The premiere of the Rite of Spring is cemented as a major moment in music history when the crowd, angry at the strange new music rioted and ultimately burned the theatre to the ground. Stravinsky was not the only composer inciting riots with modern and often confusing music. An unruly American composer named George Antheil, influenced by the factory that sung him to sleep every night, produced riots in many European cities. But, the music and legacy of Antheil is almost entirely forgotten. The music of Stravinsky is praised and studied by millions, yet the equally innovative and iconoclastic music of George Antheil is often forgotten due to a series of bad decisions, a botched performance, and the inability to make a substantial salary, leading …show more content…
After touring the country looking for inspiration for a grand American symphony, Antheil settled in Hollywood and started composing scores for movies as well as television; this was not an artistic decision, but purely a financial one. Antheil found film composing to be painful and stunted his career with Hollywood’s hate for modern sounding music. He was so bitter that at one point he wrote a caustic article for The American Mercury entitled simply “Don’t be a composer.” The big success of his late life is his Fourth Symphony that was heralded as major success by almost every music critic. Their biggest draw to the piece was Antheil’s use of infectious and memorable melodies, a far cry from his days in Paris. While Antheil was living in Paris in the 1920’s, Sylvia Beach introduced him to a filmmaker by the name of Fernand Legér. Together they came up with an idea that would eventually be conceived as Ballet Mécanique. While both the film and the score were created at the same time, the two were very quickly separated into their own separate artistic entities. Inspired by the factory setting he grew up in, and the avant-garde art he was exposed to while living in …show more content…
The piece calls for various sized propellers; since real propellers could not be used the effect was done with regular fans. A critical error was made when these fans were pointed at the audience, and could be felt by a sizable chunk of the audience who met the breeze with great humor and laughter that permeated through the hall even after the propellers had been turned off. The last piece of this career-ruining performance came at the finale where a cacophony of noise is supposed to be played over a wailing fire siren. The siren was not able to be acquired until the performance, leaving Antheil and the rest of the ensemble painfully unaware of how a siren works. A siren has to warmed up, with the crank spinning in full force for at least a minute before sound will emerge; then after you finish cranking the noise will still permeate for quite some time. This fact was not accounted for, and the score indicated only when the noise of the siren was supposed to be prevalent. The percussionist wound the crank as fast as he could, adding humor to the already laughing crowd; and right as the last chord struck the sweet sounds of a fire siren filled the hall and drowned out the laughing and sparse applause from the
Daniel Felsenfeld reveals a positive, impactful significance — one that has completely changed his life — in his literacy narrative “Rebel Music” by drawing upon what his early adolescent years of music were like before his shift into a new taste for music, how this new taste of music precisely, yet strangely appealed to him, and what this new music inspired him to ultimately become. Near the beginning of his narrative, Felsenfeld described his primal time with music in Orange County, Calif. He had developed his musical skills enough to jumpstart a career around music — working in piano bars and in community theater orchestra pits. However, Felsenfeld stated that the music he worked with “... was dull, or at least had a dulling effect on me — it didn’t sparkle, or ask questions,” and that “I [he] took a lot of gigs, but at 17 I was already pretty detached” (pg. 625). Felsenfeld easily
...lassical composers, I applaud this man for his creativity, style, but most of all for the great contribution he has made to the music and film world.
I attended Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on October 14, at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Southwestern Seminary Oratorio Chorus, directed by C. David Keith, performed it. Ludwig Van Beethoven composed the work. He composed it between 1811-1824. Beethoven composed the work in D minor, Op. 125 (“Choral”). His Ninth Symphony was his last symphony to compose. It was preceded by eight other symphonies. I was attracted to this work because it was the first symphony to include a choral. I found it astonishing that Beethoven was completely deaf when he finished this work.
For this essay I will be looking at the work of Hans Zimmer to discuss how music in film engages the viewer and evokes emotion and pulls the viewer toward the film. Hans Zimmer is a German born music composer. Hans Zimmer’s love of music stems from his childhood when he learned how to play various instruments. Before Zimmer began composing music for films he was in a well-known band. The band was called The Buggles whom were famous for their song Video Killed the Radio Star. After the Buggles Zimmer played in other bands but never had another hit. As Zimmer has progressed as a film composer so has his list of nominations and awards. Zimmer has won 4 Grammy Awards and 2 Golden Globes and many more for his outstanding film scores. The reason I chose to write this essay on Zimmer was that his genres and music score are extremely versatile ranging from animations to comedy to dark thrillers. This is important to highlight as it shows Zimmer can create almost any atmosphere with his music whether it be sad or creating tension that all cause us to engage with the film. Zimmer's use of themes and introduction of different instruments allowed him to create these wonderful engaging film score. In this essay I will look at three films by Hans Zimmer these are The Holiday Rush and Rain Man.
When one considers the history of classical music, often images of Vienna, Prague, and other European cities come to mind. Centuries of European musical achievement and development have implanted in society the idea that classical music is an inherently European creation. Considering the accomplishments of countless composers such as J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Antonin Dvorak, this preconception is certainly not unfounded. However, Leonard Bernstein's rise to international fame proved that one cannot neglect American composers in a discussion of the development of Western music. Combining elements of a vast array of musical styles, Bernstein's unique compositions reached a wide variety of audiences and often bridged gaps between distinct musical genres. Through his long conducting career, profoundly influential compositional output, and televised music lectures, Leonard Bernstein left a lasting legacy which came to define American music in the 20th century.
As a youth, Shostakovich believed that he was to be the successor to Beethoven's throne as the compositional genuis. It is safe to assume that no composer until Shostakovich had been so central to the history of his time, or had so consistently sought to symphonically express the sufferings and aspirations of his contemporaries as had Beethoven. Dmitri S...
In the following paper I will be exploring the beginning of Leonard Bernstein's career and his family background. I will also look into the influences he had in his life and look at two pieces that he composed, "Jeremiah Symphony No. 1", and "Candide". My reasons for choosing these two pieces is due to the fact that they are contrasting in genre, one being a symphony with orchestration and the other being an operetta, and that they were written at different stages in Bernstein's life. They both produced a number of responses and displayed his wide range of musical ability.
...he connection between the composer and the music. Since composers generally write about events that had an impact in their lives, this analysis receives support.
In conclusion, the programmatic symphony has been used to create some of the greatest works of musical literature in the past two hundred years. In the next century composers will probably follow in these composers’ footsteps and expand the size of the orchestra to create new timbres and tell stories through tone painting in symphonies.
Rytell, David. “Music Worthy of a Riot.” David Rytell’s Home Page. 1989. Web. 17 September 2011.
“Music is uniquely wonderful. It is incapable of being touched yet it touches everyone who is capable of hear sounds. It can seemingly evoke any emotion; we instinctively respond to happy tunes, mournful songs, beautiful melodies, inspiring anthems, stirring hymns, and majestic orchestrations.” (Doolan, Robert. 1985) There is no question that music is great part of society; it has been at civilization’s side whether it be the lyres and flutes of the ancient Greeks or how it calms or excites emotions and keeps armies in order during battle. Within society, there has also been social unrest and the desire for change. Protesting is the expression of a society’s concerns on current events of which they feel affected by whether it be through public rallies, picketing, riots or even bombings. Protest through music is one powerful medium for engaging people. Amidst what life throws at individuals, music has comforted the soul, provoked individualistic thought and opinion, and music draws people together through groups alike who have the same attachment or concerns with their surroundings. Whether it be rock, jazz, blues, rap, hip hop, dance, spiritual, or world, music has inspired artists to spill out their expression and views of society. Music is a universally effective tool of protest in generating social change and unrest as it continues to unite those with like ideas.
In their books: Copland: 1900 through 1942 and Copland: Since 1943, Aaron Copland and Vivian Perlis give a detailed account of the life of one of America’s most influential composers. The books are arranged similarly to the Shostakovich biography that our class reviewed earlier this semester. That is, through personal accounts by Copland himself along with accounts of Copland’s friends and acquaintances, the authors manage to paint an accurate and interesting picture detailing the life of the great composer. When combined, the two books recount Copland’s entire life, dividing it into two periods for the purpose of easier organization and reading.
Igor Stravinsky was born near St. Petersburg, Russia into a very musical family. His father was famous for being an operatic bass and his mother was a pianist. Their home was filled with art, literature, and music, and Igor started piano lessons at age nine. But his parents didn’t want him to follow in their footsteps, so they encouraged him to study law, which he did. He went to a university to study, and it was there that he befriended Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, a celebrated composer, who Stravinsky was apprenticed under for three years. After a year and a half of this excellent music instruction, Stravinsky began his first symphony. It was around this time that he graduated from the university and married his cousin, Catherine Nossenko. When he and his wife went to the country that summer, Stravinsky promised Rimsky-Korsakov, his good friend as well as mentor, that he’d send him the finished music of the piece he was working on. A few weeks later, he sent the completed composition, his well-known Firworks, to him. But the parcel was returned with a message: “Not delivered owing to the death of the addressee”. This was a sad time for Stravinsky, but it was also one full of promise, because before his death Rimsky-Korsakov arranged for some of Stravinsky’s music to be performed. In the audience of one of these performances was Sergei Diaghilev, a dire...
The brass plays an ascending sequence, followed by pizzicato notes played by the strings, and an ascending and descending scale on the harp. Strings and oboe play the rhythmic melody, whilst the trumpet plays fanfares in syncopation. The oboe is then replaced by the flute. There is an ascending scale played by the strings, then the brass section repeats the string and oboe melody with cymbal crashes at cadence points. The orchestra then plays a loud melody with cymbal crashes and drum rolls. There is an interrupted cadence, followed by crescendo with cymbal crashes and a brass ostinato. The piece ends with a perfect cadence.
Sound is what brings movies to life, but, not many viewers really notice. A film can be shot with mediocre quality, but, can be intriguing if it has the most effective foley, sound effects, underscore, etc. Sound in movies band together and unfold the meaning of the scenes. When actors are speaking, the dialogue can bring emotion to the audience, or, it can be used as the ambient sound. Music is one of the main things to have when filmmaking. The use of Claudia Gorbman’s Seven Principles of Composition, Mixing and Editing in Classical Film gives audiences a perspective of sound, and, how it can have an impact on them.