Essays on Piano

Arch 386

Introduction:
Architecture is an important part of man’s contribution to the built environment and several styels have developed over the years. There have been several architects who have contributed important and crucial public buildings over the years but nobody has come to the forefront of such styles as Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers or perhaps, Norman Foster.
After World War II, the new style of “High-tech” architecture was born. Two brilliant well-known architects of this time period are Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. These architects incorporated elements of high tech industry and advanced structural technology into their building Continue reading...

Anton Weber (1883-1945) was a music composer and conductor from Austria. He studies music in Second Viennese School under the mentorship of Arnold Schoenberg. After completing his tutorship from Arnold uses an advanced language in the Passacaglia, that is more distinct orchestra work. He becomes an expert in the technique of total serialism to design pitch organization and other dynamics of music. Anton's late work applies piano, concerto, and the symphony as traditional techniques of composure. Anton manages to make thirty-one compositions during his lifetime using the uses Spartan twelve-tone technique. The twelve-tone technique uses four groups of three Continue reading...

Jazz is a unique style of music that took development in America during the early 20th century. It made a widespread popularity particularly in the urban areas such as New Orleans, and it served as a social-leveler and unifier. Melding both black and white citizens, Jazz became the basis for social dance music and the provided the early opportunities for public integration (“Jazz”, Encyclopedia.com). The music also helped stir up the national mood particularly during the Depression and the Second World War. The most remarkable period of the development of jazz is during the 1940s and 50s. During those Continue reading...

Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’ is one of the most important song cycles in the history of music and its sixteen songs are all essentially great works. The final song is a beautiful one called ‘Die alte bosen Lieder’ where the strands of romantic art come together in a beautiful manner. This paper will attempt to argue that the song is an important part of Schumann’s artistic style and that the marriage of words and music is almost perfect.

Structure and meaning of the poem:

‘Die alte bosen Lieder’ by the famed German poet Heinrich Heine, is a dark and brooding poem in a typically melancholic Continue reading...

The first movements of piano concertos by J.C. Bach and W.A. Mozart
Mozart’s piano concertos are said to among his best compositions. The Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488 is testament to this. This graceful composition has three movements and uses small orchestra comprised of instruments from all four classes. The instruments are two flutes, two bassoons, two clarinets and two horns as well the instruments from the string section like the violin.
One significant difference of Mozart’s concertos was refusing the harpsichord and clavichord. He started to compose sonata concertos only for piano with orchestra, Continue reading...

D.H. Lawrence "Piano"
The title of the selection is "Piano" and the author is D.H. Lawrence. First publication date was in 1919.
The poem is set in the dusk, and the place is cozy without external distractions, so that the main character can indulge in thinking about past. The singing of a woman takes him back to memory that is pleasant. The room where they are located is comfortable, so that he can relax enough to receive mental images.
The main character is a man who is grown-up but feels nostalgic about his past. He how safe and protected Continue reading...

Alban Berg was an Austrian composer, teacher and one of the most prominent representatives of the Second Viennese musical expressionism and composer school. Alan Berg was a student and a follower of A. Schoenberg, who was Alban Berg’s teacher in years 1904 - 1911.
One of the most prominent representatives of expressionism in music, Berg expressed in his works characteristic of expressionist artists thoughts, feelings and images: dissatisfaction with the social life, feelings of helplessness and loneliness. The hero of his works can be expressed asa little man, driven to despair by a hostile environment of bourgeois society. Continue reading...

When it comes to the topic of slavery, one’s heart immediately jumps up and cries out for justice. It is a dark mark on this country’s and the world’s past. What makes August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson so interesting is that the Charles family’s ties to the time period are so close, they not only remember who owned them, they know the family personally. It is this fact that creates the dilemma of the first act. Boy Willie wants to sell the family’s piano in order to buy the land of the Sutters, Continue reading...

The composer I have chosen to write this paper on is American Roger Zare. Roger is a composer from Florida who started composing at the age of 14. He learned multiple instruments at a young age including the piano and the violin. Roger has written solo, chamber, choral and full orchestra works. He has earned numerous honors including being the winner of the 5th annual Trio Anima Mundi Composition Prize. The work I chose to listen to is “Geometries” written in 2010 by Zare. The instruments that are included in the production of this are the clarinet, violin, cello Continue reading...

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Ludwig van Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the most important and well-known unprecedented music composers. From an early age, Beethoven put significant aptitude, freewill, and inflexible peculiarity on display. His unusual and overwhelming personal characteristics are reflected in his compositions and music. Without a question, Beethoven became known as the most advanced and greatest classical music composer. According to Goethe, "I have never seen so intense so concentrated an artist” like Beethoven (as qtd. in Ludwig 247). It is not possible for a listener to not stir by Beethoven’s divine and soulful music. His exceptional Continue reading...

August Wilson met success as a play writer after experiencing various odd jobs and dropping out of school after facing intense racism. In a way, the drama is a personal piece of expression for him. The Piano Lesson focuses on the lives of two siblings and an ancient family heirloom dating back to their great grandfather’s time. The drama revolves around their bickering over the piano that what should be done with it. Boy Willie and Berenice, the two siblings, and their story focuses on the migration of Africans and the problems they faced during whole life but Continue reading...

Two Kinds is a short story by Amy Tan in the book The Joy Luck Club. Tan writes about the intricacy of a daughter and mother relationship who migrated from China to America. The short story is about a Chinese-American girl named Jing-mei. Jing-mei lived in American and her mother believed that, as long as one lives in America, he/she can be anything she could ever wish to be and therefore, she was working hard to find her daughter’s talent. Jing-mei’s mother constantly tests her daughter for any talent, but any time she tries, no talent is Continue reading...

George Gershwin was one of the most prolific composers in America for the twenty century, excelling in the field of popular song compositions and classical compositions. He wrote a lot of music but the pieces that made him famous and also remained in the history of music as representative for his own style were two orchestral compositions like Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris and also the opera Porgy and Bess.
George Gershwin was born in 26 September 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. Gershwin came from a Russian and Lithuanian Jewish heritage and he was the second Continue reading...

Historic jazz style represented by Johnson P. James

“Old fashioned love”
Composed in the year 1913 and later recorded by a person known as Cliff Ukulele Ike Edwards in the year 1923.
Johnson James and Fats Wallers
General characteristics of the historic jazz style:
Johnson P. Also known as the “Grandfather of the hottest Piano” was a jazz pianist who developed during the period of transition of ragtime. Ragtime is also known as the music that he performed from the written scores only and also had another attribute of rhythmically and more relaxed developments of the normal piano. As a result, it later becomes to be known Continue reading...

Wynton Marsalis is a truly unique figure in the world of jazz music. He is internationally acclaimed as not only a musician, but also as a composer, bandleader, and educator. He is arguably the first musician in the world to compose and perform music over the complete jazz spectrum including compositions that characterize the roots of jazz in the New Orleans tradition, bebop, modern jazz He is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz
Similarly, the characteristic skill and sound specific Continue reading...

For our music class, we had to attend a live Jazz concert. There were many several concerts, which we could choose from, both varied from on or off campus. The recommended concert that we chose for this this semester was on Thursday, November 13th in Gusman Concert Hall. We attended a “Jazz Vocal II Ensemble & Jazz Vocal III Ensemble”. The directors for this ensemble were Sherrine Mostin and Eliot Weeks. There were 2 Jazz Vocal Ensembles that consisted of different people playing and supporting during the concert. There is some information regarding these two excellent Ensembles
Jazz Vocal III Continue reading...

Monday, the morning lecture covers concentration. The music director provides lengthy music tracks. I do a report on the day’s exercise, and it gets a recommendation. I understand that the mastering of concentration can reveal the hidden elements in music that makes it melodious. Tuesday, I polish on the learned piano chords. The music director demands that no reference should be in any learning materials. I confidently play the pieces of music. My music director is surprised by how well I combine both the simple and complex chords. I enjoy the presentation and feel my confidence well built. Continue reading...

Introduction

The Pre-lude and Fugue in C major, BWV is a composition written by J.S Bach. It appears in the book “The Well-Tempered Clavier” as the first prelude and fugue. This book comprises of a set of 48 preludes and fugues that were authored by J.S Bach. The prelude part of this keyboard piece consists of 35 bars and is also characterized by broken chords. It ends with a single C major chord. However, some artists over time have added extra bars inside the piece in order to add a personal touch to the piece or to alter its progression. Continue reading...

Two Kinds is a story found in the book ‘The Joy Luck Club’, written by Amy Tan. The short story is about the conflict between a mother and her daughter who are clearly separated by things such as age, culture and perception. Jing-Mei Woo is the main character, and it is clear from the beginning that the high expectations her mother has over her affect her way of life. Through the unfolding events that the author gives, we get to understand the course that events took. In essence, whereas Woo saw Jing-Mei as a prodigy in piano playing, Jing-Mei Continue reading...

- Memphis is the home of the music genre rock n roll. An example to support this is the observation one of the genre pioneers came from the place. He grew up there and requested bar owners to let him in their clubs so that he could listen to their music.
- Sam Phillips was behind the sun Records. The studio gave the people a platform to air their view and oppression through the music. The studio did not discriminate and thus was a voice of the minority and civil rights.
- A. the musical style of Elvis Presley was Continue reading...

The article The Early History of the Guitar by Christopher Page in my opinion is an accurate depiction of the role and the rise of the early romantic guitar. The author’s depiction of the magnitude of the effects of the guitar in the early ages is entirely correct. The author says that the guitar is superior to the piano and the violin because of the fact that it covers more musically than the former and it can be learnt faster than the latter (Page, 2014). The guitar is arguably the most relevant musical instrument in the world today. Continue reading...

I recently attended an MDC Faculty Recital conducted by Dr. Virginia Carruvias featuring music by Claude Bolling. My enjoyment and appreciation of his music will be the subject of analysis and appreciation throughout this paper. I also wish to comment on the feelings I experienced while listening to the music and what my general understanding of the technical aspects were during the evening. This analysis varies with the different movements of the music for each suite. During the evening, three movements of the suite for flute and piano (Irlandaise, Sentimentale, Baroque & Blue) and 3 movements of the suite for Continue reading...

Thriller is a popular song that was performed by Michael Jackson. This song was released in 1983, and it became one of the signature tunes for Michael Jackson. It is a form of pop song that is rare and has a horror theme. The inspiration of the song came from one of Sherlock Holmes popular novel to date titled the hound of Baskervilles. The song broke racial boundaries that were present in the music at that time.
The song back in black is a rock song performed by AC/DC in 1980. The song was written by Brian Johnson, who Continue reading...

The first movements of piano concertos by J.C. Bach and W.A. Mozart
Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have both influenced the development of classical music. Both of them formed the musical style of sonata – most of the 20th and 21th century composers still hold on to the same structure.
J.C. Bach was a son of J.S. Bach. Father influenced him a lot – he taught him the art of music since early childhood, but since he died when Johann Christian was only fifteenyears old, he started to compose is his own way.Style of music he wrote was different Continue reading...

Music is an individual process of describing a composer or musician`s feelings and thoughts, that`s why every music masterpiece is so much different from another one. Let us take two great jazzmen, Earl Hines and John Coltrane, who worked in different times, depicting different life of people. They lived and worked in time, when everything was full of jazz as the contrary to classical music, jazz was considered immoral and inappropriate way to play and compose. Everything has changed in time and jazz has become one of the most popular genres of music of the time. Let Continue reading...

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

 Children between the ages of four and nine are usually at one of the most crucial stages of life development. This is the stage where children start to understand some of the worldly concepts in a more complex manner and start to decipher the information that is fed to them in ways that are more refined. It is also at this stage where children start discovering what they are passionate about life and slowly start to become excited with these passions. It is, therefore, very crucial that at this stage, children are nurtured in the right manner, especially when Continue reading...

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Children between the ages of four at nine are usually at one of the most crucial stages of life development. This is the stage where the children start understands some of the worldly concepts in a more complex manner and start to decipher the information that is fed to them in ways that that are more refined. It is also at this stage that children start discovering what they are passionate about life and slowly start to become excited these passions. It is, therefore, very crucial that at this stage, children are nurtured in the right manner, especially when Continue reading...

Perhaps one of the greatest works in the entire orchestral and symphonic canon, Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets has stood the test of time. Holst’s mind was austere and disciplined when The Planets was composed, it is a work of the period especially by using an enormous orchestra to depict Neptune and the mystical disappearing female chorus creating a background of astrology and perhaps theosophy. ‘The Planets’ can also be compared to Rimsky Korsakov and Dukas whilst Lehar also makes a fleeting appearance. Holst was a composer who recognized that impressions have to be filtered and analysed, structured Continue reading...

Introduction

For the sake of this project, I chose to analyze the following literary and nonliterary works:
- “The Death of Ivan Ilych” by Leo Tolstoy (Novel)
- Death of a Salesman, directed by Laszlo Benedek (Film)
- “Piano Man,” written and performed by Billy Joel (Music)
All three of these works relate to the ways in which we live our lives, and the necessity to be able to view our lives much more abstractly and open-mindedly – the works feature characters who are either served well or could be served well by their capacity for critical thought and self-reflection.

Objective Analysis

Ivan Continue reading...

LIVE CONCERT ESSAY

Jazz music is one of the old genres of music in the world. It is however very interesting and soothing to listen to. It does have a hint of relaxation attached to it. The mood created by jazz music is just soothing to say the least. It is calmed and relaxed and surprisingly very easy to dance to. The following essay is a report on a visit to a jazz concert. It entails special and detailed analysis of the instruments applied in jazz music and their effectiveness in reaching out to the crowd and making jazz music the global Continue reading...

Born on October 20, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut, Charles Ives’ childhood was greatly influenced by his father, George Ives, who was the leader of the local band. With the help of his father, he learnt how to play musical organs. His love for experimenting with acoustics, dissonance and happenstance could explain the combination of new and old, of common and extreme, so obvious in the son’s compositions (Maggie 10).
In 1894, Ives went on to study music at Yale. It is while there that he learnt the basics in his subject of study and then went on to Continue reading...

“Secret” is a 2007 Taiwanese film which tells us a dramatic story of love between two young people who are parted by 20 years. This film is an impressive debut of a Taiwanese musician Jay Chou, who moreover composed the soundtrack for it (along with Therdsak Chanpan), and also stared as an actor and a co-writer of the screenplay for it. “Secret” was awarded “Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year”, “Best Visual Effects”, “Best Original Song” (for “Secret” by Chou) at the 44th Golden Horse Awards in 2007. It was also nominated for “Best Asian Film” at the 27th Continue reading...

Introduction

The romantic period was the period when the music composers used music as an art to express themselves in terms of emotions and subjection. These song composers inspired by themes like darkness sang sincerely from their hearts ans. Those that were heartbroken sung with loads of pain from the heartbreaks (Plantinga, 1984).

Question (1) Color expansion of the orchestra during the romantic period.

Orchestra is a large type of instrument ensemble containing sections of brass, strings, percussion instruments, woodwind and brass. Orchestra did performance of classical music. Reduction of the musicians was one of the changes caused by the economic recession. Frederick Chopin was one of the most influential romantic Continue reading...

I attended the Music concert at the Lefrak Hall, Queens College on Wednesday 23rd October 2013. The event was scheduled to kickoff at 12.30 pm. The guest artist of the event was William McNally a piano specialist and musician. He has won several awards in recognition of his good works and contribution to rag time music. Rag time music incorporates piano beats with a varying rhythms leaving within one composition of a song. The event was organized by Queens College.
There were several performances by William McNally. He began with performing ‘Stop time Rag’ by Scott Joplin, ‘Top Liner Continue reading...

Subjective

One of the most celebrated works of the American composer George Gershwin is entitled Rhapsody in Blue, which features a notable crossover between the sounds of a classical piano piece and Jazz masterpiece. It is not first the time that such musical piece grazed the concert halls and the ears of critiques, but what sets Gershwin’s piece apart from genre is its unique sound, which conveys specific mood. Rhapsody in Blue encompasses happy trails on a gloomy avenue kind of mood like riding down the yellow brick road in a wicked forest. The piece sustains the same mood Continue reading...

Music is mostly perceived as the extremely universal of all forms of art. Music can be defined as the art of making a combination of vocal and instrumental sounds in harmony or expressive way. Music is broad and sometimes is life to some people. It is an art by itself that can mean self-expansion and oneness. The work of art in any form that it may be is generated by an individual or group of ordinary persons who are talented and are expressing an opinion concerning the current times. Music expresses culture through the way musicians dress, the history Continue reading...

Analysis of “Set Fire To The Rain” by Adele

Adele’s song “Set fire to the rain” has achieved a wide popularly since it was released in 2011. Proof of this is that the YouTube posting of the song has achieved more than 60,000,0000 views. I enjoy the song for song for several reasons that are likely shared with its other fans. This essay explores why I personally like it as well as some technical elements of the song.
One of the things I enjoy most about the song. The song is about a difficult separation. In such situations it is often difficult to express how Continue reading...

General information

“Erkoning” was initially a poem that was written by the renowned Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The initial composition was included in the Singspiel of 1782. Franz Schubert, who lived between 1797 to 1828, then made a rendition of the poem being a composer and made the poem widely known. He employed the use of piano and a voice. “Lost Your Head Blues” was composed by Bessie Smith in 1926 and it received a lot of listeners as she was a celebrated blues artist. Bessie in her career life as a singer was known for his multi-racial fan base.

Singing Style

“Lost Continue reading...

Essay :

Contrasting Treatment of Time
The two poems, “Piano” by D.H.Lawrence and “To my Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell may appear to depict the flow of time, but while the first one turns the spotlight on the power of the past, the second one stresses on the importance of the present. It is also remarkable how each of the two poets uses language in his own style to produce a very distinct effect, making the poems dissimilar in many ways.
Both the poets have drawn vivid portraits with words. A song takes Lawrence back to his past, and makes him Continue reading...

Alfred Schnittke: Sonata Nr. 1 (1878)

Bela Bartok: Rhapsody Nr 1 for cello and piano BB 94

Kanae Matsumo – piano
Jonathan Thompson – cello
This modernist collection of works provided an ideal atmosphere for a concert which really showcased the talents of Kanae Matsumo and Jonathan Thompson, both consummate and talented artists in their own right. The former is a pianist full of exceptional promise who also demonstrated astonishing and totally commanding virtuosity in the Bartok piece which is terrifically demanding. Thompson is a great cellist who also demonstrates incredible promise and talent with a main focus on the dark shades of the instrument. There was also substantial chemistry between both Continue reading...