Passing Tones : Meg's Reich2Radiohead Blog

Throughout the canon of music there have been many composers who have used folk music in there compositions but none so prominent as Bela Bartok. The early ethnomusicologist was innovative in the study and usage of folk themes he discovered while researching the people in portions of Eastern Europe. He not only document but used the folk themes and songs in his own compositions. In class we listened to Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. A fabulous soundscape of a work that integrates some of these folk themes as well as the majority of the piece being based on the Fibonacci Series: 11235.

Now, what makes me jump back in curiosity about the piece is the use of antiphony. Bartok divides a classical and a folk ensembles on either side of the stage letting the two have an interplay with each other. Antiphonal pieces are not new they have been around forever. A classic example is the good old Monteverdi Vespers, the two choirs play off of each other going back and forth and so on. There is something amazing about the antiphonal texture, that gives depth and range to a piece that cannot be achieved with an ensemble in one place. Now, this is getting into acoustics but when a sound comes from many sources more sounds are produced from echos and other sounds form by bouncing off the structure of the space it is being performed in. With two or more ensembles playing simultaneously as well as the lines imitating, repeating and bouncing off of each other there is bound to be even more sound experimentation/creation happening within the performance space.

Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is overall a very haunting piece. In class we observed a Graphical Analysis of the first movement which was so complex and confusing but made so much sense. The first and second parts are a slow ethereal ascent to the climax of the piece that descends in the subsequent parts. Bartok intertwines folk themes throughout the work as well as having the aforementioned interplay with the folk and classical antiphonal ensembles. The second movement is jumpy and spotlights the percussion more than the first in the sonata form, and uses folk themes more. The third keeps on the same energetic pace with interplay between strings and celesta and is accented with percussive breaks. This movement also uses the Fibonacci Series throughout. The final movement in rondo form emphasizes even more quick percussion mixed with pizzicato strings.

Jump to modern day with the multi-ethnic composer Tania Leon. She hails from a background of folk music but was trained at the conservatory in Cuba. Leon mixes both classical compositional methods with the folk sounds she grew up with. Tania's one of the most exciting composers in the US today her works are really starting to pop up in the concert halls everywhere. In class we listened to Ritual off of her disk Indigena. This was a very interesting piece that was atonal yet the rhythm varied much like folk music.

Not much new this week.

Bartok - Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta
Leon - Indigena

Sigur Ros- Takk, ( )
Radiohead - OK Computer, Meeting People is Easy
Paul van Dyk - Out There and Back, Reflections, Global
My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

(I think my listening habits are becoming repetitive...)

Serialism is something I have always skirted around within my research and understanding of twentieth century music; I knew its basic principals but not exactly how it worked. This class opened up the serial door to me. I find this compositional method to be almost mathematical in its practices yet very logical at the same time. I am finding parallels between periods, though separate entities some characteristics are similar, especially the twentieth century and the mid Renaissance to the mid Baroque. I am studying both periods currently and I keep on making these connections. Of course the earlier periods were quite different, a common temperament was not yet solidified, complex counterpoint was more or less their 'serial music' of the time. Both periods were revolutionary and changed music forever. And i would (in a later longer argument) would like to contest that some composers of the late Renaissance and early-mid Baroque exercised an amount of complexity in their music that rivals that of the methods used by composers in the early twentieth century.

In class we were introduced to Serialism and its methods. Tone row, retrograde, inversion, and retrograde inversion. We all went off in little groups to construct our Tone Rows and their retrogrades and inversions. The twelve tone matrix website was great, that could be quite helpful if I feel like some day composing some serial music. The whole idea of not repeating a pitch before another one is used reminded me of how the isorhythms work. Both function in a circular motion of not repeating what came before it until the entire row of notes or phrase is over. Yet another connection to methods of the past. I became frustrated with figuring out the inversion of the tone row and came to find it was on the twelve tone matrix, whoops! Nonetheless I walked out of the experience rather confused but willing to tackle the subject at a later time. The other groups came up with some very interesting little compositions using their tone rows. Something I noticed was that even though each of the twelve notes might be juxtaposed differently in each composition they all made sense (aurally) and sounded as if the piece was supposed to fit that way. Serialism has really caught my interest and hopefully someday Ill be able to analyze some serial pieces in-depth.

The second part of the class was on the pioneering women in music. This made me think about how in rock music, and other genres of music for the sake of this argument, seem like there are very few major women figures. In rock especially it is the boys club, the girls are the ones in the audience screaming. When the stereotype is applied the perspective is: there are some girl bands but of course their music isn't as good or they lack something, maybe they just can't rock. I have witnessed only a few women rock musicians on the stage and I can say that the intensity is there in just a less aggressive form, and in some cases just as aggressive as the guys, so what's the difference! I have always been rather disgusted with the issue of this stereotype: the 'rock chick.' Women need to be able to hold their own in this genre, they hold their own in classical, pop, country (i dare say...), etc, why so few! Bjork, Melissa Auf der Maur, D'Arcy, Kim Gordon, the Indigo girls, Joni Mitchell, Janice Joplin, Joan Baez, Ani Difranco, Imogen Heap, the Donnas, PJ Harvey, etc. though this is a small excerpt of the list of women in rock it is limited compared to the amount of male musicians in rock music. This is one of those subjects that could possibly be discussed for months on end continuously. Its only the beginning for women in rock and other genres of music as well. With each generation there will be more and more women interested in getting involved in the rock scene.

Playlist for the past weeks...
Scriabin - Piano Concerto in f# minor op.20
Chopin - Ballade in g minor op.23
Messiaen - Turangala Symphony, other works as well...
Franck - Prelude, Choral and Fugue
Ives - Violin sonatas, Three Page Sonata
Ravel - Piano works (alot of them...)
Sigur Ros - Takk
Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologues
Tristeza - A Colores
Cave In - Jupiter