The topic that I chose was music and Christmas. The 2 music entries that are discussed in the presentation are “Snow candy” By Starship Planet, and “Jingle Bells” By Jim Reeves. The songs have a connection to the Christmas spirit that is discussed in the presentation. Both of the song entries have a Christmasy rhythm to them and you can tell that they are jolly and have a certain type of melody. Also both songs have a catchy tune to them. And can make anyone have a Christmas spirit. The songs have a slow pace and aren’t fast paced like rap songs or other genres of songs. Both songs give you that warm Christmas fuzzy feeling. The musical characteristic in the song “Jingle Bells” By Jim Reeves, is a slow and steady tempo, chorus, and a jolly melody. The musical characteristic in the song “Snow candy” By Starship Planet, is an upbeat tempo and catchy rhythm. The lyrics from “Jingle Bells,” “Oer the fields we go, laughing all the way” shows a sense of jolliness. “Snow Candy,” is in a different language but just by listening to it it makes you feel like being happy and to have a good time. 

If this topic were to be my own I would include a very popular and known Christmas song called “Deck the Halls,” by Pentatonix. And “All I want for Christmas is you,” by Mariah Carey. Both of these songs have a jolly mood to them as well as showing love and care for someone. Send me that’s what the Christmas spirit is all about. Both songs are about Christmas and have very strong spirits to both. Also there are bells and chimes in both of the songs which makes the jolly mood pop out even more. These 2 songs show what the Christmas spirit is about not only about presents but also about showing love. In “Deck the Halls,” the lyrics, “Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la, ‘Tis the season to be jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la” shows a very exciting and jolly mood. This shows that there is a jolly melody to it. In “All I want for Christmas is you,” the lyrics, “oh, oh, All the lights are shining so brightly everywhere And the sound of children’s laughter fills the air” this shows the kids are very excited for Christmas and it is truly the best time of the year. 

The song Then I decided to talk about is “This is America” by a very known artist, Childish Gambino. the song was brought out in 2018. songs purpose is to show that there is a lot of black violence in the United States and it also talks about racial discrimination against African-Americans. In an interview Gambino was asked about his song but he totally ignored the question and didn’t answer it the correct way as to what the purpose of the song really was. Throughout the song Gambino speaks a lot about police brutality, he doesn’t say it straight up but he says it in a way to make people understand what he’s really talking about without really having to say it.  Some listeners listen to this song just for the fun of it and some listen to it because of deep meaning that actually has behind it. I think that Gambino definitely did have his own political purpose to the piece of music but didn’t accept it when he was asked about it. 

A musical characteristic or a musical genre of the piece is Repetition because throughout the song he repeats a lot of the words that he is staying. Some of these phrases are, “This is America,” and “Yeah Yeah.” The song itself has a lot of singing and ends up becoming polyphonic. Polyphony is a style of musical composition which has two or more concurrent but relatively independent melodic lines.

A Sema Ceremony (also known as ‘Sufi Ceremony’) is a worship ceremony. In a Sema Ceremony there are many formal sections that take place. Also, to add on, Sema Ceremonies symbolize a soul’s journey to God. Often this happens in a Church in which there is a lot of music and dance. It is a very cheerful moment to experience. In the Sema Ceremony you experience direct spiritual union with God. Usually Ceremonies like this happen in Turkey. This concept was brought out in Turkey and is still very well-known in Turkey. These ceremonies usually start off by a form of meditation. After there would be dancing, to cheer up the moment and give everyone enlightenment. The dancers who dance at Sema Ceremonies always fast for many many hours before the actually ceremony. It is just a tradition that they do. The dance that is done in a certain manner, and not just any steps and movements. (What to Expect in a Sema Ceremony)

Amazing Grace is a very talented and well-known piece of Gospel music. This music piece is very religious and is usually played in a church prayer. Which is similar to a hymn. (Story of Amazing Grace) This song is fully dedicated when people worship to god. In Amazing Grace singers usually have instruments, and they sing to it in a specific way and there are multiple people singing. Something similar between both of these pieces of music, Sema Ceremony and Amazing Grace, is that they both worship God, with a bunch of people that have there full trust in God and worship him only, as well as both pieces of music are religious. Both songs have a very slow rhythm and tempo to them.

Even though there are a few similarities between both of the pieces of music there are also a lot of differences that come with it. Some of the differences that can be between these two pieces of music is that In the Sema Ceremony there is an instrumental piece that is being used, in this ceremony there are no voices that are there. Whereas in Amazing Grace, It is the total opposite and there are no instruments that are being used. And an amazing grace there are only people singing with no instruments at all. As learned in class, usually songs like this are referred to and “Acapella”. 

Bhangra music originated from Punjab, India. Bhangra is a type of folk dance music. Bhangra dancers would sing songs to the rhythm of the dhol, which is a drum. These songs were used to celebrate annual events, such as marriages, anniversaries, and many other types of main events. Since Bhangra was originated it has been changed drastically. Whether the changes be major or minor. The 20th century has brought the most amount of changes to the instruments that define “Bhangra”, which include but are not limited to the tumbi, sarangi, dholak (smaller than the dhol), flute, zither, fiddle, harmonium, tabla, guitar, mandolin, saxophone, synthesizer, drum set, and other Western instruments.

I think that I would be most comfortable with listening to the Jazz club as an audience member. It is more of a chill environment where people are dancing, singing, and talking. Something that you typically wear at a Jazz concert is more causal clothes. Since the audience is actually having fun, drinking, and just vibing out to the jazz music, I really think that I would mostly enjoy being in that type of environment.

I feel as if the least comfortable performance for me would be at a chamber music recital. This is because due to the distance that there is from the actual performers and the audience is a little less. Knowing how less space there is this would make me feel awkward, and not make any sounds or movements at all.

The scene I chose is ‘Get Out.’ In this scene it is night time and you can hear the dogs barking and the crickets chirping. This represents a feeling of being lonely in the night time, which tends to make the viewer feel as if something scary or frightening will happen. The clip also starts off with a brief talk of the man talking on the phone, while walking on the side of a road. The moment this man gets off the phone he realizes that he is walking through a not so ‘happy’ neighborhood. While he is walking he is giving himself company by talking to himself, and not get nervous. Then, all of a sudden he notices a white car that starts to follow him. He stays calm and then gets a bit scared so he walks in the opposite direction. And then someone comes out of the car dressed as a knight and grabs him and puts him in chokehold. Then the man is dragged to the trunk of the ‘knights’ car and the car goes and drives away.

There are many diegetic sounds in this scene. The scene starts with footsteps, then sudden breathing, crickets chirping in the air, and then dogs. These can all be heard by him himself and the viewers who are watching. We can also hear what the man is saying while walking and talking on the phone. A non-diegetic sound that is brought up in the scene is the little bit of music that played when the car started to follow the man.

There are many different forms of musical technology that have been used in history as well as being used in present day to help better our understanding of technology or even just for listening to a wide variety of music. The form of musical technology that I chose to discuss today is ‘the guitar combo amplifier.’ Guitar combo amplifiers are usually used in ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ music. Rock ‘n’ roll music would not be loud if there wasn’t amplification. So many different types of bands use this across the world. And it is used in majority of concerts you would go to. Many rock ‘n’ roll music artists in the industry today use guitar combo amplifiers. I personally don’t have no experience with this technology form, but I have heard so many people playing it whether it be in real life or in videos, and it has always amazed me at how loud the sounds can get.

The song “Shut the Door” by Fugazi, was well- known for the rock ‘n’ roll vibes that it has to it. The band wasn’t very famous, but people who like rock ‘n’ roll music were very big fans of this piece. As you can see in the video the 2 guys are playing the guitar combo amplifier. This is the main parts of the song itself. It goes from soft to loud, back to soft and then they get super loud again. This song/band went viral back in 2010.

The 2 pieces that I chose to go with is Kyrie (monophonic) and Kyrie from the Pope Marcellus Mass. Before listening to either of these pieces I had thought that Kyrie (monophonic) would sound very childish, and was meant for little kids because of the name of the piece. And for the second piece that I chose I thought that it would sound like something “old people” would listen to because in the title it has “Pope.” These are my views of these pieces before listening to both of them carefully. Three elements that really brought my attention was harmony, texture, and melody. Harmony is when musical tones are played together in chords. Texture is the overall sound of a piece of the music. Melody is a group of notes that have different pitches in which the are played one after the other.

After listening to Kyrie (monophonic), it sounded nothing like I thought it would sound like. This to me sounds a lot like something that would be playing in a church. The sound sounds very religious, and it sounds like something you would listen to while praying, in a certain culture. The language the piece is in is Greek. In this piece I felt like I heard a lot of melody. This is because in this piece I hears multiple notes of the music that ha a bit different pitches to them which were being played one after the other. After listening to the Pope Marcellus Mass, this sounded a little familiar to the Kyrie piece, but a very important difference that I thought of while listening to this piece was that in the Pope Marcellus Mass, there is more of a feminine voice in the background then compared to the Kyrie piece. This piece sounded like it had harmony in it. This is because there was a lot of musical notes that were being payed together in which when the women is singing and then the men in the back start singing along. Also this sounds a lot more soothing.

The Baroque Period

Reading about the Baroque Period it really intrigues me because the type of music that was made in this period was Opera music. The type of music that was created back then is something that would sound very familiar and a familiar type of beat compared to what music sounds like nowadays. The Baroque Period began at around 1600 and ended around 1750. This period had started right after the Renaissance Period. There were many historical events that took place around this time, some out of my knowledge are the death of Elizabeth-I, Establishment of the Dutch East India Company, and another very important event in history during this period was the Salem Witch Trials.

In the textbook it talks about how in the Baroque Period there were Baroque finales that were often featured a “deus ex machina.” While I was reading this part, the part that really excited me and made me think was that “deus ex machina” was a plot device where problems of any sort that were still remaining were resolved somehow. In the textbook it is explained that often these problems were miraculously resolved by “divine intervention.” Also another part that really gained my interest was the part of the textbook that said that opera was incredibly popular and known world-wide, but it was banned in Catholic countries. This really struck out to me because it made me think why can’t Catholic countries listen to this beautiful music?, do the instrumental genres and rhythms insult Catholics in some way? I might be wrong but as I was reading these were some of the questions that kept coming up in my head. There were also many new instrumental genres that arose in the Baroque Period some of which included the suite, the sonata, and the concerto. Also while reading this part of the textbook, it reminded me of the car company sonata, this made me do some research but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything, but a question that came to mind was, does the car company sonata have anything to do with the instrumental genre “sonata”?

This period was definitely a period to remember, because of all the famous composers who made history. A composer who was very known at the time of and to this day people still listen to was known as Johann Sebastian Bach. He was a German composer, and composed amazing music. The piece of work that I chose, is the famous piece, “Complete Cello Suites” by Bach. Listening to this music was definitely now what I expected from this period of time. This piece to me sounded a lot like a music that was from the medieval period. And also it is not what I expected from the way the textbook describes because as I was reading the textbook I kept thinking that this music is for old people and that I wouldn’t enjoy it. But in fact, it’s the total opposite!! I genuinely feel as if this music is very pleasing to the ears and is very soothing. I am usually not into this type of music AT ALL! But I have been listening to this piece for about an hour and it is really helping me in focus on getting my work done.