Showing posts with label nursery rhymes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nursery rhymes. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015

QUOTE:
"Music might be defined as a system of proportions
  in the service of a spiritual impulse."
AUTHOR: George Crumb
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music is a combination of proven mathematical principles 

  and unpredictable, inspired human responses."





COMPOSER
ANDERSON

 
FIDDLE FADDLE
Alim Shakh, Conductor 
Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
FIDDLE FADDLE
Composed for string orchestra and
later orchestrated for full orchestra,
Fiddle-Faddle was completed
January 1, 1947. It is 3 minutes and
10 seconds long and was first
performed for string orchestra on
March 30, 1947 at a concert
broadcast from the Boston Opera
House with Arthur Fiedler conducting.
Its first recording was for string
orchestra on June 21, 1947, in analog
mono sound with Arthur Fiedler
conducting the Boston Pops.

FIDDLE FADDLE
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
First Recording, 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXLwNNe5THQ

Anderson orchestrated Fiddle-Faddle for
full orchestra in 1948. It was first recorded
for full orchestra by the composer on
June 29, 1951, in analog mono sound.
Later, it was recorded in analog
stereo for full orchestra by the
composer on June 11, 1959.

COMPOSER QUOTES:
"You know it's an interesting thing now that I think of it, the first
numbers that I wrote for the Pops concerts featured the strings.
Perhaps it's because I happen to be a string player myself. I
used to play the double bass, and you might say that I never got
over it, but of course strings are really wonderful instruments
because they can play very rapid passages over a long period of
time and never get tired, because they don't have to stop to take
a breath, like the other instruments. Anyway, that's probably why
Paganini and other composers wrote very fast numbers for the
strings. They called them moto perpetuo, perpetual motion, or
something, so that was the idea back of the number that I wrote
for it, except of course that I didn't call it perpetual motion; since
it was a modern piece, I gave it a modern title, 'Fiddle Faddle.'
The only trouble was that since Arthur Fiedler introduced it every-
one started calling it Fiedler-Faddler. (laughter) Of course it
really doesn't make any difference, if you'd prefer to call it
Fiedler-Faddler that's perfectly all right with me."
(From a TV broadcast with Leroy Anderson and Arthur Fiedler)
QUESTION:
How long do you spend
on one composition?
ANDERSON:
"That varies, all the way probably from a day or two days to three
or four years. I say three or four years because, because I've got
one idea and one title that I've had around for three or four years,
I've tried to write the music to go with it and I haven't done it yet,
because I haven't been able to get it satisfactory. But it all depends
on how it works out. Sometimes it comes very easily. I remember
"Plink, Plank, Plunk!" was easy to do. I had to remember that
because I had a deadline, I was going to record the second album
and I had two or three weeks to go and there was an eighth of a
side yet to be done, and I got the idea of the title and it didn't take
me too long after that to finish it up. But others I've kept around, and
then changed. 'Fiddle-Faddle' I spent four months on and I rewrote
four times; the one you know is actually the fourth one, and three
other versions before that. Unless I'm really convinced about it, I
don't put anything out, but wait around and mull it over a week or two, 
and then you go back to it again fresh, and if you're still enthusiastic
about it, fine, but if you're not, you'd better not put the thing out and
let other people not be enthusiastic about it. You should catch it
yourself. In other words, you have to be your own worst critic, and
doing that, it may take quite some length of time before
you actually get a composition finished up."

INFORMATION MOSTLY FROM:
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Youth and Family Concerts
"THE BEAT GOES ON:
A MUSICAL LOOK AT
PERSEVEREANCE,
PACE, AND PULSE IN MUSIC"
Thomas Wilkins, Conductor
March 14-17, 2012
Curriculum Resources for Teachers & Students
FIDDLE FADDLE
Fiddle Faddle (according to the dictionary:
silly talk or an unimportant piece of trivia)
is a musical composition in a fast 2/2 time
where the constant rhythmic activity keeps
the instruments moving somewhat like an
exercise. It is considered to be a "light"
classical music composition, sometimes
referred to as "classical pops" music,
and was published in 1947. Anderson
wrote the piece as one of a number
of pieces commissioned over
time by Arthur Fiedler and the
Boston Pops Orchestra.
Arthur Fiedler
The finished piece, which premiered
in a concert broadcast from the
Boston Opera House,
Boston Opera House
instantly became a  favorite of
audiences and Arthur Fiedler alike.
Fiedler programmed it so frequently
in Pops concerts that the Pops audiences
began referring to it as "Fiedler-Faddle."
Written in classic song-and-trio form, it is
based on the childhood nursery
THREE BLIND MICE
Karaoke Instrumental
With Sheet Music
THREE BLIND MICE
The Meaning Behind
the Nursery Rhyme
(the first phrase is identical to Three Blind
Mice but because the violins are doing a
double act playing the melody and
embellishments at the same time,
the tune is disguised).
Rapid sixteenth note passages (which means
there are four sounds to every beat) fall in the
tradition of "perpetual motion"
numbers like Niccolo Paganini's
Niccolo Paganini
Moto Perpetuo

PAGANINI
MOTO PERPETUO
Yehudi Menuhin, Violin
Adolph Baller, Piano
(Recorded in 1947)
or Rimsky-Korsakov's
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Flight of the Bumblebee,

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE
Scottish National Orchestra
but Anderson makes his take unique by
introducing hoedown cadences and jazz riffs
giving the music a quasi-square dance-type
feeling. These techniques are used prominently
in the opening and closing sections contrasted
with a middle trio section played pizzicato.
Originally written for strings, this piece has been
recorded many times in the late 1940's and early
1950's by a variety of musical ensembles.

FIDDLE FADDLE

SONG AND TRIO FORM: ABA
Song and trio form is a large ternary (ABA)
form. The first A section is an ABA unto itself.
The trio (large B section) is announced by a
transitional phrase that goes up and down the
scale. During the trio we hear a new melody
which repeats with variations. At first the trio
theme is played pizzicato (plucked strings).
Next we hear the trio theme played arco (with
the bow). Then we hear the theme again in a
more jazzy style. The final section, which is
again announced by the transitional "up and
down the scale" phrase, is just like the first
section, but without repeats.
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge: 
Fiddle-Faddle
0:00 Introduction
0:06 SONG SECTION
0:18 "A" melody
0:30 "B" melody
0:35 "B" melody with different ending
0:41 "A" melody with different ending
0:55 Transition- up the scale and back down
TRIO SECTION
1:02 "C" melody- pizzicato
1:14 "C" melody- with different ending
1:25 "C" melody variation 1- melody in cellos and horns
1:37 "C" melody variation 1 with different ending
1:48 "C" melody variation 2- melody in brass, jazzy style
2:00 "C" melody variation 2 with different ending
2:11 Transition- up the scale and back down
SONG SECTION
2:15 "A" melody
2:26 "B" melody
2:38 "A" melody
2:53 Coda-Ending
Listening Map*
*Listening map based on Fiddle-Faddle, Leroy Anderson’s Greatest Hits, 
Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, available on itunes.
FIDDLE FADDLE
LESSON IDEAS 1
FIDDLE FADDLE
LESSON IDEAS 2

LINKS

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

QUOTE:
"There's music in the sighing of a reed;
  There's music in the gushing of a rill;
  There's music in all things, if men had ears:
  Their earth is but an echo of the spheres."

AUTHOR:
Lord Byron

MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"The elements of music are in
  everything if we listen for them."








COMPOSER
ANDERSON
OLD MACDONALD
HAD A FARM (1947)
Arnhems Interscholair Orkest
Leroy Anderson Centennial Festival Europe, June 2008
Information About Old MacDonald
INFORMATION FROM:
The origins of "Old MacDonald" are unknown,
however there are many versions sung through-
out the world with a changing of lyrics but with
the same effect. It was sung in World War I with
a different farmers name and then written
down in a book that dates back to 1917.
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" is a nursery rhyme
about a farmer and the events that take place on
his farm that houses a wide variety of animals and
livestock. The song is sung with each verse being
changed usually at random to a different
animal and respective animal noise.
The song has a repetitive feel to it, and the verses
are replaced from time to time with different animals
that the farmer has on the farm. The animal's
sounds are then added into the song.
There have been many versions recorded by
different artists over time, but the oldest
known recording of the song was
in 1925 by the Sam Patterson Trio.
OLD MACDONALD
HAD A FARM (1926)
By: Sam Patterson Trio
-ALSO-
NELLA VECCHIA FATTORIA (1949)
By: Quartetto Cetra

Numerous variants of this
sung dating back as far as the
early 18th century have been
recorded in England, and from
the 19th century in the U.S; one of
which was named "Old Missouri"
dated 1922 and was published
Frank Sinatra
has a version of this
song on one of his albums
which a lot of people
Frank Sinatra, Vocalist
The origin of the modern form of the
song can be traced back to 1917
where in a book named
A collection of World War I
Era Songs by F. T. Nettleingham
there is a song called "Ohio
(Old MacDougal Had a Farm)."
The song has similar lyrics but uses a
different name for the farmer and may
have originated from an American folk song.
Old MacDougal Had a Farm
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-i-o.
With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there,
Here a bow, there a wow, everywhere a bow-wow.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some hens in Ohio-i-o,
With a cluck cluck here, and a cluck cluck there,
Here a cluck, there a cluck, everywhere a cluck, cluck.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some ducks in Ohio-i-o.
With a quack quack here, and a quack quack there,
Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack, quack.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some cows in Ohio-i-o.
With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some pigs in Ohio-i-o.
With a grunt grunt here, and a grunt grunt there,
Here a grunt, there a grunt, everywhere a grunt grant.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some cats in Ohio-i-o.
With a meow meow here, and a meow meow there,
Here a meow, there a meow, everywhere a meow meow.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had an ass in Ohio-i-o.
With a hee-haw here, and a hee-haw there,
Here a hee, there a haw, everywhere a hee-haw.
Meow-meow, grunt-grunt, moo-moo,
quack-quack, Cluck-cluck, bow-wow.
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o.

OLD MAC DONALD
CLASSICAL STYLE
American Traditional 
Arranged by George Mitchell

OLD MACDONALD
POPULAR STYLE
Rock Version
Elvis Presley

OLD MACDONALD
JAZZ STYLE
Nat King Cole

Ella Fitzgerald

OLD MACDONALD
DISNEY STYLE
Old MacDonald
Had a Band (1956)

Old MacDonald
Duck Had a Farm

OLD MACDONALD
CHILDREN'S STYLE

OLD MACDONALD
IN THE MOVIES
Our Gang (1935)
HERE IS HOW
CLASSICAL MUSIC WAS USED
IN A CARTOON ABOUT
ANIMALS ON THE FARM
Disney's Silly Symphony
Farmyard Symphony
With a Short Introduction
by Walt Disney