Today in Seminar we examined and analyzed various different operas, opera voices, composers, and opera performers.  I was intrigued to see the different opera scenes performed, and without a doubt, the three performances we saw of Luciano Pavarotti were incredible.  Opera is a fascinating and beautiful art form and I’m looking forward to attending my first opera on Wednesday.

We learned about each of the different types of opera voices today, for both men and women. For each type of voice, Professor Kahan showed a scene from an opera, where the performer was singing in that type of voice.  I’m glad she did this, because not only were we able to physically hear what we were being taught, but it allowed us to see different types of arias and recitativos being performed in several operas.  For me, these were the best parts of the class.  For the lowest opera voice a man can perform, the bass, we were shown a clip from Don Giovanni, composed by Mozart.  The bass voice in the scene was the voice of the servant of Don Giovanni, who is showing Giovanni’s current “girlfriend” the book of every woman Giovanni has ever seduced, in the various countries he has visited.  It is a comical sort of scene, and the bass voice fits nicely with this comical tone.

The other male voices are a baritone and a tenor.  For these voices, we were shown a clip from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, composed by Rossini, Othello composed by Verdi, and Nessun Dorma from the opera Turnadot, the play we are going to see as a class.  Nessun Dorma is a famous aria from the opera Turandot, and has been performed various times by the tenor, Luciano Pavarotti.  Professor Kahan showed us three different performances of this piece by Pavarotti, and I was fascinated.  He was able to perform this piece at age 45, age 63, and age 71, and he sounded flawless all three times.  Of course, there were slight differences as he aged and gained musical maturity, but all three times, he was powerful and emotional and was able to nicely present the intensity of this piece of music.  It was very interesting to watch.

Then came my absolute favorite part of today’s class.  We first identified the several types of female opera voices, and then we saw a clip from Carmen in order to hear a female mezzo-soprano.  I have seen the movie Carmen and I love the music, the dancing, and of course, the singing.  The actress playing Carmen has a beautiful voice.  Everybody knows the tune of the opening scene of Carmen and for me, that makes it even more enjoyable to watch.

I learned much more about the opera than I had ever known in today’s class.  For example, I did not know that librettists had such a difficult job creating a libretto for an opera, and how much work goes into it.  They have to think about which words to use, what music to set it to, and still be able to get the plot of the story across to the audience. I also was unaware that women always die in an opera.  It’s true, but just something I had never noticed. Something else I noticed during today’s lesson is that many modern tunes and music used in films, shows, etc. comes from the music of operas.  For example, the music used in Carmen and the music used in Il Barbiere di Siviglia are both tunes that everyone knows because of something else they’ve seen or heard.  It seems that opera music is universal and applicable to many situations, even commercials we see on TV.

I look forward to attending my first real opera and continuing to learn about the different musical styles of the art world.

On Wednesday we began our look at music with a discussion on the different components of music.  Rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, and texture were all mentioned, with timbre being the one that I was least familiar with.  Timbre, from what I understood in class, helps determine how many instruments are playing by identifying the characteristic sound that each instrument produces. Although I had heard of the other terms before, I never knew exact what they were, how to identify them, or their importance to music.  Listening to different songs being played, and discussing these different components and the roles they played in each, turned out to be the best way to change that.  Overtone was also something we discussed during Wednesday’s seminar and was a bit harder for me to comprehend.  However, after an example was produced through the use of a piano, it became much clearer.  Later in the class we were given sheet music, which I found to be very confusing considering I never learned to play an instrument and never had any interest in singing.  I was a bit disappointed because I expected to do more with the sheet music and hoped I would finally get to learn how to read it.  Instead, we went over some basic concepts that I feel I would have been able to figure out on my own.  On the other hand, what I really enjoyed about Wednesday’s class was our introduction to opera.  I thought looking at La Traviata after watching a film version of it was very interesting.  The comparison helped me appreciate opera and see how much more emotion there can be in an opera compared to a film or show.

During Monday’s class we listened to different pieces of music and examined how the five main elements of a piece of music were used to evoke different emotions in the listener. These elements were: rhythm, melody/tune, harmony, timbre and texture.  One of the pieces which we listened to was ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Stravinsky. This piece of music intrigued me because it involves multiple different melodies and rhythms simultaneously.  The sounds of the woodwind instruments such as the english horn combined with the harsh brass of the trumpets and the deep sounding timpani made me think of a magical land where peaceful creatures are being attacked by vicious predators.  The story is that of a predator and its prey. When I was listening  to this piece it reminded me of Titans Spirit- by Trevor Rabin. In both pieces there is a conflicting timbre as the woodwind instruments evoke peaceful and innocent emotions and the brass and deeper sounding instruments evoke images of danger and violence.

In addition to ‘The Rite of Spring’ we listened to Praeludium II by J.S. Bach.  When listening to this piece we discussed how the repetition and the fast rhythm of piece was reminiscent of a malevolent machine which was out of control. Even though the piece was written in four four time it is composed entirely of sixteenth and thirthy-sixth notes which made me as the listener feel as though I was trying to keep up with the song as it raced ahead of me. The repetition of the base note also adds a darkness to the piece. The base note acts as an anchor, allowing the melody to float above it and then yanks it down when it starts to stray too far out of bounds. Additionally when I look at the piece I find it interesting that there are no crescendo or diminuendo markings, yet when I listen to the piece performed the pianist uses the base note as a guide for the volume. When the base note is low the piano gets softer in volume, while higher base notes allow the piece to grow in volume.

As a musician I look forward to exploring deeper into the art of composition.

~Naomi

During Monday’s seminar, for the first time in my life, I learned a great deal about musical sounds. I saw how text should have congruency to give the action taking place a more lively experience. A lot of things about music seemed improvised, which was a very novel concept to me. We went over the four elements that compose music, which are rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre/texture.

When Naomi sang “I feel pretty” from West Side Story, and the professor added her part to the melody, the music had more texture and feeling. The rhythm gave the listener an understanding of where to tap their feet.  The rhythm tells me where to tap my feet, it makes me feel comfortable around the music a little more. We learned to recognize patterns in the music page called “Praeludium”. I had never dealt with musical notes, so learning about them was definitely an amazing experience. It was fascinating to learn how playing certain notes faster or slower can give off a feeling of progression and suspense. Praeludium #2 had less consonants and more dissonance, and without the distance, there was more “crunch”.

Next we listened to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. It had a celebratory type of suspenseful feeling. It reminded me of winter wonderland where the instruments got louder and added suspense and excitement to the big finale.  Slowly all the instruments joined in, creating a remarkable finish.

Personally, this has been one of my favorite seminar classes to date. I always knew about musical composers like Beethoven, but I never actually sat down and listened to their works. Neither did I ever analyze these things. It was a unique experience that makes me appreciate being a student at Macaulay, because at any other place, I know I definitely wouldn’t have learned about music in this way.

In today’s seminar, we spoke about something very close to my heart: music. I really do believe that music is more than just notes played on an instrument. Even without lyrics, music contains so much emotion inside of it that deserves to be appreciated. When we listened to Professor Kahan play Praeludium 1 by Bach, that emotion flowed seamlessly and beautifully with every key played.

Everyone in the class had their own reactions to Bach’s piece, but generally, everyone agreed that it was a very relaxing, peaceful piece of music. Once again, even though it had no lyrics that would depict happy thoughts, the notes played together evoked a sense of relaxation and tranquility. When we used our imaginations, we could even tell stories about what the piece was about. Being a musician, I had the ability to understand what chords were played and was able to immediately feel, say, the tranquility of a major or a suspension chord, and the darkness and sense of intrigue of a dominant 7 or diminished chord. What really impressed me, however, were the options and thoughts of the non-musicians; they reminded me why I love music so much in the first place. When I heard how my classmates interpreted the piece and  explained how it made them feel, I was immediately taken back to the reason why I originally started playing music: to be able to speak emotion and be able to tell a story with something much more powerful than words. While words will be comprehended, music will stay with you for a lifetime and leave a lasting impression. Hearing the dark feelings of the classmates that came from Praeludium 2  showed the power of music when it can be deeply appreciated. Even though some classmates had never played a single note of music in their lives, they were still able to provide vivid descriptions of what had gone through their minds when a piece of music had been played.

Monday’s class was an intro to music. We defined that the four elements of music are rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre. These four elements are combined to make each piece of music unique. When Naomi sang “I Feel Pretty” from the musical West Side Story, Professor Kahan played the piano to accompany Naomi’s singing. When the piano was played, it added texture to the song. It also provided rhythm and harmony. Professor Kahan also pointed out the rhythm in the song. The rhythm was “one, two, three, one two three” with emphasis on the “one.”Naomi had a beautiful voice and I loved how she participated in teaching the class about the four elements of music.

Another piece of music that the class was introduced to was the Praeludium I by J.S Bach. This song is very dainty and soft in texture. It is also very soothing and calming. When the song got louder, it created more of a dramatic feeling. It also seemed as if it was telling a love story. This song reminded me a lot of the Ave Maria because they both start similarly and have that same delicate texture. In Praeludium II,  the song sounded much different  and gave a much different feeling. This song was much more dramatic and frantic than the first. It had a very mechanical texture and evoked a scary feeling. I liked both pieces of music. However, I loved Praeludium I. That song made me feel nice and calm  compared to Praeludium II.

9.24.12

Today, I thought our discussion of music would come rather naturally to me being that I play the horn. I was mistaken. In today’s discussion, I looked at music in a way I have never before. When the sheet music was handed out, I thought the discussion was going to be extremely unfair, and perhaps frightening, to those who don’t know how to read music just as if someone handed me an essay in another language. Once we started the discussion, I realized that we were approaching music in a similar fashion to how we approached visual artwork.
We began our discussion by talking about if we saw any patterns in the sheet music. I thought, “Yeah, a whole bunch of sixteenth notes” but hearing the non-musicians talk about what they saw made me realize I was being close-minded. Some people described the notes as “going up and down” or “increasing”. It was really interesting to hear other people talk about music in non-technical terms. Another musical redefining moment for me was when we talked about how you can have a completely different song from similar notes by rearranging the four musical elements (rhythm, melody, harmony, and timbre and texture). By emphasizing one element or another you can get a completely different feel as we saw in the two pieces by Bach, Praeludium I and Praeludium II. I had never thought about that before so, now whenever I listen to a piece of music, I’m always thinking about which element is being emphasized.
Toward the end of class, we began speaking about operas. One really interesting thing that was mentioned was how deep emotion is translated through physical exertion of the voice. That’s so intriguing and I’ll remember that when we go to see Turandot.

– Amber G