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Listening Assignment week of July 16-22, 2018- Japan

16 Monday Jul 2018

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This week we will be listening to music from the island country of Japan.  There is a rich and varied musical tradition of Japanese music and the first clip will be the very well-known song – Sakura- played on the koto.  The Koto is a stringed instrument from the family of zithers and it came to Japan from China in the 7th and 8th centuries.  It is the national instrument of Japan.  If you play just the black keys on the piano you will create what is called the pentatonic scale.  This scale is used in the music from many asian countries including Japan and also is found in many spirituals.  The number of strings on a koto can vary; this particular one has 25 strings.  That would require a lot of skill and patience just to tune it!

 

Joe Hisashi is a contemporary (born in 1950) Japanese composer and musical director.  He is a prolific composer having written over 100 film scores and also piano music. He has been associated with the animator Hayao Miyazaki for many years creating the music for nearly all of his films.  Here is a clip of him playing  One Summer’s Day from the anime film Spirited Away.

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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Listening Assignment No. 2

15 Monday Sep 2014

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This week you will be listening to the music of Isaac Albeniz, a Spanish composer and pianist who lived from 1860-1909.  He was born in Spain and many of his piano works are based on folk music and idioms from his native country.

He was a child prodigy, giving piano concerts in Spain at the age of nine and by the time he was fifteen he had concertized worldwide.  He studied piano at both the conservatories of Leipzig and Brussels

He wrote various genres of music including some musical comedies, but primarily it is for his piano music that he is remembered.  Iberia, a suite of twelve piano impressions, written between 1905-1908, was his final masterpiece.  In this suite he takes the flavors of Spain with its rhythms and folk melodies and weaves them throughout this marvelous composition.

Albeniz died at the age of forty-eight from kidney disease having only three weeks before received from the French government its highest honor, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d’honneur.

Iberia played by Alicia de Larrocha

Music for a Lifetime

05 Friday Sep 2014

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The world of sports; the world of music; sometimes they seem to be several universes apart from each other.  And yet many of my students are actively involved in sports as well as in music.  What can be learned from each discipline?  How are they similar?  How are they different?

One of the similarities is that both activities are physical.  Sometimes it’s easy to think of studying a musical instrument as more like school work- all done in the  head. But in reality learning a musical instrument such as the piano, is very physical and the learning process must take that physicality into account.  In practical terms that means that missing a day of practice, whether it be for competitive golf or piano, will have the same affect- you cannot make up that time.  Your body has lived that day and it has not had the physical practice for whatever skill is being learned.

One of the differences between the world of sports and the world of music is that in sports students are usually part of a team and have a coach for their daily practice.  Generally, they are not asked to have the discipline to go by themselves and work on some skill alone.  This is one of the challenges with studying the piano.  Students have weekly lessons and then are expected to apply what they have learned on their own throughout the week.

Parents, this is where you can really be of help to your child.  Your job is to create the structure in your home schedule so that the practice time is built in and it becomes part of the daily routine.  It will still take some effort on the student’s part to go and do the practicing but you have eliminated one of the hurdles by establishing clearly when the practice is to take place each day.  With older students, this is a conversation to have with your child perhaps weekly, perhaps monthly, depending on the person, where you decide together, when they will practice.  Even for adult students, by deciding ahead of time, usually the day before, when you will practice gives you a much better chance of making it happen.  The power of decision is exactly that- powerful.  And when we claim this power for our own, it will transform whatever we are trying to accomplish.

There is one more final comparison that I cannot resist making between sports and musical endeavors.  Music is an activity that one can continue to do all throughout life, sometimes well into the 70’s and 80’s, but how many 80 year old active football players have you seen lately?  If you want to have a life skill then invest in music!

Listening Assignment – Week 1 2014

05 Sunday Jan 2014

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What better way to begin 2014, musically speaking, then to become better acquainted with the music of Ludwig van Beethoven?  Even after 187 years since his death (1770-1827) his music still draws us in and speaks a language we can understand.

The selection for this week is the Sonata No. 8 Op. 13 in c minor, also known as the Pathetique.  The word “pathetique” as used to describe this sonata, does not mean pitiful or weak, as our word “pathetic” means today.  But rather the word is meant to convey the sense of grandeur and drama that is created by this sonata.

This work has three parts or movements: the first- Grave;Allegro di molto e con brio. The second – Adagio Cantabile, and the third- Rondo.  Think of it as three different chapters of a book, each telling a different part of the story.

As you are listening to each of these movements, what atmosphere or character is presented?  Is it peaceful, energetic, suspenseful, joyful, inspirational, angry, triumphant, passionate, calm, resigned?  Music delivers an emotional message, often several, and can speak to the deepest parts of our emotions.  But it takes more than just one or two times to understand the message and that is why well written music can be listened to over and over again and we come away with something new each time.  Translate the words of the titles to each movement as they are also clues to the musical message.

As you listen to this Sonata over the next week, see if you can sing any of the melodies by the end of the week, or try playing them by ear on the piano.  Make this incredible piece of music part of your life-long journey.  You won’t regret it!

Sonata No. 8 Op. 13- Grave – played by Aya Nagatomi

Sonata No. 8 No. 13 – Adagio cantabile – played by Daniel Barenboim

Sonata No. 8 No. 13 – Rondo- played by Freddy Kempf

Listening Assignment – Week 24

24 Sunday Mar 2013

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A concerto is a composition written for orchestra and a solo instrument, most commonly the solo instrument being piano or instruments of the string family.  The relationship between the orchestra and soloist is not one of master/servant but rather they meet together on equal terms sharing the thematic material of the composition.

This week’s listening assignment is the Piano Concerto of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) which was written when the composer was twenty-four years old.  It is the only piano concerto that Grieg completed and remains one of Grieg’s most popular works as well as being one of the most popular piano concerto written by any composer.

The distinctive opening theme uses a descending minor second followed by a descending minor third.  Grieg uses that musical idea in other compositions and it is a motif found in Norwegian folk music.

Julia Fischer pianist with the German Youth Orchestra

31 Wednesday Aug 2011

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