Magnetic Tape Manipulation

I listened to "Pendulum Music" by Steve Reich and though it's not the type of music I would usually listen to, I do consider it to be music. The definition given at the beginning of this year regarding music was an organized pattern of sound and silence. It sounded exactly like a heart beat on a terror movie track. I then listened to the radio to get a sample of what is considered "popular" today and from what I could tell, the majority of the garbage...I mean music....that is played is recorded using multi-tracking which essentially allows anyone with a computer to create a song that would most likely be considered popular. Multi-tracking allows for a lot of unique (not always good) sounds to be produced.

Historical Recording

I couldn't figure out how to search the Library of Congress so instead I listened to a recording of Frank Sinatra's "My Kind of Town" that was an original recording. I noticed that the sound was a little fuzzy but I felt it enhanced the song because it gave it a quality that could only work for music from before the Beatles. I know the explanation is confusing, but it feels like to me that after the Beatles, the sound of music improved and that's how it should be for that music, but Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby all sound so much better when it's an original recording. There was little amount of bass and was short on the treble which gave it almost a neutral tone in a way. I definitely enjoy the sound quality of the song.

Alternative Music Notation

When given this assignment, I sat for awhile thinking about a way to notate music differently and make it easier to read, learn, and play. I thought of using numbers or letters originally, but I felt that it was too similar to the way it is currently. I sat for awhile longer and thought, and I think that using colors for the brass instruments might work the best. Assigning the three primary colors to each valve and then notating it on either standard sheet music or going high tech and having it on a screen seems to me to be a relatively easy and effective way of notating music. As for instruments like flutes or clarinets, I think that a color system would be too complex, so I would think that maybe doing letters and numbers could potentially work, but making it easy to read could pose some big problems for those that have to play the instruments.

Organization of Music

For this assignment to determine the rhythm I listened to the song "Sunday Afternoon" by Lucky Boys Confusion. It didn't take me very long to decide what form the rhythm was in, and very quickly I determined that it was in duple form. This didn't surprise me because almost all the music today and all the music I listen to is in duple form. I then chose Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 as my classic piece. The time is in 3/4 time so I would consider the rhythm to be in tuplet form because at times it sounded like 6/8 time and tuplets are commonly found in 6/8 time. The structure of the 2nd movement sounded like it is in A-B-a-C form because it was essentially the same theme, just repeated and varied just enough to make them different.