Module 6: Music & Experimentalism

                                                                 Western Music Example

                                                        Karlheinz Stockhausen - Telemusik
                                                

               This piece, created by Stockhausen, is a great example of the type of music that was being produced around the 1960s. Drawing from other places such as sampled music and creating random sounds, musical artists and composers started to embrace the creativity and wildness that music was becoming. This is evident within this piece, in which Stockhausen uses sounds that he claims are completely new sounds because they were made just for this piece. Without using pre-recorded sounds, he was able to transform the piece into something that was never introduced previously, thus revolutionizing the music industry.      

                When I first listened to the piece, it gave me a suspenseful, almost alienlike feel to the music. However, after understanding the true nature of the piece, and going past the fact that it is mostly just sounds, it is known that these types of pieces helped to transform the modern world of music, and therefore holds significant value. Without pieces like this, the current music that we listen to everyday in the present would be drastically different, as musical artists which lines constitute music.

            Though there are not a vast number of musical elements within this piece that would be considered beautiful to listen to, there is still musical elements within it. These can include the tempo and dynamics of the song, which continue to change through the composition. In using a synthesizer, Stockhausen was able to create the sounds that he wanted and was able to pull sounds from a variety of different places, which allowed him the opportunity do decide what he wanted to be the melody, or texture. Most of his pieces however, including this one, appear to have a polyphonic texture due to the nature of the number of sounds that are constantly presented.

                                                                        Modern Example

                                                                          AJR - Overture

              This relates to the module topic because it shows the creativity and difference of sounds that are played within the song. This is a direct result of Stockhausen's pieces and creativity, as you can clearly hear a variety of different sounds that seem to be "new", although there does appear to have some sampled music within it. This module focuses on expressionism and musical creativity, and throughout this song there is plenty of examples in with AJR plays around with many different sounds in the background that set them apart from typical artists and music. By taking that step and testing the line that is considered music, I believe they have expressed their musical creativity, and have created something that most artists don't even try. 

                As a kid I fell in love with AJR. The wide variety of different sounds and pieces they create are perfect for whatever mood I am in. Due to their ability to mess with many different sounds and samples, they are able to create a variety of different soundscapes throughout their songs that have put me in a good space. In understanding how to manipulate the songs to their advantage, AJR is able to perform many different genres of music that are all able to draw in audiences, even if one is not particularly in love with different sounds being implemented into songs.

                I felt as though this song is the perfect example of why AJR is a great example of musical creativity and expression. This song, as the title suggests, is a piece that connects all their songs into a single song. They have combined small parts of some of their most popular songs into this singular song, which has a very mixed texture, rhythm, melody, and feel to it throughout the song. Since there are many songs put into one, the tempo can go from extremely fast to extremely slow in a heartbeat, which then changes the dynamics within the song. The melody is all over the place because of all the different pieces that are put together, but it is practically all in a homophonic texture. By using the different sounds and samples from their previous songs, AJR shows their musical creativity and understanding of just how great of an impact random sounds or samples can make within a piece.