Test and Schedule updates

FINALLY here's the official this-is-when-it's-gonna-happen testing schedule:

Test 1 Sept 12 - in PSC 151
Test 2 Oct 15 [Last “Drop with a W” day] - in PSC 109
Test 3 Nov 14 - in PSC 109
Final Exam: Mon Dec 10 1-3 pm in PSC 151

PRESENTATION CHANGES:
Angela F, your new presenation day is Sept 17.

Joshua R, Joshua D, and Craig C - two of you can present on Oct 1. The other will present on Sept 5. You guys flip coins, draw straws, arm wrestle, whatever to decide who goes when. Let me know.

I should mention that I grade the presentation MUCH more leniently at the beginning of the semester than that the end!

The Presentation schedule is at
http://maconstate.blogspot.com/p/presentations.html

The Syllabus - which has been updated with teeh new schedule, is at
http://maconstate.blogspot.com/p/syllabus.html

Presentation Schedule posted

I just posted the presentation schedule as it is at the moment on the blog at
http://maconstate.blogspot.com/p/presentations.html

The may be some changes, especially if you are signed up near a test date. I'll relay the news as it happens [more or less...].

ALSO:

The Kamien Connect link on the main page of the blog is correct. The one that was wrong was the bit.ly link at the top of the syllabus - that has now been fixed.

http://connect.mcgraw-hill.com/class/t_rule_fall_2012_1


Thanks for letting me know about the problem!

Syllabus change

I modified the class schedule to reflect the test 1 date change - although that probably won't matter to you just yet.

I also added at the bottom of the syllabus [http://maconstate.blogspot.com/p/syllabus.html] a listing of what CD tracks will be on which test. Take a look at it - I suggest marking it in your textbook.

The tracks listed on each test are the ONLY ones that I will draw from for the listening portion. The only exception is the final exam - but we'll get to that later in the semester!

START FALL 2012

If you were in the class previously, you might want to UNSUBSCRIBE to keep me from clogging up your inbox!

Click the link, somewhere below this paragraph.

FW: Joey Stuckey - Friday Night at the GSHF!

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Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Newsletter Quick Links GSHF website Become a Member Join Our List Joey Stuckey Album Release - Friday, July 20    Joey Stuckey's new album, Mixture, will be officially released at a concert and reception at the GSHF on Friday, July 20 beginning at 7:30 PM.  Refreshments will be served with a cash bar.    Joey Stuckey is a blind guitarist, singer/songwriter, producer, inspirational speaker, and sound engineer.  Mixture is a collaboration with pianist Tom Rule that is somewhat of a departure for Stuckey from the edgier blues guitar featured in past work.  Dr. Monty Cole, Mercer University Professor of Jazz Studies had this to say about the album. "Smooth jazz is the latest frontier, and the legendary guitar virtuoso is blazing a trail of softer hues across the sound spectrum."   Proceeds from the event will benefit the GSHF and the Jazz Association of Macon.  Tickets are on sale now in the Locker Room Gift Store or by calling 478.752.1585 x 120. $15 per person or $25 per couple.  CD's will also be available for purchase.   For more information, visit joeystuckey.com. Save the Date! The 2013 GSHF Induction Ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 23 in Macon.  This is an event you will not want to miss! Please forward this message to your friends and co-workers so they too can learn about all the exciting things going on at the Hall!

and ONE MORE THING......!

1. If you are interested in how albums are recorded and you have some time Thursday afternoon / Friday afternoon [May 10-11, 2012], swing on over to

http://presonus.com/community/presonuslive/

from Noon - 6pm Eastern time

Presonus is Livecasting the recording session for the latest SwampGrease 2 with Terence Higgins in New Orleans. It's some really good funk played by real professionals, and the audio is EXCELLENT coming downstream - you can really hear what's going on.

It's a chance to see what a session looks like.

2. The recordings we did in class are now available for listening and downloading at this site:

http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Rule/Music+Appreciation+Experiments

Enjoy!

Final Words for Spring 2012

Some final thoughts - it's a bit of a tradition.

In no particular order:

1. Final Listening: #1 was the Little Organ Fugue by JS Bach. Baroque. It was amazing how many wrote about a harpsichord. It was an ORGAN!
2. Final Listening #2: Duke Ellington, C Jam Blues. Jazz, of course.
3. FInal Listening #3: Zwilich Concerto Grosso 1985, so 20th Century. A quotation piece that uses a theme by Handel - and a HARPSICHORD....that would explain why part of it sounded Baroque.
4. FInal LIstening #4: Ravel, Romances for Saxophone: Prelude. NOT one on your CDs, adn a bit tricky. The sax meant it was probably 20th C [which it was], but it did have a Romantic-type vibe going on. There were some interesting observations.
5. Final Listening #5: Classical. Surprised? Several put that it had to be 20th C. because of the guitar and the synth buzzy sound [not a bad conclusion]. This was actually a Concerto for Mandola and Jaw Harp by Albrechtsburger [who taught Beethoven composition lessons.]
   
6. You can see what you got points for on the listening - if it was a good conclusion, I copied a word or two into the comments box. Go look at the test in WebCT to see them.
   
7. It really was an interesting semester. Thanks for making it so by participating, jumping in, etc.
8. The recording we made will be posted sometime in the next week at http://www.last.fm/music/Tom+Rule/Music+Appreciation+Experiments. You'll be able to download all of them - use them to annoy your younger siblings!
   
9. It fascinates [and aggravates] me every semester at the number of students who refuse to go to the 2 concerts. That's a whole grade and a half - and every semester I have people fail the class because they didn't go to any concerts. Amazing.
   
10. Don't forget that there is an absolute world of music out there. Get outside your little box and experience it - it's freakishly easy to find music now that you've never heard of. If you don't like it, try to figure out WHY. If you do, likewise!

Now, go forth and LISTEN!

 

An afterthought:

Speaking of listening - I was recently interviewed on AudioStyle audio magazine, which airs on the ArtistFirst network.  CLICK here to check it out.

WebCT: Almost all grades posted

Everything [except your final exam grade!] has been posted - so you can now easily see where you stand gradewise, and can play "what if" using the spreadsheet downloadable from WebCT [inside the "Start Here" folder].

Download and open the spreadsheet. Call up the gradebook on WebCT and manually type in your grades plus the points possible on the tests - and the number of absences.

The spreadsheet will calculate your grade - then change the final exam grade to see what happens to your final grade.

Then GO STUDY!

Last Day Spring 2012: Notes, Vids

"Third Stream" - combining "Classical" and "Jazz"

  [is this jazz? is it classical? is it both?]

Dave Brubeck Quartet & RNO
To Hope! A Celebration Mass Moscow 1997

http://youtu.be/r2FNC66gBJ8

Jimmy Giuffre -- Suspensions (Gunther Schuller Orchestra) 1957 

 http://youtu.be/MAk_GBSX9iw

In the album liner notes, Schuller, both a composer and a critic, discusses such 'third-stream music'-- a term he popularized, perhaps invented-- while avoiding the application of that, or any, label for the "intermingling of influences in the jazz and nonjazz [ie, classical] fields". He asks rhetorically, "[I]s this still jazz, and is the intermarriage of two separate kinds of music valid?" The ultimate answer is the listener's reaction. About Giuffre's composition specifically, Schuller writes-- "'Suspensions' is another one of Jimmy Giuffre's attempts to compose and notate, as exactly as our inadequate musical notation will permit, music that represents his particular viewpoint on the jazz and blues feeling. In this respect, the present work is an extension of the kind of thing Giuffre has been doing for some years with his own small groups. In 'Suspensions' he has also once more used percussion, not as a rhythmic foundation and backdrop, but as an integral melodic voice [hear The Jimmy Giuffre Four, 1955, 'Tangents In Jazz', Capitol LP T634] within his contrapuntal structure. Giuffre also attempted to write for the players in an individual manner 'with which they can express themselves as they would in a solo'-- to quote Giuffre from his own notes for the Brandeis concert-- which partially explains why there is no improvisation in this work." 

Latin Jazz

Timba Latin Jazz Quintet - Descarga Cachao - Roma AlFellini 2008

 http://youtu.be/SohfAqfggoQ

Chicago Latin Jazz Festival - James Sanders & Conjunto 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqhzjBYt7Dg

  

Free Jazz 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llGKDA6oBww 

Fusion

Herbie Hancock - Cantelope Island 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrgP1u5YWEg 

Vocalese

Manhattan Transfer

http://youtu.be/jkRXl52gHRQ

The original recording:

http://youtu.be/5rm0kbF2XbE

 

Last notes

If you weren't in class, you missed the study suggestions for the final exam! 


Make sure you doublecheck the grades posted in webCT - contact me BEFORE THE FINAL EXAM if there are problems, particularly with the presentation grade and the absences.

Check your grades in webCT!

I've updated my record of absences, presentation grades, and concert reports - so what is on the screen is exactly what I have on paper.


CHECK YOUR SCORES - and if there is a problem let me know BEFORE the final exam.

Music should be free?

I referenced this in class Wednesday - there is a huge "movement' that says no one can own anything intangible, that all art should be free to consume, etc etc etc. I think my position is clear on this matter [I hope so!!!] - but here is a MUCH more entertaining presentation of why music SHOULDN'T "be free"....and why that isn't a sustainable position for a society and it's art.

 The article: [read it first - or at least scan it]

http://www.philipbrocoum.com/?p=601

The rebuttal:

http://youtu.be/EwAiLICevc4

Grades, Test scores, and misc. stuff

1) Test Scores are posted.

2) I am CURVING this test. (Don't get used to it, though!) In the spreadsheet where you are keeping track of your scores, INSTEAD of setting this test worth 92 points, make it worth 82 points.

3) The gradebook will be updated by the time you read this with current attendance, concert report grades, and presentation grades.

3) Next week: JAZZ. This will be outside the book, mostly. I strongly suggest you take notes. It WILL be on the final exam.




Here is everyone's comments - an interesting panoply of opinions!

What was most surprising about the 20th C music to you?

Kind of strange how the first half, everything sounded so distorted and uncomfortable, and then near the end people got sick of it (thank God) and went back to tonality. It's almost like it was two different eras.

It surprises me that 20 Century music hasn't gone out of style. You still hear it today in commercials, on the radio, and in movies; sort of multi purpose.

There seemed to be such a huge step apart from "classical" sounding compositions.

It jumped quickly to change.

The odd sounds that they considered to be "music" no matter how dissonant they sounded!!
 
How atonal and dissonant it was. I was thinking it would be more similar to the late 20th Century music.

The Most Interesting would be the fact that it so different and open ! There is true expression and none sounds alike I love this era !

I was surprised by the fact that it didn't sound pretty. All of the music that I listen to sounds good, some of the 20th Century just sounded like noise to me.
 

Where a lot of songs I have heard before came from.

The sharp sounds, the music that sounded like it was from a sci fi movie or slasher flick.

Nothing really.

How there were so many sounds involved. Also how quickly the technology developed. And what was surprising they was how they still didn't use the sound effects that much until later on.
 
The way in which they just changed from the norm of every other era of music. The completely overhauled the system just because they could. I was shocked at how they changed sounds by destroying a perfectly good piano, or how they flipped scales to make more of a certain tone. everything dealing with the 20th C shocked me, because I was expecting more of a gradual step to modern music.

Having the different sounds and how it was all structured surprised me. I thought some of it was sort of weird but as i focused more on it all they wanted was something new that can fit in the music

The most surprising part of the 20th C music to me was, that I’m surrounded by it in everyday life and never realized how weird and different it sounds. 20th C music has taken music to greater standards of music.

Most surprising about the 20th C music is the prepared piano. How could composers just stick any and everything they got their hands on and insert it into the piano. To me it's disrespectful to a pianist to tamper with the sound but I also can understand that they were trying out new ways to change sound like no other composer before them have attempted to try. Composers in the 20th C were bold and I applaud them for that.

How much I wanted to go back to Classical music. The listening had been improving consistently up until Romantic and 20th century, I didn't like it so I listened to the pieces a lot less. It surprises me that people would pay to listen to this stuff.

personally, it wasn't very surprising to me. I guess living in the 20th century and 21st century exposes me to many of the different techniques and styles used in early 20th century music

I was surprised at how much music was out there that I didn't particularly care for. I am a lover of music, and I'm up for giving anything a try, but this music was hard for me to take at time. I did love the Jazz portion of 20th century music, but all of the atonal, dissonant, crazy music that was all over the place (particularly Schoenberg's) was not music to my ears at all. Other than that I was surprised to learn how wide of a variety of music there was. I consider myself to be pretty well rounded when it comes to instrumental music, but there was a lot of stuff I had never heard of that we listened to for this unit.
 

UPDATE: MONDAY'S TEST

1. PSC255 [down the hall from where we took the last test]
2. BRING HEADPHONES/EARBUDS - there may not be any extras available.
3. Ms. Rebecca Lanning will be the proctor - she is the head of the music department, a phenomenal musician, and a really good person to know!
4. Listening: there will be 18 listening items - make sure you can tell which era each item is from [Romantic or 20th C].
5. Know any of the composers yet?

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In Other News.........something to look up before the weekend starts, strictly for the "wow" factor:

Kinect-Controlled, 4-Story Pipe Organ

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/04/kinect-controlled-4-story-pipe-organ-a-phantom-of-the-organist/

Now, that's seriously mixing time eras!

...and just because it's fun:

Record-Breaking Rube Goldberg Machine Pops Balloon in 300 Steps

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/record-breaking-rube-goldberg-machine-pops-balloon-in-300-steps/

Have a weekend, don't forget the headphones, and I'll see you next Wednesday!

lhttp://www.slideshare.net/maconmacguy/talk-radio-presentation

l“Talk Radio” by Daniel Linz

lLots of samples triggered together, lots of phonemes + drums. Interesting structure. Familiar harmonies, yet not…… Mix of consonance and dissonance. Melodies, but has stretches where it’s just sound. 

Talk Radio Screencast

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Stockhausen: Hymnen [electronic music]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0aeagbZBRs

 

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 The Theremin piece is at

http://www.nonpopmusic.com/2008/09/30/a-soulful-theremin/

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Modular Synth piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCK--bs6FYY

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Modded Pianos Delight Indie Audiences, Classical Buffs

http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/12/hauschkas-modde/

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4

Vids used in class Mon 4/9/12

Aaron Copeland 
Fanfare for the Common Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEro8pG0hiE

Appalachian Spring: part 3/4, which includes the track from your CD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91y-NEdTj-g&feature=relmfu


Varese:
Ionization - Percussion Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw&noredirect=1


Webern:
5 pieces for Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOnFKLvonQw

Turn off your phones at a concert

Concert: Macon State Arts Festival, THIS WEEK

Saturday, March 24
Keynote address and performance by Allan Evans accompanied by Carol Goff, pianist
Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall, Macon Campus, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 22
Performance by Allan Evans: Opera Singer
Douglass Theatre, downtown Macon, 7:30 p.m. 


Allan will give two performances: one, a recital at the Douglass Theatre on Thursday 3/22 at 7:30 pm, and the other as keynote speaker and performer for both the Arts Festival and Macon State College's Undergraduate Conference on 3/24. Our event at the college takes place from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at H/SS Rehearsal Hall. At both performances, Allan will be accompanied by the pianist Dr. Carol Goff of Mercer University.

Our event at the college is, of course, free and open to the public. Regarding the performance at the Douglass, we have a very nice opportunity for up to 50 MSC students to attend Thursday evening’s recital for free through a gracious gift of the Central Georgia Opera Guild.  Just show your MSC ID at the box office - there are 50 free tickets available.

It is also POSSIBLE there will be an MSC van take students to the Douglass concert. See Dr. Clayton in the English Department for Details [and paperwork!]


Allan Evans, Opera Singer
Allan Evans was born in Macon, Ga., but his talents as an opera singer have taken him far from his hometown. After studying at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and then at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York City, he moved to Europe, where he established himself as one of the world's preeminent bass-baritone opera singers. Known not only for his beautiful voice, but also for his formidable acting skills, Mr. Evans has performed many of what he calls "the monumental roles of operatic repertory," from Mozart's brash Don Giovanni, to the Norse god Wotan in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre. In addition to his operatic roles, Mr. Evans has recorded and regularly performs a treasury of great Negro Spirituals that he learned from his family and teachers growing up in Macon. Mr. Evans is a longtime resident of Mannheim, Germany, where he continues to perform and teach. In 1996, the German government awarded him the title of “Kammersänger,” one of the highest honors the country bestows on distinguished singers.

ART FESTIVAL NEWS RELEASE:
http://www.maconstate.edu/news/newspage.aspx?sqid=1087

Original Recordings posted

http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedia/theo-wangemann-1889-1890-european-recordings.htm

In 2011, the National Park Service digitized a box of unique wax cylinder recordings made by Wangemann during his European trip of 1889-90. The recordings include the voices of the eminent German historical figures Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke, several performances by important musicians of the period, and even a home recording in which some of Wangemann's relatives send greetings to family members who had emigrated to America a decade earlier. The Moltke recordings have special interest as the only known examples we can listen to today of the voice of someone born in the eighteenth century. Overall, these recordings give us a cross-section of the pioneering work of the first-ever professional recording engineer.

  ------------------------------------ Tom Rule http://www.tomrule.info  NEW ALBUM! Accessible Depth http://www.TomRule.info.depth  Mugs, Tshirts, Hats, iPhone/iPad cases http://www.HamSandwichTees.com  MP3, Charts, Sheet Music http://www.MacMusicGuy.com  Websites, Web hosting, Training http://www.MaconMacGuy.com ------------------------------------

Concert Reports update

TONS of possible concerts over Cherry Blossom, many free. Check the schedule!

I've udpated the "Concert Reports" page a bit - check it out for ideas.

http://maconstate.blogspot.com/2006/08/sample-listening-chart.html

Spring Break "homework": Orchestration

From the mighty wikipedia:

The term orchestration in its specific sense refers to the way instruments are used to portray any musical aspect such as melody or harmony.

For example, a C major chord is made up of the notes C, E, and G. If the notes are held out the entire duration of a measure, the composer or orchestrator will have to decide what instrument(s) play this chord and in what register. Some instruments, including woodwinds and brass are primarily monophonic and can only play one note of the chord at a time. However in a full orchestra there is generally more than one of these instruments, so the composer may choose to outline the chord in its basic form with clarinets or trumpets. Other instruments, including the strings, piano, harp, and pitched percussion are polyphonic and may play more than one note at a time.

Additionally in orchestration, notes may be placed into another register (such as transposed down two octaves for the basses), doubled (both in the same and different octaves), and altered with various levels of dynamics. The choice of instruments, registers, and dynamics affect the overall tone color. If the C major chord was orchestrated for the trumpets and trombones playing fortissimo in their upper registers, it would sound very bright; But if the same chord was orchestrated for the celli and string basses playing sul tasto, doubled by the bassoons and bass clarinet, it might sound heavy and dark.
Note that although the above example discussed orchestrating a chord, a melody or even a single note may be orchestrated in this fashion. Also note that in this specific sense of the word, orchestration is not necessarily limited to an orchestra, as a composer may orchestrate this same C major chord for, say, a woodwind quintet.

- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestration



Notice HOW MANY DECISIONS THERE ARE that need to made - and all this for just ONE chord!




CLICK HERE to see how you study Orchestration - it's an online version of another orchestration text [by Rimsky-Korsakov].

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COMPARE THESE THREE VERSIONS
of the same piece.
Which do you like better?
Which is more expressive?

First the original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIA8hHXfbC8

Then the orchestrated version by Ravel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okzToFBY-CY

Then the Electronic version by Tomita:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT4DGD_6Z7g