Unforgivable Youth

1 comment · Latest by Tonya Sedgwick

For some reason I could not get Salon to let me log in. It hasn't sent me a change your password link yet, so I will post my responses to the reading here:

I don’t think that you could interchange the beginning and end of Roar because the ending one has other sounds behind it that make it sound more triumphant. (I can’t tell for sure, but it sounds like maybe there’s extra brass instruments, and it’s certainly louder.) I think that Dark Horse is an example of expanding register. I do not agree that the piano sonata belongs to either a crescendo or register expansion beginning. The pitches seem like they are within similar tones, and stay a fairly steady volume. The beginning of the main theme of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory exhibits crescendo, expansion of register, rising lines, and rhythmic variety. These contrast to almost sound creepy. I think that the crescendo and rhythmic variety in Beethoven’s “tempest” do make it sound tempestuous, although I am not sure that it feels like a violent storm. Mars Attacks begins with a set of crescendo and a lot of timbre and register discontinuities (especially with the “space ship sounds”). I think that this attracts the listener because there is something scary going on, but also some kind of heroic feeling. The illustration with Beethoven’s Symphony 7 kind of helps to outline the rhythms of the different sections of musicians, but I think other than that I find it hard to read. I have a much easier time reading the music when I can see humans performing it (my best friend and I always get season tickets to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra). I think that the beginning theme of Paganini is fairly complex, since it keeps switching up an expected note for one slightly different.