Music In Our Lives: 12/9-12/19 
Making Musical Decisions: This chapter is about the differences between composing, arranging and transcribing music. There are many listening selections posted below with the accompanying vocabulary and key ideas.


 Musical Decisions About Melody

"Are You Sleeping Brother John?"

I.  Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1
Mahler chose to write this piece in D minor.
 A symphony is an extended work for orchestra with several contrasting movements.
He converted a traditional French folk song, written in a major key into a classical composition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5A5tFyXQio





II.  "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good) by Duke Ellington, performed by Sarah Vaughan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PF3xog09X8

This song uses the octave displacement which jumps from one note  or more 8 steps higher. Duke Ellington used this to create the "hook" or the melodic "main idea" of the song.


Musical Decisions About Timbre
Timbre is the special tone and sound of an instrument or a person's voice.

III. Seasons:Three Songs for Pipa and Cello by Bright Sheng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2YR4SSrptQ

Interview of Bright Sheng about his experiences during the Cultural Revolution in Communist China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R0S2wq_jIYd



Musical Decisions About Rhythm
Felt time is the aspect of music that control's the 
listeners sense of how much time has passed.  
Pieces can feel hurried, calm, spirited or tense.  The next 
two examples have a distinctive "felt time".

IV. Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KylMqxLzNGo

V.  "Badinerie" from the Orchestral Suite No. 2 by
J.S. Bach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAw-I5TFXQM

Changing the meter is another decision that can be made
about the rhythm. Meter is how the beats are grouped
and counted. There are 2 examples from American pop culture
were the meter was changed.

VI. Super Bowl XXV, in 1991 Whitney Houstan sang the

national anthem in duple (2) meter instead of triple (3).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDSALCKH_Y

VII. Ray Charles sang "America the Beautiful" so slowly
and gracefully that it sounded as he changed the meter 
from duple to triple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OTRRzSuWro