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Round of Applause for Lady Gaga

There is no arguing that Lady Gaga takes her artistic ideas to the next level. Whether it be her fashion decisions, or her music videos, she is not easily missed. She showed up to an award show in a dress made entirely of meat cold cuts. She wears shoes that put her 12 inches above her normal height of 5’2’’, wigs of every color from platinum blonde,  jet black, and all the colors in between. Lady Gaga’s confidence to be a nonconformist and stay true to her views of art is what I believe makes her thrive in the industry. I cannot imagine what being a part of that pop music industry must be like, but there are certain trends within it that come and go but, I believe, that in some cases society adheres to. Lady Gaga introduced artistic ideas, both in her appearance and music videos and music which were new at the point that she entered and began to rise in the field. When given this assignment and reading through the prompt, Lady Gaga was the first to pop into my head. Honestly, it has been a while since I have listened to her music, as I find myself drawn to music that is of more a laid back feel. I wanted to write “calming” but I figured there are people out there who find upbeat music something that can calm them down.

After watching a few of her videos, I found that each one I watched were, obviously, very different. However, with all of the ones I watched, I thought: dark colors with pops of bright colors, scantily clad dancers and Lady Gaga, music video does not distract from the music itself, it just adds to it. I have seen some music videos in the past where the video content does not add to the music, but is just what I would have expected with a song. For example, videos which are just the song but in movie form, Taylor Swift’s videos from 2010 or so come to mind.

Lady Gaga’s video for “Applause” stuck out to me the most. I enjoyed the pops of colors that she incorporated in the video. Also, before she even starts singing, we already see eight shots of her, in four different outfits already. That’s 15 seconds, 8 shots, 4 outfits. You can tell the detail in which she and her producers/directors think through the video, second by second. She stays active throughout the video, dancing, or being suspended from the ceiling. Also, even when she is wearing very little clothing, the bra she is wearing is designed as a pair of hands, which makes sense as the song is called “Applause” but still, I think it is pretty creative. I think shots such as 1:13 are really cool when the background is black out and but she is wearing bright blush and yellow eyeshadow, which must have been enhanced digitally. But that goes to show how detailed this video is and how the editing process must have taken a lot of thought and precise work. Her choreography is very angular which fits well together with the beat and the abrupt cutting from one shot to another. One of the lines in the song is “art and pop culture and me”. I think this line really ties together Lady Gaga and her presence in this industry. And it goes beyond that as well, as she voices her opinions on political and societal issues.

It is clear that she has a strong influence on her fans as I could not find a single critique in the comments. And that was after scrolling for 5 or so minutes and I did not even get through all the comments. A few of the comments stood out to me, as many of them were about how she had reached 300 million views.

7 months ago, semar R wrote: “she’s definitely underrated. so authentic and beautiful. she’s a living work of art”.

Around the same time, Hanna D wrote: “this is ART.”

This came from Avatar Wan TV: “This music video is a masterpiece. It’s SO trippy, colorful, fresh, creative, original, artistic, etc. the list goes on. I just love how daring and experimental Lady Gaga is, not only in pop music, but in pop culture as well. I respect her dedication. I also heard she’s back in the studio working with RedOne again. She’s returning and I can’t wait.

claps claps claps”

 

I liked all of these comments because in an article about her in Rolling Stone Magazine, the author wrote, “The former Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is on a mission: to prove that Lady Gaga is art and that her art is not a mask. It is her life,” (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-broken-heart-and-violent-fantasies-of-lady-gaga-20100708).

 

All in all, Lady Gaga has made and is making her mark in pop culture and this industry. She is going above and beyond and does not back down in using her voice and showing her artistic ideas.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1279&bih=619&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=asUdWtiDCqWXjwTs7Lm4AQ&q=lady+gaga+meat+dress&oq=lady+gaga+meat+dress&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.3360.4646.0.4802.11.7.0.4.4.0.251.823.2j3j1.6.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.10.835…0i67k1.0.NycdZPpUNnE#imgrc=4xyLyBHxOUdBYM:

LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 12: Singer Lady Gaga accepts the Video of the Year award onstage during the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE on September 12, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Source List:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-broken-heart-and-violent-fantasies-of-lady-gaga-20100708

http://mashable.com/2010/01/31/lady-gaga-social-fame/#2lSALztS9aqN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Gaga

https://www.ladygaga.com/

 

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Bartoli’s Mission: A Modern Woman and Baroque Music

Cecilia Bartoli’s album, Mission, released in 2012, profiles the works of Agostino Steffani, a long forgotten baroque composer. This recording features some world premiere recordings of baroque fireworks by a woman who has referred to herself as, “the Indiana Jones of classical,”  in an interview with All Things Considered host, Robert Siegel. In collaboration with EuroArts, a film was produced to follow this music and the life of the composer. This film acts as an extended music video, following a light plot but focusing mostly on the music and especially the period of the music. The opening aria, “Pìu non v’ascondo” from the opera Tassilone employs vocal fireworks while being set in Versailles, promoting a staunch take on the status of baroque music.

The film, Mission, was co-produced by Idéale Audience & ARTE France. The film opens following a priest-composer, a parallel to Steffani. Ms. Bartoli uses this imagery of the priest-composer as well on her album cover where she portrays the image of a bald man of the cloth holding a cross.

The film is  set at the Palace of Versailles, a strange choice for a film of the works of a composer who was strongly based in Italy. Additionally, there are no overt connections between Steffani and France, much less Versailles; he died soon after the second phase of expansion. Setting Mission in Versailles does not demonstrate an element of the composer’s life, but rather portrays the elaborate nature of baroque chamber music. Just as the ornate, almost gaudy stylings of the Palace of Versailles, baroque music is equally ornate and come with a hefty price tag. Most chamber pieces were written by court composers; Steffani was the court composer in Düsseldorf, which is where Tassilone premiered. This also demonstrates the elite nature of baroque chamber music; it was written for the royal court. This feeling of an ornateness and social elite is evident within Mission through its setting and design elements, but also parallels Steffani’s life through the inclusion of the priest-composer.

“Pìu non v’ascondo” comes from Steffani’s opera,Tassilone, a court opera following the life of the Bavarian prince, Tassilo III who opposed the Emperor Charlemagne. The aria translates to “I no longer miss it” and features flighty melismas. The original score calls for 2 oboes, bassoon, trumpet, strings, and basso continuo. Bartoli’s recording adds some percussion in the form of a tambourine and a recorder that add an extra light-heartedness to the recording. Cecilia Bartoli’s recording and filming of this aria mimics the bouncy nature of the piece through the cinematography and demeanor of the musicians. Bartoli captures the essence of a baroque royal in both her appearance in a silken green gown and her demeanor with proud smile and joyous, hopeful movement. The instrumentalists, I Barocchisti, mimic this demeanor as well, though they are not wearing courtly attire. The joyful nature of the piece is further cemented by the camera angles which mimic the movement of the piece in an almost dizzying effect. Midway through the aria, the camera switches from a pan to a pivot point movement which is very disconcerting to watch full screen but also captures the excitement of the musicians and the grandeur of the setting at the same time. Additionally, NPR argues that the piece ends with a “vocal wink” which Ms. Bartoli physicalizes in the filming. The camera angles and setting further demonstrate the joy and grandeur of baroque music which drew Ms. Bartoli to the Steffani project initially.

Mission was covered extensively by NPR and other broadcasting outlets, lauding the virtuosity of Ms. Bartoli and the originality of the project. The film similarly received very positive comments on YouTube shown by Mirtika Schultz’s comment, “This woman makes my ears so happy. Glorious talents. She’s been a fave of mine for many years….she’s not so young anymore, but she still makes the air dance.” For Mirtika, Bartoli’s talents transcend the video and makes the environment move with the music. Sólveig Sigmarsdóttir agrees, writing, “Cecilia proofs [sic] it once again, that  she is magnificence and inspire her fans with joyful and gorgeous performance. Bellissimo :).” The only negative comment I found was from MandO Marc and applies to the uploading of the video rather than the video or Ms. Bartoli’s performance, brilliantly penning the comment, “Thanks for putting video ads throughout the video so I can’t listen to songs uninterrupted. Reminds me of this time I took a shit in a mailbox.” Cecilia Bartoli’s performance and production of Mission reflect the music and aesthetic of Steffani’s time period through the setting, wardrobe, and cinematography.

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Kendrick Lamar Expands the Musical Experience with ELEMENT.

Kendrick Lamar is known around the world as one of the best hip-hop artists out today. His searing, culturally relevant lyrics and carefully crafted production have pushed hip-hop as a genre to new heights. His talent and creativity have been recognized across the board, even by critics and institutions that have often dismissed the value of rap and other African-American art forms.

One can get a good feel for how much depth an artist has by looking at the kinds of discussions that listeners have surrounding their work. If you look up Kendrick’s lyrics on Genius, a lyric aggregate website that allows users to annotate lyrics, it is not uncommon to find songs where every single line is annotated and where most of them look more like essays than annotations. Not many artists deliver verses with that much content consistently enough to warrant that kind of discussion.

As the fantastic Youtuber Nerdwriter points out, one thing that makes Kendrick’s music so creative and work so well in a genre with so many different producers and people needed to make the product is because he is a master collaborator. He knows how to take people’s diverse talents and use them in the right way to better the project. One way he does this well is with music videos.

In all honesty music videos can be pretty crappy most of the time. They usually are promotional money-grabs involving a sickening number of jump-cuts showing the band playing in a warehouse or a beach or what have you. But Kendrick Lamar approaches music videos as more of a visual component created specifically to complement each song. In this way, each video sort of takes a new life of its own. Instead of just merely going along with the song, each video augments the material in a new way that provides a different experience than what you would get on the album. Often, Kendrick’s videos are longer than the actual tracks and might contain different beginnings, endings, and transitions.

The music video I wanted to look at in particular is the video for the song ELEMENT. of his 2017 album DAMN. This video, directed by Kendrick Lamar in collaboration with Jonas Lindstroem, is a breath of fresh air from most music videos: The shots are long, most are even in slow motion. Each image is very well composed and the style conveys a sense of close, yet detached observation. Lindstroem began his career as a fashion photographer in Berlin so it makes sense that he composes these shots to be more like images that breath, each one drawing the viewer in closer to the stories contained in each. Most of Lindstroem’s other film work uses the medium in this way, almost as a means of portraiture and I think that Kendrick and his team were very purposeful in choosing him to bring that style to this project.

Opening shot of ELEMENT.

 

The song ELEMENT. is a very personal one. It revolves around Kendrick’s struggles as a Compton native suddenly living in the spotlight and how he still retains his roots despite how different his life is now. The songs lyrics are a sort of aggressive assertion of Kendrick’s identity amidst an industry with a lot of “whack artists” as he mentions in the third verse. In the video, a lot of this lyrical reflection is manifested through the treatment of violence. Violence is a very prevalent theme in the images of the video and its a part of life in places like Compton where Kendrick grew up. Essentially its a part of his element. In the video these images are strung together in a way that obscures any direct narrative between them. Instead each individual cell acts as a threshold into a story that we are not given the context of, just a single moment. This gives violence a sense of ubiquity and emphasizes the cyclical nature of it in communities like the one Kendrick grew up in. One of the most striking shots to me is the one of the father trying to teach his son how to fight. That is something that my dad has never had to do with me but had I grown up somewhere else, its a big possibility that that would be a part of my life, an aspect I would have to address and be ready for.

One hugely important aspect to this video is the many references it contains to the work of photographer Gordon Parks. Parks was a humanitarian who worked as a photographer primarily documenting urban and African-American life from the 1940’s up until his death in 2006. His work exposed truths about the everyday lives and struggles of impoverished communities to audiences in America that had never been exposed to them before. There are several images from the music video that are direct references to photographs taken by Parks. The provocative opening shot of the video is a hand rising out of the water which is the same subject as an untitled photograph Parks took. Another striking example is a recreation of a photograph by Parks called Boy with June Bug.

Side by side comparison of the shot from ELEMENT. and the photograph by Gordon Parks

Its fitting that Kendrick would choose Parks’ work to pair with his music because both are essentially doing the same thing with different mediums. These references are littered throughout the video which adds a unique dimension of depth and experience that one would not have been able to have from the song alone. Kendrick Lamar has already taken over the rap world with his music alone, but its really cool to see an artist that can navigate other mediums so deftly and still manage to pack a lot of meaning into something as trivial and media-driven as a music video.

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Choreographing Classical Music: Ligeti’s 6 Bagatelles

When searching Google for György Ligeti’s 6 Bagatelles, the first video to pop up is the Carion Wind quintet playing the piece in an unusual music-video type setting. This performance includes heavy choreography, extensive use of camera angles, and almost comical interactions among the performers.

I think that this music video enhances the music itself, as the choreography attached to the performance matches the character of the music. In general, the interactions of the performers reflect and clarify the interactions of musical lines within the piece. For example, in the second movement of the piece, the performers file into a single line so that only the oboist is seen from the camera angle. The oboe begins the piece solo, and as other instruments enter, they step sideway into view of the camera. In the beginning of the third movement, the bassoon and clarinet have a quintuplet ostinato that is meant to sound independent of the free-flowing flute solo. In the video, the clarinetist and bassoonist stand in the back of the ensemble and make intense eye contact with each other while the flautist faces the camera. Likewise in the fourth movement, the flute soloist stands out in front to begin the piece, while the other four instruments form a separate quartet on the other side of the room. This adds something that a normal performance setting might lack; the choreography brings forth voice pairings and melodic conversations that may be missed, especially by a person new to this work. The camera angles and video editing also play a large role in this video. In the first movement alone, the frame changes on average once every five seconds. Its purpose is either to show the entire ensemble, or focus on a soloist or the interaction between a pair of performers.

As a comparison, here is a video of the same work performed in a traditional setting: five musician sitting in a semicircle with music stands.

In the comment section of this video, it was not hard to find contrasting opinions about the choreography. In fairness, the video demonstrates a blatantly planned combination of footwork and camera angles. There are only extremes in the choreography, not just conservatively memorized music. Two very simple yet contrasting comments are, “Amazingly done. The visual aspect of this video really helps represent their interpretation of [Ligeti’s] work. A great piece, with great players,” and, “Am I the only one who thinks the clowning distracts from the music? If I see someone goofing off, I’m going to assume the music is a joke as well.” While one user finds that the choreography is helpful in understanding the piece, another user labels it distracting. The solution in this particular case reveals itself in the fact that the quality of playing is extremely high, and thus the performance is extremely valuable. If one finds it distracting, they can simply not look at it. However, this video, in addition to providing a great performance of the work, provides an interesting and useful tool for understanding the music in a new way.

My favorite comment comes from one of the foremost authorities on 20th century classical music, the YouTube user “New Music Kitties.” This user states, “Unfortunately, by [supporting] this tasteless choreographic stunt… you are helping the worldwide loss of class metastasize in our society.  We are losing touch with basic aesthetic values of classical music… To the ensemble: don’t sell your talent and playing quality to banalities that will draw attention to your ensemble.  To the public: don’t buy into banalities and circus tricks!! In shorter terms: these are clowns.  Extremely talented, but nevertheless, clowns.  And in general, that makes this performance utter nauseating crap.”

Comments that decry choreography are based on a missed conception of the piece, composer, and probably classical music as a whole. Also some music lends itself more to these kind of performance options. Ligeti’s 6 Bagatelles, fitting into his generally quirky style of composition, is a relatively comical piece to begin with; its sharp contrast of voices and harmonies paint many sections as humorous. After all, according to the Grove Online Music Dictionary, a Bagatelle is “a trifle, a short piece of music in light vein.” Thus, I think this video and its extreme choreography do no disservice to the piece itself. I would even imagine that Ligeti would have liked this video.

As a testament to this ensembles sensitivity to the music in terms of their choice of choreograph and music video making, here is a performance of a different work, the Nielsen quintet. While they still interact with each other, they preserve the more serious and reserved nature of the music.

On a larger scale, this video and the reaction in the comments reveal a larger question: Is classical music suited for such interactive performances, specifically “music videos”? I think the utmost determining factor of any performance is the quality of music making. After that, I believe performers should feel free to perform in any manner as long as the intent is to clarify the music itself. The “seriousness” of classical music performance is something that was constructed in the first place; it is not inherently part of the music. Though there may be critics, untraditional performance videos like this appeal to a wider audience.

 

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Smells Like Success: ‘Weird Al Yankovic’ and Musical Parody in the Age of MTV

Parody has long been an important device in music composition and production. Its form and purpose have changed drastically over the years from the parody masses of the late sixteenth century to the more humorous musical embellishments of Spike Jones and the silly lyrics of “Weird Al” Yankovic. In the last thirty years Yankovic has found unprecedented commercial success in parodying iconic pop and rock songs as well as their associated music videos. These multimedia masterpieces have held the public’s attention through fourteen studio albums, the latest of which reached the top spot on the U.S. charts. Yankovic’s success can in large part be attributed to his music’s accompanying fifty-four music videos, many of which mimic the music video of the original song.

One of his earlier parodies in particular, “Smells Like Nirvana”, effectively incorporates the music video as an additional element of parody. It closely copies the original Nirvana video to simultaneously provide additional continuity as well as make fun of some aspects of the alternative rock movement. The song, which parodies Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, is also exceptionally effective. Rather than using the original tune as a vehicle to sing about an unrelated topic (as in his Michael Jackson parody, “Eat It”, or the Madonna rip-off, “Like A Surgeon”), Yankovic uses “Smells Like Nirvana” to playfully poke fun at the lack of clarity in Kurt Cobain’s diction. The overall effect results in some of Yankovic’s most compelling work.

The original Nirvana song, as described by Chuck Crisafulli in his book, is “a typically murky Cobain exploration of meaning and meaninglessness.” The song seems to be about some kind of cultural revolution but many of the lyrics are inherently contradictory and Kurt himself has indicated the song actually makes fun of the idea of having a revolution. The music video certainly supports the revolution hypothesis as it depicts an originally dispassionate crowd at a high school pep rally rise up into a frenzy and destroy the stage. Cobain’s incoherent vocal delivery coupled with the fact that the lyrics were not released in the original liner notes meant the the song grew to be very popular without anyone really being sure of the words. It’s not surprising then that it has been widely documented that Cobain often scribbled down the lyrics for a song in the studio just before the band would record. This, of course, provides the basis for “Weird Al’s” parody.

 

Yankovic’s video is almost a shot for shot recreation of Nirvana’s and he takes the lead role of playing Kurt. “Weird Al” even went so far as shoot the video on the same set and with many of the same actors! The song doesn’t mess around, making fun of Cobain’s vocal delivery from the start (lyrics). The first verse begins, “What is this song all about/Can’t figure any lyrics out” and it doesn’t let up with “Now I’m mumblin’, and I’m screamin’/And I don’t know what I’m singin’”. The video also embraces the silliness from the outset with the janitor (the same guy from the original Nirvana video) pulling a donut out of his mop bucket. This could be a reference to some of Yankovic’s earlier successful food related parodies (in fact when originally asked for permission to make the parody, Cobain asked if it would be about food). The video reaches a climax at about 2:12 when Yankovic imitates the guitar solo by gargling water in his mouth. This is followed by the audience of high schoolers continuing the solo in unison kazoo before the final phrase is played by the janitor on the tuba. “Weird Al” doesn’t let up in third verse with the lyrics, “And I forgot the next verse/Oh, well, I guess it pays to rehearse” and he takes one final shot at the screaming alternative rock style by finishing the song in a coughing fit.

Cover for “Weird Al’s” single “Smells Like Nirvana”

Yankovic’s silly lyrics and skillfully accurate musical recreations of popular songs have guided him into the public eye. The combination of parody in both lyrics and music video is what has allowed him to stay for decades. This much can be seen in the Youtube comments: “Tony R” comments on all the things they find “hilarious” in the video including the “Guy with ‘This space for rent’ written on the back of his head” and the “Man on fire during gargling solo”.  While I’m sure Tony likes the song too, what keeps them coming back for more is the video. Another commenter, “Super Nintendo Chalmers”, fondly remembers “ALtv”, a show on MTV in which “Weird Al” himself hosted a “3 hour block”of his parody videos. Yet another commenter sums it all up in their fierce defense of Yankovic’s talent in raving, “Heck just LOOK at this video.” It is clear “Weird Al’s” immense success is owed at least in part to his ability to produce and distribute equally wacky parody videos with his songs.

The ubiquity of music videos in today’s music industry and their accessibility through Youtube sometimes concerns me. These days it often seems that artists put more time into their music videos than into the songs that accompany them! One would think this is contributing to the decline in quality of popular music. “Weird Al”, however, gives me hope that music videos can be used effectively to compliment the music. His ability to incorporate parody into both the lyrics and video, especially as seen in “Smells Like Nirvana”, is inspiring.

 

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Sia’s Controversial Music Video

Music videos can serve as one of the many platforms where artists can further express their passion. They can give music more meaning and depth and create a more clear image for their listeners.

One perfect example of this would be Sia’s “Elastic Heart” Music Video.

This music video features dancer, Maddie Ziegler, and actor Shia Labeouf, interpretive dancing throughout the music video, as opposing characters. These two characters represent the fight between past and present personalities and maturity. The past represented by Maddie Ziegler and the present by Shia Labeouf.

  

This is also not the first time Sia fans have seen Maddie Ziegler. The reason the image of Maddie fighting Shia Labeouf was so strong was because prior to “Elastic Heart,” Maddie was in the music video for “Chandelier,” another Sia song. Again, she represented a part of Sia’s personality or alter ego in that she was messy, and out of control.

In “Elastic Heart,” Sia faced controversy, where many people felt a sense of pedophilia from the music video.

 

Sia promptly answers these feelings in a tweet, where her art was mistaken and that her intentions were not to offend anyone.

Sia even gets negative responses from websites where she is questioned for ignoring the pedophiliac nuances in the video and is seen as having disturbing music videos.

Because Sia added interpretive dance in her music video, a different form of art was in use while also expressing her own. She was able to capture us with our ears, eyes and emotions. Aurally, “Elastic Heart” embraces an electropop beat with an impressive vocal line. Visually, Shia Labeouf and Maddie Ziegler’s dirty, disheveled look with nude leotards is striking to the eye as unique and bold, not to mention the animalistic interpretive dancing that adds to the intensity. At first listen, one would not think of such a vulgar interpretive dance to go with this electropop song, but in conjunction with the lyrics, it makes perfect sense. Emotionally, the music video tugs at your heartstrings because of the contrast of child to adult. The difference in age difference shows a clear difference in maturity. Maddie represents a naive, young self while Shia represents thicker skin, and a stronger self.

While browsing through the comment section, I was able to find a few very interesting comments.

First, Elaine Walton says, “There is nothing wrong with the video, however, there is something very much wrong with the world. Because pedophilia is so ramped, a 28-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl can’t do an interpretive dance together without eyebrows being raised. That’s pretty sad. There is nothing sexual about this.”

In general, many of the commenters were having a hard time seeing the art when all they saw was pedophilia, simply because a man danced with a young girl. This seemed to create an uproar among the music video, creating less conversation about the music video itself.

Another interesting comment would be by Jolie Hoffield. “This video never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I symbolise the cage as alcoholism and Maddie and Shia are daughter and father. Their relationship began rocky, but slowly mended itself. She managed to escape the addiction, he didn’t.
As a daughter of a recovering alcoholic, this video hits me hard. Might be silly to some, but meaningful to others.” Although many comments joked about Labeouf’s muscles, other commenters talked about how they were personally touched by this video. Because of how open ended this video was, the audience was able to take it in whatever way they wanted, making it personal for many different people.

Lastly, Colourishous MSP, commented, “good song, weird video <3.” It often enhanced the music for people who understood the artistry in the video while it distracted from the people who did not.

Bibliography:

http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/interviews/a25311/maddie-ziegler-shia-labeouf-warned-me/

https://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/disturbing-message-behind-sias-videos-chandelier-elastic-heart-big-girls-cry/

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sia-apologizes-for-controversial-elastic-heart-video-with-shia-labeouf-20150108

 

 

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The performance of silence

My friends and I always make fun about playing John Cage’s 4’ 33” for the recitals, but unfortunately, none of us have done it so far. It seems that 4’ 33” is the easiest piece to play, and the musicians do not have to practice before the performance since the whole piece is filled with tacet. Also somehow, we do not hear 4’ 33” very often in the concerts, even though it is a very well-known music repertoire by John Cage. At least, I haven’t heard any live performance for this piece.

John Cage is a leading American composer in “chance” music area/music in indeterminacy, and he composed his famous “silent” piece 4’ 33” in 1952. David Tudor played the world premiere of the piece on the piano, and he sat in front of the piano, closed the lid during the movements and set the timing for each movement—the first movement is 33’’, the second movement is 2’ 40’’ and the third movement is 1’ 20’’. After the last movement, David Tudor closed the lid and walked off the stage. Overall, it was a very formal and serious performance.

Many years ago, I also imagined how I would perform John Cage’s 4’ 33” on the piano, and I thought the only thing I needed to do is to not play any note. However, after I watched a lot of videos of this piece, I got shocked by different interpretations from various musicians besides just being silent for four minutes and thirty three seconds. The video performed by Japanese Orchestra—K2Orch—is one of the greatest performance on Youtube, and I think it is an amazing live performance with a violin soloist that I can find online for 4’ 33”. As we know, the performance can’t be totally silent since every sound and noise from the audience and the natural environment is enlarged at the moment. Thus, what happened to the performance of 4’ 33” by K2Orch?

The soloist started to walk on the stage first and the conductor—Yusuke Ichihara—walked after her, and the audiences were keeping clapping when they were walking. I am not sure if the audiences already had the background knowledge of the piece or they already heard the piece before, but I can tell the applause showed their generous welcome. After all the greetings between the conductor and the concertmaster, the conductor and the soloist and so on, the orchestra sat down and the soloist began to tune the violin. Until now, all the processes were same as other music repertoires. After the soloist tuned her instrument, she gave the nod to the conductor to inform him that she was ready. The conductor gave the prep and the down beat, and then the “silent” music started. Thirty three seconds later, the conductor gave the cutoff, and it showed the end of the first movement. Then, the instrumentalists and the conductor took a few seconds break before the second movement started. No one clapped during this time, and it just seems that all the audiences knew 4’ 33” is a three movements piece.

After the conductor gave the prep and the down beat again, the second movement began formally. However, it is very clear that the second movement is a slow movement and it might be adagio because the conductor gave the softer, slower and more smooth prep than the first movement. Two minutes and forty seconds later, the conductor gave a very beautiful cutoff and the release—the second movement was done. Same as taking few seconds break between the first movement and the second movement, after the very short break, the third movement began. I know the last movement is allegro and the dynamic probably should be forte, since the prep from the conductor was more powerful, faster and stronger. After a minute and twenty seconds and the cutoff from the conductor, the whole piece was over. The audiences clapped loudly, and the applause presented that they really enjoyed the performance.

I had to say K2Orch did a fantastic job on this piece. I timed the durations for each movement when they were performing, and all three movements are finished perfectly on time. Actually, stoping on time is not easy to do, even though the players use the watch to keep the time. For example, the performance of William Marx,

he played the first movement as 30’’, instead of 33’’, the second movement was 2’ 23’’, rather than 2’ 40’’, and the last movement was 1’ 40’’, though John Cage wrote 1’ 20’’. Also, the Japanese audiences showed their high respectful for the performers in the video. It is very obvious that they were trying to be very quiet and to not make any noise until the short breaks between the movements—the audiences coughed and moved, even though there was a baby kept crying during the movements. But, since it is a recording of the live, I also can clearly hear the frequency/noise from the recording equipments. Therefore, the “silent” music is not absolutely silent.

If I have to give one suggestion to the performance, I would say maybe the players can be in the performing positions, such as putting or holding their instruments up. So the conductor would not be the only person showing the status of the performance, but also the instrumentalists. Interestingly, this is how the EBU Euroradio Orchestra performed John Cage’s 4’ 33”. 

Reading through the comments of the video by K2Orch, many of them are funny, ironic and casual, even though the performance is formal and fabulous. For example, “The second violin sounded a little out of tune to me”, “I’m 18 and it took 30 years for me to master this song”, “and people pay to hear this”, “Do you think they rehearsed the piece!”, “Excellent performance, though I still prefer the Berliner philharmoniker one with Claudio Abaddo. If anyone has it, please post.”

In my opinion, there are three reasons caused these comments and reactions from the most audiences. Firstly, during the real performance, the ideal meaning of being silent always conflicts with the inevitable noise, and a lot of time people think 4’ 33” is a joke because of those unexpected noise, though it is not. Secondly, the function of the composer being more vague in “chance” music, and unusually, the audiences get involved in the compositional process. Finally, the lack of programme-notes or background stories make the audiences hardly to understand the music. For instance, in John Cage’s book Silence (cited from Music imagination and culture by Nicholas Cook, page 11), he explained his imagination of 4’ 33” and the third movement is in A-B-A form.

John Cage said, “The most important piece is my silent piece.” And it is true that we can hear his philosophic thinking in 4’ 33”—music as indeterminacy. Being one of the wonderful recording, K2Orch presents high quality of the performance and the real and live reactions from the audiences. Since John Cage believes Zen Buddhism and uses I Ching (Taoism), I believe that he might also want to explain the idea of “nothing means something/silence is not silent” in his music, besides “everything is natural and random”.

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Modern Maximalism

Jacob Collier is a European artist that gained fame within the jazz community through his incredibly innovative harmonies,  charismatic personality, and most notably the dynamic videography that accompanies his music. Jacob Collier achieved internet popularity by creating arrangements and covers of popular songs while adding exotic re-harmonizations and playing every single part in the video. His most popular video is a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t you worry ’bout a thing”, and it currently has 2.5 million views.  To me this video embodies the maximalist ideologies and utilizes them in a modern context. The most impressive aspect is that his arrangement is packed chock full of crazy harmonies and written for a very dynamic instrumentation. Within the video he utilizes 6 different types of drums, 3 different keyboards, 6 vocal parts, 3 cymbals, 6 auxiliary percussion instruments, and an upright bass. Although it may not be as physically maximalist as Mahler or any other orchestral composer, his rendition of the “Don’t you worry ’bout a thing” contains much more parts than the original version, and the overall sonic landscape he creates is bursting with energy just like any other maximalist piece.  I feel that the element of maximalism within Jacob Collier’s video lies mostly within the overall sound of his one man ensemble, as well as the visual element of the editing choices he made.

Image result for jacob collier

His harmonic choices take the original harmonic form of the song “Don’t you worry ’bout a thing” and builds off of the prior foundations. Jacob Collier utilizes lots of extensions and playful dissonances that create a color that is truly unique to him. It feels like he took a paint brush and blended the entire color pallet.  There is so much to listen to, and each time I listen to the song I seem to catch something new.  He creates a unique effect where the parts transcend their individual sounds and create this one holistic blend of harmony and timbre. Often times in ensembles you can hear instruments stick out, as well as specific parts of a chord. For example sometimes you can hear a section blast the third of a chord, and it takes away from the overall group sound. The mixing of sounds Jacob Collier uses seldom breaks from the overall color of the group he made. In this video attached here, Jacob Collier created a live video of him harmonizing a video sent by one of his patrons. He essentially fills up an entire ProTools project space with various instruments and parts that he writes. In the comment section of Jacob Collier’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”, a viewer stated, “This is almost supernaturally good”, this comment essentially sums up the knowledge and ability Jacob has. He conceptualizes sound unlike anyone else, and he’s able to deliver an incredible performance on each instrument he writes for. Very few people can pull of such a feat, and it seems inhuman that one individual is capable of so much. Another interesting comment that sparked some research was from “Jasper Jamm’ who commented, “This dude DEFINITELY has some background in harmony training. No one makes up those chords without some real education damn”. Curiously I looked up Jacob Collier’s musical background, and was astonished to see that he declared himself an “autodidact”, which is a fancy way of saying he was self taught.  One could argue that his skills are almost prodigal.  He launched his first YouTube video in 2011, and shortly after was gaining a lot of attention and eventually intrigued the ear of jazz great Herbie Hancock. Huge Harmonies=Huge success.

Image result for jacob collier transcription

Taking a look at Jacob Collier’s videography, he fits a lot of visual content within the small confines of a YouTube video webpage.  He uses a splitscreen paneling effect that allows us to look through various “windows” to each part he’s playing. He opens with 6 frames of just him singing each voice part acapella style, and later on introduces the viewer to more instruments within the one-man band. This editing style increases the scope of the project and creates a cool effect seeing on individual performing with themselves. At the peak of the song you can see every part happening all at once and the visuals climax along with the music. The large scale in video accompanied with the huge sound of the music stimulates the senses to created a unique and maximalist viewing/listening experience. I found this to be a video and song I could listen to over and over again. Sludge pump writes, “Gaaaaah!  Just as good after the twentieth watching!  So good Jacob!!”, a statement I found to be so true. There is so much happening all at once that it is nearly impossible to take it all in during a single listen, and the video is so captivating and mesmerizing it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment and miss some minute yet incredible moments.  His video demonstrates that he is just as much of a monster in the studio as he is at writing and performing.

Image result for jacob collier don't you worry

 

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Andra Day’s “Strange Fruit”

The combination of a beautiful sunset and a Mozart string quartet can bring out emotions we feel in the depths of our soul. A sappy love scene combined with a cheesy romantic melody can make us cry. When moving images are connected with meaningful music, the two have an incredibly powerful effect on the listener and leave a deep impact. What happens when video is combined with a song that is almost too painful to listen to?

Andra Day recently covered and recorded Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit. The song was originally released in 1939 in response to a photo of three black men unfairly lynched in Indiana. The powerful lyrics reached millions of people at the time and played an important role in the development of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1999 the song was named song of the century by Time magazine and has been incorporated in many popular songs.

Strange Fruit has been performed in honor and remembrance of lynched victims, but few music videos have been made. Putting a video to such an emotionally heavy song is not something many decide to take on. The lyrics are as follows: 

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

What makes Andra Day’s video special is the the video combined with sound effects and music. The opening scene of the music video gives a brief history of the lynchings in America and includes a sunset with the outdoor sounds of bugs and wind. This creates a chilling atmosphere and is enhanced by the sound of wood cracking due to the swinging of a rope. It’s almost as if the listener is taken to the night of the Indiana lynchings. As the music starts, the swinging rope effect continues and the sound of gasped breathing is added. Before Andra Day even appears or starts singing the dark lyrics, the listener is able to understand that this is not a light song.

As Andra Day starts singing, the sunset turns into a spotlight and the viewer almost feels as if they are in the vocalist’s shoes.

 

This spotlight may reference Billie Holiday’s performances of this song in the 1940s, as a single spotlight always shown or her face throughout each performance of Strange Fruit. One source stated the following, “Because of the poignancy of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday’s face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction, Holiday would stand with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.” 

The constant change between the spotlight on Andra and the sun shining through the leaves gives tribute not only to the lynching victims but also to Billie Holiday and the difficulties she faced as an African American throughout the Civil Rights Movement. 

As the video continues the listener is able to see that Andra Day is wearing broken handcuffs. This is significant as we see a symbol of the injustice African Americans faced and are reminded that racism in America is still an issue.

Finally, the viewer is able to see images of the camera angle pointed up at branches and Andra Day looking into the air, almost as if she is painfully looking up as she is remembering the victims of the lynching.

This video has the ability to speak to anyone that watches it. The comments listed below show that the filming and performance of this song have an emotional depth that cannot be felt with video or music alone.

When music and video are put together, both create a visual and emotional experience that is essential to the understanding of this song. Because of the heart-wrenching shots combined with Andra Day’s chilling voice, this music video gave “Strange Fruit” the depth and meaning it deserves.

https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit

http://www.billieholiday.com/portfolio/strange-fruit/

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Breezeblocks

Original video:

Version with all the events in order:

The first thing I noticed about this music video was that everything is in reverse.  People are used to experiencing time from beginning to end, so it was hard to piece together what was happening.  It wasn’t until I found a version that played it in order that I realized what was going on.  Based on my understanding, the husband is having an affair with another woman.  This woman gets jealous, locks the wife in the closet and waits for the husband gets home so that she can kill him.  I don’t think she was intending to kill the wife though.  If she wanted to kill her she had the perfect opportunity to.  In the end she gets hit with a breezeblock and falls into the bathtub, where she is held down by “soggy clothes and breezeblocks”.  She’s also dead which probably prevents her from leaving.


I agree that the Husband in this video turned out to be the good guy and that it’s meant to make us question the perspective, but I don’t think that men always seem like the bad guy.   I don’t think proving that men aren’t always bad was the point of this music video, especially since it was the woman who was the first one to attack.

The lines,

“Do you know where the wild things go?

They go along to take your honey (la la la la)

Break down, now weep, build up breakfast

Now let’s eat, my love, my love, love, love (La la la la)”

Seem to be from the woman’s perspective.  She’s going to to take his honey (his wife).  This probably means that if he chooses his wife over her, she’ll kill his wife.

The lyrics, “Please don’t go, I’ll eat you whole, I love you so” is from the book “Where the Wild Things are”.  The lines in the book are

But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go we’ll

eat you up-we love you so!”

And Max said, “No!”

The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth
 and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws
 but Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye.

I think this children’s book was a prominent source of inspiration for this song.  In the book, the main character, Max, sees the creatures and called them “wild things” and when they see him they think he is the “wild thing”.  So, in the music video, the woman sees the husband and his wife and think that they are “wild” and the couple think the woman is “wild”.  I think that the woman is the one who is most like the wild things.  When the husband denies her love she goes insane and tries to kills him.  In the video she is shown throwing glass bottled and practically clawing the guy.  

Many of the lyrics also allude to medical terms.  

“Citrezene your fever’s gripped me again”

“She bruises coughs she splutters pistol shots

But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks

She’s morphine queen of my vaccine my love my love love love, la la la la”

Cetirizine is a type of allergy medicine.  This medicine is also something that can be overdosed.

This song has many implications of death and I think referring to cetirizine is a reference to suicide.  At the end, after he’s killed the woman, he stays in the bathroom instead of going to his wife.  The bathroom is usually a place where people keep pharmaceutical drugs, so by showing him staying in the bathroom could imply that he’s considering suicide.

The line about morphine really caught my attention.  Since morphine is an opiate, it manipulates the brain to receive less pain signals.  It can also increase the release of dopamine and endorphins which can make a person feel euphoric.  Morphine is also a drug that can be overdosed.  When the lines says that she is the “queen of my vaccine”, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what that means.   I interpret it to mean that the woman dominates his wife.   His wife is the antidote to him and the woman is like a drug he keeps overdosing on.  


I thought this comment was really interesting.  It could be true that the woman was a lover that the husband abandoned for the wife, but it doesn’t change the implication that there was an affair and that the woman went insane.