 |
| 1 | |
"Listening Out Loud" is a composers' manual written by Elizabeth Swados (Harper&Row, 1988) and she addresses many of the issues faced by composers today. Is there any advice in this book that you think is unique to today's composers? Why do you think Elizabeth Swados felt the need to write such a book? |
| | |
|
|
|
| 2 | |
Go back and listen to Amy Beach's "Gaelic" Symphony after hearing Gwyneth Walker's "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May" compare the two pieces. Aside from the fact that one is a symphony and the other a song, think about what each composer was trying to achieve. Is there something about the "sound" of these two pieces that suggest the two composers had different aims? Discuss your answer. |
| | |
|
|
|
| 3 | |
Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. 2 has the performance duration of six hours without any intermission! The work has been recorded by the Flux String Quartet on Mode DVD 112. (The DVD is a continuous performance; otherwise you can find it on a 6 CD set). With a piece of such length, what are the challenges that face the audience? The performers? What is this composer implicitly suggesting by composing such a long string quartet? Does this piece require something more than just stamina? |
| | |
|
|
|
| 4 | |
The 2003 Pulitzer Prize in music was awarded to John Adams for his Sept. 11 memorial piece titled "On the Transmigration of Souls" (Nonesuch 79372). In what ways does this piece represent the available sound world(s) available to the Twenty-first century composer? After hearing this piece do you think its longevity is assured or is the piece too topical? In a brief paper discuss your answer and compare to other pieces that have been composed for similar events in history (for example Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, Haydn's Missa in tempore belli and Dufay's Missa l'Homme Arme). |
| | |
|
|