Holly Edquist Mus116

What should music school of the near future look like? Personally I think it should expand it’s field a little bit. I think that looking at the composers that we all know and love (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, etc.) is very important so we get a base of where it all comes from, however I think that we could be more inclusive in the way we learn about music.

To this day music history is quite white washed and male dominated. This almost definitely comes from the fact that in the times that most of what we study comes from the world was very sexist and racist so only the music written and performed by white men was accepted. However in today’s society it has become very important to acknowledge those who have been repressed and discriminated against. In more recent years there have been plenty of women and people of colour who have become composers and I think that we should begin accepting and playing their music more even though it is not from the original time period of those styles of music.

Today’s education system tries to put more emphasis on making sure that we are aware of all the different minorities and the struggles that come with being a part of one of said groups, but that area of education hasn’t quite spread to the music departments and the odd occasion I have heard about non traditional composers and how the music world specifically affected them it always feels a little bit forced and awkward. I think that this is because music teachers aren’t trained to incorporate this element of education, yet school boards will change curriculums to implement it without telling them how. Of course that particular comment pertains more to high school education, but I think it should be implemented into post secondary education as well. It could be very beneficial to include in a course similar to this one to start to include more information about discrimination in music, and how it has started to be overcome.

In revisiting this prompt I wanted to focus more on how I find participatory discrepancy effective rather than how it applied to the pieces we listened to for the original blog prompt.

I think participatory discrepancy is a fascinating concept. The idea of purposely making elements of a piece not quite line up to create an effect is an idea I had never really considered until this prompt, I had never even heard the term before reading the prompt. I had noticed sometimes in pieces when certain things wouldn’t quite line up, but I never knew there was a name for it or how composers use it and create some of the most intriguing sections of their piece using participatory discrepancy.

I think that participatory discrepancy is best used in small amounts, it works well to create a funky section of a piece for variety, when it’s a small section in a ew that lines up otherwise it draws the listener in and engages their ears in a new way because it is so different from what they have heard up to this point in the piece. When participatory discrepancy is used too much in a piece, or if nothing about the piece lines up traditionally it becomes overwhelming to listen to and tends to turn people away from listening to it. This is what I found with Polacca when we originally did this blog prompt. Nothing about this piece ever settled and it was more unnerving to listen to than intriguing, if I’m being completely honest I was hugely relieved when it stopped because I found the participatory discrepancy to be so over used that it ended up just being hard to listen to. As much as I didn’t enjoy listening to the piece, my point in saying this is less to bash on the piece (I’m sure some people enjoy listening to it), but more to express the importance of have stability somewhere in the piece so that the chaos can be appreciated and not dreaded.

Participatory discrepancy, like most things, is best in small doses so it stays something special and good rather than something used to exhaustion.

In revisiting this prompt I wanted to go more in depth about benefits I could see with repeated listening.

Repeated listening cleanses your hearing and makes it easier to notice small details and appreciate the smaller details and elements of whichever piece you have chosen to listen to. I found this repeated listening to be difficult at first, it was hard for me to focus on only listening to the piece and blocking out all distractions, but I found as it went on it became easier and easier and I began to truly appreciate the music I was listening to.

When I wrote the original blog prompt 5 I listened to Movement 3 of Brahms violin concerto in D minor and I listened to it at least 8 times, approximately 6 of them were without any distractions, the first two times I had more trouble focusing solely on the music. The first few times I found the melody was at the forefront of my mind. But, the more I listened the more smaller elements and accompaniment came through. The piece became both more familiar and more new at the same time, at times it felt like a completely different piece than what I had been listening to because I managed to focus so much on other parts of the piece that sounded so much more different than what I had been hearing previously. I also noticed more recurring themes and when they came about in different sections than that which originally played it in the piece.

I think this is a great exercise to do very occasionally because I think doing it too much could drive someone up a wall. but I think it is an important thing to do to gain a deeper appreciation for the music we listen to. This is an exercise I likely would never have done of my own volition because I generally find it a little difficult to listen to the same few minutes of music with nothing to break it up but the further into it I got the more enjoyable the experience became and I am glad to have been directed to this method of listening to and appreciating music.

Covid-19 has been a difficult time for everyone and caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, included in that are musicians. Due to social distancing and other measures to limit the spread of Covid-19, almost all in person concerts have been cancelled because it would require too many people to be in the same place at the same time. Because of this musicians have had to come up with more creative solutions to continue making money and keeping the public interested when restrictions are loosened and people are able to go see concerts in person once again.

Some possible solutions include streaming concerts. This keeps people interested because they are still able to experience the music from the comfort of their homes. Musicians can make money doing this by either requiring people to pay to view the live stream, as they would have to pay for tickets to attend an in person concert. Musicians could also have an option to donate attached to the live stream so people can donate as they watch to keep their favourite music groups up and running through these trying times. Donating is always a good option because people are usually willing to support groups they enjoying or think that it is beneficial to keep around, and having donations open over requiring them to pay for a live stream because there is less of a feeling of obligation to pay.

Another great way for musicians to stay afloat during this pandemic is to make merchandise available, they could sell t-shirts, hoodies, bags, CDs, DVDs, etc. Merchandise is a great way to keep people interested while making money. Merchandise is easy for people to buy, especially while approaching the holidays. People always enjoy getting merchandise for groups that they enjoy, and most people would appreciate receiving a CD of a group that they’ve never really looked into as long as it comes from a loved one or close friend who in sharing a music group that they enjoy.

Overall I think that merchandise is an easier and more effective way of musicians making money in these times because it’s easier for people to buy online when they will be receiving a physical item rather than paying to watch a performance when there are so many free recordings to watch online. But I think the most effective way would be to combine the two methods if possible and use the streams to advertise the merchandise and vise versa.

In times of Covid a musician  could adapt by doing monetized live streams  where people would have to pay to be able to watch a concert as they would to watch a live concert. They can also have an area open for donations to help keep them running through these tough times so that we can continue to have these performers to go see when all this is over. They could also release merchandise as an added way of funding. I think that musicians could do a livestream that is either monetized, or has an option to donate that is also a plug for merchandise. Merchandise would include selling t-shirts, hoodies, bags, cds, dvds, etc. And with the point that we are at in the development of Covid-19 they could have small, well spaced out gatherings where all audience members must where masks as well as stay approximately six feet apart at all times to keep the possibility of spreading the virus to a minimum or on warmer, sunny days concerts could even be outside so more people can stay more spread out and being in an open space makes it harder for the virus to reach new people because they aren’t all breathing the same recycled air. I think the most accessible way for musicians to make money is through merchandise in these trying times because some people who would go to a concert are less likely to attend a live stream or less likely to pay for a live stream, but most fans of musicians or music groups are willing to buy merchandise to support a group, and doing things like cds are an easy way to allow people to still here what they are working on without the risk involved with going to see them. Also seeing as we are approaching the holiday season people are looking for gifts and getting someone a t-shirt of their favourite music is a good way to make someone happy as well as support a musician struggling through Covid.

1. It could be problematic because there are so many different types of Latin American music that it may not make sense to speak of it as a whole. I agree with that statement because there is such a wide variety of Latin American music.

2. Latin American music comes from the people of Latin America, whereas Latin music comes from the people who are descendants of Latin Americans but live in the United States.

3. Ostinatos are a repeated element of music (usually rhythms, but can also be melodies, notes  etc.) They are used it Latin American and Latin music to set the style and keep time.

4. The Habanera pattern can be found in a lot of contradance music. A commob example of the Habanera pattern is in Carmen.

I had never heard the term participatory discrepancy before starting this blog prompt but I do find it to be a very interesting concept. Going into the first recording I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to recognize it because I had such a loose understanding of what it is. The first one I listened to was Agua Que Va A Caer, in that one there is a period where there is drumming with a melodic line played on guitar over top and meter just doesn’t quite line up, but I think it was my favourite part of the whole piece. The second one I listened to was Spaced Cowboy, I found that nothing in that one seemed to fully line up and the tone difference between the vocals and instrumental was almost too much but it grew on me as it went on and the tone different became easier to listen to. Polacca, I don’t really know where to start with this one there was so much going on for so long and I think the whole thing was participatory discrepancy.  I had a really hard time getting all the way through this piece because it made me physically uncomfortable to listen to, this is because so much was happening all at once and none of it quite lined up metronomically and it was filled with different rhythms and contrasting sounds. In a lot of pieces sections of participatory discrepancy can be the more intriguing part of the piece, but I think when it is the entire piece it gets to be too much.

In the near future I think that university music school and even in earlier music education should put a bigger focus on knowing more about the composers and potentially the era they grew up in/their influences. I think that there should also be a bigger focus on music by people of colour, indigenous people, and women. Today we spend some time (not enough) looking at the traditional or cultural music written by people of colour and indigenous people, but if you dig a little bit you can find music written by these people but in other genres, there is classical music written by people of colour, indigenous people, and women but it is often overshadowed by pieces that were written by white men because that is what became more popular because of racism and sexism that was even more prominent then than it is today. I think that nowadays in education we are trying to be more inclusive but even the way that we learn about other cultures can be fairly exclusive. We make a point of spending specific time to focus on music written by minorities but we don’t usually incorporate their works and information on them into our everyday learning. Currently it’s like every group that has been oppressed has it’s specific time to be acknowledged, which is important of course and should stay that way, but I think if we’re going to acknowledge them we should incorporate learning about them into everyday life and I think this is really important to apply this to music because there are so many amazing musicians that have been drowned out in hierarchy that white, male, musicians hold on the classical music world.

I listened to Brahms violin concerto in D major movement 3. I found it difficult at first to focus entirely on the music and take away all other distractions, but as it went on I found it easier to surrender to the music and focus all my energy on it. I listened to it at least five or six times and each time I heard something new and more of the details in the accompaniment began to reveal itself. I also found that the more I listened the more I felt myself trying to process new things every time, it became an involuntary response whenever I heard the opening notes. It was definitely a very different experience than listening to a piece as background noise and one I hope to experience more often. I began to notice reoccurring themes in both the melody and accompaniment, and because this particular piece has quite a few moments throughout that sounds very final and the opening themes are repeated I found it difficult to tell when the piece was starting versus when I had just encountered a common theme. This exercise gave me a deeper appreciation for this piece of music and it was truly magical to watch my own perception of the music change the longer I listened.

Playing music exclusively from the past can be harmful because it puts blinders on to other opportunities in the modern world. For example, we often focus on classical music written in the appropriate time period, but there are composers alive today creating similar music and other genres as well that acknowledging can help to expand our musical knowledge and make sure that we aren’t excluding music because of who wrote it, when it was composed and, to an extent, what genre it is.

If all music written by composers that are no longer alive was wiped out I would probably start with bringing forward more Eric Whitaker, he is the first example of a composer alive today that comes to my mind, and he has pieces that work for band or choir and his music is challenging and uses classical components as well as having a lot of variety in his repertoire (Sleep –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLSRVE3t17E, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgQCq4yrSDg). I would also likely turn to Philip Glass and pieces such as the Hours (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkof3nPK–Y) because he has a more traditional classical sound than some other modern composers. I would also probably bring in some John Williams because everyone loves to play the occasional film score in band.

This assignment has made me realize how few modern composers I had been exposed to. In how we are taught music today we spend an awful lot of time on past composers and their works and we tend to neglect most new age music even within the classical genre.