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Saturday, December 16, 2017

電気通信大学 AWE II: 5th writing assignment supporting notes & video files (Part 2)・作文5の附記、ヴィデオ (Part 2)

Hello!



How are you? As promised, here is Part 2 of some supplemental notes for all of you for our 5th writing assignment - this time about music

If you would like to access Part 1 on works of art, click on this link here


Task approach and questions with music

Here is another example, this time with a short piece of music - Igor Stravinsky's Suite No. 1 for Small Orchestra:

   
So think along the same kind of way - what dynamics do you think came through in the mix of instruments? What mood is there? What ideas was Stravinsky expressing here? What kind of scenario do you imagine as you hear this music? How would you argue for what you think he succeeded in expressing - and what might you feel, in your view, he might not as successfully expressed?  

Here's how you can organize your writing for this: 


Introduction - show the name of the piece of music and who (or whose people) created it, and what instruments it features - a piano, some brass, guitar, or other instruments. Find out when it was written, and if it comes from an album - what the title of the album is. 


First point - show what the points of the music are in terms of the dynamics of sound (uptempo, quiet, alternately calm and restless, and so on). 


Second point - begin bringing in your understanding or idea about the music. What do you believe the artist is expressing through the work? What might the sounds of the instruments suggest to you? What sound features do you notice the most? What might the sounds of the instruments have in relation to one another? 


Third point - here begin to deepen your own idea about what the work means to you - positively or negatively. What kind of scenario might the piece of music give you feelings about? What do you imagine as you see and think about it? What do you imagine of the time it was created? What do you imagine the overall composition () express about the society it was written in?  


Conclusion - here, bring in your two-sided argument about the piece of music. In your view - what does the artist succeed in doing or expressing through the work - and what might the artist not succeed in? What positive effect does it have on you - and what do you not respond to about it? It may have things about it you like - and things you do not like about it. What might they be?


Some task video file suggestions

You are free to search out your own music on YouTube, so long as it is instrumental (without vocals or lyrics) and is short - no more than around 4 minutes. 

But you are also free to check out these video files and select one to write about. Listen to it as many times as you want or need. You can also choose two (2) of these pieces of music to compare and contrast (比較対照して) with each other.   


Brian Eno, "By This River" (piano cover)


Nils Petter Molvaer, "A Small Realm"


Sereny Magyaros, "Az Ordog Ut" (traditional Hungarian dance)


Miles Davis, "When I Fall in Love"


Sun Ra, "Saturn"


Jeff Beck,"The Final Peace"


I have chosen a variety of pieces of music that are easy to access from YouTube and should be easy to access through smartphones. 

I hope these pieces of music give you ideas and inspiration to try a different kind of writing. 

See you in the library 1st floor computer room next week! Take care!



Image - by Andrelamounier - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44235993
Video files uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the files or the musical compositions within them. All rights reserved to the copyright holders of the files and compositions respectively. 

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