Assignment #5 Music

Jazz Music

Jazz music is a type of popular music that is characterized by improvisation on popular melodies and a swinging rhythm. It can often be hard to define because it spans from the Ragtime waltzes to the 21st century. Even though Jazz can be difficult to define, improvisation is defiantly one of the key elements. A skilled performer will interpret a tune in an individual way, they will never play the same composition exactly the same way.

The typical instruments involved in jazz music include the saxophone, clarinet, flute, vibraphone, trumpet, piano, guitar, banjo, tuba, double bass, bass guitar, trombone, a drum kit, as well as vocals.

Jazz is truly an American genre in that it finds its orgins on American soil. During the early 19th century almost a half of million Africans were bought over to America via the slave trade. Most of these slaves came from West Africa and brought their strong tribal musical traditions with them. The African tradition used the call and response patter, the rhythms reflected African speech patters and used African  pentatonic scales; which eventually evolved into blue notes, in blues and jazz.

Once slavery was abolished African- Americans began to look for work, many of them found jobs in entertainment including dances, minstrel shows and vaudeville. These former slaves played pianos in bars, clubs and brothels. This evolved into ragtime. Through traveling shows,  ragtime began to change into what we now know as jazz began to spread throughout the US.

Jazz began to flourish  during the early 20th century in African American communities located in the southern United States. The word Jazz, which in the early years was spelled jass began as a West Coast slang term and was first used to refer to music in Chicago around 1915.

Actually my boyfriend plays the saxophone, his style of choice is jazz music. One of his favorite Jazz artist is John Coltrane Feature in the video below.

Peter and the Wolf

The instrument that plays Peter is played by the string instruments

The duck is played by the oboe



The wolf is played by the french horn

The bird is played by flute

The Grandfather is played by bassoon

The hunters are played by timpani and bass drum

                                                                                             

Classical Music

The period of classical music is from about 1750 to 1810. This is the time of Hayden, Mozart, and Beethoven. Classical music embodies clarity of form and logic of development. The classical period is distinguished from classical music in general.

Classical music is rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music. It encompasses a broad period .

Instruments that are included in the classical genre include instruments used in the orchestra as well as instruments such as the piano, harp and organ.

                                                                 

Montage of great classical music composers.

 From left to right:

first row - Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven;

second row - Gioachino Rossini, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi;

 third row - Johann Strauss II, Johannes Brahms, Georges Bizet, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvořák;

 fourth row - Edvard Grieg, Edward Elgar, Sergei Rachmaninoff, George Gershwin, Aram Khachaturian