Blues Music

Blues Music Blues Music began as songs sung by black slaves in the mid - 19th century in the Southern United states. It has taken elements from African, European and American folk music. After the Civil War and emancipation the Blues spread, together with the species that sang and played it, from the cotton fields of the southern states to northern cities such as Chicago and Detroit, where the music became hugely popular. The notes in the blues scale are very dissonant. This may be because the black slaves were in misery working all day, and the scale represents their feelings. In the scale of C, the notes in the blues scale are: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is the chord sequence in 12-bar blues music. It is still sometimes heard in popular music today. Chord of Chord of Chord of Chord Bars 1 - 4 C C C C Bars 5 - 8 F F C C Bars 9 - 12 G F C C Blues music has many characteristics in its melody that makes it typical to the style. It often rolls between 2 notes, and sometimes there is a glissando, which is sliding from one note to another. Blues music may also

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Integrated Task Commentary. For my performance I have chosen a Trinity Guildhall Grade 5 piece called Lime Tree Bay. It is a jazz piece composed by a session musician and composer called Malcolm Ball. I will play my own interpretation of this particular p

INTEGRATED TASK COMMENTARY For my performance I have chosen a Trinity Guildhall Grade 5 piece called Lime Tree Bay. It is a jazz piece composed by a session musician and composer called Malcolm Ball. I will play my own interpretation of this particular piece of music, which differs subtly in the "feel" from the way Malcolm ball plays it. Malcolm Ball's version lacks a degree of subtlety in the way it played, which modifies the way it sounds and the emotions conveyed. I believe my version is truer to the way traditional jazz is played which was reflective of the black people's liberation in back street clubs (the birthplace of jazz). Malcolm Ball's piece only provided a template for the piece which could be developed by the performer, acknowledging the supposition that a piece of music, much like a book can be interpreted in a variety of ways. The first twenty five bars are performed using brushes; this is not dissimilar to the way many big band pieces were played and so shares properties of both big band and traditional jazz. The use of brushes makes it easier to differentiate between accented notes and long legato "sweeps" on the snare drum, giving the piece a variance in timbre making the piece more interesting. It is difficult to sustain a homogenous sound that doesn't vary at the apex of the stir. Instead I chose to embrace the issue and accentuate the apogee of the

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Indian Musical Instruments

Indian Musical Instruments Tabla: a pair of finger-played kettledrums, the main accompanying instruments in the classical music of the northern Indian sub-continent, with an extremely elaborate technique. The right-hand drum, tabla, a cylindrical kettledrum made of hollowed wood, is tuned to the tonic of the raga; the left-hand drum, baya, a metal or occasionally pottery bowl, is untuned, the pitch being controlled by pressure with the heel of the hand in performance. Both have a patch of tuning paste on the drumhead to eliminate the out-of-tune overtones so audible on European drums. Sitar: one of the most important musical instruments of the classical music of the northern Indian sub-continent, a long-necked lute with four main plucked strings and three plucked as a rhythmic drone; twelve sympathetic strings are plucked occasionally. The strings can be pulled sideways along the curved metal frets, varying the pitch up to a fifth. The strings vibrate on a flat area of the bridge, which enriches the sound. A bass sitar, the surbahar, is also often used. The sitar was created as a conflation of the Persian setar and the Indian vina. Sarangi: a musical instrument, the principal fiddle of north Indian classical music. The body, carved from a block of wood, has a skin belly. The three bowed gut strings are stopped with a fingernail from the side, often with a glissando from

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Beauty of music

Music is one of the most amazing things that human beings create in their world. The ability to facilitate an emotional awakening in another human being without them even understanding the language a song is sung in, whether it is an aria sung in Italian or Latin or Spanish, a beautiful polyryhtmic swarm by Fela Kuti, soft sung velvety French or Japanese pop music, or classic rock from America or the United Kingdom, music has reached millions of people and is often connected to many memories. Music definitely, as much as a painting, is the universal language among humans. Also, unlike a paintings, the financial barrier or the fine art world does not separate the average working class person from his multimillionaire or multi-billionaire counterpart. Whether a person is rich or poor or whether a person is from the eastern or western hemisphere, music can reach across the globe and touch the hearts of strangers everywhere. Music has a way of reaching a person across stretches of time, crosses political realities, religious realities, and racial realities. Music has a way of bringing together large disparate groups of people who have nothing in common but the music itself, and can bridge gaps across several generations of people regardless of age groups. From two to one hundred, a band or a group or a composer can unify people through different eras and epochs, regardless

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music folk music research

Folk music, in the most basic sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. The Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary defines it as "music of the common people that has been passed on by memorization or repetition rather than by writing, and has deep roots in its own culture. It is still being passed on in this way today. The folk music of Ireland (also known as Irish traditional music, Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland, North and South of the Border. Irish traditional music has survived more strongly against the forces of cinema, radio and the mass media than the indigenous folk music of most European countries. This was partly due to the fact that the country was not a battleground in either of the two world wars. Another significant factor was that the economy was largely agricultural, where oral tradition usually thrives. From the end of the second world war until the late fifties folk music was held in low regard. Following the success of The Clancy Brothers in the USA in 1959, Irish folk music became fashionable again. The lush sentimental syle of Delia Murphy was replaced by guitar-driven male groups such as The Dubliners. Irish showbands presented a mixture of pop music and folk dance tunes, though these died out during the seventies. The

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Handels Messiah Background information for set work

Handel’s Messiah – Background information for set work George Frederic Handel, considered one of the greatest composers of the baroque period, he was born in Halle, Germany on February. 23, 1685. He died in London on April. 14, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Handel is best known for his English Oratorios, particularly the Messiah. Handel was distinguished for his musical ability from his earliest years, was sent to Berlin to study when he was 14, began his musical career as a performer at Hamburg in 1703 and produced his first opera in 1704. He spent six years in Italy and cam, on invitation, to England in 1710, where he lived for almost 50 years. In England Handel continued to compose in the Italian style, but also absorbed the characteristics of English music, especially English coral music. Henry Purcell was a classical composer and musicians and was one of the leading musicians of the Baroque Period. Henry Purcell was born in London September. 12 1659 and died in 1695. Henrys father was a gentleman of the chapel-royal, and sang at the coronation of King Charles II of England. Purcell was often considered England's finest native composer, Purcell combined a great gift for lyrical melody with harmonic invention and mastery of counterpoint. He sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal until 1673 and became organist there in 1682. In 1677 he was appointed

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Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor Section B

Symphony No. 40 in G minor 1st movement By Crystal Wong 10S Mozart's Symphony No. 40 (1st movement) is written in sonata form which has been used very frequently in the Classical Period. A movement which is written sonata form has three sections, the exposition, development, and recapitulation. In the exposition, there is a "first subject", a theme that is established. It is followed by a transition section, with the end of this section marked by a general pause. The accompaniment in this section is more homophonic and is more by simple chords than in the previous subsections. There is use of imperfect cadences at the end to signify the continuity of the exposition. The last subsection of the exposition is the codetta, which in this piece, is very similar the first subject of the exposition. However, perfect cadences are repeated at the end of the codetta to signify the end of the Exposition. The Development section of a typical Classical-era sonata usually refers to where the first subject of the exposition is further explored and developed. As one can notice, there are uses of contrapuntal texture as well as a variety of key changes which will be explored later. The texture in this section begins as very heavy, with the use of the entire orchestra. However, at bar 140 and until the end of the development section, it begins to be lighter and sparser. The final

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Development of Music as a Therapy

Running head: Development of Music as a Therapy Development of Music as a Therapy Lorie Ceal Grand Canyon University Intro to Human Communication Theory June 21, 2009 Development of Music as a Therapy The development of music as a therapy spans a vast amount of time. On the History of Music Therapy website we discover that music has always been used for therapeutic reasons. The evidence lies in; "cathartic and hypnotic uses of music in primitive tribes, Apollo - who was the god of music and medicine, drumming healers of India at Delphi, and cave drawings of musical shamans". (History of Music Therapy, n.d.) There seems to have always been a connection between music and emotion. It has a history of influence on both the emotional and physical aspects of one's health. "Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle all wrote about how music affects health and behavior." (United Health Services, 2009) Plato stated that musical training was important because "rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful". (History of Music Therapy, n.d.)Even though music was thought of as a healing agent for body, mind and soul in ancient times, according to the History of Music Therapy, It is a "fairly recent phenomenon in Western culture". (History of Music Therapy, n.d.) Dr Richard Brown wrote the

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Minimalism Compositions

My Minimalism composition: I will do my minimalism piece in the key of D minor and base the notes around this sequence but also use the chords of A, F C and E change key, but not to a major key. I will base the piece on arpeggios and broken chords, I will also use phase shifting to give it a more effective feeling to it. I will be changing the pattern and the rhythm of the music several times in the piece so it doesn't seem to repetitive. My piece is approximately 2 minutes long and at the end I will repeat the beginning again. Dynamics are important in my piece of music so I will be changing the tone by using staccato and legato notes. I will also change the tempo of it when I think it is necessary. I am going to record it in the music studio instead of using a computer program. I think this a good choice for me because as I will do it on the piano I can use the pedal and create better dynamics. How ever I will have to make sure I can learn it well as I will not have many chances to re-record it. There will be four beats in the bar and the average speed will be about 120 beats per minute, but as I said before the tempo will purposely change slightly during the piece to make the atmosphere of it become more

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Pop music composition

Solo Ballads ? BALLADS -tell stories, they have been around since at the 15th century. Back then a ballad was a long song with lots of verses that told a story. It's the type of thing that was sung by wandering mistrels. ? POP/ROCK - ballads still tell stories, they are often slow and sad and tell some kind of love story. Songwriters like to put a romantic or spooky twist right at the end to keep people listening. You will hear ballads sung in many different styles - a rock ballad accompanied by heavy drums and amplified guitars e.g. a folk ballad played on a acoustic guitar. Singer-songwriters are artists who write and sing their own material. They usually accompany themselves on either the guitar or piano and write a fair few ballads. • Bob Dylan's most famous ballad is an anti-war song called 'Blowing in the Wind'. • He sings a simple major scale, diatonic tune and plays a acoustic guitar. • All the verses are the same music and the same last line. • When the last line is repeated this works like a mini-chorus. • Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind' is a love ballad about Marilyn Monroe. • Her real name was Norma Jean. • The first line goes 'Goodbye Norma Jean....' • At Princess Diana's funeral he changed the words to 'Goodbye English Rose...' • Elton accompanies most of his songs on the piano. • His accompaniments combine rhythmic

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