got me thinking though.  What makes something swing?  What is swing?  How is it different from rock or funk?  Can you learn it? Can you teach it?  (The answer is yes.  Sort of.)

Swing is a feel.  Go over to YouTube and look for a swing tune.  How about...Take the A Train, or Sing, Sing, Sing.  Make sure to find a version done by real jazz people (the Ellington Band or Benny Goodman's Band).  Go ahead.  I'll wait.
-------
Now that you've heard some swing, what were they doing?  Well, first, the beat under the music has strong accents, but only on certain beats.  Count 1-2-3-4 underneath.  The strong beats are on 2 and 4. Ah-1, 2, 3, 4.  Putting an accent on a weak beat is called syncopation.  It is usually not what the ear expects, so it creates some tension.

The notes themselves are uneven.  Straight notes are usually equal in strength and length.  Sing Twinkle, Twinkle to yourself.  "Twinkle, twinkle, little star...." etc.  All even, very straight.  Now try to swing it.  "twin-kle, twin-kle, li-ttle star..."  Doo bah, doo bah, doo bah, doo!  Uneven notes, with accents placed on different parts of the beat.  Well, that's really understated, but it's a start. 

The rest is to feel it.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the best, and really the only way, to learn how to swing is to listen to those who are really good at it.  Because it is Jazz Month, you are allowed to listen to all the jazz you want.  Swing is just type of jazz, of course, but it's an important one.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Searching for zombies

Looking through my stats page, I noticed that someone found my blog by searching for zombie chords and lyrics.  I haven't looked into what they might have been searching for, so I did a search of my own.  Into Google I entered "zombie music".  This is what I learned about:

Game called "Plants vs. Zombies"  (have played it, very fun!)  Plant enough defending plants to keep the zombies from getting into your house!

The Cranberries have a song titled Zombie.

There is a site that features music to kill zombies to.

There is a rock band called The Zombies.  English rock group, notable songs include Time of the Season, and She's Not There. This is probably what the searcher was looking for.

You can listen to Rob Zombie for free on Rhapsody Music.  Rob Zombie is the founder of the heavy metal group White Zombie, and as film director, created House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects (among others).

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiins.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Benny, Artie, and Woody

I've got an 8-10 page paper to write, so I thought I'd test out my ideas on you, my dear readers.  Hopefully, you are not too sick of hearing about jazz musicians, but that is all that's been on my mind lately...

My paper is a comparison and contrast of the performance and playing styles of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman.  Three great clarinet-playing bandleaders of the Swing era. 

These are the main points:

Tone:  Benny had more formal training, played sax when necessary, and therefore had a clean, focused sound.  He was playing professionally by age 12, so he was basically a clarinet prodigy.  Artie had almost no formal training, and played saxophone primarily.  His sound is a bit thinner, with a bit less body, or fullness.  Woody had some formal training, started on sax, and learned clarinet as a double.  His clarinet sound is enormous, like he's trying to shout through the clarinet.  It's a rough, raw sound, that lacks clarity and focus. 

Phrasing:  Artie shines in this respect.  His playing is lyrical, melodic, and always in good taste.  Benny, being more analytical, played around the chord changes, using the structure as a basis to apply his soloing.  His playing is restrained, but not rigid.  Woody is more visceral in his soloing style.  He grew up in the vaudeville circuit, first as a child singer/dancer, then as a sax soloist.  He plays a phrase the way a singer would sing it.

Technique:  All three had full command of the clarinet.  Benny may have had an edge with regard to sheer technical playing, with his formal background.  Artie's playing is very natural.  He plays top C's like it's nothing, and hits them every single time.  Woody also tends to stay in the high range, sometimes venturing into the low range.  Benny uses the full range, very low to very high, always with good tone and even sound.

Of course, these are generalizations.  These are things that I've noticed that happen most often while listening to them these past weeks.  Though Benny is a clean, "proper" player, he is also capable of growling into the clarinet if it serves the music.  Woody plays rough, but he's still in control. 

Hopefully, all of this listening and analyzing will rub off onto my own playing.  The best, I've noticed, never stop learning.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Blues from the Delta

As much as I love the music of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman, I've been listening to them non-stop for nearly a month.  I need a bit of a palate cleanser.  So, on the drive back from band rehearsal I popped in a blues CD.

Last year I did a project that dealt a lot with early jazz and blues and developed a strong appreciation for the music of the early Delta blues men.  Men like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Son House, Charley Patton, and Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter).  Most of them weren't full-time or "professional" musicians, but they were masters of the blues.  Many of them worked as sharecroppers or field hands and played their instruments when they could.  Fortunately, some of them recorded their work.

The Mississippi Delta is the northwest corner of Mississippi, bound in by the Mississippi River to the west and the Yazoo River to the east.  This is where the original crossroads are located.  Where Robert Johnson was said to have met the Devil to exchange his soul for his amazing guitar playing abilities.  It is also where W.C. Handy waited for a train in Clarksdale, and while there heard a man playing the blues and got inspired.  Guitars were the most common accompanying the voices because they were portable, light, and could be easily attained.  Sometimes bottle necks (sawed off of glass beer bottles) were used to make interesting, speech-like sound effects.

The Delta blues traveled along the railroads and steamboats to New Orleans and Chicago, where it was given new life.  Its influence made its way into the Chicago style electric blues, which influenced rock music.  The free rhythms and progressions were picked up by early jazz musicians. 

It is a true American music.

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Duke

Sometime in late middle school-early high school, I discovered that the local library had CDs available for checkout.  I liked playing in the school jazz band, so I picked up a few jazz CDs.  The music of Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington was one of them.  Or maybe he was on a compilation, I can't remember.  Either way, I had discovered a legend.

And he is a legend.  Even though he died in 1974, he is one of the leading jazz masters of our time.  In 1966, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he received 13 Grammy Awards throughout his lifetime.

Ellington did more than just write jazz songs.  He wrote whole jazz suites, including Black, Brown and Beige in 1943, and The Nutcracker Suite in 1960.  The latter is wonderful, turning selected Nutcracker melodies into candy-themed songs.  "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" becomes "Sugar Rum Cherry" and "Arabian Dance" becomes an "Arabesque Cookie".  The same treatment was given to Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite

The Duke's most famous tunes are now jazz standards.  Mood Indigo, Satin Doll, It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing, Sophisticated Lady, and In A Mellotone.  From compositions by his band members (Jaun Tizol and Billy Strayhorn) come Perdido, Caravan, and Take the A Train.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Jazz: A how-to

So now that all four of my regular blog-readers will hopefully be listening to some jazz for Jazz Appreciation month, I thought I'd give you a bit of a tutorial on jazz.  For those who insist that it is too confusing and that it doesn't make any sense.

Jazz band instrumentation:  Has evolved from the days of a banjo (as timekeeper), clarinet or cornet, and maybe a fiddle or a piano, to the much larger orchestras of the swing era (some with small string sections), to smaller bands and combos.  You will usually find rhythm section instruments (piano, drums, bass and guitar) and wind instruments. 

Big bands will have a sax line (usually five, two altos, two tenors and a bari), a trombone line (2-4 players) and a trumpet section (2-4).

In a standard jazz tune, like one by the great Duke Ellington for instance, you will hear the main tune.  The melody.  The part that sometimes gets lyrics added to it.  Many times this will come after a short 4-8 bar (measure) introduction.  Musicians refer to this as the 'head' or 'tune'.  Listen to this melody and try to pay attention to the chords behind it.  These chords, called a 'progression', will be played continuously throughout the chart. 

After the main melody is heard, the chart can go one of several directions.  It can be opened up for solos from members of the band, who will improvise music over the progression, or it can go through modulations (key changes).  Sometimes there is a 'soli' section that will feature one section of the band, like the ending trumpet licks of Glenn Miller's In the Mood.  In a written out arrangement, like a dance chart, there may be breaks for solos, or large solis written out, or no solos at all.

If you go to a jam session to hear jazz musicians, there will many times not be written out arrangements.  These players will play off of 'lead sheets'.  Lead sheets have just the melody line and chord changes.  With just this information the players can create a whole song, with the head, and an open section for solos. After everyone who wants to solo has gotten to play, there is usually a return to the head and the song can end.

Of course, this is a very basic outline of jazz music.  What makes it so wonderful is that there are lots of ways to play jazz and still be 'correct.'  So, go listen and try to hear what's going on! 

Go. Listen. Jazz.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month!  Go out there and appreciate some jazz!  Not sure what to listen to?  Here are just a few to get you started:

Duke Ellington
John Coltrane
Bix Beiderbecke
Louis Armstrong
Count Basie
Benny Goodman
Woody Herman
Artie Shaw
Miles Davis
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie

Now go. Listen.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

More dissonance. And a riot!

What can I tell you about Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) that you don't already know?  The premiere of this legendary work has so much myth and buzz around it that it's sometimes hard to figure out what really happened.

Picture it: May 29, 1913, Paris.  The lights come up on stage and the audience hears a lone bassoon, playing in the very high part of its range.  Bassoons are low-playing instruments, so the sound was exotic and ethereal.  (There is an old musician joke that the bassoon is singing: "IIIIIIII am not an English horn! This is too High for me! IIIIIIIII am not an English horn!) 

Stravinsky's chaotic, dissonant note choices where actually not that unusual to cultured Parisian listeners, who had been hearing these kinds of things already (to a much lesser degree, of course).  Instruments that were called for were the ordinary members for an orchestra, but they were now being asked to play to the extremes of their capabailities (the very high bassoon, screeching Eb clarinet, blaring horns). 

In reality, though, it was the dancing that got everyone so riled up.  The Rite of Spring was written by Stravinksy as a ballet, choreographed by the great Vaslav Nijinsky, with a collaboration with the Ballets Russes' Serge Diaghilev.  The ballet is about a pagan sacrifice, which isn't really what concert goers expected from their ballets.  The costumes, instead of being form-fitting and ethereal, were heavy, dark, and obscured the dancers' shapes.  And it was placed on the second half of a program that started with a very normal performance of Les Sylphides

Up until then, ballet dancing was always reaching upwards, with bodies turned out and open.  Pointe shoes made ballerinas seem like they were floating, and huge leaps made men appear to fly.  Nijinsky had the dancers turn in their feet and stomp into the ground.  Then the (in)famous "Rite of Spring chord" starts in, jagged accents, polychords and all.  It's made up of an Eb major chord stacked on top of an E major chord.  Very dissonant.

The audience couldn't handle it.  Catcalls, boos, yelling.  So much noise that Nijinsky was standing on a chair in the wings, shouting counts to the dancers.  Diaghilev tried to gain control by flashing the house lights.  Stravinsky was furious that the audience reacted this way to his music.  And there you have the Rite riot.

To get an idea of what the audience experienced, check out the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of the 1913 choreography.  It's amazing.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Ives got an idea

Today our band director brought up an interesting question:  Why is it that we don't know the early American composers as well as we know the heavy-hitting European composers?  Everyone has heard of Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms, but how many of us know Amy Beach, William Grant Still, or Anthony Philip Heinrich. 

Heinrich was the first American composer to write a symphony orchestra.  Amy Beach was the first American woman composer.  William Grant Still was the first African-American to write for orchestra, among many other achievements.  These people should be recognized.  They paved the way for Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. 

But today, I have another early composer on my mind.  Charles Ives (1874-1954) took popular, nationalistic melodies, like America (My Country 'tis of Thee), and gave them a unique individualism.  He is best known for his innovative use of polytonality, which means he would have a melody played in two keys at once. 

There is a part in his Variations on 'America' where the theme is played in F major by half of the band and Eb major by the other half.  So you hear the melody in minor seconds.  For the un-music theory initiated, that's really crunchy sounding.  Go to a keyboard and play a black key and a white key (that are right next to one another) at the same time and you'll get an idea of what this kind of polytonality would sound like.

It's interesting that Ives was doing this kind of thing before Igor Stravinsky.  Stravinsky is amazing, by the way, but I will have to save that for another nibble.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Eagle!!!

There is a webcam in Decorah, IA focused on an eagle's nest.  It's watching the birds to see an egg hatch.  A little baby eagle.  An eaglet.  Awwwwww.

There is a rock band called The Eagles, too.  Based out of Los Angeles, CA, the original members include Glenn Fry, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner.  The current lineup is Frey, Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit.

I read somewhere that the opening chord sequence to Hotel California is one of the most recognizable in rock music.  Even if the rhythm is taken away, most people can still recognize the song.  When asked the meaning of this iconic song, Don Henley said, "It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America, which is something we know about."

According to Glenn Frey's liner notes, the reference to "steely knives" is a nod to Steely Dan, who mentioned The Eagles in the lyrics of their song, Everything You Did.

Other hits from the band are: "Witchy Woman," "Desperado," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Tequila Sunrise," "One of These Nights," "Lyin' Eyes," and "New Kid in Town."  Just listen to any classic rock station and you'll eventually hear something by The Eagles.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Woooould-'nt iiiit, be loverly?

I've been reading a fascinating book called Don't Sleep There are Snakes by Daniel Everett.  It's about a group of people who live in the Amazon jungle called the Piraha.  There language is interesting because they speak nearly always in the present.  This doesn't mean they don't think about the past or the future, or have memories of dead Pirahas, it just isn't talked about.  (Piraha is pronounced: pee-da-han)

For example, if a Piraha is talking to another Piraha about something another Piraha said, both people would have to have known or seen or have talked to that other Piraha.  They are the ultimate existentialists.  If something wasn't witnessed by someone they had had personal interaction with, it simply could not have happened, because it can not be proven.

Anyway, the music nibble comes in here.  The author was colleagues with Peter Ladefoged, a linguist who was also used as a consultant on the set of My Fair Lady.  The film version features Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle.  I remembered reading somewhere that, for any number of reasons, Hepburn's singing voice was considered insufficient, so she was overdubbed.  The singer whose voice was used is Marni Nixon. 

It would be interesting to hear the un-overdubbed songs to see whether or not the vocal stand-in was necessary.

What do all of those symbols mean? Part 2

Last time we looked at the staff and the clef symbols.  If you have had a chance to look at a piece of music, you may also have noticed small letters and words written above and below the actual notes and staff.  These are expressive marks.

When the composer wants to indicate loudness or softness (dynamics) she will use just symbols or abbreviations of words.  Most of the language of music is Italian.  Here are some of the most common:

forte (f) - loud
piano (p) - soft

{Sidebar: the full name of a piano is pianoforte.  This is because at its time of development it was capable of playing both softly and loudly.  Other keyboard instruments up until that time, like the harpsichord, were unable to make such a distinction.}

mezzo (usually used in combination with f and p) - medium  [mf will literally mean "medium loud"]

There are further variations with dynamic words.  Fortissimo means very loud (the -issimo part tells us that) and pianissimo means very soft (quiet! hush! not so damn loud!)

Crescendo means to gradually get louder and decrescendo means to gradually get softer. 

Later composers, such as Percy Grainger, got a bit carried away with their expressive marks.  They will characteristically use terms such as "louden", "to the fore" (Grainger's favorite, I think. He uses it a lot), and "as soft as possible."  I've also seen: ffff (fortissississimo?) and pppp.  When the word niente is used, the composed wants the player to fade into no sound (niente = nothing).

Friday, April 1, 2011

Hey, it's a new month

Here are some random music facts for today's post: 

~~Eddie Van Halen is actually a very accomplished cello player.  He got his start playing in the Vienna Philharmonic at the age of 15.  Due to an unfortunate cello bow accident, though, he gave up the cello and switched to guitar.

~~Taylor Swift lipsincs everything.  She is, however, actually playing the guitar.  Little known fact: she can play with her toes!

~~In the southeast African country of Mozambique, clarinet reeds are repurposed as weapons.  They are used like arrow heads on the tips of spears.  The people there use this tool primarily to catch the African swallow, that is regarded as a great delicacy.  It hasn't yet been made clear where they are getting the clarinet reeds.

~~Johnny Cash moonlighted as a circus clown before getting his first recording deal. 

~~Lady Gaga actually wanted to be an accountant.  However, she was unable to figure out how to use a calculator, so she decided to be a pianist/songwriter instead.  Seems to have worked out for her though!

~~Glenn Miller was the first pick for the lead role in Casablanca.  He turned it down though and two years later was lost in a plane crash.  Should've take the acting role, Glenn!

;-)