Following a very brief piano intro, Charlie Parker and his saxophone take over with a wild and very entertaining string of dynamic playing. The playing in this segment seems to be all over the place yet there also appears to be a complete sense of control. The constant and rapid changes in dynamics, and chord really take the listener through an unpredictable sequence where they never know whats coming next and it is very entertaining. Then, right around the 2:00 mark the sax takes a break and allows the different pieces of the ensemble to each have a quick solo feature. However, we all know who the star of this work is and at the 2:35 mark the sax is back. After another 20 seconds of wild playing the track ends with a playful strum on the bass string instrument.

I found this piece very enjoyable right from the beginning. I believe that this is largely because it had more of a fun and good times feel to it. This contrasts, in my opinion, to the pieces that we have studied up to this point in the course in which a strong understanding of the music is almost necessary to fully enjoy. I had a very difficult time attempting to compare the structure of this piece to the types we have discussed in the past. This piece didn’t seem to follow any of the same structures and almost seemed to have a very improvisational feel to it. All in all I found this piece to be a very nice change of pace.

With the exception of Ives, Gershwin, and Cage, European composers seemed  to dominate this course, since Europe had more time to construct its own musical identities. But I was particularly excited for this weekend’s assignment, since jazz is a classic “American” genre, and key figures in this movement such as Louis Armstrong evoke a great degree of nationalist pride among Americans.

“Potato Head Blues” seems to be an inappropriate title for Louis Armstrong’s composition. I thought that it was too fast to be considered a “blues” yet simultaneously too slow to be considered a “bebop.” Armstrong found somewhat of a middle ground between the two, as he incorporates fast melodic solos juxtaposed with slower elements.

“Potato Head Blues” begins with two counter melodies. One is notably faster than the other, and it almost feels like an unending melody, never taking a short pause to signal an end to the listener. There appears to be another trumpet serving as a “bass line” for these two counter melodies. Following the introduction is further development, which transitions into the trumpet clarinet duet. The clarinet solo in particular builds up a great degree of tension. Here, we lose meter and expectations. It almost seems improvisatory, similar to the harpsichord solo that we heard in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto. However, unlike the harpsichord solo, this tension almost seemed exciting, and the release of tension was exalting.

I really liked how Armstrong added contrast to this piece. In addition to the introductory counter melodies, he juxtaposed really long notes with very short ones. Furthermore, at the end of his trumpet clarinet duet, he includes a short banjo solo at 1:46, which added dimension and suspense to the piece.

At 2:34, we finally get a return to the full jazz ensemble, and the ending is absolutely exalting. The riffs that we heard in the introduction and the solos are presented once again and although there appears to be counter melodies once again, it sounds cohesive and unifying.

Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” is free flowing, relaxed and loose feeling, yet the parts all fit so well together. Unlike all the previous pieces we have listened to, “Take the A Train,” along with all the other jazz songs were immediately and easily enjoyed. Yes, I also enjoyed pieces such as Mozart’s Symphony 41, Putnam’s Camp, and several other pieces, but this was different. Whether it be the familiarity I have with jazz, or the catchy chorus, “Take the A Train” was simply easier to listen to on the sensuous plane.

That being said, listening on the musical plane, we can hear many elements that are found in this piece that originated hundreds of years ago. In fact, it felt like the form briefly resembled the Sonata Form: there was an exposition of the theme, and then it was developed, mainly by Ellington, and then the recapitulation, where we here the original theme again. Throughout the development, or improvisation, we hear bits and pieces of the theme, that is immediately altered. This improvisation can be related to the development of Bach’s Concerto, where Ellington is showcased with a simple bass line and percussion backing him.

Of course, this piece strays away from older music in many ways. One element I found most interesting, was the key of the song. It wasn’t major, but didn’t have the same “sad” feeling that minor keys have. The quick tempo, driving bass, and swung notes create an easygoing and overall happy feeling. However, what I think separates this piece the most, is that unlike the meticulously drawn out symphonies and operas of the past, the performer is showcased in Jazz, not the composer or writer. Ellington performs this piece how he wants to and it reflects his feelings and emotions to the extent that you can almost picture him smiling as he played his saxophone.

Listening to Pierrot Lunaire is akin to reading absurdism: there are certain familiar elements that anchor the piece but its art and creative process are ephemeral and lost to me. The music was clearly not written to be aesthetically pleasant, as Zehme, Schoenberg’s patron, points out. She wanted to express emotions so extreme that she felt that singing was no longer an acceptable medium with which to explain them in an honest natural way. That explains the soprano’s eerie, witch-like timbre that is not unpleasant by itself, but is definitely uncanny combined with the atonal, arrhythmic composition of Schoenberg.

As I read through the resources and the poems and listen, I notice and begin to identify many details of all kinds of musical devices such as polyphony, word painting, imitation which make the piece into a Wagnerian-like total music opus. Remarkable that Schoenberg composed this out of a simple request for a piano accompaniment to a set of translated poems. This is undoubtedly a masterpiece of musical expressionism whose subtleties escape me and the critics that first reviewed it at the premiere in 1912. What I can say is that he admirably reflected the eerie, supernatural theme of the moon in a listener who knew nothing about the work beforehand.

At first, Pierrot Lunaire sounded confusing, erratic, and eerie.  Schoenburg’s peice is also rhythmless, and it also combines that atonality. This creates completely dissonant, alien, and illogical sounds, and this conveys a deep and memorable dysphoric emotion. I think this music perfectly captures the anxiety and turmoil in reaction to the nationalism and militarism in the early 20th century, leading up to the First World War. In a stream of consciousness, the Pierrot Lunaire depicts small vignettes that show the decrepitude of modern life. Music, up to this point, has mostly had organized structure based on a pattern or the lyrics (such as recitative opera). An exception could be made for chants, which flows according to the words of the chant. Because Schoenburg was an expressionist, we can safely assume that the entire structure of his pieces are dictated by the emotions. He frees himself from conventional expectations of music and explores the most primal and chaotic emotions.

I loved the 4th poem about the chlorotic laundry maid. In comparison to the rest of the piece, it is relatively calm, and at times it is carried out in a whisper-like fashion. It seems pretty clear the lyrics evoke images of purity: the maiden, her silver paleness, the white sheets she has washed. However, the scene depicted has an obscene modern twist. (If we are to trust the resource page’s translation,) Cholera contaminates the entire scene. With the discovery of the microbe model of disease, clean and white no longer meant purity and safety. Therefore, the scene of the maiden is transformed into eerie and sickly. This twisted scene is what is depicted in the music.

Greenberg arguments that Pierrot Lunaire sounds the way it does for expressive reasons, so that understanding the poetry will explain the sounds of the music. In effect, this piece is replete with word painting. For example, at 14:25, when the vocalist sings about a “murdering memory”, she begins to gasp and is accompanied by an accelerated rhythm from the string instruments, before she much more loudly sings about “gloomy, black, gigantic butterflies” which have killed the sunshine. Meanwhile, the atonality and dissonance in this piece complicate the audience’s expectation and understanding.

The text by Greenberg also states that this piece is the soul of modernity and that it will always sound like that. This commentary was interesting to me, particularly as it elaborates on similar discussions we have had in class – what constitutes “modernity” and how can composers in a musical genre create/follow up after such a piece? The text states that music must be relevant to its time, so then possibly the criterion for judging a piece as perpetually modern must be made within this contextual framework.

Greenberg writes, “Repeat listening will never make this music sound conventional because it will always sound only like itself” (302). While certainly true in one way or another, this statement nevertheless seems to have the problematic implication that Pierrot Lunaire cannot refer to anything beyond itself. In order to make a case for the music’s successful expression of content, emotional or otherwise, it would appear necessary to attempt to identify what it is does indeed sound like. And indeed, unless we are committed to the view that the ‘soul of modernity’ will distinguish itself by being nothing besides the soul of modernity, we won’t be surprised to find that we can, I think, make such identifications with relative ease.

For example, Schoenberg pointed out in the preface to Pierrot Lunaire’s score that Sprechstimme leads to a voice that, instead of singing individual notes for discrete periods of time, is continuous in its variation of pitch. Sprechstimme gives Schoenberg’s music interesting new rhythmic properties, perhaps through leading to more variable tone lengths. Moreover, switches between singing, speech and whispering are used to violate expectations to create a sense of creepiness. This definite affective result would seem to testify against the self-enclosed nature of the music.

While Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire is not very pleasant to listen to, it does achieve what Schoenberg sets out to accomplish – it tells a story. The music helps to create a picture in your head of what is going on in the story of Pierrot .When you read the text of the work it’s hard to imagine a pleasant tune playing underneath it. Can you imagine
“The haggard harlot
With scraggy gizzard
Will be his ultimate
Paramour.” being sung pleasantly? No it’s not meant to be pleasant, Schoenberg’s story is meant to be dramatic and it’s atonal music emphasizes the drama of the words. However, I also found this piece a little confusing sometimes because the singer is both Pierrot and the narrator simultaneously. Also, because although Pierrot is a man, he speaks in this piece through the voice of a soprano woman. I’m interested as to why Schoenberg chose to make it that way, perhaps it was also to add to the drama of the piece?

Overall, the string quartets are aesthetically pleasing in major keys and remind me of the Bradenburg Concerto in terms of musical quality, although Bach’s music is much more lively, saturated and quick. Perhaps this is a remembrance of the past by Haydn and a subtle push towards new musical creativity. He certainly appears tired of the same old just by composing and titling this piece.

Haydn’s joke must have been daring in 1781; it also reflects his ingenuity because he leaves the contents of the joke up to interpretation. Most will cite the adagio coda and the silences as the joke, but others might identify elements in the music that speak to them as the joke. Personally, I don’t have enough musical knowledge to understand all the hidden jokes Haydn planted, but he crafted an audacious satirical piece that may just have inspired future musicians to experiment.

Haydn’s “Joke” has four varying movements, but each movement remains consistent with its presentation of a consistent primary theme and the alternating of voices. The Allegro moderato begins with a playful primary theme played by a lower string instrument and accompanied by the higher instruments. This theme is then developed through imitation, with each instrument taking on the melodic voice and then returning to accompaniment. The primary theme is returned to at 1:18, after the build of tension and a ritardando of the development. This movement introduces the piece’s playful tone.

The Scherzo allegro mimics the Allegro’s structure, by first introducing a second theme and then elaborating upon it. This elaboration also includes  varying voices of leading and accompanying instrumentation, with a build of tension and then a return to the original theme. The Largo makes a decisive shift from the Allegro and Scherzo. The mood becomes darker, with the slowing of tempo and sense of unity as the strings alternate between homophony and polyphony. During the Largo’s polyphonic moments, the violins play the central line at a higher register, while the cello and viola form movement underneath.

The Presto, or Fourth Movement, returns the quartet to its lively nature.The theme of the movement is introduced by the violins, and is developed with texture changes that add and subtract depth from the accompaniment. In this movement especially, the accompaniment accentuates the playful rhythm of the theme’s melody. At the end of the piece, “the joke” is referenced by a lack of resolution of the playful theme.