A Short Return…
Hi everyone!
It’s been a while blog followers and twitter buddies, but here I am to disclose on why I have been quiet for such a lengthy span of time. It is because of my classwork at college and personal studies (done during summer/winter breaks) that has kept me away from this blog, as well [poorly] maintaining other blogs–some in which I’ve deleted due to lack of interest…which will lead to why I am writing this post today.
Some of you have, or should by now, noticed that many projects/series/blogs that I have posted in regards to die shortly due to a fading interest within those posts. They slowly perished not so much due to a fickle nature, which I originally thought was the case, but because they are not of appropriate use of my time and education. I love video game music and classical (loosely used in regards to all music of both European and American origin) music, but after a period of time it felt as though I was forcing the two into matrimony, hoping to elevate the genre of video game music to that of a highbrow stature, through the same means of academic research I was giving to the latter. Big mistake! I was attempting to push my sensuous listening of game music to a different realm that soon caused my love of game music to slowly diminish and lose its original enthusiastic interest and love I had for it. I also began to notice a great deal of my writing, much unpublished but a couple on this blog, to be very dry in comparison to other posts that expressed an emotional response rather than the primer’s academic. I had to do something about this…which was take a seat back and focus 120% on classwork and rethink my hobbies and likes. The results: a passionate successful idea.
A passionate success indeed. I came upon the decision to engage music in a different approach that has both enlivened my love of the art (video game music) and that of writing (my second love). What I have done is not something new, but perhaps will find itself to return in popularity in this field of [video game] music reviews and appreciation. What is this new approach I speak of? Well, you’ll have to wait until I add the finishing touches to the start of this adventure. Thanks for your patience, and tolerance of my absence, my dear audience.
Best,
M.
Opening the Music Box in LBP2′s Toy Story DLC
The name “Winifred Phillips” isn’t a stranger around these parts, and there’s a darn good reason for that! Her compositional style is not only fascinating in construction, but varied in mood and genre. Little Big Planet 2′s Toy Story DLC is an example of how varied her arsenal is with genres. In this DLC project we see three genres reign supreme: Big Band, Bluegrass, and Symphonic.
What better way to start the Toy Story DLC than presenting the players with a Big Band piece. Toy Story Big Band Theme’s swing-like-feel and mellowness draws out a casual adventure for the players as well keep things really relaxed and hip. I appreciate the nice Andante tempo used than blasting through the piece in a faster tempo. I’m surprised on the fluidity of this piece, as well with that tasty Trumpet and Piano solo halfway into the piece. Good construction and layering.
Toy Story Western Theme’s Honky-tonky-ness and Bluegrass-ness is wonderful. It must haven been a headache trying to layer together all these samples into one solid work. Banjo, fiddle-playin, piano, mouth harp, percussion, ect, filling in one another and falling out for one another; it’s most definitely a treat for the ears. Near the end of the piece you get a taste of Evil-Railroad-Villain piano playing that would fit any Silent Black and White film. This piece was very imaginative and fun, and a genre that I do not think Winifred Phillips has treaded upon until now. Great job!
If you’re a symphonic kind of person, then your ears will swoon to Winifred’s Toy Story Space Theme. Adventerous, dark, and epic are choice words to describe this piece. I would go on even describing this piece as some sort of Tone Poem with its variety in direction and sense of Bravado. Winifred’s forte of the Symphonic style is evident in her past soundtracks, so we could have only expected such quality work from Winifred!
While the music of the DLC may have been limited to only three tracks, they nevertheless prove to be an excellent production of work from Winifred Phillips. Knowing now that her ability to work with genres outside her norm and achieving astounding success is possible, I’d like to hear different genres of music from her in future projects. Much thanks to Winifred Phillips as well her producer, Winnie Waldron, for this exceptional musical product!
The Expressive Plane – Part I
“My own belief is that all music has an expressive power, some more and some less, but that all music has a certain meaning behind the notes and the meaning behind the notes constitutes, after all, what the piece is saying, what the piece is about. This whole problem can be stated quite simply, by asking, ‘Is there a meaning to Music?’ My answer that would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer to that would be, ‘No.’ …”
Copland, 9
I could not agree any more with this comment, but I feel that this is only in regards to instrumental music, in which only the instruments can convey their expressiveness/meaning. I finished watching Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci the other day and was very well aware the emotions and themes presented by each piece and as well the theme of the Opera (The prologue tells you what the Opera’s theme is before it even begins!). So, in regards to singing…we will leave it alone and perhaps return back to it at a later date. Let us continue in regards to instrumental music…
As I said above, I agree full-heartedly that all music expresses something, regardless how minute or grandeur the composition. Perhaps you are listening to Beethoven’s 9th and in your mind and heart you are filled with strength and excitement that goes unmeasured against any other composition. Maybe your mood softens while listening to the first movement of his Moonlight Sonata on a quiet evening in your home. I could describe pages without end on what I feel the expressiveness a piece is [possibly] emitting, but I believe that you have the idea that Music does something special to the listener(s), and sometimes these effects on us cannot even be described in words. But that leads us to the second question Copland has answered “No”.
What is most amazing about Music is that usually there is no way on telling what exactly the composer has intended a piece of music to express to us, unless of course they bluntly tells us in a program (I’m looking at you Berlioz) or in their music notes. A piece may be of subliminal character that may express beauty to one listening, but to another it may conjure a feeling of sadness. Each individual’s perception on a piece of music may, from time to time, fall under similar alignments, but may vary in its direction of emotion. An example would be…”Is it pessimistically sad or resignedly sad; is it fatefully sad or smilingly sad?” (Copland, 11).
What is marvelous to me about music’s expressiveness is that when I come back to a piece of music I adore, I may have a completely new, or additional, connection to that piece of music. One well-known piece that I found myself finding new meanings for myself is Gustav Holst’s Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity. When I first heard Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity years ago, I was filled with glee and excitement throughout the piece. It wasn’t until a year later after first hearing that a sudden feeling of warmth was added to my connections to the piece while listening to the Second Theme. I was struck with such awe; so much that I couldn’t talk or describe in adequate words what I was feeling. I found myself teary-eyed during the playing of the slow movement, and with every repeat of that movement, even more so. They weren’t tears of sadness at all; they were tears of unexplainable happiness. I sit here writing this post and find myself teary-eyed once again while listening to the very piece. Maybe I should change the track ;). And that I shall…to game music, but this will be in the second part of The Expressive Plane.
Hopefully the idea that music generates emotions and connections by the expressive nature of its existence and performance is made clear by this post. The only problem, or rather solution, is that usually there is no one correct meaning for a piece of music, that its ambiguous nature causes it to be a living creature, in which we can only examine the piece and make our own personal claims, while it goes on living its life. Rather than finding strong evidence to support our claims of what a piece of music means and call that meaning and reasoning absolute, embrace the music and whichever meaning you have created for yourself, accepting it as if it was a gift from the composer themselves.
CITATION
Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. New York: Signet Classic, 2002
The Sensuous Plane
In the post The Musical Frontier, I note the three planes of listening in which Aaron Copland has broken up for us.
1) The Sensuous Plane
2) The Expressive Plane
3) The Sheerly Musical Plane.
Today we explore the first of these planes, The Sensuous Plane. Thankfully, this plane is [perhaps] the easiest of the three to explain and understand. Mr. Copland defines this plane as…
“…the plane on which we hear music without thinking, without considering it in any way.”
(Copland, 7)
Update May 5th, 2011
After sending my last paper to my professor, classes have [finally] become completed for this semester. Looking over Copland’s “What to Listen For in Music” and Video Game Music is next on the docket. Check you inbox every Friday for a new post. Thanks for your patience, I’ll do my best on writing a semi-interesting post.
