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.