Music Niccoloa Paganini

Romanticism
a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe
Paganini composed during the period of Romanticism (late 18th century).
Paganini was not considered a romantic composer because his music is not romantic, but rather designed to show off his skills.

Paganini
Niccolo Paganini was an Italian violinist, guitarist, and composer. He lived from 1782 to 1840. He is one of the most well known violin masters of all time.
Paginini’s major contribution to music is his his ability to manipulate existing techniques in his time to their highest potential. Among them was the technique of mistuning the violin to play other notes. Paganini was one of the first to change the violin to a solo instrument, instead of the ensemble instrument it was before.
Paginini legend is his violin, called Cannon. Now, every two years in Paginini’s hometown, Genoa, there is a contest Musical Festival for violin musicians. It is a contest, whoever wins the contest can play Paginini’s Cannon for the last day.

Paginini contributed several very special techniques to the world of violin. Among them included:


A) Ricochet bowing - "an unorthodox technique of bouncing the bow against the strings."
B) Scordatura - mis-tuning the violin strings so the performer can play in various keys without shifting hand positions.
C) Pizzicato - plucking the violin strings instead of bowing them to create a staccato effect; he used both right and left hands for this.
D) Harmonics - Paganini used many types of harmonics to create unusual sounds.
E) Unorthodox fingering techniques - "this was possible because of his various physical ailments." Ehlers-Danlos is a genetic disorder that causes hyper-mobility in the joints because of a collagen synthesis defect. This is said to have allowed Paganini's joints to be so flexible that he could play up to three octaves across the board without ever shifting the position of his hand. He also had very long limbs and fingers, which is a condition thought to be due to Marfan syndrome, a disorder of the connective tissue.
F) Playing an entire composition using only the G-string.


Paganini’s most famous composition was the Caprice No. 24.



Another famous one is la Campenella Op.7 No.2

Music Elliot Carter

Elliott Carter
How deeply rooted into society was he?
-Elliott Carter’s music is rhythmically complex, but never hard to listen to.
How relevant is this music now in 2009?
-Although most people like to listen to pop music now in 2009, older people who appreciate classical music more still like to listen to Elliott Carter’s symphonies and pieces.
Is this music relevant to a specific area or time?
-Elliott Carter’s music is listened mostly in the West. There are not many people who listen to him anymore, but he won a prize recently.
Is this music based on anything?
-Elliott Carter’s music was not based on anything (not program music), but rather, he just developed and and catalogued all the possible pitches he could and put as many as he could into a piece.
His most important contribution?
-Edward Carter’s most important contribution to music is the complex melody present in every composition of his. He once said that he wanted his music to “portray a different type of motion”, in which players are not locked in step with the downbeat of every measure.
Special Approach?
-Elliott Carter’s music is different from most other types of music, because he wanted his music to have the continuous acceleration and deceleration in his music.
Influence?
-Elliott Carter had students, and there are nine especially notable ones. They are
Ronald Caltabiano
Joel Chadabe
Tod Machover
Jeffrey Mumford
Tobias Picker
David Schiff
William Schimmel
Ellen Taafe Zwilich

Video
Elliot Carter: Sonata for Cello and Piano
The clicking noise is a problem with the camera.



Question:
How is Elliott Carter's compositions different from most other composers' compositions?

Citizenship 8 17 November, 2009

Today in Citizenship, we learned more about how clique's are hurtful. We learned about stereotypes and why it is sometimes harder to make new friends in a small school like ours. We learned about different types of stereotypes, including jocks and nerds. Today, what we really focused on is how stereotyping cliques can be hurtful. Example: if one school had a big clique of jocks and a small clique of nerds, if most of the nerds leave, leaving one or two behind, because of the nerds' stereotypes, they will not be able to make new friends.

Art 8 10 November, 2009

1. Describe 2 people and their facial descriptions, clothing, and what they were doing.
For this first part, I decided to describe two workers: one that was blowing glass (1) and the worker who was shaping glass into animals (2).
(1) This worker was wearing a blue T-shirt and he was sweating because of the furnace nearby. He was shaping blowing glass into a cup. I couldn't see his face properly, but I could see his face wasn't scrunched up like Mr Marchione's from blowing too hard.
(2) This worker was shaping glass into animals.He made a penguin, a snail, and something I didn't know. He was also making a blue T-shirt. I didn't see his face because I was looking at the glass.

2. Give 2 reasons why Hsinchu is famous for glass making.
Hsinchu has a lot of silicon and glass. Hsinchu has so much glass it is called the silicon valley of Taiwan. However, Hsinchu glass is still not as good as Italian glass or Venician glass or whatever.

Citizenship 8 10 November, 2009

Today in Citizenship, I learned the rules, duties, and responsibilities of citizens in neighborhoods, cities, countries, and the world. I learned that taxes are meant for the government to help us, but we need to prevent corruption. The rules in our class are:

1. No talking out of turn
2. Sit up, pay attention
3. Respect, and
4. Cooperation

And our new rule is that we are not supposed to eat in our class because Stephanie freaked out a cockroach yesterday.