Jazz Concert

I had the privilege of going the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood to see the Christian McBride Quintet. To be absolutely honest, I was not looking forward to having to go to a jazz concert. Jazz is definitely not my preference in music. However, once we got to the club and the band came on, I really enjoyed myself. It was a lot of fun watching the musicians play their instruments and see how quickly their hands moved. The atmosphere was really fun and light, so it made the concert a lot of fun to be a part of. It was the first night this band was going to perform at the club so the band didn’t exactly have the sets lined up, but I think I liked that better that way. Christian McBride decided to change the order of songs as well as what songs they were doing in the middle of the set. I like when musicians take liberties like that, it makes the audience more relaxed and shows you that, especially in jazz, things are improvisation on the stage.
I was very curious to learn more about how jazz music works. It seemed to me that they planned out who and what instrument was going to take a solo at what time during the piece. That part I’m not so confused about, what I’m confused about mostly is how the other musicians in the band know when the soloist is going to stop and when they are supposed to come back in to play together. I tried to watch the other band members and see if there was a head nod or some kind of sign as to when the soloist was finishing and I didn’t see one. Maybe they do something that’s not noticeable or maybe they just let the soloist go on until they are done. Whatever it is I was very impressed with how they band members knew when to come back into the song.
The band had a piano, bass, drums, saxophone, and a vibraphone. They would start their songs with everyone playing together then take turns doing solos. The musicians would actually move off the stage when there was a solo going on. I liked that they did this so the audience was able to focus on the person that was giving the solo. The drums and bass never stopped as to keep the beat. My favorite parts were the ones that just had the piano, bass and drums playing. I liked the sound they made playing with each other.
In the middle of the set Christian McBride introduced the band and talked about some people that were in the audience. One person he acknowledged that was there was Chris Botti. The audience, those that really know about jazz, was very excited that he was in the crowd. Unfortunately he did not bring his trumpet along, so he didn’t get to play with the band. I looked him up when I got home from the concert because I felt that he was an important man in the jazz scene. It turns out that Chris Botti is an established trumpet player in both jazz and pop music. It was neat to have a popular jazz musician at the concert.
Overall, my experience at the jazz concert was great. It was a great experience to have and a good way to broaden my knowledge in music.

Music: As Feeling

Music has an effect on people that sometimes they cannot describe themselves. Someone driving down the road with their radio on might shush the other people in the car because their favorite song is on. People will listen to the same song over and over again because it is giving them a feeling that they like to have. It’s hard to not feel something when music is being played. Music as a feeling has become part of our daily lives with something as simple as television commercials. The “jingles” that come on between our favorite shows try to set a mood for viewers in a matter of seconds. In a commercial for a vacation the music will make you feel relaxed and calm. Music is able to set a mood for people that wouldn’t work with just words.
In a movie, music is an essential part to any scene, it sets the mood and gives the audience a chance to really connect and feel what the characters are going through. Music does not only capture a mood for the audience, it creates a feeling that dialogue could not express. Often times the music is more powerful than anything somebody can say.
Even in the “Letter Scene” video that Renee Fleming sings, there is feeling shown not only through the expression on Renee Fleming’s face, but also in the music. As the music gets louder and softer and the pitches change, you can feel through the music the struggle that she is having, the love and excitement she is feeling. The song is in an entirely different language and you can still feel what she is feeling, just by how the music is presented.
Music, outside of movies and songs with lyrics, can give people different feelings. People can connect to certain sounds differently than others. Certain harmonies or melodies can trigger different senses for different people. In Gustav Holst’s Venus, I felt like it was from a scene of a hero coming back from battle victorious, greeting all the people, reassuring them they are safe. Other people might interpret it differently; however I believe that Holst created a sound that gives off a feeling of peace. How people interpret that peace will be different, but the idea is still there.
For a composer to know exactly what melodies and harmonies go together to create that feeling of peace or relaxation or even fear seems amazing to me. To be able to create music that will get an entire audience to experience the same feeling is an amazing task to complete in my opinion. Someone can try and explain their feelings over and over again and still are not understood; however, music can easily express that feeling without words or a lot of explanation. To be able to turn on a song and have a feeling expressed just how you wanted it is a wonderful outlet to have.

Music: In History (Part 1)

Each era of music has brought new sounds and ideas and instruments. Music has played major roles in each era and with each society it was played to. Each musician had an emotion that they were portraying in their music, such as with the major or minor modes. With these modes the musician was able to tell the audience a story of emotions from happy to sad. By creating dynamics composers could take an audience for a ride and to encourage them even more to engage themselves in the music. I believe that in today’s style of music people engage themselves in it, they will identify with a song, and they listen to the words and feel emotions toward what the artists are saying. It’s an interesting thought that audiences back in the Baroque and Classical eras only had notes to engage themselves in emotionally. People today can identify easily with a few lines of lyrics to a song; its impressive to think that the audience back then had to decide what an entire movement meant to them, they didn’t have anyone reciting words to them telling them what the song was about.
The best thing that was presented in this section was the story of “Vivaldi’s Girls”. I loved how much time and dedication Vivaldi gave to the girls in the church. I can’t help but think he had a compassionate heart from God to be able to serve as a priest and composer for less fortunate girls. He was able to give those girls something to be proud of in their lives, especially when visitors would come to listen to what the girls had to perform. For people to say things like, “They sing like angels, and play violin, flute, organ, hautboy, violin, cello, bassoon, in short, there is not instrument so large as to frighten them,” must have been very uplifting for the girls in that church to hear. I also like that a tradition now is when musicians want to perform at that church they must have at least one Vivaldi piece to play.
Music can be so influential on people’s emotions and on society as a whole. The “Mozart Effect” is a great example of how “powerful” music can seem to be. I have heard that listening to classical music could possibly increase a young child’s brain development; I hadn’t heard that it could “improve your special reasoning ability”. I didn’t know that it has been debated about with older people and whether classical music helped them as well. I thought that Dr. Anthony J. Palmer made some interesting points about this theory. He discussed that with his experience it seemed natural to students who were in music programs at school were also into their academics and leadership in school. The already over achieving students would naturally want to be challenged more in other areas than those that were required from them. Dr. Palmer said, “Expressing oneself artistically is a fundamental aspect of being a human.” I agree with him for the most part. However, I was heavily into the choral program at my high school and was not an over achieving student by any means. Yes, I enjoyed the challenge of the music given to me and I enjoying expressing myself that way. However, I do not think that being around that style of music daily helped me in my school work or gave me a spurt of special reasoning. I can see a correlation between music and academics like Dr. Palmer suggests, but I think that’s as far as we can go with it.
Music is a powerful thing for people. There is an unusual way that people can relate to the sound of how notes are played and the dynamics of the piece. I think that the Baroque and Classical Eras brought a lot of emotion into the music world. People today are listening to music on the radio and identifying themselves with what words are being heard. I think it would be so much better to be able to identify myself with what a melody or harmony sounds like. Unfortunately the music that is being played today is playing a role in today’s society. If only what had more of a major role in society was something as harmless as Mozart, the people’s emotions and engagements would be a lot sweeter.

History of Music- Stradivarius Violins

1. There are currently 609 violins, 12 violas, and 64 cellos of Antonio Stradivari

2. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1729. This Stradivarius is what Martin Chalifour plays as concertmaster.

3. A concertmaster guides the orchestra toward an ideal sound. Their role is a mediator between the conductor and the musicians.

Music: in aesthetics, science, and "the spheres"

The Naked Saint was an interesting story about a saint that was only concerned with time and couldn’t enjoy anything else in his life. I believe that the moral of this story is to point out that music can change us and have a big impact on our lives as well as not being tied up with how much time we have. The impact that music had on the naked saint was life changing for him, he was no longer tied to the wheel of Time which made him crazy. The saint was angered when he saw others doing jobs that to him were worthless compared to the time that they had. Definitely a good story about how to relax and not get so worked up about how much time is left and to enjoy life and be productive in life.

I thought it was interesting when the saint saw the two lovers in the moonlight and heard the music because as I recall in Greek mythology love is a large part of all the myths and it was neat to see the music be tied in with all of that. Music can be very influential in life and the naked saint proved that when he changed into an angelic being. The Greeks believed that music was the most powerful out of all the arts. Music represented harmony in life and if someone’s life was crazy, like the naked saint’s, they must not have had any harmony in their lives. When the naked saint saw the beauty of the moonlight and the two lovers, he found harmony in this and was able to hear music and be at peace.

Music was studied as an art as well as a science in Greek culture. In the story of The Naked Saint, the saint was calmed and changed not only by the two lovers, but also the light of the moon in the sky. Pythagoras was an astronomer, mathematician, and a musician. He, as well as other philosophers believed that the “universal truths could be expressed in motion, in number, and in music” (Music in Greek Philosophy, 2). As the stars and planets rotated, they made heavenly music and humans were supposed to be responsive to the music that was being made. If there is harmony in the universe there is harmony among people, that is if people are willing to listen. The saint was not willing to listen to the music that was around him. He was too concerned with the wheel of Time and making sure it was still running. I think that the philosophers had a good theory in that people should be aware of their surroundings and no wrapped up in their own monotonous lives.

Herman Being

Herman - computer processor that decides to explore the world of classical music, but gives up after one try. He was encouraged and prompted by both his aunt and a women named Jean to continue to learn about the music.

Aunt Irene - sets Herman up on multiple dates with Jean and helps encourage him in his "journey" into classical music.

Jean - a love interest for Herman who also encourages Herman in his music study. She is studying to get her masters in music.

Lyall Pratt - Herman's boss who takes the job that Herman wanted and later shoots him which ends in a lawsuit.

Marvin Grossman – The lawyer that takes the lawsuit against him by Lyall Pratt, Marvin reminds Herman of Perry Mason

Ben Walden – a mentor to Herman in his music.