More about music
The other day I was driving home from my parent's house, Dylan was fortunately sleeping in the back of the car, there was nothing good on the radio, and I was sick to death of the CDs in the car, so I decided to play my Classical Music Game. I'm not sure if I've written about this before (it's possible), but I like to turn on the classical stations in the middle of a song and try to guess the composer. So I found a song that was bearable to listen to (the other classical station had a clarinet concerto on... gag me). And after listening to it for a few minutes I had it narrowed down to some kind of Romantic composer from Eastern Europe who took a lot of their material from folk tunes. I guessed Bella Bartok as the composer, but found out when it was over that it was actually Dvorjak. So close. I hate it when I'm wrong. But at least I was able to get the characteristics correct. It would have sucked if it turned out to be a Baroque composer from England. Anyway, it's a fun game for me.
I also like how lots of baby toys now use classical music. You know, to help you have a smart baby. For instance, the crib mobile I got Dylan was designed by developmental psychologists as well as musicologists. Honestly as soon as I saw the musicologists part of the description I stopped reading and just bought it. It plays 3 classical pieces: Sonata in A by Mozart (the Theme and Variations one), Prelude in C by Bach, and some unrecognizable Beethoven piece. How is it possible that I dont know the Beethoven piece?? I'm sure if I had looked it up in the directions that came with the mobile it probably would mention the song, but that's cheating. Anyway, he loves the mobile. It usually gives me enough time to take a shower or sleep in for an extra 15 mins if he wakes up too early, which is my favorite thing about it. He also has a swing that plays TONS of different songs. And several of them are pieces I've played. So whenever they come on I stop and listen to them and compare how I play them differently, or check to see if they've made any alterations to the piece. I'm happy to say that so far I've only noticed one piece that has been slightly altered, and I'm not sure why. But his swing plays Fur Elise, and it even plays the ENTIRE piece (not just the familiar part), and it's true to the music up until the VERY end when it adds an extra descending 1-5-1 in the bass instead of just ending on the A minor chord. No clue why they felt the need to do that, but it kinda irritates me. Oh well, that's just my snobbishness. Otherwise though they do a good job with the music.
Lastly...
One of my college professors, who I also worked with at St Matt's for a while, used to always point out when composers wrote music with lyrics that had a rhythm similar to how you would speak the words. So the accents of the beats fell on the natural accents of the words. Seems like she thought this was a good trait. Lately I've noticed that a lot of the pop music I like follows this as well. For example, I think Ben Folds does this really well. Especially in "Evaporated" which is the last song on "Whatever and Ever Amen." I love how easily and naturally the lyrics flow in that song. Just like you were setting natural speech to a pretty melody. And it's really distracting when lyrics don't follow the natural flow of speech. I've noticed that it can make it hard to understand the words.
Those are my current thoughts on music.
I also like how lots of baby toys now use classical music. You know, to help you have a smart baby. For instance, the crib mobile I got Dylan was designed by developmental psychologists as well as musicologists. Honestly as soon as I saw the musicologists part of the description I stopped reading and just bought it. It plays 3 classical pieces: Sonata in A by Mozart (the Theme and Variations one), Prelude in C by Bach, and some unrecognizable Beethoven piece. How is it possible that I dont know the Beethoven piece?? I'm sure if I had looked it up in the directions that came with the mobile it probably would mention the song, but that's cheating. Anyway, he loves the mobile. It usually gives me enough time to take a shower or sleep in for an extra 15 mins if he wakes up too early, which is my favorite thing about it. He also has a swing that plays TONS of different songs. And several of them are pieces I've played. So whenever they come on I stop and listen to them and compare how I play them differently, or check to see if they've made any alterations to the piece. I'm happy to say that so far I've only noticed one piece that has been slightly altered, and I'm not sure why. But his swing plays Fur Elise, and it even plays the ENTIRE piece (not just the familiar part), and it's true to the music up until the VERY end when it adds an extra descending 1-5-1 in the bass instead of just ending on the A minor chord. No clue why they felt the need to do that, but it kinda irritates me. Oh well, that's just my snobbishness. Otherwise though they do a good job with the music.
Lastly...
One of my college professors, who I also worked with at St Matt's for a while, used to always point out when composers wrote music with lyrics that had a rhythm similar to how you would speak the words. So the accents of the beats fell on the natural accents of the words. Seems like she thought this was a good trait. Lately I've noticed that a lot of the pop music I like follows this as well. For example, I think Ben Folds does this really well. Especially in "Evaporated" which is the last song on "Whatever and Ever Amen." I love how easily and naturally the lyrics flow in that song. Just like you were setting natural speech to a pretty melody. And it's really distracting when lyrics don't follow the natural flow of speech. I've noticed that it can make it hard to understand the words.
Those are my current thoughts on music.
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