Rebecca DeBiase

Professor Hoffman

IDC 1001

19 December 2017

Top 10

  1. Brighton Beach Memoirs

Brighton Beach Memoirs is a comedy directed by Gene Saks based off of the play by Neil Simon. The movie revolves around a Jewish family that lives in Brighton Beach Brooklyn, New York in 1937. The family is in a tight financial situation and cultural situation as they have previous notions about their neighbors across the street and how they treated their family previously. Throughout the movie we see the main character, Jerome, discovering puberty and everything that comes along with it as well as the financial conflict between the father of the family and the oldest song when they both lose a job. As a result, the father becomes sick, however, the movie resolves with the family being stronger than ever even with the upcoming arrival of their cousins from Poland. I liked this movie because I had read the play and thought it was very true to the original work. When I was reading the play, it reminded me of my own family with the humor involved and so I felt as though I could relate to Jerome’s frustration with his parents. I generally thought that the movie was very funny and a delightful coming of age story.

  1. 4’33 by John Cage

John Cage believed that everything was music and that is clearly shown in his piece “4’33””.  I think that his belief in this could be a result of his father being an inventor. The creative mind that one needs to be an inventor was obviously passed down to Cage. It can be seen not only in 4’33”, but in one of Cage’s pieces where he puts objects in between piano strings to alter the sound from the piano. Every time he plays something different comes out as a result. This was his objective with 4’33”. This musical piece is a blank score. There are no “standard” instruments being played, the music is given by the audience rather than the performers. Cage practiced a lot with chance music and so it is a given that he let 4’33” be up to the chance of what kind of audience he had. The music would change based on the audience members and I think that if this piece were to be performed when there are more advancements in technology, we can create an even greater disjunct form of music. If there was children or babies in the audience that would cry or laugh, it would be incorporated into the sound. If anyone was sick and sneezing and coughing, that was incorporated as well. The possibilities are endless with the different types of sounds and feelings he could have portrayed with this piece.

  1. West Side Story

West Side Story is based on the play written by Shakespeare called Romeo and Juliet. Both involve “star-crossed” lovers that don’t have a happy ending. In Romeo and Juliet, it takes the death of them both to make their rival families come together and resolve their differences. In West Side Story, Tony gets shot and dies in Maria’s arms leaving he alive to deal with the pain of his death. The difference between the two genres is that one is a play while the other is almost a musical of sorts. West Side Story presents the story of two rival gangs as almost a playful fight until guns and knives are involved. This is shown by the number of choreographed dance numbers and singing done throughout the movie. Romeo and Juliet is just a tragedy without a source of comedic relief or relief of any sort. West Side Story provides songs and music that can be danced to relieve the audience of the upcoming tragedy.

 

 

4. “Scherzo” from West Side Story composed by Leonard Bernstein

Symphonic Dances is a suite composed by Leonard Bernstein for the play West Side Story. One of the pieces in the suite is “Scherzo” and it is played towards the beginning of the play. I like the lightness the piece is mainly composed of and I thought it was funny that the name id this piece in Italian means joke. It pokes fun at whichever scene it will be used in while also have the motif that is consistent with each piece in West Side Story.

  1. Full fathom five (1947)

         This is one of Jackson Pollock’s first drop paintings and it is one of my favorites. Its title was given by one of Pollock’s neighbors and they were quoting a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Although it can’t be seen through the photograph of the painting, it is actually made with more than just house paint. Cigarette butts, coins, keys, nails and more are stuck throughout the surface from the paint. It gives a 3-dimensional effect while also giving perspective to his artistic process. I think that when one steps a few feet away from the painting it could look like a galaxy or space in general with the black, white, and blue used. Then when you get closer to the painting, you can start to see the texture of the painting and how it can describe space as well.

  1. Rhapsody in Blue

“Rhapsody in Blue” was composed by George Gershwin and commissioned by Paul Whiteman. It was used as opening music in the 2013 Gatsby movie, but is more commonly known for its use as a musical representation of New York City as portrayed by Walt Disney’s Fantasia 2000. I thought it sounded familiar when I first heard it and it was because I have seen Fantasia 2000. I enjoyed the melody and different motifs that are present in the piece and how Disney captures ever change in dynamics perfectly in the animation of Fantasia 2000.

  1. Titan’s Goblet by Thomas Cole

      Thomas Cole was influenced to paint landscapes by the art he saw in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as a young adult. He traveled throughout Europe and was influenced by the older Italian and Greek art. Thomas Cole’s “The Titan’s Goblet” (1833) is associated with romanticism and transcendentalism. The painting revolves around nature and a goblet with the goblet being the largest figure and in the center of the painting. I like this piece because you can interpret it many different ways. One could see that there are old myths involved with goblets that could show the overflowing water as a gift of life. I like the overall style of painting that Cole uses for his landscapes.

  1. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

                  The style of this novel is different than most, but I liked the different types of chapters and how they were written. The author is trying to make the reader connect all the points together and so she writes with flashbacks and flash-forwards and only one or two recurring characters or events to tie everything together. I read Let the Great World Spin by Column McCann last year that was written in a similar style where there is one thing connecting all the chapters or characters. In A Visit From the Goon Squad, Sasha is a constant character that relates the other characters together. In Let the Great World Spin, there are two main characters that are seen in multiple chapters from different character perspectives, but there’s also the tightrope walk between the twin towers by Philippe Petit that all the characters experience in one way or another. The event is in every single chapter to connect characters to other characters and their perspectives. For example, one chapter is about a businesswoman walking on the street when she sees everyone looking up to see Philippe Petit. She hears a telephone ringing and pick it up and starts talking to students in Palo Alto, California. In a previous chapter, we learn about a character with a son in Palo Alto in a computer program and the businesswoman is actually on the phone with him describing the tightrope walk. McCann tried to connect everything even if it is connected to only a tiny thread. A Visit from the Goon Squad is the same with Jules, Kitty Jackson, Lulu and how they’re all connected through Dolly. I liked how Egan makes the reader connect the dot between each character and the events that happen around them.

  1. A Madison Square Arabian Night by O. Henry

https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/a-madison-square-arabian-night

William Sydney Porter, a.k.a. O. Henry was a short story writer who was famous for the surprise endings he wrote. He would often write stories as if they could happen in the world he lived in during the 20th Century. Most of his stories take place in the city due to his love for it. One of these stories is “A Madison Square Arabian Night.” O. Henry’s “A Madison Square Arabian Night” is a short story about a wealthy man, Chalmers, and his dinner with a homeless man, Plumer. In the beginning of the story, Chalmers receives a photo and a lengthy letter that he immediately rips to shreds in anger. Chalmer’s butler, Phillips, arrives and is told by Chalmers to pick one of the homeless men outside to dine with him.  I liked the surprise ending at the end of the story about Chalmer’s wife “true” self depicted by Plumer’s drawing.

  1.  An American in Paris by George Gershwin

“An American in Paris” is a piece composed by George Gershwin that is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece. It is in a loose ternary or ABA form. This meaning that there are two themes throughout the piece. The first theme, A, and the second, B, which gives the listener a fresh change before theme A is repeated again. The piece was actually commissioned by Walter Damrosch. Gershwin said,“My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere,” saying how he wants his music to reflect an Americans experience in France. I found this piece to be rather familiar and it turns out that it was actually used in the 1951 movie, An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly.