help me with my class?

i am doing my best, it's all i can do
thank you :)

next week we are going to start working on the first project -- which I think will be folk ballads! i figured it would be a good place to start since 1) I love them and know a lot about them 2) simple/clear instrumentation most of the time 3) everyone loves a story 4) they love romantic/love songs. they made me listen to Luis Miguel last night.

so start thinking about folk ballads -- esp ones that don't fall into the US/UK tradition (those are the ones I know the most about) are corridos folk ballads? they do not like corridos, unfortunately, but iirc it's because they're violent. understandable.

Take Five is useful in the meter demo. And good old Mars Bringer of War which will already feel familiar to them because of every film score of the past 40 years.

xp - i guess they would have to be in English or Spanish or have a translation of the lyrics

I generally don't get into asymmetrical metres unless it's in e.g. a 20th century theory class, really. If we're going to talk about progressive rock, I will go over the 7/4 in Pink Floyd's "Money" but I would never expect gen ed students to be able to pick out 5 or 7 by ear in a piece of music, which I do hope they can do with 4 and 3.

tbh trained musicians have trouble figuring out what time signature some songs are "supposed" to be in, so students getting it close is a feat

yeah not going there

*cries in 11/7*

A couple of interesting (to me) non-Anglo folk ballads with lyrics that should be fairly googleable:

Imam Alimsultanov - Gunib: very simple (probably three chords) and emotive epic folk ballad in the Chechen / Dagestani tradition about the last stand of Imam Shamil vs the Imperial Russian army in 1859. There are numerous versions but Imam Alimsultanov's is a classic and easy to find. It builds up a huge amount of momentum just through the growing intensity of his voice.

Nooran Sisters - Dama Dam Mast Kalandar: 13th century poem that morphed into a qawwali classic. There are a million and one interpretations but the live version by the Nooran Sisters at folk festival in Bangladesh (on Youtube) is extraordinary.

Pelageya - Ptashechka: Kind of an updated / modernised version of a Russian folk standard. A few of the Youtube versions have subtitles.

a few options for 'folk music' that i'd recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XJjBUL2BvI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMhmswVLKdg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2JgmWWYr1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xOxHyTP91c

I liked the bit in Byrne's book about the relationship between the space (basilica, opera house, CBGB's) and the music made there. For example, a cathedral accepts long delays because the reflected sound will still be consonant with the sound you're making. The concrete block walls and sharp angles of a NY club lent itself well to the trebly guitar and nervy feel of early Heads, etc.

It's a version of a TED talk that is probably pretty easy to find (can't right now, but it should be around somewhere; I think I saw it on Netflix).

Going back a ways I think it would be sufficient for survey-level students to draw a distinction between small-c classical and big-C Classical.

Small-c "classical music" is a broad and imprecise general catchall term. Most people associate with concert halls and violins and stuffy rich people wearing tuxes and such. Of course, as you become educated in music appreciation, you will grow to understand that it actually includes like a thousand years of very different styles of serious Western art music, and usually ropes in opera and chant and also experimental art music. "The classical music station" on the radio will also play Baroque music, for example. A lot of the time it means "not rock, pop, or jazz," so is easier to define in terms of what it isn't. It's sloppy, sure, but is still a common term and if you don't address it as such you will be doing your students a disservice.

You can (and probably should) tell people that there is also a thing called "Classical" with a specific meaning, and it refers to a type of Western art music made in the 18th/19th centuries. A student of music appreciation will become able to tell the difference between what Mozart sounds like and what, say, Copland sounds like. They might both get called small-c "classical" but only one is big-c Classical. And of course there is also Persian classical music and Indian classical music and and and.

This may be wrong or unhelpful but I think that's how it was explained to me. There's a similar distinction between romantic (pertaining to romance) vs. Romantic (pertaining to a specific tendency in 19th century arts to focus on strong emotions at the expense of ordered patterns, yadda yadda).

The concrete block walls and sharp angles of a NY club lent itself well to the trebly guitar and nervy feel of early Heads, etc.
talked about this last night wrt basements and DIY spaces/shows
showed them some fancy interior shots of the sydney opera house to contrast

all that other stuff is already under control, i have a textbook

oh! also last night we all fell in love with the sound of the celesta -- any recs for celesta music on youtube?

this is the video we watched
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOKZPyHBmbU

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy?

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, 3rd movement, (spectral, creepy celesta - see especially at 2'50" and 3'55") - this movement good generally for talking about different orchestral instruments and the different types of sounds they can make

It had its breakthrough w/Tchaikovsky in the nutcracker

Bartok “music for strings percussion and celesta” cast the mold for creepy celesting

Danny elfman used the shit out of it in most of his best known stuff esp Edward scissorhands iirc

Pre emptive xpost

mind meld! :)

McCoy tyner plays it (and harpsichord) on some of the tracks on Trident

Also I think monk plays one on brilliant corners???

If you're getting to it when you cover modern music, my students enjoyed this video of Stephen Drury breaking down and demonstrating how he prepares the piano for Cage's Sonatas and Interludes/

thanks -- these look good. i was trying to avoid sugar plum fairies because we talked about that last night but it's a logical choice
they said it sounded like fairy tale music
one student said it reminded her of a song from final fantasy (iirc)

oh! also i told them about 4'33" and told them they were free to use it as a joke in the future :) it was when we were talking about performance spaces and the different sounds they make.

Btw I also love celesta, definitely top 5 orchestral seats for me

(Viola, horn, flute, oboe, celesta for those keeping score)

i just realized the i saw the bulgarian women's choir upthread perform last year. or whatever incarnation of them exists these days. on the way there some lady plowed her car into my car and if their music hadn't been so beautiful i might have freaked out about that but instead i just drove my jacked up car to the show and tried to relax. lol

tonight's class is intro to folk/traditional music: folk ballads
i am going to define them contextually/historically, musically, and thematically (for emotional impact) and then we are going to examine some examples
after that, they will explore the lomax archives and our youtube playlist for a song to research themselves, and the presentations will be next week (short, structured, practicing research skills)
kind of can't believe i am going to have a captive audience for this + it is my job
http://www.culturalequity.org/lomaxgeo/ <-- look at this map!

since it's my first time teaching this course, i know i will only improve the course with time and trial/error. i am hoping they are not bored to tears by this, but i have encountered that reaction before when trying to share my enthusiasm for folk ballads...we'll see! i feel realistic about my expectations. even if they don't like it, they will learn something :)

also homework for this week was to listen to and write about the songs on last week's playlist with attention to the elements of music, which we discussed (and demonstrated) in class. (i didn't blow anyone's mind with my drumming, but people don't appreciate how much work goes into being able to play a particular pattern in the same way they appreciate a soaring melody or whatever. it's ok) i am looking forward to reading their descriptions a lot!

mention silences/pauses as an element of music IMO

it's interesting that corridos are too related to crime for comfort but olde folk ballads are not. Long time ago criminal acts vs right now criminal acts.

Loving where u are going with this LL

we talked about corridos last night and how they are essentially modern crime ballads! i think they had a new appreciation for them after we discussed the nature/purpose of folk ballads.
they were super interested in the connection between the Lomax archive and Shirley Collins
i brought in my Sounds of the South box set and showed them the tiny little spot at the very end of the booklet where she was thanked/acknowledged.

i have a new favorite student though -- their homework was to write about songs on the week 2 playlist using vocabulary, but one of my students went back to the Is this music? playlist and chose a Steve Lacy track that is pretty far out and 1) she did not say she hated it 2) she did not say it sounded crazy 3) the thing she noticed most about it is how some instruments came through one ear and others came through the other. observant! tolerant! i let her borrow one of my CDs from the box set for her project next week :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vvW8ZdLjGs&list=PLdfn7UDTewpCtuEx3FhjZ1-lU5T4Z2lTF&index=3

wish i could take this class!

yeah, it looks fun!

it is so much fun. i described it yesterday as "every week it is [part of] my job to talk about music for 3 hours with a group of people who listens to me"
i made some progress securing a performance space for an end-of-semester performance of some kind -- idk what exactly it's going to be, but we would have a room and a piano. surely we can make something happen. i just have to persuade the administration that it's not going to bring in hordes of people who will need parking spots.

if there's one thing i can assure them, it's that in Chicago there are unlikely to be hordes of people who show up for a musical performance at a random location on a Tuesday night. even with significant promotion, you'd be lucky to get 10 people to show up. and those 10 people are not going to be arriving in separate cars.

I learned something last night about the one and only Richard Clayderman -- his song "Ballade pour Adeline" is a ubiquitous tune used at quinceañeras & graduations in Mexico (acc to my students, who were all certain about its ubiquity in their experience)

https://streamd.hitparade.ch/cdimages/richard_clayderman-ballade_pour_adeline_s_6.jpg
https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/466/MI0002466371.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

lest you think for a millisecond i was trying to encourage them to appreciate the music of richard clayderman, i was not
if you did think this for a millisecond, please go back in time and give me some credit :)

That is an extremely frilly shirt.

I did not know Richard Clayderman was listened to outside of impulse purchases driven by infomercials! His wikipedia discography has a length and a repetitiveness that would impress Mark E Smith, especially the title Null Piano Moods. Zodiacal Symphony and Love the Aboriginal's also intrigue.

i actually kinda dig the look in the first pic! i enjoy the audacity of a frilly shirt
his music...not as much, in spite of its shocking abundance

Shaun Cassidy ‘73 meets Ray Davies ‘66. He’s got it going on.

He looks wicked baked in the first pic

otm

i want to take this class!

my next task is to talk about 1) the roots of jazz and 2) the evolution and influence of jazz (idk how far i will make it before the midterm) in preparation for a class outing in 3 weeks to the legendary green mill!

currently accepting recommendations for the early roots of jazz lesson :) :) :)

recommendations in the form of:
links, readings available for free online and youtubes of examples

(which is to say that i can't read or buy any entire books for this purpose, i have to make do with what i have available for free to share with students)

lots of great things happened in class this week -- one student gave her presentation about almeda riddle and said that her preschool class especially enjoyed "i love my little rooster" and they hollered out the cocka DOODLE DOO doodle DOO doodle doo part

i had it stuck in my head for the entire next day :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtbPk5NsEQA

The Original Dixieland Jass Band's "Livery Stable Blues" is commonly cited as the first jazz recording. It's from 1917. It's on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um4xhfwYnvg

From there, jump to Louis Armstrong's "Wild Man Blues," from 1927.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO3k-S_pqK4

Interesting note from that Armstrong YouTube clip, which could spark a discussion in class about the record business:

The tune is credited to Louis and Jelly Roll Morton, though Louis said he never could figure out how they could have written it together: "I never had a conversation with him until 1936; guess he was working for the publisher at the time."

thank you! i am really excited about this part and also SUUUUUPER nervous because i don't want to screw it up

one slightly negative thing that happened is a new student arrived in week 3 and started giving me a little bit of a hard time. this week he scoffed because i didn't know how yodeling was invented. i told him he was free to do his presentation on the origins of yodeling since he was not prepared when it was due in class this week.

funny you should mention the youtube comments -- they have been quite helpful in giving added contextual information (both factual and subjective emotional reactions) to support my recommendation of that particular song. you can imagine the comments for joni mitchell's "both sides now" -- one of my students read them and asked if she could do her project about joni because she seems very important <3

King Oliver's "Deep Henderson" is the early jazz track that gets me every time, something about the heave-ho of the rhythm and the cornet arpeggios in the second half

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2zER0jmrps

Crystal clear transfer of Armstrong's "Ain't Misbehavin'" from the original metal mother disc: https://kottke.org/16/04/unbelievably-clear-recording-of-louis-armstrong-from-1929

with the influences of jazz it could be fun to show just how far it went. "country" outfits like Bob Wills whose main job was to get people to dance would regularly play popular jazz tunes. jazz being essentially functional dance music in many of its incarnations. here he is with the Texas Playboys doing "take the A Train"

https://youtu.be/ZMyXOv3ttCE

musically, the hard-driving "swing" beat in take the a-train and many other classic jazz tunes was the crucial ingredient grafted onto folk/country to create Bob Wills' genre of "western swing"

(which in turn influenced rock and roll, rockabilly, etc)