A Piece of music that I am familiar with and find good is the song “buffalo soldier” by bob marley. I grew up listening to Bob Marley on the beach with my family. I live on long island by the water, so all my summers were spent by the ocean, on my grandparents boat, or in fire island with all my cousins. The go to genre of music my mom and aunts would put on was always reggae. It’s the perfect music to listen to in the sun on a beach day. Reggae originated in a small Caribbean island in Jamaica hence the tropical feel of the music. By the 1970’s it became popular around the globe.  In the song Buffalo soldier, the term “Buffalo Soldier” was used to describe a group of black American soldiers who were used to fight Native Americans during the border wars. In other words, they were slaves, that is, “stolen from Africa,” as Bob himself put it.” The song has a laid back tempo as most reggae songs do, and a syncopated bass line. 

The unit this song would fit into is Unit twelve “Music and political expression”. In this unit we learned how reggae is connected to politics. Another one of Bob Marley’s songs was used as an example in this unit, so this song would fit perfectly in the unit. A concept this song would teach is one we already learned about. That would be that reggae was used to stand up for beliefs and fight for your rights as learned in this unit by the song “get up stand up”. 

The religion I am choosing for this blog is Christianity. I am choosing this religion because I am Christian and take a lot of pride in that. Worship is a huge part of our church service every Sunday. The first hour plus is strictly worshiping the Lord. The Christian church I attend has the newest technology to make sure worshiping is an easy and amazing experience for everyone. They have two huge screens in the front of the church with the lyrics so everyone can see and sing along. We have a specific pastor for music and a whole band. Drums, flutes, trumpets, guitar, singers, and loud projecting speakers. We worship as a form of prayer. Singing these Christian songs is praying. It might not feel like praying because it can feel like you are at a concert, but worshiping the Lord is praying to him. 

One of my favorite Christian songs is “God’s Not Dead”(like a lion) by the Newsboys. This song is one of my favorites because it has a fast tempo. When you think of a “church song”, you normally think of slow tempo, high pitched soft music. The fast tempo in this song proves that church music does not have to be slow songs from hundreds of years ago. You can still worship and feel like you are at a concert. In the lyrics the song states “God’s not dead, he’s surely alive, he’s living on the inside and roaring like a lion”. Singing these words out loud is  preaching that you know God is living within you and makes you stronger. The song is a reminder to those who doubt that God is not there for them, but he will always be. 

Last winter I saw Morgan Wallen perform a concert at Madison Square Garden. Morgan Wallen is a country singer and this concert happened to be the first performance out of his whole tour. Me and my best friends love listening to country music and Morgan Wallen is my friend’s favorite artist. Her mom got the three of us pit tickets as an early graduation gift so we can see him live. Mostly everybody in the audience had on either a cowboy hat, blue jeans, or some boots. Most adults were drinking beer. Everybody chanted USA and sang along to every song. I expected all of this to be occurring during a country concert. I have been to many, and it is always the same thing. Country concerts are mainly filled with good people who love our country and are down for a good time.  In unit seven, we watched Claudio Monteverdi, “You are dead”fromOrfeo(1607). A performance like this is very different from the Morgan Wallen concert. In this opera, they had costumes compared to the concert I attended they wore jeans and a t-shirt. The audience did not sing along to this song like we did at the country concert. The music is completely opposite from each other, and the performances are nothing alike! 

In “100 years ago today, ‘The Rite of Spring’ incited a riot in a Paris theater” the author does not exactly know what caused the riot at the show, but he knows that it ended in chaos. Angry Parisians threw vegetables at the stage. They didn’t know whether it was the music or the dancing, but the audience was angry. It could have even been a publicity stunt. It started out as a high pitched bassoon solo that had the audience laughing. Soon after the dancers came on, performing violent moves that turned the audience’s laughter into catcalling.  Even though the performance was completed, it went through hell to get there. The author of  “Did Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring incite a riot at its premiere” believes that this riot didn’t even happen. They believe that the assaults were not given directly to the stage, but were given in reviews and journals. They also state how at the end of the performance, the “dancers took five curtain calls”, and another ballet took place after which would not be possible if there was a riot. There were also no reviews that stated there were any physical fights that took place on that night. I thought the performance was chilling. I think she performed the choreography really well, even though it’s a bit strange. If I was in the audience that night I would just take it all in and realize what I am watching is a true piece if art and realize how unique it is. 

https://youtu.be/_HZM0QiuUS8

https://youtu.be/zGjxZdFQwnE

For this blog I chose the song “Iris” by the Goo Goo dolls. I am comparing Johnny Rzeznik’s performance to a cover by Chris Lanzon. This alternative rock song was released in 1998 and is still a favorite by many people today. This song was written by Johnny Rzeznik for the movie City of angels. He stated, “I was thinking about the situation of the Nicolas Cage character in the movie,” “This guy is completely willing to give up his own immortality, just to be able to feel something very human. And I think, ‘Wow! What an amazing thing it must be like to love someone so much that you give up everything to be with them.’ That’s a pretty heavy thought. He wants his true love to know that he exists and that she is the only person in the world who can understand and love him – hence the last line, “I just want you to know who I am.” In Johnny’s performance of the song, during the melody, the pitch of the whole song increases and there is more power in the melody than the rest of the song. His version is a quicker tempo and more upbeat compared to Chris Lanzon’s cover. When Chris is performing the song, he has a slower tempo and softer pitch. During the melody “and I don’t want the world to see me” Chris keeps the same pitch and tempo he already had.  Compared to the original performance when the melody gets louder and more powerful, Chris’s is much softer. Both performances are beautiful, and this song will be heard and loved for generations to come.

Ellie Cerullo

A Piece of Music technology I find fascinating is a record player. It was first invented in 1877 and still used today! A record player reproduces sound from records. On the vinyl record, music is recorded with kinetic energy, and it is still better than any kind of digital recording. Once you have the record of your choice, you place it on the track. You then place the stylus on the record. A stylus creates sound waves from physical etchings, engravings or impressions on the record. While the record spins on the track, the stylus moves from the outer rim to the center of the record, playing the song all the way through. There are also speakers connected to the record player that project and amplify the song. Some people or places may use a classic record player for show, since they are aesthetic and could have a very charming appearance. In fact, I find my record player very pleasant to look at. It was given to me by my grandpa, who loves music and I play my favorite band the Beatles on it. I love hearing the crackles before the song starts on my record player. It adds a vintage effect to my old music, and I love it. Speaking of the Beatles, the record player played a huge role in their career. They first made their fortunes after they had their number one record in 1963. Throughout the years they used many different brands of record players and always advanced to the next best one. Fans would buy their records and play them via the record player. As you can see, the record player helped evolve the art of producing and listening to music for years. 

www.capitol6000.com/recordplayers.html 

I picked the song “brown eyed girl” by Van Morrisson. I picked this song because my grandpa sings it to me and plays it on his guitar and because of that it has become one of my all time favorites. Van Morrison is one of the most legendary musicians in America. He started singing from a very young age and went on his first tour at 17. His top song is Brown eyed girl. This song is considered pop. It was number 10 on the Billboard hot 100. Brown Eyed girl spent a total of 16 weeks on the chart. My favorite line of the song is “you’re my brown eyed girl” because my brown eyes are the main reason my grandpa sings it to me. This line of the song is the melody. This is because it’s the part of the song that will get stuck in our heads and we can identify the song by this line. This is also a homophony. This is because there is one line accompanied by other cords. There is a guitar playing in the background along with other instruments, but just one line being sung by one person. The tempo of this song is 151. This means the speed in which the beat is played. The song is played in the key “G” and the dynamics is -10.1db. The dynamics of a song is how loud or soft something is or the volume of the pitch, so here the loudness is -10.1db. This three minute and three second song is a timeless classic and I am glad I got to learn more facts about the elements of the song. https://youtu.be/kqXSBe-qMGo

The Middle Ages, a period of history of western Europe, began around 450 AD and ended around 1450.  I know that the Middle Ages are also referred to as the “Dark ages” and Europe was run by kings and queens. During this era, Christianity spread. I find the spread of religion most interesting about this era because I am Christian myself and the great cathedrals built during this era really spark interest in me. These cathedrals were built for a place of public worship. Monasteries were established as self-sufficient religious communities. Monasteries were centers of learning and have a special significance in the history of European music. The Europeans borrowed sacred texts and they were an important part of their liturgy. They had chants sung in church services. These chants were passed through oral tradition. They practiced the chants with melodies added to them. The monks ultimately developed the notation of two or more stimulus melodies and created early rules for creating new music. I listened to Francesco Landini-Ecco la primavera. This piece was beautifully sung by women. They sounded like angels which I expected from this era of very faithful people. I also listened to Leonin. This music has beautiful instruments that complement the voices. It sounds similar to hymns that would be sung in a catholic church today.

Ellie Cerullo