Week 2 Listening Journal

For my second week familiar music I chose to do a song called Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli. It is not quite ten minutes but close: 9:38. I have been exposed to this song a couple of times and I quite like it. I have played this in the Ottawa Township High School Band one year in the Wind Ensemble. I have also played this one year when I went to a festival for a day called ILMEA. This song is also very fun to play with the mixed meters and all the cool effects to make the listener see the image of Vesuvius by listening to the song. Vesuvius is a volcano on the west coast of Italy. This song for concert band has a lot of different effects that make it interesting. The piece starts off with a whip/slap stick that makes that clapping sound and leads to eighth notes played by a bassoon, setting the tense feel of the song. It includes flutter tonguing, mutes, making a "ch" sound with our mouths, ripping, and stopped parts. Stopping a note, for French horn, is best described using an example. Fingering 3rd space C(thumb/open), and putting your right hand in the bell of the horn produces a 1/2 step lower than C's pitch, or B natural. This not only changes the pitch that comes out, but also an interesting quality to the sound of the French Horn making it more nasal. At :38, you can hear the stopped French horn.  A "rip" is at the end of the song in the French horns up to an A above the staff. There are accents placed in different places making the piece feel unsteady and unsure.  These meters not only change, but have different counts for each beat in certain parts. At the 8:22 mark after the gong is one of the places I am talking about. The counting in this part has 4 beats per measure but one measure would be counted as following: 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2, with the eight note getting the beat. The counter melody that is passed throughout the sections is actually a simple melody; 9 eighth notes on different pitches. The first phrase of the main melody is composed of a quarter note on count 1, a quarter tied to an eighth note on count two, a quarter on count three, and a quarter note on count 4. This melody is not that difficult, but sounds interesting because of all the variations and skips in pitches. At 4:22, the French horns have a beautiful harmony that starts, then changes to a more reflective and sadder sounding phrase at 4:33 because of the notes that follow. At 2:25, the bass drum is setting the scene for the instruments that sound frantic in the next part.  At 1:40, the time signature is 8/8(3+3+2), meaning 8 beats per measure and the eight note gets 1 count, but is conducted in 3 with the beats not having the same amount of counts, if that makes sense. At 2:07, after the "ch"ing, the French horns have a quarter note pick up on count 3, dotted quarter notes on the downbeat and count 2, and another quarter note on count three. This pattern repeats in the next measure, but in the last measure, there are 2 dotted quarter notes and two eight leading to the next softer part. If anyone ever gets the chance to play this song, I say go for it. The hardest part is getting the whole band together and understanding how the counting works, but after that all the fun happens with all the extra techniques that this piece involves. I posted the link I listened to below.

Frank Ticheli's "Vesuvius"

"Pigs" by Pink Floyd

For my second week unfamiliar music I chose to do Pink Floyd's "Pigs." The songs duration is 11 minutes and 26 seconds. My mother and little sister are big fans of Pink Floyd and my sister suggested that I listen to this awhile ago. Pink Floyd has an interesting sound that makes them unique. In the beginning, what sounds like a piece of technology or maybe an electronic piano starts with what sounds like eight notes, but I would have to see the time signature to be sure on that. At :18, a pig nose sounds, probably by a piece of equipment as well. A guitar joins the unique sound just after that and a second guitar joins at :35. I like the sound of this guitar. It sounds sharp and keeps the rhythm going. At 2:28 a glissando on the piano is played descending in pitch. Another gliss at 3:56 which I enjoyed. This song does not have a very fast tempo; it sounds laid back and relaxed. Maybe the tempo is marked at andante which means at a walking speed or moderately slow. At 7:02 an interesting sound that I am having trouble placing is played. Maybe it's another sound from the technology equipment, but I am not sure about that.  At 7:11 those little skips that sound like they are played from a different piano that has those capabilities and the guitar is back from the beginning, which I also like as well. Then the singers come back after that musical interlude. A lot of sounds are repeated from previously in the song. Again at 9:22 the gliss from the piano is played again, and soon after this what sounds like a cowbell enters giving the song a little depth, more tone color. The glissando sounds too perfectly even to be played from a real grand piano, but maybe the player is extremely gifted or something, but I am not sure. Another thing is that it does not sound like a real piano so I think it might be from an electronic piano. Although this song did not have much harmony which I really like, I did enjoy this song. I don't know if I would listen to it all the time, like I would other songs, but I liked it okay. Maybe it's my mother and sister's influence that I like this song, but it's alright. The link I listened to is above this paragraph.