Music in Television

For my hour I decided to watch Comedy central and see what type of music is played during their regular programing. The two shows that came up while I was watching were South Park and Tosh 2.0. To begin with South Park is full of music. It begins with a catchy little theme song and as the show progresses, pieces of this song are played when returning from commercials and such. One of the characters in the show, Cartman, sang a song that pertained to what was going on in that particular episode. Next Tosh 2.0 is a show were a host takes videos off the Internet and comments about them. There is next to no music in this show. I heard a drum role for a video, and that was about it. Its surprising how little music there was actually in the show. This made the show seem like it was lacking something during quite parts.

FIght Club

I chose to watch the movie fight club and I chose to look at the final scene in the movie where Tyler explodes the buildings of all the major corporations in the city. As soon as the buildings start to collapse, the song "Where is My Mind" by The Pixies. Time and place - is a city some where in America and it is taking place currently. Theatrical build up is very obvious because the viewers know the buildings are about to explode but no one knows which ones. The music gives the moment an ironic feeling of piece. This brings the whole movie together in the end because Tyler is finally at piece in his mind and he has many of the monopolies that were starting to wreck the country.

Jaws

I chose to watch the movie jaws. I chose this movie because I know the music in this movie make every scene and with out the music, this movie wouldn't be any where near as powerful or suspenseful. The movie starts with very relaxed and nice music because every one is happy at the beach in the summer, but as every one knows as soon as the shard attacks start occurring, so does the music. Right before every attack, there is a piece that is played that is only two notes but you get this ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen. This piece increases the tempo as the attack comes nearer, until the inevitable occurs. A good way to show just how powerful this sound track is, try watching it on mute. The violent attacks turn into nothing more than a reenactment like something on the discovery channel. The music selection for this movie was extremely well done and I don't think the film would have the popularity it does today with out it.

Lanski Threads

I chose to listen to Paul Lansky's Threads: Movement I. This piece was very soothing and had a nice overall tone. At first I couldn't tell any computers had been involved in modifying the sound, but after listening for a few minutes I picked up constant tones that couldn't be coming from any instruments. These were almost like generated sounds that acted like a sine wave going through different notes. There were also a few spots were the instruments themselves had changed. Some of the bells actually sounded like waves instead of a constant tone. You could tell these sounds had been manipulated in some way, it is just difficult to pinpoint because they were only changed ever so slightly.

Quality sound

I chose to listen to Home, Sweet Home by August P. Stenger . This recording consisted of, of a piano playing very faintly in the background and a wind instrument, maybe a flute playing as the dominant instrument. This recording sounds like it is very old because there is a good amount of static noise and the recording can't reproduce some of the higher notes the instrument hits. This piece was recorded on a Berliner's Gramophone and it sounds like the device wasn't set in the right place to be able to hear both instruments clearly.

New Notation

Note notation has remained pretty much unchanged since it was first conceived. Beethoven uses the same notation as composers today and probably tomorrow. I do not think this is a problem because this allows every one who has been taught music the ability to read everything that has ever been composed. Also its universal across the world, so there is no language barrier. I do not think there is a need for a new notation, but I do believe there are better ways to show these notations. Like guitar hero I think music should move across a screen. If you look at the notation of most popular composers, its a mess. It is very easy to get lost in all the notes, and hard to get back into rhythm. Moving the notation across a screen may elevate some of these problems.

Two Songs

The first song I chose to listen to was from my collection and it is called "Contagious" by Trapt. This song has a medium to fast tempo at about 100 beats per minute, and it is homophonic. This song had a very linear note pattern therefore it was conjunct. Contagious is played in a very distinct pattern which consisted of A, B, A, B', B being the chorus.
The piece I chose from Naxos was, "No. 1: Modere" by George Taylor. Unlike the first song, this piece had a slow tempo, with maybe only 70 to 80 bpm. The song was conjunct because the notes fell in a pretty linear pattern rarely jumping around. The piece was played in a minor key because it had a depressing sound that wasn't upbeat or happy sounding. As far as a pattern went I could not find one. Nothing seemed to repeat.