On Sunday, April 8, 2018, the Department of Humanities at Prince George’s Community College presented an on-campus Faculty Voice Recital in the Student Art Gallery located in Marlboro Hall. In the voice recital, sopranist Nakia Verner and PGCC professor and pianist Hyeeun Hahm performed several pieces, including “Ah! Perfido” by Beethoven, “Tres Arias” by Joaquín Turina, and “Honey and Rue” by André Previn. One of the most prevalent and moving pieces performed was the song cycle, “Honey and Rue.” The instruments, musical style and characteristics, historical and cultural context, musical elements and components, and the beautiful live performance of “Honey and Rue” made it unique to the other compositions. “Honey and Rue” is a classical song …show more content…
The elements of music used in “Honey and Rue” strongly emulated the elements that stem from classical style. Classical style introduced flexibility, contrast, surprise, and variety to music and the instruments. For example, in “First I’ll Try Love,” the sopranist and the pianist frequently exchanged between crescendo and decrescendo while singing about the emotion of love. Sometimes, Verner would raise the loudness of her voice, quicken the tempo, and increase her pitch to sing quotes like, “First, I tried love.” Other times, Verner’s pitch would be quiet, soft, and lower in pitch to express phrases such as, “Although I’ve never heard the word referred to, even whispered to me.” Also, Hahm would increase the tempo of the piano and change the dynamics from loud and dramatic to soft and tender. There was frequent use of accents of syncopations, especially in the song “The Town Is Lit.” For example, in the line, “Trees in the park dance after dark to music in all the cafes,” Verner and Hahm simultaneously stress the high pitched and long-held note sung/played during the word “music,” which caused the audience to look quickly as this syncopation caught them by surprise. Instances like this intermittently occurred, especially during the ends of songs where the last word/note is accented. The different rhythms in the cycle were also heavily …show more content…
However, in the last song of the cycle, “Take My Mother Home,” balance was evident and the tune of the melody was catchy and easy to remember. Like other classical pieces, this song had phrases of the same length. Initially, the second phrase seem to imitate the first, but it end slightly differs. For example, the first, “Take my baby home,” starts like the main melody of the song. However, the second version of the phrase, “Take my baby home,” ends with a note change and higher pitch on the words “baby” and “home.” This note change enhances the message of the song by illustrating how African American women would always think highly of their loved ones and put their loved ones before themselves. The harmonic aspects of this piece included both consonance and dissonance, which varied as the lyrics conveyed different emotions the poem. Triads were frequently played by the pianist. As previously mentioned, “Honey and Rue” is predominantly homophonic, but the piano periodically increases in interest and tries to capture the audience’s attention. Therefore, it is fair to say that this song cycle is between both homophonic texture and polyphonic
There was a vocal recital on October 19th, 2017 at 7:30PM, held at the performance hall in Mountain view college. Alex Longnecker, a tenor vocalist and Imre Patkai, (pianist) played a series of homophonic textured songs, some being sung in German and others in English. The Three selected songs I will be writing about are, The Lincolnshire Poacher, The Plough Boy, and Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai. This performance played a total of 24 Pieces, composed by 4 composers, being Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ernest Chausson, Benjamin Britten, and Robert Schumann.
Thursdays at Cal State L.A. seemed like any other typical day- warm, busy, and tiring. However, on December 2, 2015, something was particularly different; not only was it the last day of class before finals, but there was also a Mariachi concert directed by Cynthia Reifler Flores. As I was walking towards the State Playhouse, I thought about how the music would be composed. The first thing that I expected was the music to have a quick, upbeat tempo, something that would be played at a festival or a party. I walked through the screen door and was given a pamphlet. In it contained detailed information about their programs, musicians, Flores’ biography, and the prodigious mariachi group. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the doors
This live performance of “Bless Your Beautiful Hide” by Adam is a confident and arrogant way to find love. In this song Adam explains how he is here to find himself a wife. That’s just what Adam does too. By hearing this song the viewer gets the hint that the play is a love story about him and this beautiful lady that he is staring at. Adam uses his bass voice to keep the tempo moderately constant. The dynamics change throughout the song with a grand finish of a chershendo. Adam uses accents in the song to emphasize his feelings of getting a wife. An orchestra is accompanying him with the instruments like: trumpets, banjos, and trombones. This sets the mood for the story to take place.
Gabrieli, Giovanni. Sacrae Symphoniae: Sonata Pian e Forte. John Wallace, Simon Wright, and the Wallace Collection. Simon Wright. Nimbus Records NI5236, 2012. Streaming audio. http://naxosmusiclibrary.com.
Popular music’s affect on a film’s narrative is demonstrated in the film Casablanca released in 1942. The film uses a song called “As Time Goes By” to create a transportation affect for the characters and audience. The song was written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931 and gained modest popularity through its inclusion in the Broadway musical Everybody’s Welcome. In Casablanca, there is a scene inside a restaurant where a woman, Ilsa, runs into an old friend of hers named Sam who is a pianist at the restaurant. She asks him about a mutual friend of theirs, Rick, and then asks Sam to play the song “As Time Goes By.” By the expression on Ilsa’s face and the tears in her eyes it is clear that the song makes her see something, however, the audience does not know what she is seeing. In his chapter on “Transport and Transportation in Audiovisual Memory,” Berthold Hoeckner describes how the audience knows “the song is a carrier, but we don’t know the cargo.” But as the audience listens to the lyrics of the song, they begin to understand the scene as they realize that the lyrics are about an old romance. While Sam is singing Rick enters the room and both Rick and Ilsa meet eyes and both freeze. At this point the audience assumes that the song was about Rick and Isla’s history.
Paying tribute to Ella Fitzgerald is almost a priori to the concept of jazz vocalization itself. Her influence spans generations, genres, and instruments. Her voice is the voice of postwar jazz, and, perhaps especially for people of more recent generations, is probably the one that first comes to mind when we think of ‘classics’ or ‘The Great American Songbook’. Jazz violinist Regina Carter likely knew the idea of an Ella tribute wouldn’t be as novel as her previous two albums, but she seized upon the icon’s 100th birthday and took the advice of friends who saw how Fitzgerald’s music had been a constant influence in her musical life and told her, “why not make an album about it?” Approaching Fitzgerald’s work in fresh light, Carter sifted through
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”.
Fulfilling the roles of both mother and breadwinner creates an assortment of reactions for the narrator. In the poem’s opening lines, she commences her day in the harried role as a mother, and with “too much to do,” (2) expresses her struggle with balancing priorities. After saying goodbye to her children she rushes out the door, transitioning from both, one role to the next, as well as, one emotion to another. As the day continues, when reflecting on
...Lullaby’ is about a woman's struggle with her family. Silko's this piece is more of a reflection of what happened to someone in her past. It seems all too real especially when she says things like; "It’s too late now...Her children were without her...She hated Chato, not because he let the policeman and doctors put the screaming children in the government car, but because he had taught her to sign her name." (Silko 2352) Works Cited Basic theme and works excerpts accessed on 19/05/2003 from: “A Laguna Woman” retrieved from http://www.richmond.edu/~rnelson/woman.html & http://web.nmsu.edu/~tomlynch/swlit.silko.html Karenne Wood writes in her review of Garden in the Dunes accessed on 19/05/2003 from: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/SILKOlesliemarmon2.html Lullaby reference accessed on 19/05/2003 from: http://csis.pace.edu/amlit/proj1d/silko.htm
On Wednesday, May 23rd, I attended the College Choir concert in the Reamer Campus Center. The choir performed a variety of songs, ranging from pieces in Latin to traditional American folksongs. Two of the pieces featured solos, and one even featured percussion instruments. Mrs. Elinore Farnum provided piano accompaniment for each of the songs, and performed beautifully. I was extremely impressed by the talented choir members and their ability to sing such a varied range of songs.
History shows that women were not as big of participants in music as men until later in the medieval era. This is due to many obstacles that faced women disabling them from singing, playing any instruments, or even composing music. Although barriers were present, many women and nuns were able to surpass them, and make use of their abilities and skills. In this paper, I will present the role of women as they interacted with polyphony, and as they became scribes, performers, composers, and patrons.
Wharram, Barbara. Elementary Rudiments of Music. Ed. Kathleen Wood. 2nd ed. Mississauga, Ont.: Frederick Harris Music, 2010. Print.
The main song being alluded to is "Varsouviana," a polka song that sounds a bit like merry-go-round music, which is constantly playing in Blanche’s head and disturbing her thoughts (Williams 141). Blanche’s husband had previously killed himself to this song, it now playing in repeat in her head and building up guilt on her shoulders as it was theoretically her fault. The tune works to set the scene for the instability overcoming Blanche, the creepy music inside her head unable to be heard by any other ears mixed with her inability to escape the guilt and anxiety that seems to blanket her every thought. Williams is able to incorporate this disturbing music on stage to show the audience Blanche’s slow decline of health, the insanity that steadily consumes her due to her lack of living with her present existence. Another song blended into the story is “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Harold Arlen, a song that speaks on love and how it becomes an overwhelming aspect of people’s lives. It explains how love causes dependency as it morphs one's reality to fantasy: “It’s only a paper moon, just as phony as it can be— But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me!” (Williams 120-122). The song alludes to the illusory world she lives in, her desire for someone to join in on it through love as she slowly descends into madness, relying heavily on others to fuel her
To begin, the episodic shifts in scenes in this ballad enhance the speaker’s emotional confusion. Almost every stanza has its own time and place in the speaker’s memory, which sparks different emotions with each. For example, the first stanza is her memory of herself at her house and it has a mocking, carefree mood. She says, “I cut my lungs with laughter,” meaning that...
When the plays begins, we are introduced to the “Blue Piano”. It represents the spirit of life (page 3) in the setting. We see the music have a great impact during Stella’s and Blanche’s conversation about Belle Reve. When the music gets louder, the conversation intensifies after Stella asks what happened to Belle Reve, causing Blanche to show her sadness to the fullest about losing Belle Reve and experiencing the deaths in the