1. The topic I chose was Music and Loss, the reason being that some of the songs that many artists create have such a strong message that it causes the audience to feel their exact emotions. The first song presented is “No Time to Die” by Billie Eilish and the connection given is that the slow tempo gives off a feeling of loss. The tempo of the song and the low pitch are the musical characteristic that help the audience feel the grief. The second song is “It’s Your Eyes I See” by Hanne Leland which portrays denial and the longing phase of the loss of someone. The song uses repetition to emphasize certain lines and the word “haunting” is sung, it gets dragged out for many beats along with the increasing dynamics to help emphasize her emotions at the time.
2. A song I would pick if I were to do Music and Loss would be “Supermarket Flowers” by Ed Sheeran because this song was dedicated to the loss of his grandmother. The song starts off with piano being played very slowly, giving off a sense of sadness. Ed’s voice remains very low during the song, and with the lyrics “Packed up the photo album Mattew had made, Memories of a life that’s been loved” giving off a feeling of sadness, letting the listeners know that someone has moved on. Simply listening to the song, you’re able to hear the sadness in his voice as he slowly sings it to the pianos beat emphasizing his sadness. Another song I would use if I were to do this topic would be, “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth. This song was a tribute to actor Paul Walker who had died in an accident in 2015. The song begins with slow piano notes being played back to back, giving a moment to just think and then the lyrics come up, “It’s been a long day without you my friend, and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again” referring to when they’ll meet him on the other side. The beat of the song goes from a moderate speed to a slow beat emphasizing the sadness of Paul Walker no longer with us. The video displayed many images of their past memories, showing all that they’ve gone through and then ending it with them going down two separate roads letting the audience know that he is in a better place now.

The song I chose is Better Days by Victoria Monet ft. Ariana Grande and it revolves around the Black Lives Matter Movement. This song was created to honor the death of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling after they were shot by police officers. The lyrics of the song helps bring awareness of what is going on outside in the word, and offers hope to those who listen to it. The song has the lyrics ”Stop the hatred, stop the murders. We’re all human, that’s for certain. Come together, we deserve it. What kind of life will our babies have if we don’t change up and make it last?” They are referring to the deaths of black individuals and telling people to stop or the life of our future family may not even have a good life to live. The whole song itself just talks about wishing for better days where the life of people are taken away so easily and disregarded. The genre of the song is pop and although the genre itself is not political, it has been used many different times to deliver an important message. Throughout the song, the rhythm remains constant and slow with a catchy beat that makes the song very easy to remember. The repetition of the phrase calms the heart and gives hope to the people, allowing them to remember what the song was about.

The Sema Ceremony is worshipped by Mevlevi, which places “a strong emphasis on music, which sends the practitioner’s physical body into a slow dance of graceful and ecstatic turning” connecting their soul with God. The effect that music has on the audience is bonding the people together. The performance is usually performed in Turkey, first starting with meditation, and then transitioning into dancing. The performers usually follow a recommended fast for several hours and then begin to rotate into short twists, dancing in a pattern they were taught. The instrument that is typically used in this performance is at least one singer, a flute player using neyzen, a kettledrummer, and a cymbal player. 

In relation to this, Gospel music, such as the Amazing Grace, has some similarities to the Sema ceremony. One similarity is that both are in relation to God. A difference between the two would be that Gospel music such as Amazing Grace requires vocals while in the Sema Ceremony, there are no voices in it. Another difference would be how known each music is, where Gospel music may be more well known than the Sema Ceremony. A similarity between Amazing Grace and in the Sema Ceremony, is that they are both at a slower tempo and rhythm but Amazing Grace is acapella.

My parents come from China and in their culture, a folk culture dance is known as the Lion Dance. It is a very well known dance within the community and has been brought to many other places in the world. This performance is typically performed as good luck and wealth for the people during Chinese New Years. There are normally two performers, one at the head and one at the tail of the lion. The performance gets played along with tanggu (drums), cymbals, and gongs. The lion dances to the tune as if it is a real lion. This originated during the Tang Dynasty, where the emperor had a dream and a creature that looked like a lion saved his life. Since then it became a symbol of good luck and is performed times like opening ceremonies and businesses. Yes I feel like the lion dance is connected to my ethnicity, the reason being that every chinese new year we would always go out and watch the parade and then go to the temple and pray at the temple for good luck.

After watching each performance, I feel like I would be most comfortable at a symphony orchestra. The reason being that I’m familiar with the environment so I know what to do once I get there. It is very calm when you’re there, as everyone is quiet and seated just listening to the music that is being played. As a listener, I’m expected to sit quietly, not disrupt the audience, applaud when they finish, and leave when the performance is over. If I were to watch an orchestra through the a screen I wouldn’t be able to hear the sounds as clearly and experience the beauty of the music. Although we have to be quiet during the performance, it’s so mesmerizing that you just forget about everything

I’m fine with attending a jazz club as well because it seems very chill and laid back. I feel like I could just dance around and have no one else judge my actions. The place I would feel the least comfortable at would most likely be the chamber music recital because when watching the performance, I noticed that the audience is very close to the performers and that would make me uncomfortable. Unlike the jazz club where we are also close to them, it seems more formal so if I were to make a noise or go to the bathroom I feel like I would disrupt them and ruin the whole performance. Overall I really wouldn’t mind any of them in the end because music is music anyways.

The one I chose was “Get Out”, it starts off with a male individual walking around in an unfamiliar neighborhood. He is in a call with may be his significant other and as he ends the call and begins walking, a white car drives by and turns around and starts heading toward him. He realizes that the car is tailing him and turns around saying that nothing bad will be happening to him today. He turns around to face the car and then realizes that the driver seat is open, and all of a sudden a male covered in black strangles him and drags him along into the trunk of the car.

Some diegetic sounds from the clip would be the male individual’s footsteps, the crickets chirping, the car coming into the scene, the music playing from the car. There is also a violin that is played as the driver drives off with the male. As the car approaches toward the male, we hear the song saying, “run rabbit, run run” which gives off an eerie feeling along with the dark empty streets.

Something I noticed was that they use crescendo when using the violin the end to add to the suspense of what is to happen to that male and also with the music when the kidnapper is dragging him to the car. The increase in volume intensifies the scene. In the end he gets kidnapped and it seems as if nothing happened because no one hears or does anything.

A very important tool in music that has helped many artist in the industry would be auto-tune. Auto-tune is very important because it is a piece of software that corrects the singer if they are singing out of tune whether it be the studio or live. Many artist use it nowadays to make an appeal to the younger audience. It enhances an artist’s voice even if they don’t have the talent in singing by adding a different alternative.. Many artist such as Justin Bieber, Kate Perry, Chris Brown, and many more. Even though auto-tune is not necessary for many artist, it does help solidify their performances or songs so that their fans will like it regardless. I’m not experienced with auto tune because I don’t sing at all but I am sure it would be a nice tool to use. Below I have chosen a song that incorporates auto tune and you can clearly hear it . It enhances the song and somewhat creates a catchy tune to it.

I chose to listen to the piece, “Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass” and “Kyrie (monophonic)”. I found three musical elements that stood out which were harmony, melody and rhythm. Harmony is the sounding of two or more pitches at the same time. Melody is a unit of pitches or tones sounding in succession – one after another. Finally rhythm is referred to the ways in which music is organized into distinct time units.

I first started off by listening to “Kyrie (monophonic)” and was taken aback by what I heard because I was expecting something totally different. The first thing I noticed when listening to this was the rhythm which as mention before, is the way music is organized into time units and in this case I noticed that the rhythm tempo was a bit slow which kind of set a mood towards something sorrowful. I heard some notes playing longer than others which made it easier to pick up some elements. The second musical element that I noticed was harmony. I picked up that there was no harmony because there was no two pitches at the same time. In general the pitches seem to occur not in unison but rather one at a time in relatively slow succession. Because of this I feel as if the piece exemplifies the musical concept of a melody. The notes all fall in line one after another, creating a very slow and steady tempo.

When I listened to “Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass” I was quite surprised as it was so different yet so similar to “Kyrie (monophonic)” at the same time. It possessed a faster tempo, in that the rhythm was faster paced and the song succeeded faster with each note following another in a quicker manner. Harmony also existed in this piece, unlike in “Kyrie (monophonic)” as there were multiple voices singing at once with different pitches, ranging from female and male voices. Yet, like “Kyrie (monophonic)” this piece also possessed a very distinct melody, as notes did not seem to fade into one another as much as jump from one to another, in that the tones sounded in succession in a very noticeable way. It was as if I could tell when each singer actively changed the tone with which they sang. Overall “Kyrie (monophonic)” and “Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass” are similar in that they both exhibit essential musical characteristics, yet they differ in their expression of those characteristics.

            The twentieth century represents a time so closely related yet so distant from the world in which we live in today. Though it saw the rise of much of the technology we still depend on today, the world that existed then and that exists now are so vastly different. That is what makes the twentieth century a particular source of intrigue and excitement for me. Much of these differences, of course, have to do with the two world wars that the generation of the twentieth century had to face. Thankfully, we in the twenty first century have not had to endure such damaging and horrific events. Throughout my years of schooling, I have consistently learned about the world wars, how they started, what devastation they caused, and how they ended. Rarely did we talk about the effects of the wars on society though. For this reason, I never really realized that an event as horrifying as a world war could influence the music styles that arose afterwards. However, now, the point seems abundantly clear.

            Post-world war music is explained to be music that challenged the very definition of “music.” More and more musicians experimented with Expressionism, which focused on exploring the unconscious mind. Perhaps this was a way for the populace to recuperate after the terrors of wartime, as introspection is often used as a therapeutic measure. Electronic music also blossomed, signifying the increase of technology that followed the world wars in the victorious nations. Perhaps the most noteworthy development was Minimalism, a form of music that focused on harmonic consonance, slow, steady pulses that created an atmosphere similar to that of hypnotism. The characteristics of these musical styles very much reflect the way society attempted to heal after the devastating effects of the world wars by focusing on their consciousness, advancements and peace,

            When I listened to Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train” I was pleasantly surprised. This piece, unlike the smooth and steady pulses of Minimalism, was energetic. I could close my eyes and picture cartoons characters like Tom and Jerry running around to the beat. Of course, I had heard of and listened to the work of Duke Ellington before, but now playing this song I recognize just why he was such a success and considered a pioneer in the musical world.