Listening Journal - Week 8

I have never really listened to Radiohead.  I feel as though I probably "should" listen to them, because I enjoy lots of independent musicians.  I found the story in the text behind this song fascinating.  I searched for the lyrics online so I could read them as I listened.  Throughout, you can really see their feelings towards the concept of "selling out."  I especially enjoyed the guitar solo at 2:07.  It had a very ethereal quality and was the moment where the song really hooked me.  It sort of splits the song into two distinct parts.  Before the solo, we have a sort of ABAB pattern.  After the solo, it's more through-composed, with some repetition of the melody, harmony, and solo. Then, at around 3:15 it shifts again to the "la la la" section, as described in the text.

I really enjoyed listening to this piece, and I plan to use it as a catalyst for exploring Radiohead more thoroughly.

Listening Journal - Week 7

This week's music is the music I grew up with.  I had 2 older siblings living at home that were teenagers in the mid 80s.  Although I was younger, I would listen to all of their records when they were gone and enjoy the new wave sound of the 80s. 

Prince's "When Dove's Cry" is a fascinating study of composition and form.  I had never noticed, until after reading the text, that there is no bass line in this song.  I also didn't know that Prince was basically solely responsible for the creation, performance, and production of the song.  Form wise, it contains A and B sections that repeat throughout the song, with other groove sections in between.  The second half of the full song contains lots of solos and vocal sound effects and improvisation.  It is one of my favorite pieces of music from the 80s.

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released when I was in 8th grade.  It became one of the biggest songs ever among my group of friends.  In a time when we were all obsessed with MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, this was such a new, amazing sound that we all took notice.  Back then we did not pay close attention to chord structure or form, we just knew that this was a unique type of music and something we wanted more of.  Look at it now, it is not complicated harmonically, but it makes up for it with instrumentation, texture, and Cobain's unique presentation.  The grunge movement of the 90s defined my high school life, and signaled another change in the youth culture of America.  Generation X was over.

Listening Journal - Week 6

Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" is one of the most famous pieces of the early 70s.  It is a huge rock ballad, clocking in at nearly 8 minutes.  The form is complex, though harmonically, there are only a few variations.  There are three distinct sections, with the third being the most distinct, with significant changes in tempo and vocals (Robert Plant sings the last major C section an octave up).  Jimmy Page's guitar solo around the 6 minute mark marks the most distinct change in mood, especially as it leads into the higher vocals.  Interestingly, this song has been accused of "backward masking," hiding Satanic sayings that can only be heard by playing the record backwards.  Robert Plant has expressed frustration with these accusations and I personally do not hear it. 

Moving on to Santana's "Oye Como Va" we find a wonderful example of a Latin, Jazz, Rock fusion piece that would pave the way for Latin mainstream music in the decades to come.  While it seems complex at a first listen, the form of the piece is rather straight forward, with 3 major sections (A, B, and C) that are surrounded by solos (guitar and organ), interludes, and grooves.  Originally written in 1963 by Tito Puente, Santana's cover is the most famous.  He replaces the original flute with his guitar playing and adds many rock/jazz elements such as drum kit and organ.  I was particularly impressed with the organ solo, and unique Hammond sound remind me somewhat of songs like "Hush" by Deep Purple.

The Talking Heads were one of the most well known bands of the "new wave" era in the late 70s and early 80s.  As with the others this week, the form is actually pretty straight forward, but adds some interesting variations to keep it interesting.  In this case, David Byrne not only offers lyrical stuttering (Fa fa fa fa fa fa far better) but also sings a significant portion of the chorus (B section) and the C section in French.  The instrumentation in this piece is more simple, compared to the other pieces we focused on this week.  It's a basic two guitar, bass, and drum setup.  The bass guitar provides a lot of the drive for the song throughout, and the drums have a march-like quality.  The closing moments offer a bit more variety with the addition of keyboard/organ for a bit before the end.

The music this week has shown just a small sample of the incredible variety of music from the late 1960s and 1970s.  The punk/new wave trends set by the Talking Heads and other bands would pave the way for more of these types of bands to dominate the airwaves and MTV in the early 80s.  However, more traditional Rock and Roll would continue to thrive as well.  The 70s and 80s offered more and more variety in the style and substance of music available, and I am looking forward to listening to more next week.

Listening Journal - Week 5

The listening this week covers some of my personal favorites, British Invasion music, as well as Motown.  It has been a great pleasure spending time with this music this week and I have enjoyed studying the style more deeply than I have in the past.

I have always been impressed with the arrangements and instrumentation of the early Motown songs, such as "My Girl" and "You Can't Hurry Love."  The combination of strings and brass have always added that extra "spark" to the arrangements.  I was also struck at how often the singers (other than the lead) are actually singing throughout the tune.  So much emphasis is placed on the lead singer that the voices in the background seem to become a part of the instrumentation.  I paid special attention to the background voices during my listening and was impressed at how much was going on along with the instrumental accompaniment.

The Beatles are one of my favorite bands of all time.  I have always enjoyed their music, whether in their early "British Invasion" years or their later "psychedelic" years.  The songs given for our listening list provide a brief snapshot of their repertoire, with varying styles and forms.  "Please Please Me" is a relatively short, straightforward song, in the AABA form.  One of the more interesting aspects of the vocal line is the oblique motion of the harmony in the opening phrase of each A section. 

One of the most talked about aspects of "A Hard Day's Night" is its opening chord.  This one chord has been the subject of debate for years.  George Harrison has stated (in an online chat) that he played an "F with a G on top (on the 12 string)" but did not (or could not) give any information on Paul McCartney's notes on the bass.

"Yesterday" is a wonderful example of understated musicianship.  The song is soft, heavily acoustic, and without drums.  The inclusion of the strings in the second A section is a lovely addition.  The song never has a feeling of building, yet it still provides a wholly satisfying listening experience.  The piece feels like a folk song at times, perhaps written a hundred years earlier.  It is one of my favorites.

With "Eleanor Rigby," The Beatles grab the listener immediately, with the strong opening vocal line, with no instrumental introduction.  The use of the string orchestration is very effective.  The bowing technique used adds a percussive effect throughout and offers a startling contrast to the more legato sections.  The text tells a sad story of loneliness among two characters, which is rare for popular music of the 1960s.

The instrumentation of The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" is very unique, especially from a band associated with the "Surf Pop" movement.  The inclusion of the Tannerin (also known as the Electro-Theremin) is, in my opinion, the most fascinating aspect of the arrangement.  The instrument mimics the sound of the theremin but has a different control mechanism. The form, a sort of ABABCDB with transitions, continually introduces new material.  Both the C and D sections sound as though they could be the foundation of their own songs, rather than part of this one.

This has been a fascinating study not only of some of the best music of the 1960s, but the differences in styles that were occurring at the same period in time.  Each of these performers/bands achieved mainstream American success.  This is a great snapshot of where the American psyche was on the cusp of (and into) the Vietnam War.

Listening Journal - Week 4

The music in this week’s listening is much more familiar to me than some of the others, as we move closer to the modern Rock and Roll Era.

I am a huge fan of Frank Sinatra.  Most of my familiarity of his music comes more from the “Rat Pack” era of the 60s, and I found “Nancy (with the Laughing Face)” to be a very sweet, tender piece of music.  Sinatra’s performance is understated, almost melancholy.  It fits very well with the style here, and the strings of the accompaniment really bring a lot to the style and mood of the piece.

“Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” was a charming blues number, and I was particularly impressed with the piano solo.  The form was a straight forward verse-chorus with interludes between the verses.  The moving bass line of the 12-bar blues kept the energy high and drove the piece throughout.  Interestingly, I could hear shades of where Elvis Presley would be influenced throughout this recording.

Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” and Little Richard’s “Long Tail Sally” are outstanding examples of the next phase of the Rhythm and Blues and early Rock and Roll movement.  They both have energy and a stronger emphasis on the guitar.  The tempi of these pieces are very swift, compared to a lot of music of the time.  The forms are simple (verse-chorus) that make the songs very accessible to the “average” listener. 

Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” is very familiar to me.  It’s one of those songs that you hear anywhere and everywhere.  Listening to it this time and reading about it in the text, it’s really the first time I have ever paid special attention to the background singing (the “bops” and “aahs”).  This provides an interesting mix of the newer Rock and Roll style and the older style popular on the radio (even back into the 40s). 

The Coasters’ “Charlie Brown” is another example of a piece that is bridging the gap between Rhythm and Blues and the emerging Rock and Roll (like “Maybellene” “Long Tail Sally”).  The piece starts with a typical AABA form.  Something interesting in the verse is that there is just a unison pulse on beats 1 and 3, until the 2 beats before the chorus, where the bass line finally ascends.  The harmony in the bridge (B section) changes significantly from the rest of the piece, offering a nice contrast to the verse and chorus.  The artificial manipulation of the voices on “Yeah, you!” during the bridge section is very interesting.  Nowadays, manipulating voices is as simple as clicking a button.  Back then it was a much more complicated process, but it adds a nice touch of humor to the piece.  As time goes on, more and more recordings will utilize some kind of sound manipulation.

Listening Journal Week 3

This week's listening offered a good contrast of the ups and downs of blues and swing music.

W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" is an interesting mix of blues and Tin Pan Alley.  The form adds an unexpected C section at the end after the AABA form of the refrain.  The typical blues harmony exists, but a new melody appears.  Bessie Smith's performance adds additional "blues" notes to Handy's composition, bringing a larger element of emotion and expression to the performance.

Fletcher Henderson's "Wrappin' It Up" is a good example of swing music techniques, including a "walking" bass (where the bass plays on every beat) and the bass drum playing all beats as well.  The piece has a good forward motion, with a saxophone and trumpet solo.  I find the moving bass line to be a strong contributing factor to the feeling of movement in the piece.  It never gives the listener time to "settle" on one musical event.  We're always moving on to something else.  I found the tutti chromatic movement immediately before the trumpet solo to be incredibly interesting, well written, and well played.

I found "Taking a Chance on Love" to be a charming piece of music.  The form, after the introduction, was pretty straight forward, with a standard AABA section taking center stage with the singer.  The same form returns after an instrumental break, this time with multiple instruments taking the lead.  Although this tempo is slower that "Wrappin' It Up," I still feel as though the walking bass line gives the music a sense of forward momentum throughout. 

Glenn Miller's arrangement of "In the Mood" is probably one of the most well known songs of the Swing Era, perhaps in American music history.   The form is sort of an extended ABA (with repeats) and has a very famous extended ending with a repeated rising pattern in the horns.  I found the reading in the text on this piece to be very interesting, in terms of his familiarity.  We are so far removed from World War II that understanding the kind of comfort this piece could have brought is lost on us.  It was a very profound piece of writing and analysis.

I wish I had not read about the Mills Brothers' performance of "Paper Doll" prior to listening.  When the men break into 3 part harmony prior to the refrain, it was absolutely delightful.  Their attention to blend and balance was very nice and, as a singer myself, I appreciated their attention to unification of vowel sounds and intonation.  The piece starts off with the refrain, sung (seemingly) slowly.  To a first time listener, this would not appear that this is the refrain.  When it returns with the double time feel, it is strangely familiar.  I did not believe it when I read that the words from the first refrain and second are actually moving at the same speed.  It's truly amazing how much of a difference a change in the bass line and/or percussion to make to a melody.

I enjoyed this module's listening very much and am looking forward to Module 4. 

Listening Journal - Week 2

The pieces this week included songs that, to this day, are considered to be "standards."  It was very interesting to dive into these pieces and explore what contributes to their endurance.

James Reese Europe's "Castle House Rag" is a typical example of the ragtime form, though a bit more complex.  While typical ragtime form might be AABBACCDD, this goes a bit farther with Intro-AABBACCDEEF.  It could have been the quality of the recording distorting my interpretation, but I did feel as though the drum did not have a significantly interesting part to play.  Many times (especially in the A sections), it sounded as though the drums were simply beating eighth notes.  I thought the bells in the C section (also without drums) added a sweetness that was a nice contrast to the more energetic sections.  The most fascinating aspect of this recording was actually the recording itself.  Since it was recorded in 1914, it did not have the advantage of electronic microphones for sound mixing.  The performers were most likely performing in front of a large cone or horn, which would carve the grooves into the record.  This would, obviously, lead to some instruments being louder than others and (in the case of percussion) distortion of the sound.

Donadlson and Whiting's "My Blue Heaven" is a good example of the Tin Pan Alley form, with the refrains following the AABA format.  The lyrics are written to appeal to the public at large, evoking scenes of calm and peace.  The recording itself is simple, with only piano, cello, and voice, which reflects the tranquility of the lyrics.  Unlike the previous recording, Gene Austin recorded this with an electronic microphone, which allowed a subtlety of performance not yet considered "normal" and was therefore quite effective.

I thought it was very interesting to have two recordings of the same song by the same artist, so many years apart, as in Silvers and DeSylvia's "April Showers."  For his recording in 1921, Al Jolson was singing a brand new tune.  By 1932, it was already well known, and he had an opportunity to make the performance more "his own" by then, also giving fans a reason to buy a song they no doubt already owned.  Musically, the refrain is a less used, but still common Tin Pan Alley ABA'C form.   The 1932 performance is particularly dramatic, in a way that was often parodied by the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes (if I recall correctly).  Nowadays, it seems almost silly, but back then it was quite effective.  Another striking difference between the two is the quality of the recordings.  Even though only 11 years had passed, the advances in microphone technology are evident in that the 1932 recording is much clearer and crisper.

The songs I downloaded did not seem to include Ethel Merman's performance of George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm."  A quick YouTube search revealed this recording which appears to match the listening guide in the text: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJTsKhool5g
This piece is probably the most well known tune of the bunch, and has been performed thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of times in the 84 years since its publication.  The change in tempo from the introduction to the verse, then to the refrain is extraordinarily striking and exciting.  The band is really rolling along with Merman throughout and the excitement never lets up.  Having been written at the beginning of the Great Depression, it appears the lyrics have a "keep your head up" quality to them.

I have enjoyed the music of this week's listening activities and am looking forward to exploring Swing and The Blues next week!