Music Through the Centuries Essay Example for Free

Music Through the Centuries Essay The period between 1400 and 1600 is called the Renaissance period. Also known as the period of rebirth, this period brought out the inventions that made a great impact on the lives of people up to the present. The critical and ambitious minds of inventors allow the invention of clock, gunpowder and eyeglasses. Consequently, certain aspects of music also changed. Polyphonic and imitation among voices became rampant. The vocals, whose main purpose is to bring forth emotion and meaning in music, were greatly utilized and some pieces of church songs were intended for a capella performance. With these, the Renaissnce period acquired the name Golden Age of A Capella Music. The impact on music was so vast that families for musical instruments develop. Harmony gained significant attention to the composers who favored blending over contrasting. At the same time, texture became richer because bass was registered for the first time. Some of the famous composers in this era included Josquin Des Prez and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. If given the chance to choose a musical composition in this period, I will choose the Ave Maria by Josquin Des Prez. The song is very relaxing and soothing. It has a great combination of overlapping and alternating high and low notes. Vocals are good and an atmosphere of peace and lightness is exemplified as one listens to this music. After the Renaissance comes the Baroque period (1600-1750), which is characterized by splendid, glamorous and lavish effects on arts, science and music. The canopy of the altar of St. Peters Basilica was constructed and a number of natural laws were found such as the laws of pressure by Robert Boyle. Modes, which were rampant during the Renaissance and Medieval period, were replaced with major and minor tonalities. Basso continuo was greatly accepted and used, as well as the doctrine of affection, which allows the composers to express their feelings freely in music. Composers during this period realized that counterpoint, free use of dissonance, imitative polyphony and homophobic method are essential in their field of artistry. They showed emphasis on volume, texture and pace in music and frequent usage of basic triads and inversions. At the same time, the composers began to explore the inner ability of music to express human spirits and to depict natural phenomena. Opera also flourished because of the Italians desire to recapture the Greek drama where music played an important part. Solo vocalists and the style of homophony were utilzed to help the listeners focus on the melody of the song. Orchestra also began to take shape as string intruments such as violin became dominant. Famous composers that popularized this grandiose style of music included Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldo, and George Frideric Handel. To name one of the great muscial compositions in this era, I would prefer Cantata 80 of Bach. This song is festive-like with good transition of high notes and low notes. The song brings a warm and welcoming aura. This song expresses a high level of emotion as well as a great evidence of how good and hard it is to compose a piece of music. After the Baroque period comes the Classical period (1750-1825). During this period, the first edition of Encyclopedia Brittancia was released. The first vaccination was made and the electric battery was invented by Volta. Compared to Baroque music, Classical music has less complicated texture but has far more variety and contrast because of the use of words such as pitch, tempo, mood, and timbre. Melody is shorter than the Baroque music but with clear-cut phrases and cadences. Functional harmony was retained but tended to focus on slow rhytmic harmony. Metric pulses were present but were not emphasized. Moreover, occasional pauses and rhythmic set points were also common. On the other hand, the orchestra continued to develop with an additional section for the woodwind instruments. The same with the opera wherein piano is considered the most inportant intrument in every performance. Great importance was given on instrumental music, and sonata form was the most important design in this period. Using these styles of music, several composers became known during this period such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. The Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart is an adorable and explicitly unique music. Listening to this music, one can feel the notes freely moving across the music sheet. It has charming and rich melodies that made this music a classical favorite not only in the past but also in the present. The joyful, skipping melody made this music enjoyable and light to hear. Classical period was succeeded by the Romantic period (1825-1900), also known as the Age of Sentimentality. It is during this time that telephone, light bulb, and radio transmissions were developed. In terms of music, there was a simultaneous development of musical extremes. Although basso continuo was totally abandoned, chromaticism flourished and textures were more developed. The virtuosity of the composers were enhanced and they put emphasis on beauty, elegance, and balance in their compostitions. Music became lyrical with dramatic contrasts in dynamics and pitch. Because this was the period for freedom of design and form, music became thematical. Programme music developed and the idea of nationalism flourished because of the need to break away from the strong influence of Germany on music. Fryderyk Franciskez Chopin and Franz Schubert were some of the famous composers in this period. The song of Erlking by Schubert is a good example of romantic music. This song is great because it is very enticing and one can feel the energy flowing through the entire piece. The continuous pulsation of notes gives this song a playful genre. It can be compared to prancing horses that can give one this feeling of excitement and curiosity. With the Classical Music declining, Modern Music became the reigning music in the 1900s. Some of the events that totally changed the history of the world are World War I and II as well as the Vietnam War. This change had a great effect on how music was viewed during this period. Modern Music focused on treating variety, continuity, and mood. Noise makers such as sirens and typewriters as well as percussion instruments became a vital part in this industry (Thinkquest, 1999). The aim to build an unusual music resulted to the employment of tongue fluttering and other special techniques. Dissonance is also preferred than consonance,which resulted to a development of fantasy-like, distant, and mystifying music. To gain an impression of imbalance, polyrhythm was employed. Some of the great composers in this era were Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky. The Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb is a great example of how modern music should sound like. This work is extraordinary and mystifying. The music itself is powerful but there is a haunting effect that provokes the listeners to seek for musical images. It stirs up the emotions of the listeners through the tensions placed on the entire musical score. The musics great shimmering echoes and frequent echoing silence and passages made this song my personal favorite. References Thinkquest (1999) Characteristics of 20th Century Music. Retrieved from http://library. thinkquest. org/27927/20%20century_Characteristics. htm

Othello’s Universality of Appeal :: Othello essays

Othello’s Universality of Appeal  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   The Shakespearean play Othello has enjoyed popularity on the stage and in print for 400 years. What are the features which enhance this quality among readers? And what detracts?    Does the playwright’s use of â€Å"double time† contribute to its universality of appeal? In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the advantages of â€Å"double time† to Shakespeare:    â€Å"Double time† is a classical topic of Othello criticism; one of its uses is to remind us that the play, more largely considered, is characterized by a kind of imaginative duplicity. Thus one can isolate a plot of monumental and satisfying simplicity without forgetting that the text can be made to support very different interpretations. The richness of the tragedy derives from uncancelled suggestions, from latent subplots operating in terms of imagery as well as character, even from hints of large philosophical and theological contexts which are not fully developed. (1200)    Additional reasons exist for such a broad appeal. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains in broad terms the basis for the play’s universality of appeal:    If, however, the interpretation offered above is sound, Othello is clearly not without universal significance, for, apart from its dramatization of the difficulty of discovering reality behind appearance, its two main characters exemplify opposing principles which together constitute the human psyche. Othello believes in love, in complete commitment, in nobility, in vocation, and in absolutes. Iago believes in nothing, and least of all in other human beings. (39)    More reasons for the play’s popularity appear. A. C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the modernity of the drama as a reason for its popularity:    One result of the prominence of the element of intrigue is that Othello is less unlike a story of private life than any other of the great tragedies. And this impression is strengthened in further ways. [. . .] But Othello is a drama of modern life; when it first appeared it was a drama almost of contemporary life, for the date of the Turkish attack of Cyprus is 1570. The characters come close to us, and the application of the drama to ourselves (if the phrase may be pardoned) is more immediate than it can be in Hamlet or Lear. Besides this, their fortunes affect us as those of private individuals more than is possible in any of the later tragedies with the exception of Timon.

Influence on Culture Essay

Surely, not all upper middle class professionals in their late twenties or early thirties shared the same values or ideals. The media, however, used to popularize a certain image of the yuppie with features that became stereotypical and reflected, at least in the journalists’ opinion, the dominant trends in this environment. The yuppie was used to describe not only certain demographic characteristics, but also to denote a psychographic profile including â€Å"a set of behavioural and psychographic attributes that have come to constitute a commonly believed stereotype† (Wikipedia). Thus, yuppie values were supposed to be more conservative than even their parents who were often involved in social programs and idealistic movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Yuppies, on the contrary, were people tended to favour stability and devote more attention to their own problems instead of trying to reform the society. Stability for yuppies was embodied in ownership of material things. In their choice of purchases, they supposedly demonstrated a poor taste buying more expensive stuff in order to show off their wealth. Their lifestyle was heavily impacted by career demands. Career was a necessary prerequisite for sustaining a life of comfort, and its requirements acquired a paramount importance. This resulted in a frequent lack of time that took a heavy toll on their families. Family relationships were often jeopardized by the necessity to move to a different place once in a few years under the influence of the career necessity. The strain in their professional lives often resulted in moral and mental exhaustion, aggravated by the high level of competition in high-income jobs that has been labelled a rat race. Climbing a career ladder in a corporate environment requires a specific set of skills and mentality that were fostered by the yuppies with great persistence. Too often this career-making drive affected their relationships with families and friends. Yuppies were also believed to share â€Å"an entire code of unwritten etiquette can govern their activities from golf and tennis to luncheons at trendy cocktail bars† (Wikipedia). Although the yuppie social group was to some extent invented by the media, the existence of the social and political concept of this group had an undeniable influence on the conceptualisation of social realia by the contemporary society. This perception of social reality was bound to exert influence on cultural life and lead to several talented portrayals of the new groups in artistic works. The artists, unlike the media, often focused on the positive characteristics of the yuppie social group. A typical representative of the class â€Å"had high educational achievement, a high income, enjoyed urban life, had a success orientation, and was a hard worker† (Kawasaki 1994). They were able to achieve affluence in one swoop and therefore did not feel pressured to maintain aristocratic attitudes. As a result, the new generation was less obsessed with gender, racial or regional distinctions. There was even the term â€Å"buppie† – black yuppie. The yuppie generation was portrayed in the works by Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Jill Eisenstadt, the most prominent writers of the yuppie era. The biggest success of their literature was the 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City by McInerney. The novel also features a character seeking refuge from challenging professional environment in â€Å"Bolivian marching powder† (cocaine) to offset the continuous stress associated with crazy yuppie lifestyle (Nostalgia Central). Bret Easton’s most remarkable work was Less Than Zero (1985) in which he describes â€Å"New Lost Generation†, and Eisenstadt became famous with From Rockaway (1987). Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities also depicted the effect of a decadent lifestyle on yuppie culture. This tender portrayal of the newly emerged social group was offset with indignation over lavish yuppie lifestyles, manifested through â€Å"Die Yuppie Scum† bumper stickers. Influence on Fashions Yuppies left a lasting impact on fashions of the 1980s, naturally affecting most the segment for expensive designer apparel. Their dressing style was supposed to demonstrate â€Å"conspicuous wastage† (Tomas 2001). They wore wide shouldered jackets in the day time, and on the weekends they changed to a Barbour for a country look or a ballgown that manifested their comfortable lifestyle.

Halloween Vocabulary in Spanish

Are you celebrating Halloween? With this vocabulary list, you can do it in Spanish. la araà ±a — spider. la bruja — witch. Much like the English word, bruja can also be used to refer to a strongly disliked woman. el brujo — wizard, sorcerer. la calabaza — pumpkin. This word can also refer to various kinds of gourds, such as a calabash. la casa embrujada — haunted house. Embrujado is the past participle of embrujar, usually translated as to bewitch. el diablo — devil. The English and Spanish words come from the same Latin source. Note the similarity with diabolical. el disfraz — costume or disguise. el duende — goblin. The word can refer to various kinds of magical creatures such as elves and imps. A person who has a certain kind of magic or charm about him or her can be said to tener duende. los dulces, los caramelos — candy. As an adjective, dulce is simply the word for sweet. And while caramelo can refer to caramel, it most often refers to candies in general. Caramelo is probably related to miel, the word for honey. el esqueleto — skeleton. el fantasma — ghost. Like most other words of Greek origin that end in -ma, fantasma is masculine, making an exception to the rule that nouns ending in -a are typically feminine. el gato negro — black cat. el hechizo — spell (as from a witch). The word can also refer to a persons charm. The verb form, meaning to cast a spell, is hechizar. la jack-o-lantern — jack-o-lantern. The decoration can also be described as a calabaza iluminada, lighted pumpkin. la magia — magic. Something magical is mà ¡gico. la mà ¡scara — mask. This is the source of the English mascara. la momia — mummy. The English and Spanish come from an Arabic word referring to an embalmed body. el murcià ©lago — bat (the animal that flies). This word is derived from the Latin mouse (rat) and caecus (blind), so its original meaning was blind mouse. Noche de Brujas — Halloween. The phrase literally translates as Witches Night, and Dà ­a de Brujas, Witches Day, is also used. It also is very common in the United States and some other areas with U.S. influence to use Halloween. el superhà ©roe, la superheroà ­na — superhero. In modern usage, it is not unusual to hear  the form la superhà ©roe  for a female superhero. la telaraà ±a — cobweb, spider web. This is a combination of two words, tela, usually referring to fabric, and araà ±a, the word for spider. In a different context, telaraà ±a can also refer to a net (such as one for catching fish) or a tangle of cables, strings or similar items. truco o trato — trick or treat. The English phrase is often used as well. Truco is often translated as trick, such as a trick of the trade or a magic trick. Trato, on the other hand, normally is a contract or agreement. It doesnt mean treat, although it can mean treatment when it refers to the way someone treats someone else. el vampiro, la vampira — vampire. The word probably came from Hungarian. el/la zombi — zombie. The English spelling is sometimes used.