Alternative Rock

I am a fan of rock and roll and most of the subgenres, but there are a few that I am particularly fond of. One of my favorites is alternative rock. Alternative has the same basic elements of a rock band including use of the electric guitar, small ensembles, and a creative use of technology. However, because this subgenre is more modern and newer than traditional rock the ensembles have changed and technology is being used in a different way. Take Incubus for example. Traditional rock bands have a guitarist, a drummer, a singer, and a bassist. Incubus has a disk jockey as a member of the band. This also shows a new creative use of technology within this subgenre. DJ’s aren’t common to rock bands, but they constantly have mixing and scratching as a part of their music. Incubus will also add sound effects to their music such as whale noises or voices in the background of their music.

One characteristic of Incubus and alternative rock in general is their use of non-traditional rock instruments. Incubus does play those instruments, but the musicians will also add in different instruments for different songs. They have been known to use Asian and Middle-Eastern instruments.

This is a song called Aqueous Transmission by Incubus. The guitarist does not even play a guitar in this song. He plays an Asian chordeophone. The DJ is a major part of this song and there is a heavy use of flute. They even use frog sound effects at the end of the song. Even though there are some rock elements missing, this song does contain a majority of them.

1. There is still an emphasis on singing.
2. They use strong beats in a 4 beat cycle.
3. The song has simplified and harmonic progressions.
4. It can also be described as an emotional and powerful style.

Gullah Music Culture

As stated in the readings, the Gullah people have direct roots in Sierra Leone. Slaves were taken from that African coast more than a hundred years ago. Because of tropical diseases pushing away the slave owners and the isolation of the South Carolina and Georgia coast, the customs of those slaves have been preserved. They are still very similar to their African ancestors. This is very apparent within the music culture of the Gullah people.

The music culture is very similar to the traditional African music culture that we studied before. There is a lot of responsorial form in the music, so the musicians and the audience are constantly interacting. The musicians mainly play membranophones and other types of percussion instruments. Dance is also heavily used during the performances of the traditional songs. In one of the videos the musicians were encouraging audience members to go up and dance with them while they played. Singing along is also part of the participatory nature of this culture. In the video examples audience members not only clapped and danced to the music, but they sang with the musicians and vocalists as well. The Gullah music culture is very similar and matches many of the elements of traditional African music.

Performance Report 2 (Side Show)

Like the majority of the class, I attended Side Show at the University Theater on campus. Even though we are all attending the same performance in the same theater I believe we’ll find some differences in our experiences due to different dates and days of the week. With that said, I attended opening night on Thursday, April 8^th. I decided to watch the musical in the middle of the week because I thought the theater would be less packed on a weeknight. I found the opposite and had a very different experience from what I had anticipated.

An element of this musical that stood out to me was that the majority of the dialog was sung. I am used to the musicals where the lines are spoken, but then the characters break out in song. The orchestra was very heavily used during the show and the musicians were almost constantly playing. Even when the characters weren’t speaking the orchestra was playing. This was very apparent when there would be dance numbers filled with choreography and the only music that was playing came from the orchestra. The orchestra was also used to help with the general effects of the show. For example, a clarinet solo was played while the character of the snake charmer was taking center stage.

There were two groups of performers. The orchestra was gathered in the background behind the curtain, and the actors and actresses were up at center stage. The actors and actresses were the vocalists for the performance. Every detail of the performers was focused on portraying the look and feel of the 1930’s (the setting of the play). That is why the costumes were designed in the style of the Depression era.

The performers also interacted with the audience. During the opening scene the performers entered through the back and walked past the audience instead of entering through the front of the stage. At one point the Cannibal King/ Jake ran up and through the audience growling at people along the way. The show had a lot of choreography. The cast was relatively small, so some of the performers had to double parts from one act to another. Some of the freaks had to play as backup dancers for Daisy and Violet’s vaudeville show later on in the musical.

On opening night, I found that the majority of the audience consisted of students. There were a few older people and some of the audience looked like parents. I arrived early, so I was able to see that most of the audience attended in groups. There were very few people that showed up alone. This shows that this is a social event for many people. Before the show started many of the students discussed the script and the music of the play.

During the show audience members were not shy about showing their appreciation for the actors/actresses. There were constant bursts of cheer from friends and applause was not rare at all. The audience also openly laughed when something was funny and sat in silence during the more tense scenes. After a while I realized that I was not the only person taking notes. After looking around I realized that almost half of the audience was actively taking notes about the musical.

The environment in the theater was created to have the look and feel of a circus from the 1930’s. The curtains and the floor were painted with red and yellow stripes. The orchestra even played behind panels painted in red and yellow. The lights were used to assist with the feeling of the show by focusing on certain characters and dimming during solemn scenes.

By attending opening night I found that this show was a big social event for the audience. The reactions of audience members gave the impression that they were captivated by the music, acting, and effects that went into creating the look and feel of characters from the 1930’s.

Performance Report 1 (Chicago Chamber Orchestra)

The event I attended was a concert performed by the Chicago Chamber Orchestra on March 21st. It was a free concert held in the Preston Bradley Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center in celebration of Bach and Mendelssohn’s birthdays. The orchestra plays in the Preston Bradley Hall often and never charge admission. This makes for a unique setting with a type of audience that I had not experienced before.

The program consisted of Cantata No. 51 and O Mensch, Bewein Dein’ Sunde Gross by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gregorian Chant by Paul Creston, and Symphony No. 9 in C Major by Felix Mendelssohn. A soprano vocalist and a trumpet soloist were featured in the first song, but it was difficult to understand the soprano because of the echo in the building. However, the instruments from the rest of the orchestra were very clear. To counter the echo, the programs were printed with the lyrics so the audience could follow along.

The orchestra was small, only ranging from twenty to thirty members. The performers played instruments that would be typically found in an orchestra, such as a violin or a cello. There were no instruments or performers that seemed out of the ordinary or different from a traditional orchestra. All of the performers looked to be in their 30’s up to senior age, but the majority of them looked like they were middle aged. The director and conductor looked to be much younger than the members of the orchestra. They were all dressed in professional concert attire, which consists of tuxedos and black dresses. As mentioned before, two soloists were featured in this concert. They are not actually members of the orchestra, but members of different groups in Chicago and universities around the state of Illinois. They are very well known around the city for their performance skills as well as being published composers.

The audience was interesting because it was very unique and made the experience different from any orchestra performance that I have ever attended. Because the concert was free, anybody was allowed to attend. It didn’t matter whether somebody was rich or poor. Nobody was denied entrance to this concert, and I mean nobody. When I first arrived to the concert the majority of the audience consisted of older people that were middle-aged to senior. Students from local universities and young adults made up the minority of the audience. Most of the people were very attentive and focused on the performance. Surprisingly however, there were several people that were asleep through the concert that may have just attended because it was free. There were a few parents that dragged their young children to the concert, and they made no attempt to stop their children from walking around and bumping into people. The most interesting audience members were in the back near the entrance of the hall. The back audience had people dressed as hippies and had homeless people. One of the audience members stood behind everybody and conducted along with the music. This was not subtle at all because that person was waving her arms all over the place. I found myself watching the audience more than the orchestra at times.

The concert took place in the Chicago Cultural Center, which was an old library that was built in the 19^th century. The architecture came from the Civil War era, but looked like a cathedral. The concert hall had a very elaborate dome with stained glass and tile everywhere. Even though the room was very dimly lit and had an echo, it was a very appropriate setting for and orchestra concert.

Overall, this was one of the most unique concerts I had ever been to. Even though the performers and the music were very traditional, the audience and the setting were very unique. By watching this concert I learned that classical music fans can come in all shapes and sizes.

I Pagliacci

This is a clip of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s famous opera I Pagliacci. This is an Italian opera known as a Verisimo, which is a realist type of story that involves everyday people in normal situations instead of historical figures in fantastic and faraway places. In this particular scene the characters all contain the melody, while an orchestra accompanies them. The orchestra also provides ornamentation for the characters’ vocal parts. The characters all have wide vocal ranges and can go very much higher than the tonal center. Also, the vocal parts are filled with accents and vibrato.

Even though there is a lot of drama in this scene the majority of the music is in a major mode with sections of it becoming minor. The dynamics range from soft to very loud. The melodic motion for the characters was both conjunct and disjunct in this scene. In terms of tempo, the music in this scene has a very steady beat and can be followed pretty easily to those who are used to Western music. It was hard to classify this scene as a homophony or polyphony because some songs only have one melody, but the whole scene has many people with interacting melodies.

Avatar

In Avatar there is a pretty distinct difference between the film score and the music of the Na'vi. The film score was composed to bring the story together and enhance the film. The music of the Na'vi was more ingrained with the culture that James Cameron created. He spent a lot of time creating a language and a culture, and the tribal music is definitely a part of it.

While the film score uses identifiable instruments that can be found in an orchestra, the music of the Na'vi is based more on singing and "tribal" instruments. The difference between the two is not too hard to spot.

Music Ethnography

Dallas is home to one of the most competitive music cultures in the world. The high school music culture in Texas is fierce with plenty of rivalries all across the state. However, a lot of the competition is concentrated in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The musicians, their parents, the directors, and all members of this culture take the music very seriously. Although they are young, these high school kids dedicate a great amount of time and effort outside of their classes for that sense of pride and glory. You’ll find musical competition all around the world, but the sheer intensity is pretty rare, especially in kids.

I, myself, was actually a part of this music culture growing up in The Colony, Texas. Even when I was a child in elementary school I was constantly exposed to aspects of the culture; there were always stories about the band in the newspaper, they were always featured on the local news channel, parades were thrown to showcase their skills, and my classmates would always talk about the instruments they wanted to play in high school. Right before junior high every student would take part in a screening process to make sure they were put on an instrument that suits them. A life of a musician in The Colony school system was a constant cycle of practice, musical tests, and performances on a strict schedule. It only got tougher in high school.

Once in high school a sense of pride and honor is instilled in each student for the school. “You’re part of a great tradition!” one of my band directors used to say. Then she’d exclaim, “Now let’s do better than Duncanville!” It was only after I took part in my first marching band competition that I realized that The Colony band music culture wasn’t one of a kind, but actually a part of a cluster of several towns and cities that compete for glory. To better explain the culture of these ambitious students, I attended a rehearsal at my alma mater.

Finding research material for this project was not very difficult because there is a large amount of websites, blogs, videos, pictures and sound files swarming all over the internet. Finding an event to attend also went smoothly because high school bands rehearse every day. The report was broken up by the research I did. The public information found on websites and newspapers were used in the introduction and general explanation of the report. Then the interview and the analysis of the event were used to explain the aspects of the music culture and fill in any more gaps. The information you find in the “Aspects of Music-Culture” section mostly consists of notes taken from a rehearsal by The Colony Symphonic Band. The band is currently getting ready for a mock-competition in a couple of weeks. They will be judged by local directors and given points and tips to work on. The quotes are from an interview with the band’s director, Jeff Bridges.

Even though the high schools in the Dallas area are different and have their own unique qualities, the band culture is essentially the same across all campuses. Several of the qualities are similar including the use of uniforms and equipment. It is not very difficult to find an event to watch one of these bands because they play in the public very frequently. When asked about the average number of performances the band has in a year Jeff Bridges stated, “We usually perform twenty-two to twenty-three times per year, but if you count every single event [including fundraisers] it could be well into the thirties.” Because these students perform so often they are expected to play at a very high level of quality. “Tone quality is emphasized among the students, but characteristic-wise personal responsibility is encouraged,” explained Bridges.

The music in this culture can be found anywhere, from iTunes to television commercials. However, the way the music is played and the competitive nature of the bands can only be found within this culture. Because the musicians are all students, they can be described as playing professionally and as a hobby, but they are expected to play at a professional level. The audience varies depending on the performance, but they can consist of parents of the students, members of the community, faculty members of the school, other schools, and judges. Usually this culture does not allow much participation from the audience besides the occasional “clap-along” with the beat. However, depending on the audience activities can include; cheering during the performance, taking notes, or even giving a score (for the judges). The musicians are in the public constantly, but participation in the band is very closed off. Only students of the school may perform in the band while teachers and directors are carefully interviewed for the position to teach the students.

If you attend a concert in the area you’ll find that the majority of them play western-classical, contemporary, and even popular music from the past few decades. This can range from Baroque pieces to Aaron Copland to even Queen. Traditionally, the music is composed by outside sources that are not members of that specific culture or even the high school. Most of the music used is mass produced from composers.

Because this is a band there is not much singing in the traditional sense. It is not like a choir or an acapella group. Singing is heavily used for communication in this culture. To The Colony Symphonic Band it is not enough to play the music, but the musicians must be able to sing it. During the rehearsal the director would constantly have the students put down their instruments and sing along using the specific punctuation for each note (ta te ta). The director sings the music to the students to better explain their sections to them. Then the students are expected to sing it back to him. The singing is a musical exercise, but it is used heavily and is a very important aspect to this culture.

In this material culture you would find western instruments found in any traditional high school band across the country. The majority of the musicians play aerophones like saxophones, tubas, trumpets, and clarinets. They also use membranophones such as the snare drum, bass drum, marimbas, and tenor drums. These are materials found in the high school band cultures around the nation, so they aren’t specific to the Dallas region. However, there are aspects to this specific culture that aren’t common everywhere else.

Looking beyond the instruments, one could analyze that this is a very proud culture based on the materials in the rehearsal room. Large shelves are built across the massive room just for trophies. Years of awards are gathered and displayed for all to see with their proudest achievements in the front of the room. Other rooms of the band-run wing of the building carry pictures of students in the past at competitions. Banners are hung around the room to give the members of the culture a sense of pride. Student-created signs are strung across the room with their names and instruments to promote spirit among them.

The high school band culture in Dallas is very unique across the nation and the world. Even though the bands look like any other, there is a competitive spirit and drive for success that isn’t found anywhere else, or at least at this big of a scale. By looking into a rehearsal of a band that is a member of this culture we saw that, even on a quiet day, the students and the director are focused and urgent about their next performance.

Bridges, Jeff. Personal interview. 5 Mar. 2010.

Pablo!. By Richard Meyer. Dir. Jeff Bridges. The Colony High School Symphonic Band.

Cond. Jeff Bridges. The Colony, TX. March 5, 2010.

TCHS Band Web Page. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.

The L.D. Bell High School Band. Web. 13 Mar. 2010.

"UIL: Music." University Interscholastic League. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.