Opera

While I was reading the assigned reading for Tuesday I was reminded of a certain opera. Upon searching Youtube I found that the following video.





Since this is my first time directly embedding a video in a blog and the code does not look right, I made the word video hyperlink to the video as well. The video is from the opera "The Barber of Seville" and is the song "Largo al factotum (della città)!". During the performance you can clearly hear a wide variety of different timbres created by the different chordophones and aerophones. This has a Heterophony of the actor singing the with the orchestra providing support for his singing. The tempo is somewhat hastened for the majority of the performance. There is one portion during which the speed of the song slows down considerably. The performer singing uses some amount of vibrato throughout the performance to further ornament the singing. It is quite impressive how the vocalist continues to sing with such volume through the duration of the piece even though he continually moves across the stage. If any find this piece somewhat nostalgic but can not imagine why, such as having never attended an opera before, perhaps this link will remind them of their childhood.

Avatar

Unless I am mistaken, it seemed to me that the music consisted of western influence in some the of the background with use of various chordophone and aerophone instruments while the drumming seemed more African in nature. The style and rhythm patterns of the drums made me think of African indigenous groups and some of the chanting had a tribal feel. And the western feel to some of the backdrop music should not come as a surprise seeing as this is a film released to a primarily western audience. This is what I noticed about the music composition of the film.

Ethnography

Introduction
This article is being written to describe the Dallas Museum of Art's Thursday night live jazz performances. In this paper I intend to provide the reader with a basic knowledge of what jazz is. I want to further develop the reader's understanding pertaining to the principles of jazz. I also intend to convey how those principles are applied by the performers at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Methodology
First let me explain my relation to the event I wish to describe to the reader. I was a part of the audience during a recent concert of theirs. This was neither the first time I had listened to music at the Dallas Museum of Art, nor do I foresee it as my last time. While I was at the concert, I had asked a few people their opinions during the event. All of them during the interviews mentioned the skill of Tom Braxton. I further supplemented my research of this music culture by reading our text book and using databases and search engines to further grasp the fundamental concepts regarding the aspects of this music culture that I did not prior fully understand.
Aspects of this Music Culture
In these following sections I am going to explain the fundamental concepts of the base music culture of jazz to the reader and how it is seen in a local context with this particular music culture. I will also present some of the aspects of this music culture that are not related in large to jazz but only to this instance.
Ideas
Jazz music is at its core a deviation from traditional music. The text book describes jazz as a seemingly unruly improvised polyphony of syncopation(Alves 342). But what does this mean? Polyphony is multiple melodies of about the same importance at the same time(Alves 342). Syncopation in music is most simply described as "by accenting normally weak beats in a measure, by resting on a normal accented beat, or by tying over a note to the next measure" (Britannica). This makes jazz unpredictable. Jazz uses solos by the lead instruments to give it an individualistic fee. Stan Getz once said "There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music"(World Jazz Scene). This fairly well defines the underlying ideas of jazz, and Tom Braxton, a local Dallas jazz performer who played at the Dallas Museum of Art, reflects these in his skill filled solos.

Activities
As a member of the audience, it is appropriate to clap after a solo that you enjoyed during jazz concerts. Clapping was highly encouraged at the performance I attended since it is appropriate for this genre of music. The performance was in the Atrium of the Dallas Museum of Art. The musicians perform just feet away from the audience providing a personal feel to the music. Also, since the music is performed at night at the Atrium, you can reserve a table and have food delivered to you to enjoy as you listen to the performance. There is also drink counter from which you can purchase a beverage to further enjoy your evening in the Dallas Museum of Art's live jazz performance.

Repertoires
The jazz performers play various pieces that they have preplanned, but since it is jazz they must also perform impromptu solo as they perform based off of the pieces they are playing. This gives the music a general sense of direction while allowing the jazz performers to express their emotion and skill through the use of melodic embellishments during the solos.

Material Culture
The night I attended the event they had a jazz harpist, a bassist, a drummer, and clarinet. Tom Braxton played the clarinet and the saxophone as a lead instrument as he played various solos to please the crowd. As prior mentioned, you can order food or get a drink as you listen to the performance so this would qualify a part of the materials used in this music culture.

Conclusion
Simply put, the Dallas Museum of Art houses various local and national jazz talents to entertain the patrons of the Dallas Museum of Art. The jazz music can be heard throughout most of the museum due to the tile floors and open nature of the museum. It provides entertainment to a broad spectrum of people who may visit the museum for the art, music, and those who came to enjoy fine music as they dine at the Dallas Museum of Art.

References

William Alves. Music of the Peoples of the World. Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

"Arts & Entertainment:: syncopation." Britannica. 2010. .

"World Jazz Scene: Great quotes about musicians." 2010. .

Difficulties

It can be somewhat challenging to get exactly the info you need. Going up to someone and asking "what do you believe are the core values expressed in this music?" when there are no vocals and no associated text certainly is hard to answer. I, however, am confident in my abilities to understand the believes of my music culture( The Dallas Museum of Art: Jazz ) partly from its location and with a little more research into the history of jazz it will become very apparent. I enjoyed this music culture and intend to do my best to express to others what it means to me.