"One Day" by Hans Zimmer

Hi, everyone

Attached is a link to the piece I shared with you all last Monday. 

When I was 12 years old, I stepped into a movie theatre and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the first time and I fell deeply in love with film music. It was because of this beautiful theme Hans Zimmer composed - a theme that bound the entire film, but was only revealed in its full entity in one of the final scenes. In that moment, I remember being completely drawn in by music in film for the first time. I instantly fell in love with the ability it had to take hold of my heart in that moment and the very first thought I had as I left the theatre was that I longed to be the person to make people feel the way I was feeling. Since then, my dream was to compose for film.

Mikhaila

One Day - Hans Zimmer

"Crisis" By Ennio Morricone

The piece I chose is titled "Crisis" by Ennio Morricone, written for the movie Legend of 1900 (film released in 1998). The entire soundtrack was "life-changing" in the sense that it was the first (if not one of the first) film sound tracks that really stood out to me, for its incredible emotion and variety (jazz, love songs, waltzes, etc). In this particular piece/ scene, the main character is struggling with the fact that he has fallen in love with someone, but there is something getting in his way. There are only around 5 tones repeated on the piano throughout the entire piece and one might say it couldn't get more simpler than this, however Morricone masterfully conveys love and heartache.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDtYeKYhLQ

Kodak Black-No Flockin (2014)

I chose Kodak Black's No Flockin for my impactful piece of music because it was a song that I felt juggled ideas of heaven and hell in its sonic quality and lyrical content. The beat contains brass synths about 35 seconds in that creep eerily into the sound. To me, they represent a nostalgic memory of mistakes made and a sad recognition of your current state of malaise. The choir vocals that the beat is built around seems to be representative of a higher force watching all this debauchery from a place of judgement and all-knowing power. This part of the beat slides underneath Kodak's raps before seemingly encompassing the space in a moment's notice by conquering the corners and then flooding into the center. Kodak's raps seem to be on the same spiritual trajectory as the piano, which is the instrument we start and end with. The piano seems to be in a position of discrimination as compared to other sounds, bouncing off the walls of the mix and overpowered by the concrete ideas of good (the choir) and evil (the brass synths). However, the piano's consistency proves it belongs. It is taking notes on the battle going on between good and evil and thus it is the only voice able to project a mix of influence, a unique perspective.

Kodak's lyrics have the ability to dance along the thin branch of the "tweener"-a term from professional wrestling that signifies a character who exerts shades of grey, neither good nor evil. His most provocative line comes at 1:14, when he says "I spent five on my pinky ring, she love my diamond ring. Anyway, I'm married to the game, she said her vows to me. I ain't getting on my knees, bae, you bow down to me. You go down for me. You lay down and do the time for me. Sorry boo, yeah I lie to you but don't you lie to me." He is talking about the love of the game that lies deep in his heart but his inability to allow himself to succumb to its manipulation. He occupies a hardened belief of distrust, even towards the entity that he loves. But his honesty and self-agency are to be admired, in that he is unwilling to allow anything to play with his conceptions of his own identity. He loves something that is in itself a duality between good and evil. The game represents fast money but also the risk of punishment and death. Kodak, along with the piano, is the only force with an equal amount of grey that can tackle such a distinctive being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_-obgiWm0

An Impactful Track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKTvwIng-rA

The post is "This World" by Zero 7 and comes from their debut album, Simple Things, released in 2001.  I remember being introduced to this song by a friend during the summer of '04.  Up until then, my taste in music was rather limited, and I had never heard a track like this, one that was genre-bending and contained a dreamy soundscape.  This moment marked a time when I felt inspired to venture out, explore new genres and music that were foreign to me, and discover where my musical curiosities and leanings could extend.  

minute of music

This is the first track on Shania Twain's album Come on Over... the first album in my life that I fell in love with and listened to obsessively. As a toddler and a young child (probably ages 3-6), I would put the CD in the stereo and dance/run around to this.

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" (1997)
https://youtu.be/ZJL4UGSbeFg

Rick-rolled the class, but here is my actual minute

The soundtrack to Final Fantasy XIII got me into the realm of composing for media, especially this theme for the protagonist Lightning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke281MBhpDg (2:23 in length)

I chose 4'33'' by John Cage because it is to me quite a milestone in music history since it expanded the boundaries of music as no other work has ever done before.

Back in my undergrad, when I was looking into myself to find my voice as a composer, I came across this work and I got from it the confidence that I needed to put on a paper for the first time what my soul brings to my mind when I think of composing today.

1 Minute of Music

Insert Inspirational story here ________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBNveHXwL7Y

The band that got me into songwriting is the band The Frames. This is one of my favorite songs by them but I pretty much like all of their music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bjcv8mEtVg

What Your Soul Sings by Massive Attack

Hearing this song for the first time sparked my interest in using electronics in a more orchestrated fashion as to bring out a more contemporary sound and color.

https://youtu.be/2CF8XbAThBA

My 1 Minute (+bonus)

The piece I played in class is linked below. In case you are interested, I also included 3 previous arrangements of the tune that are quite different. I think it is neat to see how the piece evolved as Zappa both grew into a more mature composer and began to explore different variations of orchestration.



1st Version (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqPdI68lArc

2nd Version (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dTYW9_un2E

3rd Version (1972): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsDQxh9_e50

Last Version (1993): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ptKsMg4W0

Hayden's Minute of Music: WA Mozart's Requiem in D minor: Lacrimosa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1-TrAvp_xs

"The Egg Travels" James Newton Howard; 1 Minute of Music.

Dallin Burns
Composers Forum
9/24/2018
1 minute of music

Hey Class,

For my one minute of music I brought a que from the film Dinosaur. If you use the below spotify clip start at 1:20 to hear what I played in class. The composer, James Newton Howard, did a magnificent job capturing the magnificence and beauty of the film as he first introduces the main theme of the film.

In this moment an egg from a broken nest is thrown to the wind, the rivers, and beasts to finally be picked up by a pterodactyl and flow into a beautiful valley. The music creates a sweeping soundscape that immediately draws us in. As a kid, this was one of the first times i noticed the music as a separate entity in a movie. I was obsessed with the scene and would listen to it over and over again. Thanks to James Newton Howard I work every day towards becoming a film composer.

Youtube:
https://youtu.be/YP1l9-i79ag
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0fnQ3DCQK0svYdW0kJg2GR?si=Q5ckxU8SRdiFLBqo5pcuPw

1 Minute of Music

1 Minute of Music selection:

Nico Muhly - Mothertongue

Nico Muhly - The Only Tune

Windmills Of Your Mind

Here is Sting's version of Michel LeGrand's Windmills of Your Mind

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/windmills-of-your-mind/250952583?i=250952618

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDgTRY9vGCM

Enjoy!

hello.

here is "the story of hip hop" by the books. i think this is so creative, and it really jams so well. one of my favorite tunes these days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KslBjrnmh68

--amanda 

Alfred Newman, Score for "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" (1955)

For my one minute of music, I chose a piece that I stumbled upon as a junior in high school, by which time I was lightly familiar with music theory but only just starting to compose, and at a time when I was obsessed with Golden Era film scores. Before finding this track, I had not made the connection that a good number of jazz/vocal standards had their origins in films, so I was pleasantly overwhelmed when I heard even the first four bars of Alfred Newman's transformation of the song into a symphonic score. It was, for me, a fantastic introduction to (and confirmation of) so many fundamental elements of composition: the beauty of a simple melody, natural yet powerful counter-lines, a constantly evolving harmonic landscape (in the late-Romantic style), and phrases that breathe.

Of course, I will say that the whole 7 minutes is well worth listening through, especially in comparison to the kinds of film scores we hear today, but if you don't have those extra 6 minutes to spare, I highly recommend the excerpt between 5:09 and 6:20. It's towards the end of Newman's development of the theme, and I think it's just really fascinating how he gets us from a suspenseful, foreign key (the piece starts in Ab major) far away from the original motivic material, to the glorious return of the theme in its entirety, especially in the harmony. And in the theme itself, the counter lines in the strings and horns are just so satisfying.

Link for the whole piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4XPywhkVK4

Link for the piece beginning at the excerpt:
https://youtu.be/Z4XPywhkVK4?t=309

My 1 minute of Music

Hi All,

Here's the piece I chose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDTH8b4koO4

The excerpt I played in class starts around 13:55
Still remains one of my favorite moments in music ever.
Thanks!

1 Min of Music

The movie Sister Act 2 changed my whole life. Here is a clip of Lauryn Hill singing "His Eye Is On The Sparrow". She did not want to pursue music because her mother would not let her. I remember watching this movie when I was 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and being moved every time by the way it depicts and translates the power of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9-Z-QNVIaE

"Three Legged Dog" from Hundred Days by the Bengsons

This is from a theater piece by some artists who have made me cry a whole bunch. Here, Abigail Bengson (the lead singer) is performing as herself in a partially fictionalized version of her life, singing about real people she loves. Her riffs and screams exist in this neat place somewhere between acting/storytelling and genuine peril and raw emotion. I'm super in to all the weird vocal stuff going on in this song, but beyond that, I just find the whole thing super moving.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7JK0UdeRiMx2yVFLwDahhj
^Just got released so it's not on youtube yet, but it's track 13 here.

Kat Vokes - "Morgen" by Strauss, op. 27 no. 4

Strauss composed this piece in 1894 as the last song in a set of four (op. 27). It was originally written with piano accompaniment, which is my favorite version. I decided, however, to play a rendition accompanied by what sounds like violin, strings and harp because Fritz Wunderlich is singing and I can't imagine a better vocal interpretation than his. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGa7RleTFOU

Wakim - Minute of music (and more!)

Hi everybody!! Here's a YouTube link to my minute of music selection. It's Ravel's Sheherezade, M41, movement III l'Indifferent, written in 1904. So so beautiful. All three movements are great too!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LTc2XM74oc


Best,
Alex