Music Journals 3/4-4/8

Here are the songs that we have listened to and written about in our journals, starting with the week of March 4th:

1. "The Fire" - The Roots, feat. John Legend (Rap/R&B/Hip Hop)

2. "Se La Face Ay Pale" - Guillaume Dufay (Renaissance)

3. "More Than A Feeling" - Boston (Classic Rock)

4. "Der Holle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Opera/Aria)

5. "Helplessness Blues" - Fleet Foxes (Indie Folk)


1. This piece by The Roots allowed the students to be exposed to a rap song that involved a collaboration between different artists. The Roots are a rap/hip-hop group that incorporate the use of instruments in order to create their beats, as opposed to using a computer. This is done mainly through the use of the drum kit. John Legend is an R&B/soul singer. We were able to discuss the differences between rap and R&B, as well as to discuss the term "hip-hop" as being used to encompass the culture that this music comes out of.

2. This piece by Guillaume Dufay comes to us out of the Renaissance period of music, which is a term used to define the period from approximately 1350 to around 1600. The term, "Renaissance" is French for "rebirth." We were able to discuss the main instrument in this piece, the Lute, and talked about the evolution of the instrument and how it is related to our modern day guitar.

3. More than a Feeling is a piece that involves multiple electric guitars, as well as acoustic guitar, drums, voice, electric bass, and people clapping to provide more percussion. The students were able to compare and contrast this type of rock song to the songs that are popular to us today.

4. This piece is an extremely famous Aria from Mozart's opera, "Die Zauberflote" (The Magic Flute). We talked about the plot of the opera, as well as the definition of an "Aria" as a solo melodic piece accompanied by an orchestra. We also watched a clip of this Aria being sung. I have provided the link to that clip below. The aria itself begins around the 2:11 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzFi-7H9TKs

5. Helplessness Blues is a folk song by The Fleet Foxes that is a newer piece of folk music. The term "Indie" is being used to describe popular music that is "less main-stream," as the term indie is an abbreviated form of "Independent." Independent music originally meant music that was made by artists and was marketed/produced without help from an agent or record label. The term indie has come to describe the type of music that sounds like independent music, but may not necessarily be independent. The song has two sections: the first being more folk-like, while the second section has a more rock feel to it.