The Arts in NYC, Professor Smaldone, Fall 2011 https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011 Queens College Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:34:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/var/www/webroot/ROOT/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/15140022/mhc_logo_NEW-favicon.png The Arts in NYC, Professor Smaldone, Fall 2011 https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011 32 32 A (Long) But Lovely Evening of Choral Music https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/a-long-but-lovely-evening-of-choral-music/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/a-long-but-lovely-evening-of-choral-music/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:34:10 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3093 Continue reading ]]> This past Wednesday, December 14th was the last choral concert of the fall semester. I participated in this concert as part of the Women’s Chorus, but due to our spot on the program (after intermission), I took the opportunity to watch the first half of the show.

The repertoire was almost all Baroque/sacred music, and I’m sorry to say that the selection of music disappointed me a bit. Yet again, I am not the biggest fan of Baroque music or the mind-numbingly repetitive “agnus dei, gloria in excelsis deo” Latin stuff either, so I don’t know if I have the authority to say that the lineup wasn’t impressive. Whether I liked the music or not, though, I can’t deny that the concert was an excellent display of the marvelous vocal abilities of the students and adults who are part of this school.

The vocal ensemble is a perfect example. They performed every other act, alternating between the instrumental Baroque ensemble. The harmonies were beautiful and lush, which is extremely hard to do considering that much of the music was a cappella. I did particularly like a funeral piece that the group performed, which had very sentimental lyrics. They also performed the music with a lot of passion and feeling- even if it was repetitive Latin blessings, they sang the music as if it was the most personal work.

I also was looking forward to hearing the Concerto for Recorder- as someone who has played the recorder since the third grade (and succeeded in getting very good at it), I couldn’t wait to hear it performed on a collegiate level. I soon remembered why I stopped playing, however. Though the piece was very technically difficult, the sound of the recorder quickly got annoying and began to resemble the sound of a pan flute- I learned that night that I can only handle a little bit of recorder- not a full concerto’s worth.

The Women’s Chorus definitely added a fun, modern touch to the concert. We did perform a couple of Baroque pieces: “Gloria” and “Lauda Jerusalem”, which utilized a group of string players, but my favorites to perform had to have been our modern pieces, the gospel song “Music Down In My Soul” in particular. Performing that song and getting the whole audience to clap along was wonderfully fulfilling. Hearing them giggle along to our Portuguese folk song “Rosa Amarela” was also fun too 🙂 Overall, I’d say we ended the semester on a wonderful note! (get it?)

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I Bet You Didn’t Know About Gamelan Before This Semester! https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/i-bet-you-didnt-know-about-gamelan-before-this-semester/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/i-bet-you-didnt-know-about-gamelan-before-this-semester/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:11:29 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3084 Continue reading ]]> A friend of mine has frequently made the point that the number of musical genres is expanding over time. He cites the Medieval period, in which he states that for over a thousand years in history, all of the music produced during that time is simply called “Medieval music.” Fast forward to the present day, and there are millions of subgenres under each genre of music: within rock, there is soft rock, hard rock, alternative rock, classic rock, punk rock, etc., and within jazz, there is smooth jazz, cool jazz, bebop, a cappella vocal jazz, modern jazz, latin jazz, etc. As one who is constantly discussing and finding new music, I thought I had heard of all the genres there possibly are, but through the magic of Queens College I’ve learned of yet another one- Gamelan.

Gamelan is a genre of music native to Bali that utilizes native Indonesian instruments, which our class got a private tour of during class with professor-for-the-day Michael Lipsey as a precursor to the gamelan concert on December 5th. We all had the chance to play these gamelan instruments and learn about how the music is constructed. It uses a pentatonic scale, meaning that there are five basic notes (excluding different octaves) on which the music is built. During the class in which we got to try out the instruments, I confess that while it was fun to play, the sound of the music got boring and repetitive after a while.

Could this be why gamelan ensembles always supplement their performances with other facets like dance and costume? Could be. The concert began very interestingly with a queue of drummers walking on stage from the back of the LeFrak concert hall, clad in traditional Balinese dress. At the center of the stage was a girl at the gongs (she is in women’s chorus with me, her name escapes me). The command and firmness with which she hit them was very cool to see- in my opinion she looked like some sort of musical empress.

While gamelan music is arguably limited with the simplicity of the scale it employs, the variety of instruments used and the way the music is performed makes one forget about its “boringness.” Some of the songs featured musicians on gamelan “flutes”, which had a piccolo-like sound. Another song featured two hypnotic and beautiful dancers who tossed flower petals like confetti as they danced. Another song began with a duet between two players on a metallophone-like instrument. It reminded me of a cappella jazz solos that usually precede big band or combo jazz tunes. The gamelan tradition also definitely allows for soloing and individual creativity, though admittedly I could not distinguish solos from the rest of the instruments. The problem with gamelan, even though I like the sound of it and may even consider joining the gamelan ensemble one year, is that all of the instruments are obnoxiously loud. It makes the music sound like a wall of sound; to an untrained ear, it is simply a racket, and to trained musicians, it can take patience to try and distinguish where exactly the music is going. All in all, it is a very communal genre of music that doesn’t stress strictness in notation and rhythms as severely as classical music. It is meant to be fun music for everyone to participate in, and judging by how welcome we all were to try out the instruments for ourselves- even those of us with no musical experience – it is a great testament to that!

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Very Cool Repertoire for a Very Cool WInd Ensemble https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/3081/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/3081/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:46:00 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3081 Continue reading ]]> On December 8th, I spent my evening in the Music Building and saw the Queens College wind ensemble and concert band perform. As a former woodwind player, (recorder and bass clarinet throughout elementary and middle school), I felt somewhat nostalgic sitting in the audience watching the show. What I was more impressed by, however, was the stellar quality of the ensembles as a whole, the wind ensemble in particular. Even when revisiting the podcast later, I felt that I was hearing professionals (which is rather ironic, considering how unsure a lot of the performers felt of their sound prior to the show).

The concert consisted mostly of modern repertoire – my favorite – written by composers I had previously never heard of. The first song was the fun “Florentiner March”, a parade-like piece that reminded me of the festive beginning of the Overture from the opera Carmen. Another song utilized the humongous organ in the LeFrak concert hall, which of course sounded amazing in the high ceilinged room with wonderful acoustics.

I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much jazz music influences how I listen to other genres. I’ve been listening to a lot more instrumental jazz music lately, particularly the work of horn players, so it was fun to find sections of  the songs that would unexpectedly start swinging, or if a melodic line suddenly followed a blues scale. I was especially pleased that saxophones were utilized at all; as a more modern instrument, they aren’t found in classical repertoire (as cool as it would be, there are no saxophones in Suor Angelica or Don Giovannni), but they were definitely a lovely addition to this concert: they had all the difficult “riffs” in the backgrounds of the songs, and it made the sound of the band all the more warm. On top of that, I left knowing pieces by seven composers I previously hadn’t heard of, my favorite being the last one, “Give Us This Day – Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble.”

 

Click this link and scroll down to where it says Queens College Concert Band in boldface to hear a podcast of the concert!

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Real Art in New York https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/real-art-in-new-york/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/real-art-in-new-york/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:57:14 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3071 Continue reading ]]> I think that the best “art” in New York is not made by people at all. The natural beauty of the world is so much greater than anything that any person can create. I’d much rather take a walk through central park and experience the natural beauty than go into a museum and find works of art made by people trying to copy natural beauty, or specifically not trying to copy natural beauty because they are too “modern” and “progressive” for that kind of thing, and making ugly works of art is considered cooler.

What I think is the best sort of art is when natural beauty and man-made ingenuity come together into a cohesive whole. There’s a reason why the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

I took this picture a few months ago, and I think it beautifully synthesizes the man-made and the natural world.

NY Sunset

NY Sunset

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“The Flowers of War” https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/the-flowers-of-war/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/the-flowers-of-war/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:33:11 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3043 Continue reading ]]> During the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, film director Zhang Yimou decided to pick up a novel called 13 Female Martyrs of Nanjing by Yan Geling.  He was supposedly trying to find a distraction from the pressure he was facing during the rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but he did quite the opposite.   The novel is the story of the Nanjing Massacre, also known as “the Rape of Nanjing” told from the point of view of a 13-year-old girl.  This horrible event, which took place in December of 1937, involved the raping and killing of over 200,000 people in Nanjing, China when it was occupied by Japanese troops.  The 13-year-old point of view is what specifically caught the attention of Yimou.  So many television programs and documentaries have attempted to re-create this occurrence in history, but only 13 Female Martyrs of Nanjing has done so in a light that inspired Yimou.
Now, three years later, Yimou’s film, titled The Flowers of War, had its premiere in China and in the United States.  It is China’s official submission for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film (not to mention it stars Academy Award winner Christian Bale).   Most importantly, though, are the unique troubles that it faced with government.  Yimou stated that filming in China was almost a game in that an all-powerful Communist Party limited him.  He explained that “all the locations are owned by the government,” and “you must go through censorship after the movie is made.”  Especially because Yimou is well known, the spotlight was completely on him.   The Communist Party has always tried to manage the image of the Rape of Nanjing in efforts to reflect the relations between China and Japan.  So with all of this censorship, how accurate can a film about such a rough topic be?  And what is art that must be changed by people other than its creator?  Despite the challenges, Yimou makes it a point to say that he is truthful to history, though.  And in the process he had the opportunity to bring out a lot of Chinese culture.
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Conlangers in High Demand! https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/conlangers-in-high-demand/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/conlangers-in-high-demand/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:31:38 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=2718 Continue reading ]]> What is language? Is it just a complex system we use to communicate that took thousand of years to evolve to its present form? Or is it a system that can now be created within a matter of decades? Apparently, it’s both! Language is defined to be a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings, and the combination and structure of these factors create an art form. It is becoming increasingly popular for science fiction and fantasy films in Hollywood to create new languages. What do I mean by that? Let’s use the example of James Cameron’s Oscar-winning film “Avatar,” that came out in 2009: it took almost 20 years for it to be released because of elements such as animation technology, and linguistics. Aside from purposely waiting for the right technology to be able to create his vision, James Cameron made it crucial to have a conlanger (someone who creates constructed languages) create the language of Na’vi, which took years to create. In this futuristic film that takes place in the middle of the 22nd century, our planet comes into contact with indigenous humanoids that have a society like ours, which included a language that has intricate structures and rules. The authentic-ness that this language added to the film made it all the more popular and of higher demand.

Now, more films are being released that have “actual” languages and are not a bunch of randomly sounds that are made to sound “extraterrestrial”. Because I’m biased, I would argue that they wouldn’t be as well thought out and as captivating as the Na’vi language in “Avatar,” but it’s downright awesome to see them be created. Being an Anthropology major and having an uncommon liking to Fantasy and SciFi films, makes it that much more exciting to see. It makes me question whether or not we’ll be seeing any of these “created” languages become officially used in our world for the hell of it. It’s definitely possible, seeing how are world is so obsessed with the future and aliens. It’s also amazing to see the art form of language become more and more developed and evolved. The way we communicate and express ourselves is very much an art form!  Who knows, maybe you might find me in the credits of a blockbuster film as the Conlanger (my new favorite word)! Ok, so it’s a long shot, but it’s fun to imagine, and isn’t this what it’s all about, imagining a new way of communicating and putting it to life?

 

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The Future of Media https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/the-future-of-media/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/the-future-of-media/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:28:53 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3055 Continue reading ]]> I can’t believe it, but there is a second article in the December issue of Gameinformer that applies to my the concepts of art that we have talked about before in this class. “I remember how I felt when I first played Final Fantasy VII. I suspect my reaction was not unique–I came out of that game feeling, for the first time, like I’d played a movie. I think that’s the first inkling I had of what was to come, what is still coming. More and more, it seems that traditional lines between entertainment media–film, book, game, song–are bleeding together. I think that video games hold the future of what we might call the “uber-media” form. The combination of all traditional arts into a single experience, mixed with the new art of the 20th century–the art of guided participation.” After reading through this editorial, I was curious as to who wrote it. It’s often that the editorial for the magazine is actually written by one of the staff, presumably because nobody writes in anything worth publishing–if they send in anything at all. However, the level of writing for this editorial seemed higher than normal, so I checked to see who wrote it. Brandon Sanderson wrote it. He is an accomplished author, who is currently in the process of completing the Wheel of Time (one of my favorite book series) after the original author, Robert Jordan, died.

It was extremely interesting to see somebody who works in a different media of art to discuss the merits of video games. Sanderson goes on to reference two other games as examples of “the future of art”. This has been a theme in many of my posts, because I am very intrigued by the evolution of art. While I do not like many of the new forms of art (especially in music), I do respect that they are art. However, I have played a few games that I would call art. They were able to sustain a story that kept me interested in the characters–like a good movie or book–with appropriate music, believable voice acting, and amazing graphics. However, rather than praising these games, they make me look to the future and think how amazing games will be in a few years. As Sanderson says, the “art of guided participation” seems like it is the art of the future. Since I draw, play music, write (both english and music) the possibility of being able to create art that combines all of these different facets of art is very tantalizing.

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“What Is It?” “I don’t know…”: De Kooning At MoMA https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/what-is-it-i-dont-know-de-kooning-at-moma/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/what-is-it-i-dont-know-de-kooning-at-moma/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:21:58 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3053 Continue reading ]]> Discussing Williem de Kooning and seeing the exhibit of his work at the MoMA was my first time ever hearing of and experiencing his work. Overall, I felt that our visit to this exhibit brought our Arts in NYC class full circle, for our first major class outing was to the Jewish Museum to see the Cone Sisters exhibit, featuring works by Picasso and Matisse. While looking at the de Kooning exhibit, I couldn’t help but feel that I had seen these paintings before. I soon realized that I was comparing them to my memories of the Picasso and Matisse paintings we saw at the Jewish museum.

If I had to describe de Kooning’s paintings in this light, I would say that he takes Picasso and Matisse to the next level. Like Picasso, de Kooning did do lots of pantings depicting the female form, and like the both of them, de Kooning is definitely an abstract artist. Of the three of them, however, de Kooning is clearly the “craziest” – he takes the Picasso woman and the Matisse bold colors and swathes his women (and other subjects, still life and all) in a practically unintelligible swirl of scribbles. That’s just the thing: is it unintelligible, or is it supposed to have a hidden message? Walking through the exhibits, my colleagues and I would look at particularly “messy” paintings- those covered in scribbles as opposed to his cleaner, later works – and we would try to find the “subject”, particularly for the Untitled works. We found an assortment of faces, animals, phallic symbols, etc., but looking at these paintings was like looking at clouds in the sky: these pantings literally can have anything and everything in them. A lot of the time, de Kooning doesn’t say what is supposed to be seen in these paintings- even the clearly titled ones seem misleading – so you are left doubting whether your interpretation is “on the right track” or not.

While I usually like to try the meaning in all art, while walking through this exhibit I felt that a lot of de Kooning’s work appeared to be “art for art’s sake.” It seems to be a dirty word in the art world, but as an artist myself I find that I often don’t think of the “intention” or “message” of my work. A lot of the time, I just sing or write, and I’m not trying to make sure my audience sees a certain thing. In this sense, de Kooning’s work is very freeing. If you can believe that he wants you to interpret the art your way, you’ll have no trouble letting your mind roam, as freely as say, his piece Merritt Parkway. 

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Beethoven in America https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/beethoven-in-america/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/beethoven-in-america/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:53:05 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=2974 Continue reading ]]> As I am writing this, I am listening to Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony, “Eroica”, studying for the listening section of the Music 101 Final Exam. It just so happens, that there is an article about Beethoven in the New York Times Art section. This article discusses the evolution of Beethoven, comparing what he once meant to American’s to what he means now. There was a time when Beethoven’s music was associated with Nationalism, however, after his music was performed (and videotaped) for Nazi audiences, it lost this sentiment. As time has gone by, Beethoven’s music has meant less and less to American’s, as by now it is can basically be summarized by excerpts from his fifth symphony, his ninth symphony, Fur Elise, and his Moonlight Sonata. Most people do not know more than a few seconds from these amazing pieces.

I listen to mostly jazz music–though I know a wide variety of jazz artists and I have read the biographies of a few artists and am constantly researching information on jazz and the evolution of jazz. However, I never really became immersed in classical movement to the same level, because I didn’t know who to listen to. Of course, there are a multitude of songs that I can look up on youtube and listen to, however, I did not know what artists to listen to. I did not want to listen to somebody playing a song in the wrong style, as these versions are abundant all over the web. Just recently, I heard the entirety of Beethoven’s fifth symphony, and could not stop listening. The power of the symphony–particularly the trombones in the first movement–is just amazing. Yesterday, I had the first movement on repeat for four hours. It is strange, though, to think that people would consider me a musician, and yet I had never heard this amazing song in full until recently. I am glad that college is exposing me to new music–and this is just the VERY beginning. However, I truly wish that most people heard this music at some point in their life, and listened to it with an open mind. Not with the idea that “oh yeah, that’s the song that was in the background of this movie”.

Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/books/beethoven-in-america-by-michael-broyles-review.html?_r=1&ref=arts

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My First Collegiate Opera https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/my-first-collegiate-opera/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/2011/12/19/my-first-collegiate-opera/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:50:24 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/smaldone2011/?p=3049 Continue reading ]]> A month ago I had the pleasure of participating in my first production of a college opera.. The Opera Workshop performed Puccini’s Suor Angelica on November 18th and 19th. As a lowly freshman, I was merely part of the opera’s chorus of nuns, but I found the entire production a great learning experience, and it was especially cool to work with Maestro Maurice Perress. Because these performances were in the same week as my SING performance, I found that seeing the opera slowly being put together was comparable to putting the musical together as well.

This experience has taught me the importance of knowing your productions very well. With every production that you’re in, whether it’s an opera, an oratorio, or a Broadway musical, knowing the material backwards and forwards is the secret to enjoyment of your performance and creating a memorable, heartfelt story.

I cite the many rehearsals for this production as an example. We had probably twenty of them from start to finish, and of many different varieties. Some were reading through the complex Italian words, most were going through the chorus parts on the piano, towards the end there were lots of orchestra rehearsals, but the one I feel was the most beneficial was the one where we watched the opera first. I now understand why Professor Smaldone had us watch Don Giovanni before we went to see it at the Met. Filmed productions of operas with subtitles capture every facial expression and every word that seats in the nosebleed section of the Met can’t capture. In terms of rehearsing for an opera, seeing the emotions portrayed by others helps you empathize and get into character, even if it is just “learning by imitation.”

All those rehearsals paid off, though, tedious or not. The finale of the opera, where the statue of the Virgin Mary comes alive (similar to the statue of Donna Anna’s father in Don Giovanni) and reveals to Suor Angelica her son, is the only time I’ve cried while performing, so much so that I wasn’t able to sing. Singing from the balcony seats at the opera’s finale allowed me to watch the opera as an audience member- I saw everything that we spent hours in rehearsals for: the reason why we sang certain passages again and again, the reason why the singers playing Suor Angelica marked their performances during rehearsal: it was all building up to that pivotal moment where Suor Angelica, in a fit of agony, hallucination, relief, bliss, and hysteria, sees her son. As opera will have it, he appears at the exact moment the orchestra can’t crescendo any louder, and a spotlight is shone, hitting his golden hair just right (note: her son is actually played by a she). In the production, I was a nameless nun, but I felt all the pain of Suor Angelica, and that is another reason that reinforced my wanting to be a director and playwright. I want to be the god that created that beautiful moment onstage.

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