Category: Blog Postings

Whenever I put on my headphones, I do it with the intention to escape the real world and create my own through my perception of the music. The music I listen to has words that help me visualize the story the artist is trying to tell. Since I could not rely on words to create a story for Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, I let my imagination do the work. Beethoven had an intense introduction and made me think of soldiers preparing to attack in the pouring rain. The intensity declined at 6:55, and the orchestra began playing a completely different tune. The image of a bloody war was replaced with my memories of watching loony tunes. When the music became suspenseful, I could imagine the wolf plotting how to catch and eat Daffy Duck. And when the pace of the music suddenly increased all I could think about was how the wolf would run after Daffy Duck after all his traps failed. Although I did not watch the performance of swan lake, I knew it was a ballet, therefore I listened to Tchaikovsky piece through a sensuous plane and let myself daydream. Since the piece did not have any dramatic changes in tune like Beethoven, I was able to visualize dancers moving to the rhythm without being distracted. I found Tchaikovsky piece to be more calming than Beethoven’s because the tune was more soothing and consistent. Beethoven, however, had several different stories in one piece, and sudden shift in tunes kept me on my toes. Just as Copeland had stated in his book, it is a person’s perception that makes them feel a certain way; the piece itself does not contain a specific emotion. What I felt listening to these pieces could be completely different from that of my classmates. That is why I hold great value for art, my perception is my own regardless of the artist, the piece or the audience.

There is a lot of music I listen to. I have seven different playlists that I listen to depending on my mood. But one piece that I will always enjoy is Yiruma’s “River Flows in You”. The piece is a short, contemporary piano piece. It is one of those pieces that brings back timeless memories. It makes me happy and sad at the same time. I would say bittersweet, but I feel as if that word doesn’t doesn’t completely describe the entirety of emotions it brings. It is nostalgic, in a sense. It often reminds me of memories in my past. When I first heard it, I thought of it as a sad piece, making me long for the memories of my youth, or for a time of happiness I can never have again. As I listened to it more often, my interpretation of the piece began to change. Instead of being just sad that I could never experience these memories again, I began to cherish the fact that I was a part of them.

Instead of allowing the memories to flow within me and make me sad, I wanted to cherish the memories and make new ones instead.

Instead of having the river flow in me, I began to flow in the river.

I used to listen to classical music all the time when I was younger. My mother loved classical music, so I am pretty familiar with a lot of the composers and their pieces. However, as I got older, my taste in music changed, and I started enjoying other types of music. But classical music holds a beauty that, to me, no other music can.

Beethoven’s 9th symphony is one I’ve heard a few times. Generally, I listen to classical music when I am reading or studying. I find it soothing, calming, and it helps me to focus. But Beethoven’s 9th is a bit different, and I find it difficult to focus when I listen to this. It is difficult for me to find a clear meaning in this piece. At first, I thought of it as mysterious. Then dramatic. Then happy. Then sad. It is a nice piece, but difficult to place a clear, intended meaning on.

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was different. From the beginning, I thought of a swan, probably because the title of the piece subconsciously forced me to do so. Yet the meaning was clear nonetheless. Tchaikovsky’s song intended to paint a picture of a swan in a lake. Graceful, tall, elegant – a simple beauty surrounding it as it stood in the lake. A peaceful environment. At times, the music got louder and faster, and I pictured the swan being hunted by carnivorous animals, or perhaps human hunters. I am not sure if others interpreted it the same way.

Beethoven’s piece held beauty in its mystery. Tchaikovsky’s was a beautiful picture in itself.

I first listened to J. S. Bach’s Mass in B-Minor about a year ago. I was reading John Eliot Gardiner’s book Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven at the time, and there was an entire chapter on the B-Minor Mass. I thought I’d better listen to Bach’s mass before I read about it. I listened to a recording of the B-Minor Mass conducted by Philippe Herrweghe on a CD player in my kitchen. I focused the aspects of the piece Gardiner discussed in his book, such as the abrupt and unusual way Bach opens the mass with the Kyrie chorus. I also thought about the history surrounding the Mass, like how Bach wrote the first part as a job application.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1w3EhXqwo

I enjoyed the B-Minor Mass quite a bit and I listened to it almost daily as background music while I did the dishes or studied. I even voted for the B-Minor Mass as Bach’s greatest work in a Twitter Bach-off competition. (To my disappointment, St. Matthew’s Passion won the Bach-off.)

By this point, I’d listened to the B-Minor Mass enough to practically have it memorized. I bought a ticket to see the B-Minor Mass live at Trinity Church conducted by Julian Wachner and performed by The Choir of Trinity Church, and the Trinity Baroque Soloists. Since I knew the B-Minor Mass so well, I expected the performance to be a pleasant and familiar experience. I was not prepared for the shock I felt when the first notes of the Kyrie hit me. The Mass was entirely different when performed live. While the recorded B-Minor Mass was a nice backdrop to dish washing, the power of the live version captivated me and brought me to tears.

If I were to describe the B-Minor Mass in terms of color, I would say the recorded version is a dull purple, and the live version is a rich and vibrant purple.

That’s the end of this post, but:

Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony reminds me of a journey. This perception could because I watched the animated musical-bar version of the symphony which made the piece move as it scrolled by. The meaning of the journey of the 9^th Symphony is fluid. The type of journey changed every time I listened to the 9^th Symphony depending on the journey going on in my life at the moment. The 9^th Symphony could be taken as a literal journey, some parts of it reminded me of my walk home from Lehman after classes, or it could be a figurative journey, like the journey of growing up.

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, on the other hand, felt much more rigid. The title “Swan Lake” immediately reminded me of the story of the ugly duckling. The music also made me think of dancing, since I know Swan Lake is a ballet. I found Tchaikovsky’s music pleasant to listen to, but I didn’t like Swan Lake as much as Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony because Swan Lake felt more predictable. After I finished listening to the first few movements of Swan Lake I went straight back to listening to the 9^th Symphony.

Sunday Candy – Chance the Rapper

This song is funky and jazzy hip-hop which has gospel elements to it, and I love this song in all four of these aspects. A lot has changed since I first listened to this song. I first heard this song in my friend’s car and I fell in love with it ever since. This was my first exposure to an artist called Chance the Rapper and I did not know not much about him and his music. But now having all of his album in my iTunes and memorizing couple of songs by heart, I can say that I know little bit more about him and his song.

The song starts with Chance rapping, “she can say in her voice, in her way that she love me.” From listening to this I automatically assumed that this song is yet another song about love and realationship. However, as the song went on I realized that this is not just another ordinary song about love between two lovers, but it’s a song about love between grandma and her grandson. But even still I did not quite get the lyrics of the song that well. It was 2-3 months later when I read an article about his childhood when every part of the song started to make sense.

If I were to describe this song in terms of color, orange will be my first choice. One reason for this choice is that my grandma loves the color orange. Also, I think I’m led to picture a bright color like orange because of the gospel-like feeling that the chorus of the song gives. On top of the warm chord progression that runs throughout the song, chorus of the song is sang by a choir which brings additional warm and comforting atmosphere. When I listen to this song, I can’t stop but to bob my head and feel the music. This song brings me comfort and joy.

In Aaron Copeland’s What to Listen for in Music, he discusses the three planes involved in listening to music and different themes that are present in a composer’s piece. Before reading the first three chapters of Copeland’s book, I only focused on the sensuous plane when listening to music. I never really cared for a deeper meaning behind a song; as long it made me drift away from daily responsibilities I would listen to it and not give it a second thought. After listening to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, I agree with Copeland that this piece is “easier to understand” compared to Beethoven’s (14). Tchaikovsky’s piece begins slow, but transitions to a steady tune that is lively and intense. I would consider it to be more predictable than Beethoven’s piece because it seems to follow the same pattern of sounds throughout. I do not know much about music, but I agree with Copeland when he states that a meaning and theme can be easily found in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. On the other hand, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony took me on a roller coaster ride. The abrupt transitions make the piece truly unpredictable, going from extremely intense to subdued in the blink of an eye. I admit that the animated musical bar graph played a large part in my opinion since it made me pay attention to every little change that occurred in the piece. I was able to see what the music looked like, but was still surprised by the way the instruments clashed together. The dynamic structure of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is what differentiates it from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and makes it an unpredictable experience.

I am not a huge fan of classical music. Despite my inattentiveness to classical music, I was actively exposed to it from a young age because of my mom’s persistent push on raising musically “cultured” sons. Along with that desire, my mom always said that “music is what you make of it,” and enforced an interesting idea to both my brother and me. She repeatedly encouraged both of us to make a story out of the music that we heard. Some of the stories that we made were pretty bizarre. Once we listened to Vivaldi’s Winter and said that the composer must have fought with his wife when he wrote this piece. I did not appreciate my mom’s persistence when I was young but now I am extremely grateful that she has taught me well. I agree with Copland that “all music has an expressive power, some more and some less” (12). However, I would like to take a radical turn and say that music is what you make of it.

I am not particularly sure of what Beethoven intended to say through Beethoven’s 9th Symphony First Movement. And in that sense, I guess it is hard to pin down what it “means.” But I think that is the case for most classical music for most of listeners. Unless you have extensive knowledge on the composer and the context of which the song was written on, it is almost impossible to analyze the meaning of the song to its full potential. So, if I were to return to my seven years old self, I will say that I can picture a man with extremely frequent mood change walking through a park.

Although I was exposed to classical music from a young age, I do not know what to predict from a piece of music. I think this is one advantage that I have as a non-classical musician. Just because I do not know what to predict from a piece of classical music, I can listen to a piece solely focusing on the part that is playing at the moment. For me Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was just as unpredictable as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony which made both pieces interesting.

 

 

When listening to both of these great composers, I attempted to listen through all three planes. As a musician myself, I am more inclined to listen through the musical and emotional aspects, however I do not separate these from each other. I try to see both the technical and emotional aspects of the music. The way I see it, the music is taking me on a journey, not the other way around. I listen to the music as a narrative, with no specific protagonist, but rather with multiple voices speaking about a certain feeling at once or expressing an idea that simply cannot be expressed in words.

In Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, I will agree with Copeland that the music is more predictable since it follows a musically logical format where the music is always resolved with the corresponding chord/notes. This does not mean that the music itself is less enjoyable, but it is simply a difference of style.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, on the other hand, is far less predictable since the music is always transitioning into something you do not expect. For example, from 11:13-13:24 the music starts off high, gets lower, but then gets higher again. The notes begin to go down the scale and it is logical to assume that the piece would be nearing its end, especially with the long note the strings hold at the end of this small section. However, Beethoven prolongs this section and at 14:12, the music begins to pick back up and it goes on a course that no one expected. Throughout the entire symphony, Beethoven defies what we expect and creates a very unpredictable yet moving piece.

 

Listening to either of the two compositions incites images and possible storylines in which the auditory support would flow with upon the expressive plane. On the sensuous plane neither of the two contained the auditory stimuli I search for or find engaging enough to listen more than once. Honestly, I don’t gravitate much towards most music in this genre, and felt slightly awkward entertaining the melodies; there is something missing or not quite captured.

Swan Lake- Tchaikovskey

There was a tragic event that is being lamented, and referred to such that it happened in the distant past and warrants remembrance in the current state of things. The anticipation is evident as to whether the sentiment is embraced or ignored. Heed is not taken, and events once again descend into tragedy.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony First Movement

I feel the beginnings of a journey. There is an expectation of what is to come, but resignation to its process. Various situations of peril and escape ensue. The end is in sight, as usual on the metaphorical mountaintop, but reality conflicts with desired brevity. Resign to the task at hand, and be rewarded with further instances of actionable progress. The end is near finally, and one last task looms ahead, as daunting as one can imagine. Succeed ye must, ushering yourself to fruition, you realize your fate extends from your own hand as you look back upon that which you have accomplished as an indication of what is to come. Do not stand idly by, plunge into the fray!!

Tchaikovskey’s piece has many crescendos with enumerated extravagance; very hard to keep up with. Beethoven’s piece has a more grounded and structured story, leading you along the adventure.