Showing posts with label Leroy Anderson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leroy Anderson. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

TUESDAY, JUNE 09, 2015

QUOTE:
"You can't possibly hear the last movement
   of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow."
AUTHOR: Oscar Levant 
                          (explaining his way out
                            of a speeding ticket)
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music has the power to alter your behavior depending
  on the type of music you  are listening to."




COMPOSER
ANDERSON
A TRUMPETER'S LULLABY
Wynton Marsalis, Trumpet
A TRUMPETER'S LULLABY
Leroy Anderson had a strong relationship
with the Boston Pops Orchestra. After
one concert, Roger Voisin,
principal trumpet, asked Anderson
to write a trumpet solo different from
the usual loud, martial, or triumphant
works in existence. Anderson
wrote about the request:
"After thinking it over, it occurred to me that I had never
heard a lullaby for trumpet, so I set out to write one with
a quiet melody based on bugle notes played by the trumpet
and with the rest of the orchestra playing a lullaby background."
This delightful composition, for solo
trumpet and ensemble, lives up to the
definition of a lullaby: a song to quiet
children or lull them to sleep. The
opening andante tranquillo section
"rocks" the child to sleep. A short
piu animato section recalls the child's
dreams of active play before the original
tempo returns and the child is fast asleep.
Trumpet
BUGLER'S HOLIDAY
Lewisham Concert Band, 2011
BUGLER'S HOLIDAY
Canadian Brass
with Victoria Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7zs54Vq_l4
BUGLER'S HOLIDAY
This arrangement of Bugler's Holiday
features a trumpet trio with band
accompaniment. This brisk piece allows
the performers to show off their
articulation, intonation, and ensemble
playing. Since its composition in 1954,
it has motivated many trumpeters to
improve their technique of double tongu-ing
and the quality of their bell tones.
Bugle
Though the Bugler's Holiday is performed
by trumpets the question might be asked:
BUGLES and TRUMPETS
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
The basic difference between bugles and
trumpets is found in the shape of the bell.
The musical definition of a trumpet (natural
trumpet) is that of a horn which has two
thirds of its length in the form of a cylindrical
tube (meaning the tubing stays the same size
through most of the instrument, only getting
larger at the bell) usually it is five sixths of the
total length. A bugle has a conical shape
through-out (meaning that the tubing gets
gradually larger throughout the
length of the instrument).
Trumpet
Bugle
The shape of the bell plus the shape of the
mouthpiece produces a different quality of
sound in each. The trumpet is known for its
bright, strident, brash sound, while the bugle
is known for its darker and mellower tone.
Today, the term "bugle" can simply mean a
brass instrument without valves or slides.
Bugles have no valves like the trumpet and
can thus can only produce a limited number
of notes found in the harmonic series of a
single fundamental tone. All musical sounds
that we hear contain overtones (harmonics),
or tones that resonate in fixed relationships
above a fundamental frequency.
Being without valves made the instrument
practical for its use in military-style signaling
(like Taps or Reveille) of times past.
Bugles are traditionally
in the key of G.
LINKS
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, June 8, 2015

MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015

QUOTE:
"Music rots when it gets too far from the dance.
 Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music."
AUTHOR: Ezra Pound
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music and poetry are pleasing beause they are both
 associated with the rhythm of movement something
 that all human beings can relate to."



COMPOSER
ANDERSON
SANDPAPER BALLET
Andrés Salado, Conductor
Percussionists:
Alfredo Anaya and Alberto Román
In The Sandpaper Ballet (1954)
percussionists use three grades
of sandpaper to scratch out the
rhythms using sandblocks
Sand Blocks

Wooden blocks covered with sandpaper that are
rubbed together to make a brushing sound.
SANDPAPER BALLET
Peter Dabrowski, Conductor
VSO and Percussionists:
Terry Shingler, Sonny Rosa,
and Philip Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doV2j3_Amgo
in this unique take on the old
soft-shoe vaudeville routine when
dancers spread sand on the stage and
did a "tap-shoe" style dance (without
the taps on the shoes) upon it.
INFORMATION FROM:
http://www.pbs.org/sleighride/Video&Music/Compositions_Sandpaper.htm
Composed for orchestra, his 3 minute
and 10 second Sandpaper Ballet
was written during 5 days before
its recording date on June 25, 1954.
Its first performance was in analog
mono sound but was re-recorded
in analog stereo sound by the
composer on May 28, 1959.
It is not a ballet score: Leroy Anderson
intended it to be an orchestral work
designed as a tribute to the soft-shoe
style of dancing associated
with vaudeville.
Quoting Anderson:
"Many years ago while the soft shoe dance was still
popular in vaudeville, sometimes dancers would
sprinkle sand on the stage to create a crackling sound
while performing. The drummers imitated this sound
by attaching sandpaper on wooden blocks which
they rubbed rhythmically against each other. This was
the background for my piece 'Sandpaper Ballet.'
The sandpaper covered blocks are in this case imitated
by two drummers. They use sand-paper in three
different strengths, coarse, medium and fine,
to create different effects."
The work opens with the strange, rhythmic
sound of what vaguely sounds like a snare
drum played with brush strokes but the
instruments really used are sandblocks:
sections of wood rubbed against
sheets of sandpaper.
The main theme is jaunty and carefree,
played by subdued, mellow strings. The
music gradually takes on a slightly brighter,
more colorful manner. The sandpaper
rhythms continue throughout and are even
heard in what one might describe as brief
cadenzas or solo rythmic passages. 
LINKS
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Friday, June 5, 2015

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2014

QUOTE:
"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
AUTHOR: Voltaire

MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"What you might feel uncomfortable verbally expressing
  out loud is easier to state through music."

COMPOSER
ANDERSON
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK

THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK (1951)
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
The Syncopated Clock was used as
movie by television stations in New
York City and Los Angeles in the
1950's making it immediately
recognizable to millions of people.
The song became very popular and
charted at #12 on the Billboard
Original Billboard review:
"A completely delightful Anderson melodic
strain is worked into a frothy, catchy and
richly recorded instrumental piece which
should stir up pop action."


THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
A-Capella Singers
(No Lyrics)
Fidel Gener Calalang Jr, Conductor
University of Santo Tomas Singers
SYNCOPATION AND
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
Syncopation is a musical technique where
there is a disruption in the rhythm that moves the
stress from an accented beat to a weak beat.
Normal Configuration of Strong/Weak Beats
(Naturally Accented Beats are "Strong" or "Down" beats
Weak beats are "Up" or "Off" beats)
Syncopation Emphasing the Weak Beats

HOW MUSIC WORKS:
RHYTHM-ACCENTS AND SYCOPATION

A segment of Howard Goodall's
2006 Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQ1A7YT1pQ

In this arrangement, the "clock" in 4/4 time
(usually played by a form of temple blocks)
is alternating between louder and
softer tic noises.
Tick-Tock Blocks
But every so often where one of the loud
tics would occur there's a one beat pause,
followed by two quick beats to catch up
again. This causes the loud tick to fall
where the soft tick should have occurred.
As the piece proceeds, the "clock"
continues to indulge in brief moments
of syncopation. Some are expected by
the listener (as the tune repeats the
passage in which the first syncopation
occurred); others are not, creating a
whimsical and comic effect.

The Syncopated Clock has been been
instrumentally arranged many different
ways but the original percussion scoring
for this piece included a wood block,
Wood Block
triangle (alarm clock),
Triangle
cow bell,
Cow Bell
and wind whistle.
Wind Whistle
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
ARTICLE FROM:
PBS.org
Composed for orchestra, The Syncopated
Clock was completed in April of 1945. It is
2 minutes and  20 seconds long and was
written in Arlington, Virginia while the
composer was stationed in Washington,
D.C. in the Army. It was first performed at
the Boston Pops "Army Night," May 28, 1945
as an extra following Promenade, with the
composer conducting. Lyrics were added
to The Syncopated Clock by
Mitchell Parish in 1950.
Photo: Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish
Arthur Fiedler, conducting the
Boston Pops, first recorded it in analog
mono sound on June 18, 1950 and
later re-recorded in stereo analog sound
by the composer on June 26, 1959.
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
Arthur Fiedler, Conductor
Boston Pops Orchestra, 1951
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5IVf4slDiA

In an interview Leroy Anderson was
asked the following question:
QUESTION:
"Which do you think of first,
the title, or the composition?"
ANDERSON:
"Well, actually, I do both. In certain
cases, such as 'The Syncopated Clock,'
I thought of the title, as it came to me,
because it incorporated an idea that I
thought could be expressed in music. I
noticed of course as everyone has, that
there have been hundreds and hundreds,
if not thousands, of tunes about clocks. It
suddenly struck me that all these clocks
were regular clocks, such as you hear
everywhere. No one had written a musical
composition based on a syncopated clock,
that is a clock that beats to a syncopated
rhythm. And the idea struck me as an
attractive one, and I then sat down and
wrote the music to with the title."
THE SYCOPATED CLOCK
Rosemary Clooney, Vocalist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=rkvd2ItdtMk
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
VOCAL 
(With Readable Lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0pIXz2omZE
THE SYNCOPATED CLOCK
By: Mitchell Parish
There was a man like you and me,
as simple as a man could ever be;
And he was happy as a king,
except for one peculiar thing.
He had a clock that worked all right,
It worked all right, but not exactly quite;
Instead of going "tick, tock, tick,"
the crazy clock went "tock, tick, tock."
The poor old man just raved and raved,
because nobody could say
Why his silly clock behaved
that hickory-dickory way.
But now a famous man is he,
He owns a public curiosity;
From far and wide the people flock
To hear the syncopated clock.
Tick-a-tock, Tick-tock,
Tick-a-tock, Tick-tock,
Tick-a-tock, Tick-tock,
Tick-tock, Tick-tock
Tick-a-tock, tick-a-tock,
There's a zing in the swing of that clock,
Tock-a-tick, tock-a-tick,
Don't you think it's a marvelous trick?
Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling,
There's a zong in the bong of that ring,
Ling-a-ting, ling-a-ting,
Don't you think it's a wonderful thing?
The experts came to hear and see,
But none of them could solve the mystery.
They called Professor Einstein too,
He said "There's nothing I can do."
But soon the fickle human race
will find another freak to take its place,
And one fine day the man will hock
the poor old syncopated clock.

SYNCOPATED CLOCK

MUSICAL FORM ACTIVITY


SYNCOPATED MUSICAL CLOCK

LISTENING ACTIVITY



Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)