音樂賞析 - The Legend of 1900

After introducing the brass instruments in the class today, we replayed the movie "The Legend of 1900" as the material for final study report of this semester.

The report and all the classroom notes shall be presented to teacher Lin in the class on January 12, 2014. Then it will call the end of class. Thanks to teacher Lin.

Common clef symbols in musical notation

Supplements:

• "Peace by Inches" scene in the movie "Any Given Sunday" - the power of motivational speech!

• An interesting ebook (pdf) - Math for Poets and Drummers - Math of Rhythm, 2005, by Rachel Hall, Saint Joseph's University.

• Official website of the Museum of Violins, geographically located in Cremona in Italy where it makes the most of world's best violins and other string instruments.

- End.

音樂賞析 - Violinist Ray Chen

In today's class we talked about the instrumentation of a symphony orchestra and its string section. And looked a little bit further into violin and introduced an outstanding young Taiwanian-Australian violinist Ray Chen.

Violinist Ray Chen performing at the Apple Store in NYC on February 6, 2012.
Photo courtesy of Jrs2150, from Wikipedia.org.

Meet Ray Chen in a behind-the-scene session around the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm on December 8th, 2012.

Ray Chen performed at the prestigious 2012 Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm, recorded live on December 8th, 2012 with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra - under the direction of Maestro Christoph Eschenbach. Full concert streaming available at: www.nobelprize.org.

Ray Chen performed in the finals of the 2009 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Brussels. He won the first prize in the competition at age 20.

Teacher Dr. Lin's insightful comment in the class today:

• The primary purpose of arts classes is to give students a sensational training. (藝術課的主要目的即是在於給予學生一個『感覺的訓練』課程。) To help people developing a more brilliant and creative mind with clearer sensations.

For more notes on today's class, please refer to the pitki file. Thanks.

下課。

• Ray Chen's official website - http://www.raychenviolin.com/

• Ray Chen's page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/raychenviolinist

音樂賞析 - Into the Woods (musical)

For this week and the next, we are going to watch the video of the musical theater - Into the Woods. The version of video played in classroom can not be seen on YouTube in Taiwan, probably due to copyright restrictions.

Here, alternatively, let's enjoy Sondheim! (Stephen Sondheim, the music and lyrics composer of the musical Into the Woods) the Birthday Concert 2010 (age 80) played at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City:

Pay range of a violinist in the band of a musical theater:

• Annual pay of a violinist for the Phantom of Opera played in New York City: USD70,000/year.

• Earned pay by Prof. Lin in a month of violin play for Into the Woods tour performance in the town where his college locates when he was studying there in the USA: USD8,000/month.

Good job?!

下課。

Washington Conservatory at TEDMED 2013

Awesome! Bravo! In the next class, shall we review, analyze and interpret what makes this music performance one of a kind, please?

If two hands can make a piano sing, imagine the creative symphony of a dozen charismatic pianists. Video and caption by TEDMED.

Enjoyed.

下課。

音樂賞析 - Harmony, Melody, and Musical Texture

Today we talked about music in its tempo, harmony, melody, theme, scale and texture. And Prof. Lin selected to play some music to physically demonstrate these musical concepts in the following: (ref. list of world's musical scales)

Tempo indication: First two bars of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331, first movement Andante grazioso.

Nikko brand mechanical metronome in motion, photo by Vincent Quach.

Listen to the melody and theme of the song -

• Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland, 1939

Listen to the harmony of the song -

• Chopin's prelude in E minor, Op. 28 - No. 4

Listen to the biphonic texture of the song -

• George Bizet's (1838 - 1875) orchestration L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2, Movement IV (Farandole), by Ernest Guiraud, first published in 1879.

And, last but not least, see the musical film of the Making of West Side Story - original music and conducted by Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990).

下課。

音樂賞析 - Classical vs. Jazz

Continuing the topic of introduction to music theory and basic musical elements from the last week, we first talked about the definitions of beat and rhythm in music.

Then Prof. Lin made an introduction to the differences between classical music and Jazz in playing skills, training, education, listening and sustainability.

The two examples given for comparison are the song Firebird composed by Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), who was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and the song C Jam Blues created by Duke Ellington (1899 - 1974).

Portrait of Stravinsky by Robert Delaunay

Stravinsky successfully expressed different feelings by playing the same repeated tone-set in different dynamics, speed, etc. A new creative way of music composition at the time. He was one of a kind, indeed.

November 3, 1954: Duke Ellington, a famous jazz musician, poses with his piano at the KFG Radio Studio. KFG is Fitzsimons Army Medical Center's radio station.

C Jam Blues is so impressively and intuitively to be recognized by its simple composition of the "do-do-do-do-so" tone series. A great music to enjoy! And thanks to Duke Ellington and all the great Jazz musicians.

For classroom notes in more detail, please see it in the file listed above in the Pitki Links page tab.

下課。

音樂賞析 - Musical Tone vs. Noise

What is musical tone? What makes sound a music or a noise?

Before introducing to music theory, come listen to 4'33" first:

上課講義如下視窗所示：(the page layout may be changed unexpectedly, because it is originally made in Microsoft .ppt format, then saved as Google Slides format and again transformed into .pdf format.)

上課筆記 - 單元學習單 - 在這裡。


下課前聽一條蕭邦名曲吧... Prelude C minor, Op. 28 - No. 20

Chopin at 28, oil painting by Delacroix.

Chopin: Prelude C minor, Op. 28 - No. 20, by Michael Angelkovich.

下課。

Further reading:

• Naxos.com - The world's leading classical music group online.

• Education database - Introduction to Classical Music, by Naxos.com