Anna Meredith is a trained and accomplished classical musician, but her debut album is not meant for symphony halls - well, not in the traditional sense. The Scottish composer has performed for the BBC Last Night of the Proms, written pieces for the National Youth Orchestra, and worked with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia ViVA - and now, she's putting out a pop album. Varmints is the culmination of four years of steady exploration of contemporary music by Meredith, and it fantastically avoids sounding buttoned-up or stuffy, like a classical musician's pop experiment very well might. Instead, Meredith pours her talent into these songs, carving uplifting pop pieces from electric guitars, synths, and hollow drums. Not only is it a captivating pop album, but you can see the magic behind the machine - these complex and cacophonous …show more content…
Instead of pigeonholing herself in one genre, she elects to freely pluck influences, keeping things general enough to avoid lacking cohesion. "Taken" is a good example of this - the second track on the album is seemingly a guitar jam, with electric guitars backing a chorus of "yeah"s that sounds like what Kid Cudi should have done with Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven. But this is no simple punk rock track - these guitars are simply a tool to progress the song, from the pleasantly wandering verses to the final, climactic chorus of "Taken!" The next two tracks are just as diverse, and just as brilliant; album highlight "Scrimshaw" mixes jittery synths with a poignant arrangement for strings before lurching into ecstatic full gear, and "Something Helpful" is a resplendent and bubbly pop song that avoids PC Music's artificial aesthetic in order to bask in the strength of the composition that little bit
Peter Sculthorpe is an Australian composer who is renowned for his experimentation and exploration of ideas and symbolism in his music. His music is a representation of his feelings in response to socio-cultural, political and historical viewpoints. For instance, his String Quartet No. 16 is a representation of the emotions of refugees trapped in detention centres. It consists of five movements entitled Loneliness, Anger, Yearning, Trauma and Freedom. Musical elements such as pitch, duration and other expressive devices show how effectively Sculthorpe evokes the feelings of refugees through each movements, especially the movements Trauma and Freedom.
The genre of this album can be described as pop and rock. Yet the album has the musical styles of Alternative Pop/Rock, Punk Rock, and somewhat Indie/Underground. When I first heard this album I already had some knowledge about the songs, but I never took the time to notice how the music sounded. The introduction seems faster than the rest of the album and has a more upbeat sound to it. Although it is not completely rock because they do not seem to be rocking out like some of the other past rockers in the class. Many of the s...
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For almost half a century, the musical world was defined by order and esteemed the form of music more highly than the emotion that lay behind it. However, at the turn of the 19th century, romantic music began to rise in popularity. Lasting nearly a century, romantic music rejected the ideas of the classical era and instead encouraged composers to embrace the idea of emotionally driven music. Music was centered around extreme emotions and fantastical stories that rejected the idea of reason. This was the world that Clara Wieck (who would later marry the famous composer, Robert Schumann) was born into. Most well known for being a famous concert pianist, and secondly for being a romantic composer, Clara intimately knew the workings of romantic music which would not only influence Clara but would later become influenced by her progressive compositions and performances, as asserted by Bertita Harding, author of Concerto: The Glowing Story of Clara Schumann (Harding, 14). Clara’s musical career is an excellent example of how romantic music changed from virtuosic pieces composed to inspire awe at a performer’s talent, to more serious and nuanced pieces of music that valued the emotion of the listener above all else.
The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their “teenage anthems” (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, “...here we are now, entertain us”(Stuessy, Joe). “Smells like Teen Spirit” was Curt Cobain’s “attempt to write the ultimate pop song”(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). The style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very “innovative” or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. “A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics” (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history.
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This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
Pop. Traditional. Classical. These are all genres of music. These all serve a purpose. These are all important. Pop music has been used to help inform and motivate the general public during movements like environmental protection and gay rights. Traditional music has helped to guide us by telling us stories of the past from the church to the fields. Classical music has been played for royalty and help dancers spin a story. Some can be considered art while others can’t, but it often differs because the definition of art is in constant motion. The definition of art is a subject philosopher’s debate because it can be defined strictly or loosely. For the purpose of this essay, let art be defined as anything that can be touched or heard, and it causes a mental and physical reaction. Classical music is truly an art form because it invokes a mental and physical reaction from both the audience and the performers, and it has contrast to make it more dynamic.
Many say that music has evolved over the years. This essay shall explore the elements of two versions of one song. It shall discuss the correlations and disparities of these songs and confer how it has been revolutionised to entertain the audiences of today.
Doris Horton Thurston, my seventy-five year old grandmother, has always had a song in her heart and on the edge of her tongue, waiting to flow over in a cascade of expression. She sees music as a connection to the world, a form that lets her reach outside of everyday life to different people, different cultures and different times. From generations before her and for generations to follow, from the memory of her mother's piano playing and her father's voice as a child to the orchestra concerts of her youngest grandchildren, she holds the connection to music close to her heart.
That brings us to the last segment of our concert, the Modern Era. Traditoinal musical instruments in the modern period have not changed nearly as much as they have in the 18th and 19th centuries. There have been gradual iterations of musical instruments within the 1900’s, such as updates to the violin family. There were many new instruments created in the Modern Era, all of which focused around electricity. This evening’s selections do not include any such selections with electronic instruments; however, there are arrangements available for the electric instruments such as the organ, keyboard or syntehsizer, or electric guitar.
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The song, Anna's Theme, begins with a haunting solo female voice, singing a melody that never resolves, moving only in circular motion with the last note of a phrase beginning the next. Slowly, the violin blends itself into th...