Who was the director of Citizen Kane? Who was the music composer for Citizen Kane? Provide a brief bio in your own words and cite your sources.

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CITIZEN KANE

  1. Read the synopsis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane
  2. Read about the musical score. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane#Music
  3. Read about the composer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Herrmann
  4. Watch the Breakfast Scene clip.
  5. Answer the following prompts in an essay.

Who was the director of Citizen Kane? Provide a brief bio in your own words and cite your sources.

Who was the music composer for Citizen Kane? Provide a brief bio in your own words and cite your sources.

Describe the music.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMkPIW22bq4

& feature=you tube during each of the following time segments. What is happening in the scene at each point? How does the music support the dialogue?

 

What misconceptions does this music help clear up?

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Music Theory

What misconceptions does this music help clear up?

 

Consider the increase in the number of female artists who add to the hip-hop genre, and focus your research on their cultural additions. Review the messages that they present in their music, in comparison to the message of male contributors.

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Hip-hop music

Students must write a 4-page research paper and can choose from one of the topics below and must address all components of the artform as it pertains to hip-hop. All papers must have three sources including an online source, a book, and a scholarly journal article. Chicago-style format is required for this paper. Select one of the topics below.

CHOOSE 1

1. Important Female Artists

Consider the increase in the number of female artists who add to the hip-hop genre, and focus your research on their cultural additions. Review the messages that they present in their music, in comparison to the message of male contributors. Use your research to determine if their contributions represent a change in the hip-hop genre, a reinvention of hip-hop or perhaps a new genre of hip-hop that will be led by female artists making their own unique contributions.

2. Social Compass

Select some of the specific claims by hip-hop artists in their music and research the sociological evidence for or against these claims. Review selections of hip-hop music and look for specific, testable claims. As an example, you could test the claim that racial stereotyping leads to an increased number of minority arrests by reviewing minority arrest records from across the country and comparing these numbers to overall arrest records. Test these claims to determine if hip-hop is an effective sociological compass.

Compose a 1000-word review of live or live-streamed event of any kind of popular music. If you are working from memory, the event must have occurred in the last three months.

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Music Theory

Summary: Compose a 1000-word review of live or live-streamed event of any kind of popular music (rock, pop, hip-hop/rap, reggae, country, EDM, Doom Metal, &c.). If you are working from memory, the event must have occurred in the last three months. If you have access to video, the event must have occurred in the last three years.

There are 3 phases to this assignment:

  1. Rough draft, submitted as a forum post; due Wednesday, Nov 16
  2. Peer reviews, submitted to the forum; due Wednesday, Nov 30
  3. Final draft, submitted as an assignment; due Friday, Dec 9; *this version will be graded by the instructor or your TA

 

Who wrote the music for the film? What scene are you watching? What type or types of instruments do you hear being used? How are the instruments being used?

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Film Scene Paper

For this assignment, you will choose a total of two scenes from two separate movies (one scene from each movie) and discuss the music that you hear in each scene. Cover each of the following questions in your assignment, but do not write in bullet points. This assignment should read like an essay. The length of your paper is determined by how much space you need to fully answer the questions. As a rule of thumb, 2 pages in a normal 12-point font (e.g., Times New Roman) with standard margins is usually plenty of space. The questions are as follows:

Note that each of these questions is tied to a learning outcome detailed in the Syllabus as well as in this assignment.

1.)Who wrote the music for the film?
2.)What scene are you watching?
3.)What type or types of instruments do you hear being used? (SLO 1)
4.)What types of musical devices are you hearing (e.g., dynamics, rhythmic articulations, crescendos, decrescendos, etc.) (SLO 1)
5.)How are the instruments being used (to create ambience/mood, to accompany the action in the scene, or something else)? (SLO 2)
6.)Does the music reflect the time period of the scene/movie? If so, how? (SLO 3)
7.)Does the music reflect the era that the movie was made (in real life)? If so, how? (SLO 3)
8.)Does the soundtrack support, enhance, or overpower the action in the scene? Explain (SLO 2)
Remember to answer each question for both scenes you have chosen.

In an effort to help you internalize everything you’ve learned about film music, you now get to choose the film scenes that you will talk about. Make sure to follow all of the directions and answer all of the questions that are asked, but please do not simply answer the questions in bullet points. This is meant to be a short essay that reads and flows like a paper for any other class.

Compose in classical period composers style. Demonstrate your understanding of chromatic harmony through the inclusion of chromatic harmonies.

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Compose one variation on the following theme:

– Compose in classical period composers style.

– Dynamics, phrasing tempo markings, and any other performance

– Should demonstrate your understanding of chromatic harmony through the inclusion of chromatic harmonies

– Include a short written description of each variation. Indicate which changes you have applied to certain musical elements.

 

Write a few words about your preparation for the event. Discuss your reaction to the music, tell what you enjoyed most and why; also what was not your favorite and why.

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Music

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flwydqUeexU

Tell what performance the critique will discuss, the “who, what, when, and where” as it were.

• Write a few words about your preparation for the event.

• Note what you observe about other performance attenders in terms of dress, etiquette, engagement in the performance, etc.

• Tell something about the appearance of the performers, costume, interaction with each other and with the audience, engagement, etc.

• Tell what specific pieces of music were performed and some important features of each (discuss the music here).

• Tell what aspects of the performance you liked, or didn’t like (discuss the performance here).

• Discuss your reaction to the music, tell what you enjoyed most and why; also what was not your favorite and why.

• Finally, tell whether you would attend another such performance and whether you would recommend it to others you know; tell also how your might prepare differently for future performances.

Write about your experience of listening to examples of each of these two different kinds. How do you relate to music that is supposed to convey specific meanings, when the references may not be known to you?

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Experience of listening to e different type of music

In the listenings for Weeks 3 and 4 we have encountered two very different kinds of music. One, a music that organizes itself around references to history, quotation, embedded meanings, messages and evocations (Berg Violin Concerto, Bartok Piano Concerto second movement, Webern in the Bach orchestration). And the other, a music that seems to function strictly as a series of sound patterns, devoid of referentiality or “content” (Webern, Symphony and Concerto for Nine Instruments, and all of the Cage pieces).

Write about your experience of listening to examples of each of these two different kinds. How do you relate to music that is supposed to convey specific meanings, when the references may not be known to you? And how do you relate to music that might even be interchangeable in terms of its musical material, as (perhaps) demonstrated by Erik Carlson’s variations of Webern? Can you relate the idea of alternate versions of Webern with the openness of form utilized by Cage?

 

Describe the keyboard and piano accompaniment during Shorter’s solo. How would you compare/contrast the solo style of Shorter in Birdland with his tenor solo in Miles Davis E.S.P.?

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Birdland, the famous jazz-rock fusion

Listen again to Birdland, the famous jazz-rock fusion piece by Weather Report: Wayne Shorter, soprano and tenor saxes; Joe Zawinul, keyboards, piano, vocal, melodica; Jaco Pastorius, electric bass, mando-cello, vocal; Alex Acuna, drums; and Manolo Badrena, tambourine, and address the following questions: 600 words

  • https://open.spotify.com/track/7nJc3vqcU2em6FH0c3G…
  • https://open.spotify.com/track/61K5CsgNZy69TFzrsFS…

The order of solos in this piece is: Zawinul, Shorter, Zawinul. Provide counter numbers for the beginnings and ends of these solos.
Describe the keyboard and piano accompaniment during Shorter’s solo. How would you compare/contrast the solo style of Shorter in Birdland with his tenor solo in Miles Davis E.S.P.?
How would you compare/contrast the solo style of Zawinul in Birdland with that of Herbie Hancock in E.S.P.?
Do you detect any ties between these jazz-rock fusion soloists and hard bop or free jazz?

What are your thoughts about the ceremony itself? Can you draw parallels between this coming-of-age ceremony and others that you may be familiar with?

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Critical Thinking about Balinese Culture, Potong Gigi, Tooth Filing Ceremony

Background Information:
The video in this assignment provides a rather recent look at a coming-of-age Hindu ritual performed on all Balinese girls and boys: a tooth filing ceremony. When a young man’s voice changes and a young girl begins her menstrual cycle, usually between ages fourteen and twenty-five, and before they marry, they present themselves at a tooth-filing ceremony, surrounded by family and community. In Potong Gigi (tooth-filing), a holy man guides the adolescents through a series of prayers and blessings designed to thank the gods for preserving the teens through childhood and to drive away any desire to embrace evil in their adulthood. The top six teeth only will be filed, symbolic of the six negative behaviors to be avoided: lust, greed, anger, drunkenness, confusion, and jealousy. Notice how ornately the adolescents dress, including wearing jeweled headpieces or those made from individual gold-dipped floral picks. Notice how each teen puts hands together as if praying, holding an object between the hands. This object, representing one of the negative behaviors, is then tossed away to symbolize casting off the negative trait that could lead them to evil. Using a different object each time, this blessing repeats for each of the six behaviors.

Once the blessing ritual is completed, small groups proceed to the area where the teeth will be filed. The filing will continue until the family is satisfied that all unevenness (imperfection) caused by life up to this point has been removed. Listen for the ever-present gamelan sounds; notice how the teens form a group; and notice how the neighborhood community (banjar) supports this group.

Instructions:
1. Read over the Background Information above regarding the Potong Gigi (Tooth-Filing ceremony) below, then watch the following video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=JkHU-f9uBbs&feature=emb_title
2. Write a 250-300 word essay reacting in a fact-based, objective way to the Potong Gigi Tooth-Filing ceremony.
3. Think critically (meaning be objective) about what you saw and heard, especially the ceremonial use of gamelan music; draw on what you have learned about in Chapter 7 of your textbook and Module 6 mini-lectures.
4. Some questions you might address are:
What are your thoughts about the ceremony itself?
Can you draw parallels between this coming-of-age ceremony and others that you may be familiar with?
How does music contribute to the ceremony (this will require some creative interpretation on your part and evaluation of any ethnocentrism)?