Class

I really liked talking about music for the last two class periods. I'm not very good with the history side of music because I haven't really studied that, but I've been in an orchestra since third grade and in music classes since seventh grade so I sort of know the theory part and some of the vocabulary. I play the violin, but I really enjoy all of the different timbres in 'classical' music and really any music. It was neat to listen to the way the music changed from one period to the next. My opinion probably isn't shared by most people, but I really like the Baroque style of music. I think the unique sound of the harpsichord adds a lot to the music. Songs with the harpsichord in them make me think of ladies in big fancy dresses at a ball all dancing very properly with their partners, and since I love that sort of history I like the music. Probably not all of the music composed back then was for dancing to, but I have to imagine a good portion of it was because the musicians were commissioned by the very rich who liked to give big parties. It was interesting to think about how the fact they were commissioned probably effected the music they produced. They had to do it in a certain style or their patrons would be most seriously displeased.

In class we talked about how the first time the Rite of Spring was played there were riots and people simply left the theater because they had been expecting a ballet and they didn't think that that was what they had received. Now Rite of Spring is a very well thought of composition. I personally quite like it. It was really interesting to hear the comment made in class about how we accept change much more easily now than they did then and it really is true. We look at the new and unusual as trendy simply because it is those things. I don't know why change is more accepted now, but it really does appear to be. I can't imagine the reactions of the people back then if they were to hear an electric guitar.

I think that I will have to listen to a few more songs from each era if I expect to be able to discern them just by hearing them. I think that I can handle Gregorian chants all right, but I get all mixed up with Baroque, Classical and all of the others. Sometimes when I'm driving I turn the radio station to 89.1 and I can tell that something is Baroque because it has harpsichord or something like that, but I don't always know what is going on. I get especially excited when a song is played that I have played in one of my orchestras.