Hello People,
Uni is over for the holidays, so no Uni work until the end of February! So, I shall update this with various interesting posts involving all the music I've recently discovered!
Until then, here's some info for you. I am currently reading a book named Genesis of a Music by Harry Partch. It's a very influential book on microtonality apparently and it's very interesting so far! If you don't know who Harry Partch is, then have a listen to his Delusion of a Fury. Very odd sounding, but amazing at the same time!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
How to Train Your Dragon: This was Dreamworks?
So, time to pad out this blog, so it actually looks worthwhile...
I tend to go to the movies a fair bit. Well, it depends entirely on the season really, during winter and summer, I watch a lot of movies. So far this winter (summer for folks up in the northern hemisphere) I have seen about 3 different movies so far. Usually for spring and autumn, I may see 1 or 2 movies. This is usually because of Uni, I have no Uni at the moment, so movie viewing increases. This autumn (spring for the northern hemisphere), I went to the movies twice. This was for the same movie...
The movie in question was How to Train Your Dragon, a movie I had no idea Dreamworks was producing until I saw a bad advert on tv. But I've liked Dreamworks movies, even with their less then satisfactory story telling. Granted, it has improved over the years, but nothing has come close in Dreamworks' repetoire to How to Train Your Dragon. Put simply, it was awesome and was a well told story with no pop culture humour that Dreamworks is infamous for...
But one thing that really interested me was the soundtrack. I've never been impressed with John Powell's works...sure, they got the job done and they sounded nice, but they sounded so typical and there was never any special spark in them. Not so with HTTYD...this soundtrack had that special spark.
One thing I don't like with film soundtracks is that they never sound as amazing as classical music. I believe if the composers were given more time then the 4-6 weeks they're given, it may sound more interesting, but instead, it results in music that does the job needed, but could be so much more.
Anyway, I thought that the HTTYD soundtrack was very well done. I think the orchestration for Test Drive is simply amazing and I've seen many people saying that Forbidden Friendship is good too, it's not my favourite, but it seems to be a firm favourite with the general public. However, the whole score is amazing and does its job and so much more!
So, have a look if you fancy some nice listening!
I tend to go to the movies a fair bit. Well, it depends entirely on the season really, during winter and summer, I watch a lot of movies. So far this winter (summer for folks up in the northern hemisphere) I have seen about 3 different movies so far. Usually for spring and autumn, I may see 1 or 2 movies. This is usually because of Uni, I have no Uni at the moment, so movie viewing increases. This autumn (spring for the northern hemisphere), I went to the movies twice. This was for the same movie...
The movie in question was How to Train Your Dragon, a movie I had no idea Dreamworks was producing until I saw a bad advert on tv. But I've liked Dreamworks movies, even with their less then satisfactory story telling. Granted, it has improved over the years, but nothing has come close in Dreamworks' repetoire to How to Train Your Dragon. Put simply, it was awesome and was a well told story with no pop culture humour that Dreamworks is infamous for...
But one thing that really interested me was the soundtrack. I've never been impressed with John Powell's works...sure, they got the job done and they sounded nice, but they sounded so typical and there was never any special spark in them. Not so with HTTYD...this soundtrack had that special spark.
One thing I don't like with film soundtracks is that they never sound as amazing as classical music. I believe if the composers were given more time then the 4-6 weeks they're given, it may sound more interesting, but instead, it results in music that does the job needed, but could be so much more.
Anyway, I thought that the HTTYD soundtrack was very well done. I think the orchestration for Test Drive is simply amazing and I've seen many people saying that Forbidden Friendship is good too, it's not my favourite, but it seems to be a firm favourite with the general public. However, the whole score is amazing and does its job and so much more!
So, have a look if you fancy some nice listening!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The Beginning...with Penderecki!
Hello people whom found their way here!
Firstly, a little bit about myself...
I am an English dude, turned Australian. I am a music uni student, currently studying composition in Australia. I've only been enrolled for about one and a half years now, but I have learnt more about music in this short time then I have in my lifetime! I'm starting this blog, because I adore where music has gone, but more specifically, where music is going and I really want to share my new found knowledge in some way. I don't intend to go into great detail, but I wish to just point people in the direction of music that I like and hopefully, you'll like to! It's also a good place to type down various musical ideas I wish to...well, type down!
So, if you wish to learn about the modern side of classical music, or about music in film or games, then please stay tuned as I'll try and update this frequently. Frequently being maybe once a week, but hey, maybe if I'm feeling extra musical, there may be more!
Now, lets get down to business...
I'll start with what I'm currently listening to. Playing on my itunes is Krzysztof Penderecki's Symphony No.1, Dynamis II. Anyone who's studied the 20th Century in terms of music (or watched Stanley Kubrick's The Shining) will have heard Penderecki's piece Threnody: For the Victims of Hiroshima , his most famous work and the piece that got him on the international map.
Penderecki has written some fabulous pieces and has undergone some interesting compositional changes. For example, his piece; Anaklasis , for String Orchestra and Percussion is a very dissonant piece. To give you an idea, I haven't studied it, but you can hear a lot of tone clusters, just from listening to it. He wrote Anaklasis in 1959. Another of his pieces is his Violin Concerto No.2 which decides to ignore the dense clusters of his previous music and go for a more melodious tone. He wrote his Violin Concerto No.2 in 1992. His first violin concerto is probably a better example, but I can't find it on youtube!
Take a listen to these two pieces and see if you can tell they're by the same composer. After listening, I'm sure you can see that that is a huge difference in compositional technique in such a short space of time.
But what I am leading to is that his Symphonies show the change in his compositional technique rather nicely. For example, Symphony No.1 has that dense cluster business going on, but his Symphony No.7,The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, is much more tonal then his first Symphony. Ideally, I'd say go listen to them all, but I'm sure you don't have that much time on your hands, but if you get the chance, please do!
So, I hope you enjoyed that little talk and hopefully, it enticed you to stay and show your friends! :P
(Unfortunately, I can't find a nice legal link to listen to Penderecki's 1st Symphony, if I do, this shall be updated!)
Firstly, a little bit about myself...
I am an English dude, turned Australian. I am a music uni student, currently studying composition in Australia. I've only been enrolled for about one and a half years now, but I have learnt more about music in this short time then I have in my lifetime! I'm starting this blog, because I adore where music has gone, but more specifically, where music is going and I really want to share my new found knowledge in some way. I don't intend to go into great detail, but I wish to just point people in the direction of music that I like and hopefully, you'll like to! It's also a good place to type down various musical ideas I wish to...well, type down!
So, if you wish to learn about the modern side of classical music, or about music in film or games, then please stay tuned as I'll try and update this frequently. Frequently being maybe once a week, but hey, maybe if I'm feeling extra musical, there may be more!
Now, lets get down to business...
I'll start with what I'm currently listening to. Playing on my itunes is Krzysztof Penderecki's Symphony No.1, Dynamis II. Anyone who's studied the 20th Century in terms of music (or watched Stanley Kubrick's The Shining) will have heard Penderecki's piece Threnody: For the Victims of Hiroshima , his most famous work and the piece that got him on the international map.
Penderecki has written some fabulous pieces and has undergone some interesting compositional changes. For example, his piece; Anaklasis , for String Orchestra and Percussion is a very dissonant piece. To give you an idea, I haven't studied it, but you can hear a lot of tone clusters, just from listening to it. He wrote Anaklasis in 1959. Another of his pieces is his Violin Concerto No.2 which decides to ignore the dense clusters of his previous music and go for a more melodious tone. He wrote his Violin Concerto No.2 in 1992. His first violin concerto is probably a better example, but I can't find it on youtube!
Take a listen to these two pieces and see if you can tell they're by the same composer. After listening, I'm sure you can see that that is a huge difference in compositional technique in such a short space of time.
But what I am leading to is that his Symphonies show the change in his compositional technique rather nicely. For example, Symphony No.1 has that dense cluster business going on, but his Symphony No.7,The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, is much more tonal then his first Symphony. Ideally, I'd say go listen to them all, but I'm sure you don't have that much time on your hands, but if you get the chance, please do!
So, I hope you enjoyed that little talk and hopefully, it enticed you to stay and show your friends! :P
(Unfortunately, I can't find a nice legal link to listen to Penderecki's 1st Symphony, if I do, this shall be updated!)
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