The song that I am familiar with and chose for this blog is, Flashing Lights by Kanye West(ft. Dwele). Kanye West is a Rapper, Producer, and Fashion Designer. Kanye is not only one of my favorite rappers/producers, but he is one of the most influential Hip Hop Musicians of all time . He is from Chicago IL., and he first gained recognition as a producer at Roc-A-Fellas Records (in New York). It wasn’t easy, but he had intent on pursuing a rap career. He was able to release his first album which was called the ”College Drop Out”. That album became a commercial success and made him really famous. Until then , Kanye West has released a lot of hit singles/albums and is still one of the biggest rap artist today.

Kanye West is very experimental and diverse with his music. The song Flashing lights comes from one of his known albums called “Graduation”. The bpm(beats per minute) of the song is 90 bpm, slow paced, and the key is in F sharp minor. The instruments consists of violins, synths, and digital drums. The Harmonies of the song gives a consonant sound when the violins are playing smoothly like an orchestra. It then switches to a dissonant sound where the synth stabs are playing. The synth stabs gives a bright loud feeling to the song. The Texture of the song shows a sense of Homophony. The chorus of the song “What – do – I – know; Flashing – Lights!” stands out the most, and it is being accompanied by the synths stabs playing in the background. This song is definitely one of my favorite songs from Kanye. Not only the song has a cool feeling but it also gives an anthemic vibe.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West

Song: https://youtu.be/ZAz3rnLGthg

The song that I picked is “Runaway” by Kanye West. Kanye is a hip-hop artist that in recent years has been shrouded in controversy, yet his work is some of the best music has ever seen and has influenced countless artists. This song has affected me as it really made me understand that music itself is art and I believe everybody should listen to this song at least once. The melody of this song is so memorable especially due to the first few C notes that are played. It is so distinct and the rest of the song is so recognizable due to its uniqueness. The melody is very diverse and pitches up and down but is balanced in a sense. The timbre of Kanye’s voice adds so much balance and beauty to the song. He often pitches up and down, yet he does not make the 9-minute drag time of the song boring at all. The pre-chorus and chorus especially shows the timbre of Kanye as he often changes how loud or how low he is sounding, yet it is balanced and creates a new sense of stability to the song with his intensity, which is why it is often regarded as Kanye’s best song. This song’s best moment is that chorus with the way Kanye harmonizes all instrumentals and voices into one beautiful piece of art. 

The Baroque Era is one of the most eventful periods in human history. On the one hand, it contain’s both the American and French Revolution’s, two of the biggest political movements in modern human history. It also contains some of the greatest composers of the era, like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. Their influence was so great on music that they have managed to influence people generations away from them, and have even managed to have a era of music based on them, even if that era isn’t technically correct to their time. All I knew about this era was that it had something to do with those composers, however I had assumed it had been named after Bach. The textbook describes the period as extensions of the Renaissance era, however I would consider it one of the high points in music history.

I listened to Vivaldi’s Summer, as I had heard a few things about him, but nothing that I can determine as actual fact or can recite here. I listened to two versions of the song. One was by composer Antonio Janigro and was recorded in 1957 in Vienna. The other version was recorded in 2011 by guitarists Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala, who were in the band Children Of Bodom. What I expected from the music was for it too be sophisticated. What I didn’t expect was for it to be heavy in the before heavy metal context. What also interested me is that the music was able to translate over too different instruments, and that it managed to sound the same despite this.

The Renaissance era  was not only a change for humanity, but for music culture as well. This era consisted primarily of the change and accomplishments of art, literature, music, nature, and our own human philosophy overall. This historical era fascinates me the most because this was the start of modern day music, what we hear today was developed and built off the renaissance era. Though we had medieval times before our Renaissance era, the Renaissance is where you start hearing modern musical components and tones such as soprano, Tenor, Bass, echo, etc. Today, we recognize these sounds as played by instruments such as the trumpet, the trombones, the alto, and other instruments. After hearing “The Glory of Giovanni Gabrieli”, by Giovanni Gabreli, you can distinguish this as the earliest of what our modern music consists of today. 

I must say, this is what I expected when I started listening to his music mainly because I know this era of orchestras, bands, groups coming together with instruments in general, all produce a harmonic yet rhythmic music meant for an audience to indulge in (from this era specifically). During this era, music was meant to express emotion through the people producing the music as well the people cheering to the music as entertainment.

One of, if not the most important era in musical history is the Medieval Era also commonly known as the Middle Ages (450-1450). Why is this one in particular so important, you may be asking? Well, that is because it established a foundation for the music we know and listen to today.

Christianity was spreading rapidly through Western Europe. Proper education was not big or sought out which factors in for most of the population’s inability to read or write. Instead, “monasteries were centers of learning.” (¶2, Line 5). In these monasteries, the monks were able to practice their religion through manuscripts that were made by other Arabic and Greek scholars. Their sacred texts were sung and passed on. Although they tried singing it in a certain way it eventually would change as time went on. To prevent any further change, the monks created a system that “fixed the pitches of a melody” while allowing for the representation of multiple melodies to be playing “simultaneously.” (¶3, Line 9-12). An early example of this could be heard by “Leonin” through a piece called “Viderunt Omnes.”

I was honestly surprised when I heard this for the first time. It doesn’t sound as foreign and weird as I thought it would. If anything, it sounds more calming and comforting than a lot of the music that is produced today. It’s interesting how a big portion of the music made in the twentieth century is what I expected to hear in the Middle Ages, especially through the way the article made the creation of the system sound. Though it was made centuries ago, the art he made still shines brightly to this day.