Morning Show Music

I started watching the morning show at Eight O’ Clock on November 28th. When starting they began with a song by Alicia Keys as they ran the camera through the crowd. This is because Alicia Keys was playing at the show. About two minutes in they played Christmas music when they were talking about giving to some charity for kids. Next at 8:09 they closed for a commercial and played random morning show music. Then a commercial for Bon Jovi playing on the morning show came on next with his music. Next were an assortment of commercials; one for McCormicks, Walmart, I-hop, Samsung, Toys R Us and Old Dogs. All of these commercials consisted of music that would appeal to their customers. For example, Toys’ “R” Us had upbeat exciting music.
Then the show returned from commercials at 8:12. They did one piece that lasted till 8:16 and went to another commercial. There were commercials with music from Big Lots, Invictus, Honey Bunches of Oats, Kay Jewelers, Nikon and Toyota. All which had background music.
They returned at 8:19 which a segment on Al Roker’s book. This book was a mystery/thriller; and they played a haunting type of music throughout the entire segment. It was called “The Morning Show Murder.” At 8:26 they took their next break. A commercial for the local news channel, Great Clips, The Biggest Loser, a funeral home, Cheerios, Oprah, Dr. Phil and more local news commercials. All of these were the commercials with music.
They returned with more music from Alicia Keys at 8:30. They spoke with someone from the biggest loser, which during they played inspirational music. At 8:35 they return to commercials and returned back at 8:37 with a story about a man who builds “Smart Houses. ” One home’s was a tree house at which time they played fairytale music because they say these houses are a fairytale that comes true because of how cheap they are. At 8:41 they went to another commercial which consisted of the typical commercials consisted of car dealers, fast food restaurants, the local news and clothing stores.
At 8:45 they returned with Alicia Keys actually playing a concert and then went right into another commercial. When they returned again at 8:49 Alicia Keys played another song. After talking with her they ended the show at 8:58

National Treasure

I stumbled across a pretty good song to use for this blog when I overheard my roommate watching the UD movie channel and heard the same song over and over again. The song I chose was "Ben," by Trevor Rabin; from the movie National Treasure. In this movie "Ben" is played many times all throughout the film. It is first heard in the beginning of the movie during an action scene. It is somewhat loud and energetic. The next time you here it is when the main character, Nicolas Cage, appears to be thinking about clues to find the treasure. In this instance the music builds from soft to loud the closer he gets to the right answer. This is kind of where one would hear a theatrical build up. The closer the clues would get him to the treasure the louder and more energetic the music would get. At the very end once he finds the treasure the music is at its most triumphant sound level. This is the climax of the movie. This is also the resolution because the movie kind of ends on that note being that he found the treasure. This song is also played in the credits at a more mellow sound.

Music in Wedding Crashers

The scene I chose was from the movie "Wedding Crashers." Typically you would not think to watch a comedy for a quality song used in a movie; but since this movie has a romantic side to it there were several songs available. I chose the song "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today" by Guster. This song is played in the movie when the two characters are faced with the struggles of falling in love with one another. The reason for such struggles is because the female character, Rachel McAdams, is engaged. As you could probably guess this song is used to put emphasis on the sadness and troubles both of them are facing at this point. The lyrics actually go along with the movie quite well. The line "i hope tomorrow is like today" goes in sync with the movie because previous to this scene the two characters spent the entire day together. This song does a really great job at displaying the emotions both characters in this movie are dealing with. Had this song not been playing during this scene I do not think it would have nearly as much impact on the viewer.

Paul Lansky

I listened to "2 by 2" by Paul Lansky. This peice really could not have had a story line to it because it really sounded the same the entire time. It was hard to determine what exactly the sounds were in this peice. I would imagine that most of this peice were generated by a computer. There was one sound in this song that reminded me of water trickling. I listened to a couple more of his peices and found that this is in several other songs also. This and something that sounded kind of like a bass drum beating seemed very common in his peices. These computer generated sounds gave his music a kind of mystical sound to it. That is the only word I can think of to describe it.

Sound of the 1800 and 1900's

I listened to Captain Pearl R. Nye's "Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal." The track I listened to was called "Take a Trip on the Canal if You Want to Have Fun: part 1." I think to get the full expereince of the old recording technology I would need to heard a song with some instrumentals in it. Finding a song that had some instrumentals was quite a task, so settled for this song which is all vocals. It started off with just with a bunch of static playing. I was not sure if it was working but found that all of the songs start this way. I noticed that the song has pretty poor quality being that the static goes throughout the entire song. The one thing I think is interesting is that there is no retakes. When Captain Nye makes a mistake he pauses and then starts singing again. In todays music you obviously would not have that. I would imagine this was something that was common when they were using this old recording system.

Notation

When thinking about new ways to notate music I just thought of what I would find easiest if I were trying to read music. The biggest change I would make would be to change the notes into numbers. It seems that this is a much more simplistic way of going about things. Rather than seeing a circle with a hole in it for a half note, the musician would just see a 2; in which they would hold the note for two beats. As for the pitch of the notes I think the only way to make things easier would be to do it as they do for guitar tabs. The only reason I think this would be easier is because it seems that this is how most upcoming guitarist learn to play music; thus it must be easier. It may seem confusing to have two sets of numbers to read music, but if you just put the number for the pitch on the botton amd the value of the note on top it would not get to confusing.

Song Rythym

The first song I listened to was from the archives in the library. The peice was called Hipster Harvey and was played by theBrooklyn Sax Quartet: Way of the Saxophon, conducted by Fred Ho. This peice was a little more upbeat. The rythym of this song was a little faster than moderate, possibly 90-110 beats per minute. It was a happier song at most points which indicated that it is major. It was a very interesting song; the baratone sax was playing the bass beat the whole time and the tenor or alto sax was playing the melody of the peice.

The next song I listened to was from my collection; I chose Iron and Wine's "Someday the Waves." Like most of their music this song was in minor. Althogh the meaning is positive and happy, the tone of the song is kind of sad sounding. The reason I chose Iron and Wine was because most of their music is at a slower rythym. This song is at a very slow rythym, maybe 50-60 beats per minute. It is similar to the rythym of a lullaby. This song is homophonic being that it is just one singer and a melody in the background.