Famous Pieces of 8 composers in the Classical Era

I listened to the various popular pieces of each of these composers, and finalised one piece for each composers. I preferred the pieces shown below because they were the most popular and all seemed to somehow captivate me.

-Franz Joesph Hadyn: "Le matin"
Le matin is a miniature symphony (sixth symphony) that glows from pianissimo to fortissimo and as many musicians have commented "it paints a tone of magic". This is what inspired the title of the piece.

-Wolfgang Amadeus  Mozart: "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
Eline Kleine Nachtmusik is one of Mozart's most well-known works. This piece mirrors the tempo markings that one would find in a typical four-movement symphony. It was originally written for a string quartet but has been arranged for many other ensembles since its creation.

-Antonio Salieri: "Les Danaïdes"
Les Danaïdes is an opera by Antonio Saileri, in 5 acts. More specifically, it is a tragédie lyrique.

-Christoph Willibald Gluck: "Dance of the blessed spirits"
This piece is an opera composed by Gluck. It belongs to the genre of azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing.

-Muzio Clementi: "Allegro"
Towards the end of the 18th century, Clementi increasingly advocated the piano as the successor to the harpsichord. He composed expressly for the new instrument. His interest in teaching is demonstrated in his piece by the Six progressive Sonatinas- six sonatinas in ascending order of difficulty.

-Luigi Boccherini: "Minuetto"
The Minuetto was Boccherini's most famous piece and frequently used in modern advertising and film. His music is slightly idiosyncratic and known for being highly repetitive or "cyclic" and sensitive to subtle changes in timbre and volume. The scores have specific performance instructions indicating the character, style tempo and technique.

-Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: "Solfeggietto"
Solfeggietto is a short solo keyboard piece in C minor composed by Carl. His work is correctly called Solfeggio, although Solfeggietto is the title widely used today. Other refer to his work as a toccata (a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument). The piece is unusual for a keyboard piece in that the main theme and some other passages are fully monophonic, i.e. music with a single part.

-Ludwig Van Beethoven: "Für Elise"
Fur Elise is one of the most famous pieces of piano history composed by Beethoven, a musician who became completely deaf in the last years of his life; in spite of this oppressive obstacle, he composed a beautiful and symphonic piece.

References: 

• http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/oct/15/symphony-guide-haydn-sixth-tom-service
• http://study.com/academy/lesson/eine-kleine-nachtmusik-history-analysis-composer.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Dana%C3%AFdes
• http://www.allmusic.com/composition/dance-of-the-blessed-spirits-melody-arrangement-from-orfeo-ed-euridice-mc0002376017
• http://www.alfred.com/Products/Six-Sonatinas-Op-36--00-22525.aspx 
• http://mattwells.tripod.com/lyrics1.htm
• http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/934491/Solfeggietto.html
• http://www.8notes.com/scores/fur_elise_beethoven_ludwig_van.asp

Classical composers in the era of 1750 and 1830

Classical composers in the era of 1750 and 1830

Spanning eighty years, the classical period is a time when composers began pulling in the reigns of the many baroque period musical styles by creating strict compositional "rules and regulations."  Yet within their rigidity, great composers like Haydn and Mozart were able to create some of the greatest classical music the world has ever known, though they weren't the only composers responsible for superb classical period music. Here are a few of the classical composers who were well known in this era:

1.     Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Haydn was a remarkable composer, exemplifying the meaning of classical period composition, and his music always stayed true to form.  Haydn, unlike most composers, had a "reliable and steady" job composing, directing, teaching, performing, and managing musicians from the royal Esterhazy family. During this time, Haydn composed many pieces of music for the courtly orchestra to perform. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Symphony" or "Father of the String Quartet."

2.     Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- 1791): Born in 1756, Mozart began composing at the age of five. Shortly thereafter, he toured with his father and sister. Tragically, Mozart died at the young age of 35.  Yet during his short life span, Mozart greatly advanced classical period music with over 600 compositions.  His compositional style is similar to that of Haydn's, only more flamboyant and often criticized for having "too many notes."

3.     Antonio Salieri (1750- 1825): Salieri was a respected Kapellmeister who was most notable for his contributions to opera, but stopped composing operas in 1804 before composing only church music.  Salieri was friends with Haydn and gave music composition lessons to Ludwig van Beethoven.

4.     Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714- 1787): Gluck revolutionized opera by weaving underlying melodic themes and orchestral passages within the recitatives as they flowed into the arias.  He wrote his scores in line with the opera's text similar to how modern composers compose film scores, and also melded French and Italian operatic styles.  In the late 1760s, Gluck allowed Salieri to study with him and become his protege.

5.     Muzio Clementi (1752-1830): Clementi was a strong and vocal promoter of the piano. Clementi was a master of many musical trades including a performer, composer, publisher, teacher, arranger, and even instrument maker. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, collecting and publishing music manuscripts including those of Beethoven's and selling pianos. He also taught students that went on to teach great composers like Chopin and Mendelssohn. Clementi's most notable body of work includes his compositions for piano: Gradus ad Parnassum

6.     Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805): Luigi Boccherini lived during the same time as Haydn. In fact, their music is so closely related, musicologists often refer to Boccherini as the "wife of Haydn." Unfortunately, Bocchernini's music never surpassed the popularity of Haydn's and he sadly died in poverty. Like Haydn, Boccherini has a prolific collection of compositions, but his most notable works are his cello sonatas and concertos as well as his guitar quintets. However, his most popular and instantly recognizable classical piece of music is his famous Minuet from the string quintet 

7.     Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714- 1788): The second of three sons born to the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, was highly revered by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. C.P.E. Bach's most valuable contribution to the classical period (and the music world as a whole) was his publication, An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. It instantly became the definitive for piano technique. To this day, it is still largely taught throughout the world.

8.     Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770- 1827): Many view Beethoven as the bridge connecting the classical period to the romantic period. Beethoven only wrote nine symphonies. Compare that to Haydn and Mozart, who, combined, wrote over 150 symphonies. What makes Beethoven special was his successful attempt to break the mold of the highly structured and refined rules of classical period composition. His compositions, especially the famous Symphony No. 9, opened the flood gates of composing with emotional abandon.

References: 
-http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/classicalperiod/tp/Top-Classical-Period Composers.htm
-http://study.com/academy/lesson/classical-era-composers-mozart-haydn-beethoven.html

International Day Reflection

International Day Reflection

For our international day music performance, I performed in a group in the culture cafe. The group consisted of Asli, Maria, Kian and myself. We sang “Baby one more time” by Britney Spears in 5 different languages (English, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Icelandic) and Kian assisted by playing the acoustic guitar.

Over the course of 2 weeks, we managed to construct our performance. We started off by selecting a popular song, one that would definitely attract and captivate the audiences’ attention- Baby one more time by Britney Spears. This was a good song selection as it was well known and was up beat. Then we decided what all languages we were going to incorporate into our performance. Theoretically, we thought it would be easier if we incorporated the languages that we are learning from MFL anyways. Asli and I learn French and Maria learns Spanish- this is why we included both of these languages. While Asli and I researched and found the translation for the verse in French, Maria did the same for Spanish. Additionally, we thought we could incorporate languages from our cultures, so that’s exactly what we did. Asli translated the lyrics of a verse to Turkish, and Maria translated the lyrics for the bridge into Icelandic. We considered my language (Malayalam), but we faced some difficulties with it. This was because there were certain English words that weren’t present in my language, so it was almost impossible to translate it correctly.

After the incorporation of these various languages, we learnt how to pronounce the lyrics. French was fairly easy to pronounce and memorize, as I take French as one of my subjects anyways. Asli and I taught Maria how to pronounce the words and she grasped onto it quite easily. Then came Spanish, which Maria taught us. This was surprisingly not that challenging for Asli and I because we learnt in a matter of 10 minutes. For the next verse Asli taught us Turkish and then came Icelandic in the bridge taught by Maria. I found Turkish the most challenging language to pronounce and memorize, as they primarily only pronounce the vowel “aa”- this is very different from my language. We started by singing in unison and then broke into harmony, to progressively add on texture. The chords consisted of Cm G Eb Fm G. The strumming of the guitar was thickened during the choruses to add more power and broken chords were played during the bridge to vary the structure of chords. We maintained a constant dynamic of mezzo forte. .  Harmony refers to the combination of notes (or chords) played together and the relationship between a series of chords, it accompanies and supports the melody. We’ve used harmony in our piece to give it musical texture. There’s a 3 part harmony in the song (melody + lower harmony + higher harmony) and we very it and sing in unison. Then comes the key of the song. It’s also known as tonality; a principle in music composition wherein at the end of the piece there is a feeling of completion by going back to the tonic. The key of ‘Baby one more time’ is C minor.

Me- Melody

Asli- Higher harmony

Maria- Lower harmony

Our performance on international day went quite well as we were well rehearsed and memorized all the lyrics. We engaged with the audience by holding up cards of all the languages we were singing. So we changed our cards when the language changed to give the audience an idea of what language we were singing. During the course of these 2 weeks, we have now accomplished learning bits of 4 different languages. This enhances our international mindedness and the culture diversity of our small community. Not only this, but I collaborated with someone I have never worked with before- Kian. It was definitely a fun and interesting experience performing this song of ours and adding our own cultural twists.

This is an audio recording of our last rehearsal and our final performance.

Last rehearsal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvWtxSF3Cu4&feature=youtu.be

Final Performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9ip0SueKU

ATL Reflection: 

We developed several skills over the course of the 2 weeks which include our communication/ performance interaction, collaboration, organisation and self management.

Communication and performance interaction: We kept our audience entertained and captivated by being well rehearsed so that our harmonies would be good, as this is what mainly attracts attention of listeners. Additionally, as mentioned earlier before, we used cards with printed names of the languages we were singing in. So we changed the card according to the language we were singing, this let us interact with the audience as it's not something every performer had done. Our stage presence was quite good, as none of were shy and we were all quite excited to showcase what we put together within our short time frame for this project.

Collaboration: This was a big element of our project as there was strong interdependence between all of the members- the absence of one would have affected the whole group. Also, it was interesting for me to work with Kian because it was my first time working with him. We worked quite successfully as a group, as we all contributed ideas for the betterment of the performance and helped each other strengthen our weak points. An example of this could be when Asli helped Maria and I with correctly annunciating our letters in Turkish.

Organisation: We were organised quite well as we all memorised our lyrics and Kian knew all the guitar chords perfectly. Additionally, we also considered interaction methods with the audience like the card idea. Our lesson time really helped us prepare considerably well for our performance as we had the right amount of time each lesson to improve one aspect of our performance and then move on to the other in the next lesson.

Self-management: This was a very significant area of our performance. As I mentioned in the collaboration paragraph, we were all interdependent on each other- so if one person made a mistake, the whole harmonies would sound unbalanced. Sometimes, it would even go to the extremity where we would start laughing and poke fun at it. But as we drew nearer to the performance, this problem was eliminated as we all started to concentrate on the lyrics we sung and focused on our stage appearance. We gave constructive feedback to each other to ensure the best of ourselves.