Blog Assignment: 6 Weeks

I have now been here at the University of Redlands six weeks. Coming from a big school like UC Riverside, it was strange at first. On such a large campus, you blend in much easier. Some of my classes had hundreds of students. With a class that size, it doesn't really matter if you miss a class here and there because the professor doesn't know the difference, and if you fall asleep, nobody is going to notice or care. So the change to such a small campus was a big one. It's a very different experience here. And so far, I think I'm much more comfortable now. It's easier to connect with other students and I can actually get to know my professors a bit. Overall, it's a friendlier campus. I'm not saying UCR is unfriendly, but with so many students, I shared classes with people and still rarely ran into them.
Also new to me this year is studying music exclusively. I didn't switch my major to music until late last year and I only took one Fundamentals class before arriving here. I started out as a Physics major and then realized I hated Physics. Although my current work load can get a little overwhelming, it's much easier to get things done because now I'm more interested in what I'm studying. I've never been very good at balancing everything, but I think I'm improving lately. Being a commuter, I don't have a room to go back to during my breaks so I like to just sit down at a piano and either write, play around with what we're learning in theory, or just see what happens. It's a great way to pass the time and often one of my favorite times of the day.

So how are the rest of the newbies adjusting?

Claude Vivier

For the solo piece I am currently working on, I decided to choose an instrument that I have always thought was quite beautiful but never really learned much about: the cello. I've always thought the cello was one of the orchestra greatest instruments.
As part of my research, Dr. Suter recommended to me the work of Claude Vivier(1948-1983). Vivier was a Canadian composer born to unknown parents in Montreal. Before pursuing his interest in music, he was on path to a career in the priesthood, attending boarding schools from the age of thirteen to the age of eighteen when he was asked to leave. Then he began his studies in music and within a few years had already gained a reputation. Vivier began to be inspired by different music he discovered in his travels to Europe and Japan. In 1983, he was stabbed to death in Paris before finishing his final work, Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele.
As I am researching works performed on the cello, I found Vivier's Piece Pour Violoncelle et Piano. What I found very useful about this piece was his ability to make use of the cello's full range. Not only does he use its wonderful lower register we're all familiar with, but he uses a lot of harmonics as well that I had not heard before on the instrument. I was not aware of just how dynamic an instrument the cello really is. Although I'm not sure I will want to use the harmonics in the piece I'm currently working on as they can sound a bit whiny and unsettling, it got me thinking about the possibility of exploring the stranger side of the instrument as well as the beautiful. And I'm not just talking about the cello but other instruments I'll work with in the future as well. It just opened up my eyes a bit that there is probably a great deal I don't know about the range of unexpected sounds that may be produced with certain instruments we're all familiar with.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find a YouTube performance of the piece.

Blog Assignment: Ancient Greece/Iannis Xenakis

Ancient Greece is widely-known to be a very important influence in the foundation of western civilization. The classical Greek culture influenced the Roman empire, which spread its culture across much of Europe, from which we drew much of our culture.

Music was very important to the Ancient Greeks, as it was present in all of their religious ceremonies and staged dramas; however, the idea of theory and structure in music was not quite developed as it is today. The great Greek philosopher Pythagoras was one of the first to study harmonics and the function of overtones. But whereas we study these things to better understand the formulas for producing pleasing music, the Ancient Greeks saw this as a philosophical description of how the universe was constructed. They believed that, like harmonics in music, everything in the universe was vibrating in harmony. The Greeks had certain modes that were meant to be used for specific emotions. These modes used whole-steps, half-steps, and even quarter-steps to differentiate between tones.

Iannis Xenakis was born on the 29 of May, 1922. Being of Greek decent, he was very much influenced by Greek folk melodies. But he was also influenced by his past studies. He had studied mathematics and before composing, first worked as an architect in Paris. Xenakis liked to use mathematics to write music, and pioneered the use of mathematical models to do so. This process gives some of his music a very atonal, strange sound, making it sometimes difficult to comprehend and listen to. Without any tonal center, any sense of structure and continuity is all built on musical dramaturgy with the the use of brilliant dynamics

His solo piano piece, Evryali [1973], is a very good example of just this. It is also part of our listening exam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWYpLdYoJSc