Velvet underground & The Pink Floyd & David Bowie & Andy Warhol

Hi there!

I've been ill the past weeks, so therefore my blog is not very up-to-date. This is going to change now because I will post last weeks blog today and the one of this week later. In this post I will be answering some questions about similarities between different artists.

1. What did "The Pink Floyd" (as they were known at this point) have in common at this time with The Beatles? 

- What I saw that The Pink Floyd and The Beatles had in common was that both member(s) went to art schools and wrote their own songs. Next to that they had a new sound, something that wasn't heard before, just like with The Beatles. Also the fact that both bands used a lot of polyphony in their songs is a similarity. 

2. What did they have in common with The Velvet Underground?

- Both bands were exploring rock music and trying new things, experimenting. They both started without any intentions of becoming famouse, but both did. I find it very hard though to find big similarities and to put my finger on it, but I think those two were fair enough. Maybe also the fact that it was not only the music that was important in their performance, but also the lightshows and artistic ideas around it. Their performances were just very important, because that is where they really attracked the atention of their audiences with. The colours and abstract images on stage etc. 

3. What element did David Bowie take from the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol in the early time of his career?

David Bowie did not really have a music style of his own, or a particular thing that characterized him. That was according to me mainly due to him being inspired by so many different styles of art and artists. He loved the music of The Velvet Underground and how they worked with light during their performance. That is what is started doing as well. He made rock, but left away the hair and the beart, the jeans. Andy Warhol was also someone he looked up to, his appearance was very similar to Andy and I also think that David much appreciated Andy's way of thinking. Some people say that David stole from other artists, but I do not agree and think that little things of those artists together made him for what he became later in his career. 

That's it for today!

xx

Hello bloggers :D,

In this message I will share my opinion about the destruction of guitars after concerts as for example Jimi Hendrix and The Who did, both according to me with different purposes. At one of Jimi Hendrix' concerts at Montery in 1967 he played the song Wild Thing. As the song proceeds, Hendrix seems to get deeper into the music. He is a unity with his guitar and holds it like a beloved. At the end of the song, he at last puts it on fire and kneels besides it. When the guitar does not burn away, Jimi picks it up again and completely destroys it by hitting the stage. To me this was almost like an act of love towards his instrument, the thing which he somewhat shares his life with. He enjoys the music so much and plays from his heart; that destroying the guitar is as a ritual, an ode to the music. He probably does this because there is for him not really a way to describe what music means to him in his life, what he, by playing guitar, accomplished and descovered.

Also the band The Who destroyed guitars after their performances. But I think they did this with another purpose. Just like Jimi Hendrix they love the music they make and see destroying the guitar as a positive thing. Unlike Jimi Hendrix, The Who is has some pretty agressive songs. At one of their a concerts they play My Generation, a rather rebelious sounding song, which gets more and more messy until the end when the guitar player destroys his guitar. It looks completely different from the way Jimi Hendrix did it. Jimi really seemed to admire his guitar and it looked more like a ritual. I think The Who did it more to bring over the emotion of their songs. Besides that, they probably thought of it as a good way of promoting themselves and getting attention, which I think was not the case with Jimi Hendrix.

My opinion is that destroying instruments has a very good effect on the audience and also on the musicians themselves because it can be seen as an a way to express their emotions.

I hope you understand my point of view and if you have anything to add or more question: feel free to comment!

Greets,

Stella

The other side

Hi there,

So, the next assignment we got was to write an opposing argument on the last message we posted about destroying guitars, which you can read under. As you can read, I was for and see it as a possitive thing. This means that my task now is to see it completely from the other side: be against is and to see it as a negative thing.

The destruction of intruments when not done by accident is a waste of good intruments. It is probably done to express themselves and to create a certain immage, but still, that can be done in different ways as well. I also think that they are really showing off by doing this, because an instrument costs a lot of money and by destroying one they practicly say that they have enough money to but new ones after their concerts. Next to that it does not add a lot to their performances, it may only have shocked the audience of impressed them, but usually if someone really likes their music fireworks would have been enough. Their fans come for the music, not to see instruments being destroyed.

This is how I would have looked at it from the other perspective. I found this very hard to do, because I did not agree with what I was writing.

xx,

Stella

80 DB 2010

Hi there,

Around the middle of March there took place at our school another edition of the yearly music festival “80 dB”. 80 dB consists of three nights during which students make music for a combined audience of parents, friends and peers. Since December a lot of people have been working to set up this event. Students auditioned, a program was made, numbers were rehearsed, the decor was designed and at last the technicians prepared the stage. All in all, after three months it was finally happening and promised to be fun!

I contributed as well with the number The Lady is a Tramp, arranged in the key of the Frank Sinatra version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VJY97l0jVA), but in the ska style of Lily Allen's version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEHBBcSgq9Y). Together with Mr. Weisser and Mr. Speelman we rehearsed and tried to make a nice arrangement out of that combination of ideas. My opinion is that is during the try-outs it already sounded fine and turned out as I wanted it to be. Performing it was a completely different story, however. The band alone already started to sound good after a couple of rehearsals, but together with the vocals and the bass (which was added later) it did not sound good. Luckily, when the bass player started to understand his part and learn his lines, it went much better. The first night of 80 dB went surprisingly well and the audience liked it a lot. My number only had minor mistakes, mostly due to me. I often did not look at the audience, but only at the band which did not look well. With the feedback I got after that first night, I improved the following night and also on the last night as well. I think especially that the final performance was great, because we as a band sounded really united.

My own song was not the only one in which I participated. Together with some other girls we sang the song Just Stand Up, which was written by various artists to bring attention to breast cancer. We chose that song mainly because of its message for the audience, but also because we knew it would sound perfectly with our particular combination of voices.

Another song in which I participated was Life is Better, together with Quirine and Brian. It is a number which combines rap with singing. This was not my favorite number on 80DB, but it eventually turned out good. Brian, who was the rapper, did an especially good job.

I must say that 80DB had a very strong line-up this year, with a large variety of numbers which still combined well. It was one of the only years that actually had a metal act and a real hiphop number. Also the quality was higher than the last couple of years. Of course I have also some points of criticism for instance, it was just too loud. It was the same story as last year and the year before that. This is really a pity because it is all so loud that polyphonic singing could not be heard. Besides that, it was overall a very fun and fantastic experience for me and, if I believe some of the spectators, an evening of very good musical quality.

Below you can find some clips and photos from 80DB. Enjoy!

Me performing The Lady is a Tramp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMNBRZjbFlM

Gianni performing My Generation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ_zfZWK6pg&feature=related

Andrew & Maeve performing I don't need no doctor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGjUb6b-ctY&feature=related

See you next time!

xxx

Elvis de Pelvis and Rock & Roll

Buona sera!

I hope you are all enjoying my blog until so far! Today I'm going to add one more article and it will be on the new subject of music class : Rock & Roll. I like that so much, especially now that I saw Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. It is just such happy much on which you can dance very good and sing along, nice! So, the first couple of lessons we would be focusing on Elvis Presley. We did that by looking at a documentary about his recordings, called Classic Albums: Elvis Presley. It was very interesting because before I did not know anything about the early stages of his career. I knew Elvis as the crazy, but great, musician with the strange hairdo and glittercostume. The music he made than was nice but now that I know more about his music I definitely like his first albums better. He was so less obsessed by being famous and alcohol back then, he really concentrated on the music and made "black" music popular by white people, quite an accomplishment.

After we watched the documentary Mr. Weisser told us about blues. About blues being the actual basis of the modern music, it was the beginning. We listened to Crossroads by Robert Johnson, which is a very complicated but fantastic song. (John Mayer covered it on his last album, Battle Studies). We compared the blues music made by black people to the blues made (usually stolen from the black people) by white people. The white music was much more neat and flawless, easy to dance on and play along. The black music had very difficult rythms and was fure, music from the heart, from deep within. I thought it was so fascinating to see the clear difference. I definitely favour the blues by the black people, no white person could ever play the blues with so much feeling and intensity.

Unfortunately I missed the lesson which followed, so when I get updated I will write more.

Ciao!

Stella

Won't you take me to Funky Town??

Hello bloggers!

I am going to going to tell you about the playing test for music class, that was a while ago: before the christmas break. So, during the first and part of the second term, we had to play the song Funky Town by Lipps Inc. I was in a group with Andrew, Nold, Jelle, Joran and Coen. We all, except for Nold, play an instrument so we thought it would be easy. Well, that was not the case. We tried very hard but there is just a lot going on in that song. All sorts of small melodies, loose from the others. This meant that we had to practise a lot and very hard, so that is what we did. For at least four lessons we worked on this song and eventually is went quiet well. Nold had some difficulties with the rythm sometimes, but we helped him out and he did great. We got three shots
and we were being assessed on the best performance. But on base of what were we assessed?

The week before the playing test our class had to write a rubric for ourselves. That was actually a very fun thing to do, because you could choose yourself on what you wanted to be graded. It was also very interesting to show others what you think is important during such a playing test. It was difficult as well because you had to keep into account that not everyone can play an instrument or is at a similar level. Eventually everybody agreed that the input of a group was the most important thing. If you try it is always good because there can always happen something which makes the performance bad, for example when somebody is sick or the piano is not in tone etc.

Our group got the highest grade, so we were very happy with it and I think we earned it because we tried our best. Sometimes somebody got stuck or something like that and we would all try to help, so our group work was also very good.

Well, that's kind of it about the playing test. I really enjoyed it but cannot hear that song ever again. There is a little tune that keeps repeting and that really freaks me out right now, I heard it to many times, haha!

xoxo,

Stellaaaaaaaaaaa

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis

This year I got concert tickets for Kitty, Daisy and Lewis for Christmas. I never heard of this group before but my father assured me that I would love them, he had seen them at Lowlands, past summer. They are called Kitty, Daisy and Lewis and are two sister and a brother, playing early rock & roll and blues toghether with their mom and dad. I couldn't wait to go, I always like something new and love rock & roll and blues.

So on the second Tuesday of the christmas break we: my parents, my sisters and I, headed to the Melkweg in Amsterdam. The concert was sold out and the building was full of rockabillies. We had to wait very long, the concert was supposed to begin at 20.30 but eventually started at 21.15.

I did not expect Kitty, Daisy and Lewis to be so young. Kitty was only 17, Daisy 19 and Lewis 21 and they made such good music already. The atmosphere was great and the band looked very nice. The father played the guitar, the mother the contrabass. Kitty sang, play the harmonica and drums. Lewis played the piano, sang and played the guitar. Diasy sand, played the drums and played the piano. It was so cool to see them play everything a bit!

I had such a good time, I liked the music a lot! When the show was over I immediatly bought their cd, which I know by head now.

If you want to check them out; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxW3Ed7GrhQ

Enjoy!

xxxxxxxx

Opera

During one of my music classes we were told that we would go on an excursion to Zwolle to see an opera. The opera was called Penthesilea written by my music teacher, Mr. Benedict Weisser. The opera tells the mythologic story of Penthesilea, queen of the Amazones, who falls in love with Achilles, the hero of the Trojan war. We would not see the real performance, but the general repetition.

On the December the 3rd, the day of our excursion, we gathered at the central station of Hilversum, where the wife of Mr. Weisser was waiting for us. She would guide us to the theatre and bring us back to the station in the evening. The train trip was long, but passed nicely, without any problem; everybody was too busy chatting and eathing candy. We left the train at the central station of Zwolle and walked to the theatre, enjoying the beautiful city. When we arrived at the theatre we first got an introduction to what we were going to see by the head of the theatre and after that went to the where to opera would be performed.

The first thing that came to my mind when we entered was: what a mess! The stage was covered with all sorts of broken object, for example destructed couches, tables, glasses. Also the colour black was very present. The walls were black, the roses on the ground were black and so was the furnature. I liked this decor very much, even though it was a chaos. When I sat down in the row that was assigned to our class, I noticed that the orchestra existed only out of five people: a contrabass player, a percussionist, a trumpet player, a guitarist and a forte-pianist. I expected a big orchestra but liked this as well, it made me curious, I did not have a clue how they would sound like together.

After approximately 5 minutes the lights went down and the music started. Pethesilea came up and set in. Her voice was very beautiful and sounded very good together with the modern classic music. Then Achillis, the bariton Alistair Shelton-Smith, joined Penthesile. Their voices were in perfect harmony with eachother and with the music. I thought the piece was very impressive, my idea of opera completely changed though. I always thought that they would have a large orchestra playing soft classic music, not like this modern music Mr. Weisser composed. I also thought the costumes to be different. The actors/vocalists wore modern cloths, not 17th century dresses. It was a very good experience.

After the performance we were allowed to speak with the member of the orchestra, which was fun. They told us about their instruments and played for us. It were talented, warm people. Especially the forte-pianist was very nice and joked with us. It was a good experience.

We decided to go to dinner somewhere with the group and Mr. Weisser's wife. We ended up in the city-centre of Zwolle in an nice Italian restaurant. Mr. Weisser would come a bit later. Almost everybody ordered pizza, but some prefered a pasta. We had a lot of fun and it was really cosy. Just when the dinner was served, Mr. Weisser joined us. He asked our opinions about the piece and we told him what we thought about it. The food was very nice and when everybody was finished we payed and walked to the station. It was already 8 o'clock, so we took the first train to Hilversum.

In an hour we were already in Hilversum, so everybody thanked Mr. and Mrs. Weisser for everything and said goodbye. Instead of going home I went to the cafe across from the station, because there I would go to see some jazz like I did before on Thursday. Again the music was great and the atmosphere nice. So, a good day full of music for me, I had a really good time!

See ya!