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J.S.T. Andrews

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Classical Music vs. Popular Music: Differences

December 15, 2010 by JSTAndrews

Essentially Modern Popular Music is a (d)evolved variation of the Classical Music Lieder, Art Song or likewise. A Lieder, as defined by Essentials of Music, is “German for ’song’; most commonly associated with the solo art song of the nineteenth century, usually accompanied by piano.” The obvious difference is that instead of piano, artists are using a number of instruments in addition or or in replace of the piano. Also the format of songs versus traditional lieder divided the two even further especially with the lack of variations in most modern music.

Although the piano is one of the most versatile instruments its mobility was problem and the sound seemed to be getting “old”. Thus in the place of the piano came other instruments including the trumpet, saxophone, guitar, etc. Ultimately this ended with the guitar being the primary instrument for modern popular musicians. It was extremely mobile, versatile and could be manipulated into creating countless different effects/sounds. The only part it truly lacked was the deep bass which was easily filled in by the Double Bass and later the Bass Guitar.

Some years before this percussion became a strong presence in Classical Music during the early 20th Century. With this came in the early development of the now Modern Drum Set. Since then the drum set has been the foundation to 90 percent of all Popular Music separating Classical Music and Popular Music even further. Although percussion instruments are used more frequently now than before it rarely has the hold on a piece that Popular Music does.

Filed Under: Music Blog Tagged With: classical music, Lieder, Popular Music

Classical Music vs. Popular Music: Similarities

December 8, 2010 by JSTAndrews

With our condensed history lesson in Classical Music vs. Popular Music: Where Music Parted Ways we discussed how and why Popular Music and Classical Music parted ways. Popular Music began to venture itself away from Classical Music in many forms including culture, notation, instrumentation, etc. However, in many ways these two entities are still actually very close and only have but a few things separating them. To expose the similarities we must also look into the differences.

One of the prominent factors that drives the wedge is the instruments or tools used to create each style of music. Classical Music primarily uses instruments that have been relatively unchanged for hundreds of years whereas Popular has electricity running through a majority of their instruments if it’s not synthesized already. What if you took Bach and played it on the Electric Guitar with some distortion on it? It could easily be mistaken as a 1980’s hair metal guitar riff if one didn’t know better.

On the flip side what if you took Popular Music to Classical Instruments?

Above all it’s interesting how much instrumentation effects the sound of a piece. But with these two basic examples it puts done one more thing that divides Popular Music and Classical Music.

Another factor is the notation of music itself. Most Classical Music is written out onto sheet music with details given tot he performer including mood, tempo, accents, etc. For Popular Music Notation usually just the chords are written out underneath the melody (typically the lead vocals). There tends to be a lot more flexibility given to the performer as well. Now obviously this seems to be a difference rather than a similarity. But let’s go back 400 years or more to the Baroque Era.

A form of notation used most often during the Baroque Era is called Figured Bass. As defined by Harnsberger’s Essential Dictionary of Music figured bass is “a bass part with numbers that indicate the intervals of harmony that are to be played above the bass note…” Which essentially translates to the Chord Progression being laid out; similar to Popular Sheet Music.

Filed Under: Music Blog Tagged With: classical music, Popular Music

Top 10 Jobs for Music Composers

December 6, 2010 by JSTAndrews

Despite the underwhelming press Classical Music Composers get now-a-days, there are actually a lot of jobs out there for Classical Composers. I remember while in school I always got asked, “What can you do with that degree?” Well, a lot of things. Here’s a list of the top 10 careers a composer can start in:

  1. Teaching
      An easy one to start out with is simply teaching other musicians. Either in composing or with your favorite instrument.
  2. Performance
      Almost all Composers are good musicians. This is yet another way to tune in on your craft. Playing other Composer’s music is probably the best way to study their techniques.
  3. Copyist
      There’s lots of jobs out there for this. One must have music theory training and strong transposition stills. This job has you copying parts from a full score into individual instruments.
  4. Transcriber
      This takes a little practice but can be quite useful. One would provided a written score for recorded music and/or performances.
  5. Arranger
      Arrangers provide different instrumentation of a piece for band, orchestra, choir and other ensembles. They could take the Star Spangled Banner and Arrange it for a male vocal assemble.
  6. Orchestrator
      An Orchestrator is an unsung hero in the music industry. Say a Composer just finished a new piece but only in a condescend piano version. An Orchestrator would then take that piece and figure out which instruments would sound good where and how to group them. This job is almost as important as the composition itself.
  7. Editor
      This is a job primarily for printed sheet music. An editor looks for anomalies in a piece, adds articulation and such to a composer’s final product.
  8. Conductor
      This is probably the biggest step one could make in his career. Not only are do you prepare the orchestra you might be able to wiggle in some of your own pieces and getting your name out.
  9. Film Scores
      Some may not consider this a full-fledged composer but either way it’s a separate job in itself. This requires a lot of patience and flexibility in your writing. Basically you must convey the ideas of the movie within your works. It’s a great opportunity and if anything else a great challenge.
  10. Composer
      Obviously this is the ultimate goal. But it can take a lot of time and effort to get recognized on this level. Hey, if John Williams can do it…

Filed Under: Music Blog Tagged With: classical music, Jobs, Music Composer

Classical Music vs. Popular Music: Where Music Parted Ways

December 1, 2010 by JSTAndrews

There seems to be a misconception with music lovers and in the music community that Classical Music and Popular Music are two entirely different beasts. To be fair, Classical Musicians tend to think of Popular Musicians as “lesser musicians” or “lesser composers” and Popular Musicians and Songwriters tend to think of Classical Musicians and Classical Composers as up-tight nazis who don’t understand what music is truly about. But who says they are truly different or have to be different? And at what point do we draw the line between the two?

According to Princeton the term “popular music” is defined as: “any genre of music having wide appeal (but usually only for a short time) “. This is a relatively vague definition but it puts it into perspective.

Music has been popular since man learned to bang a stick, blow into a horn or even sing before written history. It’s a form of expression and one of the most primitive forms at that. Music has developed the slowest compared to other fine arts, sometimes being a hundred years or more behind. The Musical Eras almost never line up with the Painting Eras. On the other hand it also generates more attention (generally speaking) than the other arts do. There are also two themes you will see consistently in the History of Music and (in essence) Popular Music: 1) That the music that is “popular” is either
forbidden or looked down upon 2) New forms of music are often originally created as a new form or a new way to dance.

The first solid form of documentation of music came from the Georgian Chants before the Renaissance. Originally these “songs” were developed as music for the church. There were only a few to begin with. However it became so popular that secular (non-religious) music began to change the words for these chants and also write their own. Later the church banned all but a select few of these chants; secular music was forbidden.

Later Nobles during the Renaissance would hire minstrels and the such to perform for them and their guests. Many times these musicians would play “dance music” for their guests to enjoy. Waltz, Ballads, Minutes and other Classical Music Forms originated as dances. These all became staples in Classical Music arsenal and further developed far beyond their original dance.

Jumping forward to the 20th Century we start to see where Classical Music and Popular Music actually start to really “divide”. In the early 1900’s Jazz starts taking it’s hold on America as both dance music and a forbidden music. After the World Wars America as a whole wanted a more similiar music, something they didn’t have to think about and the jitter-bugs were born. Now at this point Classical Music still had some pull. People were still going the opera and enjoying Classical Music Performances. It wasn’t old, it wasn’t
boring it was just what people did and enjoyed.

Then came the Serialist. The idea of Serial Music is a great concept… in theory. Serial Music deserves a whole post (or 5) to itself so I’ll summarize it. Basically these composers wanted to make music as organic as possible. There were basically 2 ways of doing this. The first idea was that any single note could not be repeated until the 11 others had been. This idea was to basically give every note an “equal” value. The other idea stemmed from the first but took it to the next level. They believed that music should be left to chance. To accomplish this “composers” would set parameters such as the length of the piece, the longest and shortest value of a note, the tempo and so on. They took all this information and plugged it into a computer. From there the it would play a game and spit out the piece of music.

Now I know you are thinking Computer =\= Music and I would tend to agree with you. But that is another wall of text.

Obviously the music these computers spewed out was either a) not easily performed b) sounded horrific c) a terrifying combination of the two. Not too soon after these “compositions” were published the public abanded classical music. There was little to no interest in classical music still (although it still had it’s place). Other forms of music began to take over its 400+ year reign and serialist crawled back under their rocks.

Serial Music has its place but it came at the wrong time and went too far. People wanted to listen to simple music then. They didn’t want to have to think about their music in the least. And they especially didn’t want to listen to something that didn’t sound “in-tune” to them. It went too far when Mathematicians, Archeticts and various other people decided they were Music Composers and that numbers would compose for them. It went too far when a computer almost single handily”composed” music. And it went especially too far when these “composers” called these things “music”.

Note that I did not say Serial Music killed Classical Music. I believe that Serial Music played a very important role in Classical Music. However, I draw the line where computers take out the process of composition.

Immediately after this the Classical Music community went in full reserve and Minimalism was born. However, it was not enough. Classical Music was “dead”. Lately it has been been emerging back into the mainstream ever so slowly. It’s gaining momentum and picking up the pace. I don’t believe it’ll ever be the sole source of music again. Nor do I believe it should be. But it will become and already is a large part of the music culture (however subtle).

The second part of this article will dive into how Classical Music and Popular Music really aren’t all that much different.

Filed Under: Music Blog Tagged With: classical music, Popular Music

Classical Music: Vocalist vs. Instrumentalist

October 27, 2010 by JSTAndrews

For years there has been a friendly feud between members of the Classical Music Community: vocalist and instrumentalist. The only difference Between these two “factions” is the instrument used; one is man-made the other is organic. Their education is generally the same with emphasis on their chosen form of sound production and they read roughly the same music. So what divides them within? What drives them to cast seemingly harmless, sarcastic remarks towards one another and sometimes degrade one another?

From being in school for many years as an instrumentalist, I saw the forefront of this. Though not noticeable on the surface comments such as “Well who cares? He’s just a vocalist” become more obvious as the days past.

In my opinion (and feel free to disagree with me), Vocalist tend to be more self-conscious and comfortable with themselves. This tends to lead to arrogance and a feeling of higher self-importance; which in most cases will rub people the wrong way.

Instrumentalist though lean more towards the “left wing” and are prone sarcasm. Their self-worth might not be lower than vocalist but it is not reflected outward as much. The major conflicts between the two groups seems to be the resentment of vocalist because of their attitude which builds and builds.

However all is not lost, we are all together for the same cause. We love music and similar to other “classifications” or titles, musicians tend to stick
together. They just feel comfortable around other people that they can relate too. It’s human nature. I relate better to people who are overly sarcastic.

This happens everywhere. Say you walk into a class. On one side of the room there’s people who you’ve never seen before. On the other side there’s a few from you dorm. You may not really know these people but you at least recognize them. Which side do you think you’ll go to? Obviously the one where you feel at least marginally more comfortable. It’s happened since the dawn of time and will continue to.

Filed Under: Music Blog Tagged With: classical music

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