Lachlan's Blog

Reading through both articles of what really went on during the premier of “The Rite of Spring” seems to be very controversial. Some accounts say that there was more applaud then distaste and vice versa. However, one thing is clear in that there were people that night who did not enjoy Stravinsky’s new sound combined with Nijinsky’s choreography. Stravinsky’s score for “The Rite of Spring” contradicted every rule about what music should be at the time which left plenty of room for resentment. Although it was not just the music that disturbed the audience. Once the curtains opened, the audience was exposed to ‘knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas jumping up and down’ which was described as jerking rather than dancing. These two types of performances combined together proved to be a disaster for that night in Paris. It is hard to believe that there would be so much outrage for something so seemingly innocent at the time. Stravinsky’s as well as Nijinsky’s intentions did not meet the crowds expectations which resulted into an unruly response. In 1973, a performance at the Carnegie Hall in New York City of the “Four Organs” by Steve Reich received mixed responses. Like Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”, both performances earned applause and booing but, resulted in some type of riot at the end. In Reich’s performance, the audience yelled for the music to stop with report from one of the performers claiming that an elderly woman walked towards the stage and banging her head on it crying, “Stop, stop, I confess.” Although there were no challenges of a duel or the amount of arrests made at “Four Organs” performance compared to “The Rite of Spring”, there was still much controversy and outcry for ending the performances early on. Overall, I find it hard to believe that there was such an intense hatred for either of the performances. Although, I was not there so it is unclear what I would have done at either of those performances. Perhaps I could have been the one banging my head on the stage or challenging a fellow audience member to a duel.

In the light of Covid, making a profit out of your personal art can prove to be very difficult. With the possibility of live in-person shows becoming almost non-existent, musicians have had to adapt to the new ways in order to make a living. The ways in which musicians are making a profit nowadays is by monetizing online live performances and practicing old ways of making profit such as selling merchandise, and teaching how to play instruments etc. Other challenges musicians may face during Covid is the inability to work with others whether it be band mates, executives, and other important people that make up their career. Sure, there are ways to still interact such as Zoom but, I have personally taken guitar lessons over the video communications program and it is nothing like doing the real thing in person. You experience cut outs, interruptions, and depending on your hardware, the sound and video quality can be dreadful. Spotify for Artists’ blog, “How Artists Are Making the Most of Merch During the Pandemic” does a great job at talking about how artists are doing taking the merchandise approach for their success. For example, websites such as Merchbar allows ~35,000 artists to offer over 1 million products to chose from that fans can buy to support their favorite artist. Although not everyone on the platform sells their merchandise for profit; but as to raise money for social causes that are happening in our current world. Another website, Bandzoogle is used by artists to sell their tickets for virtual performances providing a stream link and password once the ticket is purchased. Patreon is probably the most well-known website where artists can easily make money online through their fans. The membership platform makes it so that fans can donate to their favorite artists/creators and in return you provide your patreon’s exclusive content/service whether it be a behind the scenes of your art work, shows, what you do during the day, new music etc. These websites are great examples of how you can support artists directly where they can gather a majority, if not all of the proceeds from their work. Streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal are perfect examples of where artists make almost nothing out of their music, unless you have a large following. For example, for every  one stream you get on Spotify, you only make roughly $0.00437. In order to earn a minimum wage, you would have to get a minimum of ~340,000 streams which makes it almost impossible for smaller musicians to make a living strictly off of streaming services. Musicians are currently trying to push for more earnings for their work but, it is unclear if we will see any change. Spotify made revenue alone of last year surpassed roughly $8 billion so there is a big question whether or not it is being fair to it’s artists. Without these platforms, it would be very hard to survive as a creator during these hard times but, there is much room for improvement.

1. Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness ft. MGMT & RATATAT (Music)

“Pursuit of Happiness” is a song by American recording artist Kid Cudi aka. Scott Mescudi. Released on September 15th, 2009 as the third single from his debut studio album, “Man on the Moon: The End of Day”. Produced by American electronic rock duo RATATAT and American neo-psychedelic duo MGMT, the 4:55 minute long song discusses the lowlights of fame and fortune as well as the problems that haunted Cudi following his father’s death.

2. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Music)

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a song by British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury and recorded one month before the release of their their 1975 album “A Night at the Opera”, the 5:55 minute long song consists of several sections without chorus: intro, ballad section, Brian May’s’ guitar solo, operatic verse, hard-rock verse, coda. Regarded as the very first rock song to incorporate opera, the narrative of the song is based on the “Faust legend” although there are many other theories. However, like all art, it is open to interpretation.

3. Nature (Sound)

The natural world consists of many different sounds that make up our planets identity. These sounds consist of, but are not limited to: booming thunder, rain colliding with the ground, wind bending the trees, birds singing, leaves being swept up, water rushing, waves crashing along the shoreline, other animal calls etc.

These three examples consist of two music pieces and one sound piece should be included on the Golden Record Project. I chose these two songs because they both represent famous songs of different generations. “Pursuit of Happiness”, released in 2009 is associated with fixing broken youth of the early 21st century and inspired many artists to pursue their dreams. “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the other hand encapsulates a different time period where rock music was at its peak. Both songs introduced something new to the music world, and with that left a lasting impact on the generations that followed. The third example, nature is perhaps the most important one of the three, It should be included because it consists of the finest examples of raw sound from our world and it is the origin of where sounds of music were originally derived from; therefore it is very important that it has a place on the Golden Record Project. These examples would make for a very interesting listening experience for alien life. Although it is unclear what they would do with these examples of music and sound, at least they represent a miniscule portion of our planets sounds and the popular likes of two distinct generations.

In the light of Covid, making a profit out of your personal art has proved to be very difficult. With the possibility of live in-person shows becoming almost non-existent, musicians have had to adapt to our new ways in order to make a living. The ways in which musicians are making a profit nowadays are by selling merchandise, monetizing online live performances, and teaching how to play instruments etc. Other challenges musicians may face during Covid is the inability to work with others whether it be band mates, executives, and other important people that make up their career. Sure, there are ways to still interact such as Zoom but, I have personally taken guitar lessons over the video communications program and it is nothing like doing the real thing in person. You experience cut outs, interruptions, and depending on your hardware, the sound and video quality can be dreadful. Spotify for Artists’ blog, “How Artists Are Making the Most of Merch During the Pandemic” does a great job at talking about how artists are doing taking the merchandise approach for their success. For example, websites such as Merchbar allows ~35,000 artists and offers over 1 million products to chose from that fans can buy to support their favorite artist. Although not everyone on the platform sells their merchandise for profit, but as to raise money for social causes that are happening in our current world. Another website, Bandzoogle is used by artists to sell their tickets for virtual performances providing a stream link and password once the ticket is purchased. Patreon is probably the most well-known website where artists can easily make money online through their fans. The membership platform makes it so that fans can donate to their favorite artists/creators and in return you give them an exclusive/personalized service whether it be a behind the scenes of your art work, shows, what you do during the day, new music etc. These websites along with many others provide virtual ways for artists to make a living of their craft. Without them, it would be very hard to survive as a creator during these hard times.

1. Why does Dr. Munarriz consider the label “Latin American Music” problematic? Do you agree or disagree with his position? Why?

“Latin American Music” consists of 46 different music styles as well as 522 indigenous groups that speak 420 distinct languages. The extreme diversity of cultural music expressions makes it very hard to label Latin American Music as a whole. I agree that because of the incredible diversity which Dr. Munarriz covers very well, Latin American Music is problematic when it comes to explaining it since every country seems to have their own understanding of style and music.

2. What is the difference between Latin American Music and Latin Music?

Latin American music is music that comes from any French, Spanish or Portuguese region south of Rio Grande. Latin music is music produced by people who are from Latin American descent but reside, live, or are citizens of the United States of America.

3. What are ostinatos and how are they used in many Caribbean and Latin American musical expressions?

In most cases like in classical music, an ostinatos is something that gets repeated. In the Caribbean and parts of South America however, the ostinatos are an integral part of music, becoming the structural scaffolding of the composition. Something that is derived from African music and reiterated to the Caribbean, Central and Latin America. Some examples of where ostinatos are utilized would be “Ibarabo ago mo juba”, “Olokun”, and “Ghana’e”.

4. What are some of the Latin American expressions in which the so called “Habanera Pattern” can be easily identified?

In Cuban Porto Rico in some cases they refer to the “Habanera” pattern as “ma-ni tos-tao” (roasted peanuts) or “ca-fe con pan” (coffee with bread). Played in a 2/4 time signature, the Habanera can be found in Latin American expressions such as “Ballet Folklorico De Camaguey Cuba”, and “Mason Dance”. It is important to mention just how many different shapes, forms, colors and textures it allowed just by different changes, primarily by the role of performance practices is what makes music.

OOIOO’s song, “Polacca” has moments where the singing and other sounds do not align with the rhythm of the drums. Although the sounds work very well together, they are not in sync with each other, almost like you are trying to combine two songs together to create one which forms an unsettling atmosphere of noises in certain areas of the song. It is not up until 6:25 do we see a moment in the performance where the musical elements come together but their agreement is loose. It is hard to tell what exactly is going on at that point and can be confusing and even disorienting to the listener. Sly & The Family Stone’s song, “Spaced Cowboy” has a very satisfying beginning with oscillating guitar and a steady beat pattern. However, once the singing commences, the periods of his high-pitched singing and almost yodeling voice does not match with the characteristics of the calm composition. The elements do come together although the only thing that does not seem to be in tune with the other elements 100% of the time is from the performance of the singer. Patato and Totico’s song, “Agua Que Va A Caer” is very different from these other two examples in terms of structure since it belongs to Afro-Cuban music. The fast paced drums and fluctuating guitar cannot seem to keep up the singing of the performers with their voices change from high to low pitches in an unpredictable manner. Each and every element rhythmically corresponds to one another, it is only the range of soft or loud sound that are left out of sync.

In order to dismantle the white racial frame of music theory and history, textbooks and other written works on composition would have to be replaced with more modern ideologies on what composition is as a whole and not focused completely on the works of European composers; German in particular. For example, these new interpretations would focus on works and techniques from different cultures from around the world and would not be restricted to one nationality. It is crucial that the author of these texts does not share any racist, anti-Semitic or bias beliefs much like that of Heinrich Schenker, explained in the video by Adam Neely, “Music Theory and White Supremacy”. In the video, Neely describes our current understanding of composition as “…we have built music theory from the ground up with the idea that the only music worth analyzing and worth having a language of analysis for is the music that Heinrich Schenker analyzed”. Whilst none of my textbooks for composition are written by Schenker, Neely’s point is still relevant in the sense that in my first year of music, I am only learning techniques and notation from European composers. We must construct a new and improved version of composition as well as music theory etc. in order remove any bias towards specific groups of composers whether they are derived from any musical genre, they are all important in our understanding of music. While new written work is required, that is not the only thing that should be changed. There should be more classes that go in depth in regards to different cultures and their understanding of musical sound. For example, North Indian theory and perspectives that was explained in Neely’s video. To have a university music school that considers all styles of composition would be difficult but, not impossible.

For this listening experiment, I listened to Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 “Surprise”: 3rd movement. I listened to this composition a total of six times, through which I was exposed to the engaging orchestra for just shy of 30 minutes. During the deep listening period, I could start to understand the structure of the musical piece in a completely different way then I did previously. The 4/4 time signature became more relevant as well as I would know what would occur after every note, almost as if the composition was a short story that I knew the ending to, transitioning through each chapter in the piece with ease. The more I listened, each instrument from the orchestra became more vibrant and singular rather than sounding like one whole collective of sounds. I realized that throughout Haydn’s composition, the beginning melody repeats a total of six times. Although, throughout the sixth time I listened to the piece, it became quite repetitive. As I was listening to No. 94 “Surprise: 3rd movement, I could not stop thinking about the swaying melody and how it would fit perfectly with a dance number. Overall, I have never tried to clear my mind and be in touch with a song for that long of a period. It would be more than fair to say that I now have a deeper appreciation for this piece.

The ethical implications of playing music entirely from the past would be horrendously difficult. This “ghost” of musical annihilation has eliminated everything in relation to music, making it almost impossible to play any composition unless it was already known to someone off by heart; through which the only way we could hear it would be through them. Although, that is not the only implication. People would lose their desire to play any song that they previously enjoyed. Their Spotify playlists would vanish, their favorite artists’ entire discography would disappear, along with anyone else who created music, as well as their record player would cease to exist along with any other musical player (assuming that they are all composed of music up until October 2020). One thing is for sure is that people do not base their entire melodic library on music released in October of 2020, at least so I hope, thus everyone on this planet would be left restless to hear their favorite songs that they were previously able to listen to. I only play piano and acoustic guitar making the music I perform limited. Although if I had to choose from any songs that were erased, they would be Chopin’s “Nocturne op.9 No.2”, Debussy’s “Arabesque No.1”, Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”, and last but not least Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”. I include these pieces for the reason that they are amongst the most prominent examples of revered compositions in regards to my instruments. I would like to include more, however the word limit proves otherwise. Finally, the quote from Nietzsche is a compelling piece that talks about the past and present. It explains that you are only able to truly understand what is worth saving from the past if you are entirely in the present. In the last sentence, it warns that if you do not show affection to your past, “…you will draw the past down on you.” Perhaps this is in reference to the ghost.