TEST ON FRIDAY

We will have a brief listening test on Friday. You should be able to identify 70 percent of the pieces we have listened to.

The Concerto (for class Friday Nov 16)

A concerto (plural: concerti or conceros) generally refers to a piece where a solo instrument is featured as the main voice and the orchestra is playing off of it. This was largely a development of the Baroque era and has been major form for composers ever since.

Concertare can have two opposite, or complementary, meanings in Italian: it can mean “to contend or dispute” as well as “to agree”.

In Baroque music the concerto began as a small orchestra playing in the foreground of a larger one. This was called a Concerto Grossi. Over time some composers began giving a solo instrument extended passages to play. Soon, the solo instrument was foregrounded alone, and the concerto was born.

Antonin Vivaldi did more than anyone to create the standard form of the concerto. The ritornello is wehen solo passages alternate with passsages of the orchestra playing all at once (known as tutti). His “Four Seasons” is likely the most famous of all the concertos. He is also most responsible for the 3 part structure, the first part being fast, the second slow, the third fast.

Bach inherited a fully developed polyphonic concerto form. Typically he exploited it fully, to the limits of both the players of the time and the instruments themselves. Many of these pieces are among his most famous, for instance, The Brandenburg Concertos.

Be sure to pay attention to the different combinations of instruments in each of these concertos:

Concerto for flute, violin, harpsichord and strings in A minor, BWV 1044

Concerto for harpsichord and strings in D minor, BWV 1052

Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043

Bach Test Preview

The exam will require you to listen to a piece of music,
identify it, and use some of the following terms in a description of it.
I will post a sample response later on. The exam will be on 11/23.
A more extensive list of terms will be posted soon.

french overture

¾ time

dissonance

canon

fugue

concerto

cantata

toccata

aria

The following pieces will be on the exam:

Brandenburg Concerto #1 F minor
The Goldberg Variations
Suite for Cello #3 C minor
Cantata 106
Orchestral Suite #1

There will be others as well...

The Rest of the Term

The rest of the term will be mostly devoted to listening to pairs of musical works. This will allow us to hear the great variety of Bach's music, identify different musical structures, and learn to listen more deeply.

Wed Nov 7: Orchestral Suite #1 BWV 1066 and Cantata 106
Mon Nov 12: The Art of Fugue
Wed Nov 14: (pete out) Lute Suite in E minor; Viola da Gamba Sonata G minor
Fri Nov 16: (pete out) 3 concerti: for 2 violins D minor;
for flute harpsichord, strings et al; for harpsichord and strings
Mon Nov 19: review of previous pieces
Mon Nov 26: Violin Partitas, Solo cello, and Violin Concerti
Wed Nov 28: The Goldberg Variations
Fri Nov 30: The Goldberg Variations

No homework this weekend

However,

From this point on you will be asked to make "Listening Notes" for each class. "Listening Notes" consist of a handwritten page of notes, impressions, insights, questions, and observations taken while ACTIVELY listening to the pieces we are studying in class. Set your self up with a notebook, listening device of some sort, and the recording. As you listen, begin to write. You may also draw. But please relate what you produce to the music itself.

Beginning Monday, we will look at "A Musical Offering". This is a deceptively simple piece of music that well illustrates many of the ideas we have batted about in class thus far.

Friday's class will have us watching the rest of "32 Short Films about Glenn Gould".

Monday Oct 1 Exam

Be prepared to identify the various features of melody, rhythm, and harmony, as well as define "pop" and "funk". We will use examples from class. I will a brief selection of music and give you several possibilities that it might be an example of. You will have to explain your answer. We will have a brief review on Friday.

Wednesday Sept 26

Wednesday: Revolver. Be sure to listen to it. Listen for verse-chorus structure, variations on a melody (for instance, between the vocals and guitar), background vocals, change in time signature, etc. You will be expected to be able to identify many of the "dynamics" we have discussed over the past few weeks.

Friday: Theme & variation in Jazz. We will be listening to Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.

Just for the Funk of It

Your Homework, due Friday: bring in the Funkiest, Fiercest, Flippinest Funk you can Find.
What is funk? Remember how we defined Pop? We're going to zero in on Funk and figure it out.

Why are we doing all this? Why Funk in a Bach Class?

Because listening is listening. We are training our ears to hear structure and training our minds to discuss music. And it is best to do that with music we are familiar with.

Monday's class will be on one of the few truly perfect records: The Beatle's Revolver.

Wednesday we will take a quick look at theme and variation in Jazz.

Friday, hopefully, we will step into music theory- the basic kind- and prepare for a good listen to the music of the Middle Ages.

Pop Songs

There will always be problems in clearly defining the arts of one's own times. What makes a pop song is no different. "Pop" is not just "popular"- as many, many songs are popular and have almost no relationship to a traditional use of the term. For our purposes we mean: compact, tuneful pieces of music with a decided emphasis on melody and "catchiness". A song of this type will have very strong vocal presence and a limited range of mood- usually joyous and often tinged with melancholy. There is often surprising variety in a very short period of time, as well as very clear verse-chorus structure.
All the music we listened to today was interesting, but only some of it was "pop" by the the terms above. Please bring in more. But choose carefully.

Friday, Sept 15

Today we will be listening to a few more contributions from your classmates and then listening carefully to Gamelan music from Bali and the fascinating music of Harry Partch.
Check out the Partch links on the right of the page.

Sept 12th Class

Today we will continue to listen to music with an ear towards harmony, melody, and rhythm.

Friday we will listen to yet more music you bring in, but will begin to survey music from other cultures, particularly Indonesia, India, and West Africa.

Review of Class: Sept. 10 Monday

Excellent participation all around- but I must admit listening to the first Velvet Underground with you all was very moving. All the music you brought in was interesting. I look forward to how much we will learn about the fundamentals of music and deepening our ability to hear it.
Please begin posting comments on the music we listen to.

Monday Sept. 10th Homework

1) Choose 4 pieces of music from CD #2 and describe each with clear, concrete, descriptive words. No opinions, please!

2) Bring in one piece of music of any type that you know well. Be prepared to describe it in terms of melody, harmony, and rhythm.

Friday Sept.

Today we will make a brief introduction to some of Bach's work. But the main task of the next few classes will be to establish that music is the Art of Time. As light is to painting, space is to sculpture, and language is to poetry, time is to music. The control of time with rhythm, harmony, and melody is the essence of composition.

We will also discuss the physics of sound and basic music theory.

Your homework will be to listen to the CD's your are given and to be prepared to discuss them. For Monday please bring in an example of music you enjoy and be prepared to discuss its use of rhythm, harmony, and melody.

Don't sweat it. You'll have plenty of help.