18 APRIL 2018 | ASHER SCHONFELD
Culture II is a rap album by the group “Migos” the first album was one of the most listened to rap albums ever. Culture 1 was the most popular album of 2016. Culture II is still good but it is not even as close to as popular Culture 1. The song “Bad and Boujee” from Culture 1 smashed rap streaming records. The most popular song in the album right now is “Walk it Talk it” feat. It is number 7 on the billboard top 100. It is also my favorite song in the album. This Album has streaks of all types of music pop, R&B and more. This album is one of my favorites from 2018 so far.
18 APRIL 2018 | MORGAN POQUETTE
Fall Out Boy’s 2013 album Save Rock and Roll is great if you love rock and roll, and I do. These songs follow a video story which admittedly is for more mature audiences, so if you are twelve. I hope you aren’t reading this. The songs themselves are very catchy and a great album to just rock out to. This album includes some of their most popular songs such as, The Phoenix or My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark.
18 APRIL 2018 | ASHER SCHONFELD
The album “?” by X has many different vibes of music. It has R&B, rap, Lyrical singing, and his signatures angry screaming which I don’t think of as music but you can have your own opinion. His album is soulful like none of his other albums. It features many artists including R&B rock, Joey Bada$$, and others. His Album is relatable in some ways that I can’t explain. But his song “Changes” it touches my heart at least in way that no other song has. His song “Sad” is also a touching song. It talks about his time in between his hit song “Look at me” and his album “17”. It talks about him contemplating suicide and when his girlfriend committed suicide. His music has some heavy subjects but after he migrated from his screaming and nasty music his music got one hundred percent better.
13 APRIL 2018 | BENJAMIN POULIN
Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, often called the “Bach Double”, was composed in 1717 when Bach was a Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Köthen, in Germany. Bach only had enough time to write the concerto because Prince Leopold of Anhalt, who he was working as Kapellmeister, was a reformist, and thus didn’t require particularly elaborate pieces for his church services, allowing his composers to have plenty of time for recreational composing. While the original score for the concerto has been lost, the various movements’ manuscripts have been found. Bach wrote an arrangement of the concerto for two harpsichords and strings (BWV 1062), which was performed at one of Bach’s later jobs, in Leipzig. The concerto is divided into three movements, which are as follows: Vivace, Largo ma non tanto, and Allegro. The first movement, faster, sees the two solo violinists interweaving melodies together, sharing musical material in close alteration. The second movement, by far the slowest of the three, is also the calmest movement. The players again share -- but this time not quite so closely -- a melody which Bach has so perfectly woven between them. The third and final movement, the Allegro, breaks the calm that came in the second movement of the concerto with an almost aggressive flurry of notes -- a blustery finale to the concerto.
Sources:
Wikipedia
New York Philharmonic
18 APRIL 2018 | KAYLA STERN
Paramore’s newest album released on May 12, 2017, After Laughter, was an immediate hit. Hayley Williams, the band’s lead singer, was quoted saying, “After Laughter is about the look on peoples faces when they’re done laughing. If you watch somebody long enough, there’s always this look that comes across their face when they’re done smiling, and I always find it really fascinating to wonder what it is that brought them back to reality.” The album introduced the songs: Told You So, Rose-Colored Boy, Hard Times, Forgiveness, 26, Tell me How, No Friend, Pool, Grudges, Caught in the Middle, Idle Worship, and Fake Happy. Despite the upbeat funky sound of the songs, the lyrics are deep and depressive. After Laughter was number 8 in “The Best Albums of 2017” award from Time Out New York. The artist from Paramore are: Taylor York, Hayley Williams, and their recently returned member Zac Farro.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Genius.com
13 APRIL 2018 | BENJAMIN POULIN
Mozart composed his Piano Concerto No. 6 in B-Flat Major in January of 1776. The concerto has three movements: Allegro Aperto, Andante un Poco Adagio, and Rondeau: Allegro. The concerto was written for two flutes, two oboes, two horns, solo piano, and strings. The United States Library of Congress holds the only autographed copy of the score. Mozart had intended to publish the score as soon as he had published it, but it never actually appeared in print until after his death, in 1793. Even though it hadn’t been printed at the time, however, Mozart did perform the concerto twice before his death. The first performance was in Munich in 1777, and the second was in Augsburg on October 22, 1777. The first movement, the Allegro Aperto, is a light and “open” movement. According to it pianist Angela Hewitt, it conveys “radiance and gaiety”. The second movement, the Andante un Poco Adagio, is slightly more somber than the first. It was also in this movement where Mozart first used the technique of switching between major and minor keys: a technique that he continued to use throughout his composing career. The third movement is the Rondeau: Allegro. The horns have the most prominent part in this movement. Mozart most likely decided to give the horns their part because his sister would remind him constantly to “to give the horns something worthwhile to do”. A section of the third movement in G minor has been called “the one really virtuoso page of the concerto, requiring some very nimble Baroque-style fingerwork”.
Sources:
Wikipedia
PART I
18 APRIL 2018 | AUSTIN MITAL-SKIFF
God’s Plan by Drake is now number one on spotify in the whole United states. By some opinions Gods plan however is already starting to fizzle out in it’s popularity. Their have been many songs like this in the past few years that are played a ton for a month and then everyone hates it. Some of these songs are Havana, 24k magic, Watch me whip, rockstar, Location, Thrift shop, GDFR, and God’s plan. However, God’s Plan is different because it doesn’t seem like I know many people that hate God’s Plan. Whenever Havana comes on the radio I cringe and change the channel. I couldn’t count the number times I heard a song and hear people say “Dude change it, overplayed.”
One of the reasons for this I think is the music video. In the music video at the beginning it shows a black screen that says “THE BUDGET FOR THIS VIDEO WAS $996,631.90, WE HAVE IT ALL AWAY, DON’T TELL THE LABEL…” Then throughout the video it shows real people, not actors that were not being paid to be in the video (except when Drake starts handing money from the budget out to them). He gives millions of dollars away to single groups and money to poor families for college. Unlike some of the Justin Biebers of the world who are seen in their videos and then seen being arrested for dumb things later, Drake seems like a genuine person throughout.
Another reason I think this song has become so popular is because of its beat and genre. People that do not enjoy rap often complain that all rap sounds the same. The rapper simply lays down a beat with lots of hi-hat in the background and then just mumbles a lot. In this song the instrumentals grow and the drum kit takes a background to the simple synthesizer throughout the whole thing. As a rapper Drake also is not known as a mumbler which makes it so that all types of listeners can enjoy it’s experience.
I would not be surprised if God’s Plan stays popular for a while longer, and it’s also pretty hard to hate on someone like Drake who was just being genuinely kind to real people.
PART II
18 APRIL 2018 | ASHER SCHONFELD
God’s Plan is a song that is different from other songs. It has been top five on the hit list for two months. The incorporates new pop elements and the classic rap nice beat and the part everyone likes. The beat drops, fire verses are all what make this song one of the most successful rap songs ever. This song will be top dog on the hit list for a extremely long time. This song will be one of Drake’s most listened to songs ever. It has a big shot at winning song of the year and rap song of the year. His music is liked by many people but this song has branched out and his liked by most of the world. God’s Plan is a song that will liked for a long time by the world. The song has many parts that are catchy. Like the part “I only love my bed and my mom I’m sorry.”
13 APRIL 2018 | BENJAMIN POULIN
The piece Mars: Bringer of War, is part of a seven movement suite for orchestra called The Planets, by an english composer named Gustav Holst. Holst wrote The Planets over a two year period beginning in 1914, the year he saw a performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra, which is said to have inspired him to write The Planets. Originally called Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra, Holst named each movement of The Planets one of the seven non-earth planets’ of our solar system’s astrological characters. The suite begins, as mentioned above, with Mars: Bringer of War, a dramatic movement 5/4. Holst wrote the movement when the world was on the brink of the first world war, and it is often hypothesized that Holst used the unnatural time signature to induce in the listener the feelings of fear and foreboding that preceded the war. Above the music for the opening of Mars is written col legno, or “with wood”. Col legno is used when the composer wishes for stringed instruments to, instead of using their bows to produce sound as they normally would, turn them upside down and tap their strings with the wooden back of their bows to produce a sort of clinking sound. This too, increases the feelings of fear that the movement induces: the more percussive noise is more fitting in the movement than the smoother sound which stringed instruments usually make.
Sources:
Video
Wikipedia
The Listener’s Club