Consonance – Dissonance

Consonance
Notes that sound good together when played at the same time are called consonant. Chords built only of consonances sound pleasant and “stable”; you can listen to one for a long time without feeling that the music needs to change to a different chord
Dissonance
Notes that are dissonant can sound harsh or unpleasant when played at the same time. Or they may simply feel “unstable”; if you hear a chord with a dissonance in it, you may feel that the music is pulling you towards the chord that resolves the dissonance.
“An unstable tone combination is a dissonance; its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord. Thus dissonant chords are ‘active’; traditionally they have been considered harsh and have expressed pain, grief, and conflict.” —Roger Kamien (2008)

Motorcycle Diaries – You Tube – Tango Dance

Following the story from the previous post the following You Tube video shows the dance on 3.11 of the 5 min 33 sec insert.

Tango Music in Motorcycle Diaries…… creating possibilities

Ever hear music too beautiful for words, only to find there’s no trace of it on iTunes, Amazon or anywhere on the web ??

The movie Motorcycle Diaries has a short Tango, (probably a Milonga) where Alberto Granado (Roberto De la Serna) dances with Mia Maestro to a hauntingly stunning piece of piano music. Its not on the soundtrack for some reason and countless Google searches failed to uncover the music, its score or tabs. While watching the movie with a friend I made the remark that I was sufficiently passionate over the piece of music, that if I could track it down, it would move me to teach myself the piano, and naturally it would be the first thing I would play. Tipper, who is always up for a challenge decided she would find it to test my declaration of intent.

Well its a long story from there but last night Tipper presented me with the score of the Tango music from Motorcycle Diaries and here it is.

motorcycle diaries tango – the sheet music

How did she find it?

Well she made me wait a long time before she revealed the answer to that. First she sent me six bars from the score. I think she was testing me ! naturally in my excitement I rushed out, bought a keyboard, and painfully taught myself to play the first 6 bars not knowing how to read music. Then last night she presented me with the rest of the score.

What she had done after realising it was imposible to find, was to find a composer (Matthijs van Dijk) who, off the DVD, and note by note transcribed the music to paper and this is a copy of the score. Not satisfied with the score alone, Tipper then recruited a colleague to play the piece, and record it.

Its a story of creating possibilities, of someone being determined to find a piece of music to the extent she created it by having it transcribed. Its a pure example of an “I can” approach to life. Incidentally the composer said it took him 6 hours to transcribe the first 40 seconds of the music !

In a later post I will post the music played by Tipper’s colleague and I will also find the video of the dance.. and post that. Watch this space…..

Why sad and angry children become accountants

Ewen Callaway

Did you live a coddled childhood filled with unbridled playtime and few reminders of the harsh real world? You might have been dumber as a result.

Children coaxed into a jovial mood performed worse on a simple test of geometric shape recognition than kids put in a dourer mood, report Simone Schnall, of the University of Plymouth, UK and colleagues in a recent issue of Developmental Science.

You may wonder whether these psychologists hate happy kids or just fun, but their conclusion is supported by other research. For instance, adults in good spirits do worse than sad adults on similar tests.

To uncover the same effect in children, the researchers, thankfully, didn’t resort to insults or mind-altering drugs.

Instead they played one of two classical tunes to 10- and 11-year olds. Fifteen kids heard Mozart’s jolly ditty Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, while the other 15 had to suffer through Mahler’s doleful Adagietto. Previous research suggested these songs put kids in happy and sad moods, respectively, and Schnall’s team confirmed that by surveying the kids.

While listening to the tunes the children played a game where they hunted for a specific geometric shape – a triangle joined to a rectangle, for instance – within a picture. The merry Mozart kids took noticeably longer finding the shapes than the children who were forced to listen to Mahler.

Not content with proving that happy pre-teens are daft, the researchers aimed their hypothesis at 61 six and seven-year olds. Instead of hearing classical music, the kids watched three movie scenes.

One, from Disney’s Jungle Book, features the singing and dancing of an ebullient bear. A neutral scene from The Last Unicorn shows a knight reaching a castle. The sad scene comes from The Lion King, another Disney cartoon. Even this reporter, who watched the movie as a teen, shed a tear when Simba mourns his father’s death.

Mozart refreshes part of the brain others composers cannot

Rachel Thomas
The connection between mathematics and music has always found fertile ground in the work of Mozart. Many scholars have analysed the mathematical nature of his music, for example investigating if he used formulae like the golden ratio to decide how to section his movements. It has even been suggested that there is a “Mozart effect” – that listening to pieces by this composer can help students concentrate or even improve their test scores!

This effect has been a subject of much debate in the scientific community, but regardless of whether the theory can be proved, students at Windhill Primary School in Southern Yorkshire appear to be benefitting from the Mozart treatment.

The school is part of a one-year pilot program to investigate the effect of listening to music on the students’ overall educational experience. And it is not just Mozart that is on the play list. Chopin and Brahms are used for assemblies, Beethoven is played for its calming effects and even pop music such as the Mission Impossible theme or a tune from Kylie are suitable for more active moments.

However it is Mozart that seems to be particularly suitable for accompanying maths lessons. In one experiment, the pupils from a Year 6 class which listened to the composer performed 10% better than those taught without. “We have found that Mozart symphonies which have complicated note patterns stimulate mathematical thinking,” the head teacher Doulla Simon said. “The music reaches certain parts of the brain which other composers do not.”

So perhaps Mozart is music to a maths student’s ears after all!

Benjamin Zander – music creativity transformation & leadership

Yesterday my daughter and i joined a packed Artscape to hear Benjamin Zander talk about the Art of Possibility Not only does he know about the of performance, he showed in his dynamic presentation the difference between motivational speaking and the ability to evoke a transformation into the almost fourteen hundred strong audience.

Zander is best known as the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic orchestra but with extroadinary energy he is also in much demand around the world as a speaker on leadership, music and creativity. For around 2 and a half hours and at almost 70 years of age he delivered an experience I would not liked to have missed. Here’s a brief summary.

You have to take a risk

People think making a mistake is the worst thing you can do.  However, only through mistakes can we see where we’re lacking, where we need to work. But we hate mistakes so we play it safe. Yet long term nothing could be more dangerous if our goal is to be insanely great at what we do. Zander suggests that instead of getting so dejected by mistakes, we instead exclaim loudly (or to ourselves) “How fascinating!”every time we make a mistake. Think about that. Another mistake? How fascinating! Another opportunity to learn something just presented itself. Another unlucky break? No worries! Move forward.

Give someone an A

Zander suggests awarding the A symbol at the outset of an assignment aligning teacher with student, manager with staff etc and in this way bring people together under a common purpose. The awarding of the A kindles a respect, a joy and a sense of positive application in family, workplace and the community.

It’s not (always) about success/failure, it’s about contribution

Rather than asking questions such as “Will I be appreciated?” or “Will I win them over?” and so on, ask “How can I make a contribution?”

“We are about contribution, that’s what our job is … everyone was clear you contributed passion to the people in this room. Did you do it better than the next violinist, or did he do better than a pianist? I don’t care, because in contribution, there is no better!”

The real power is in making others powerful

Zanders decisive moment came when after 20 years of conducting he cam to the realisation that as a leader and conductor, he didn’t make a sound, and that his job was to make the members of his orchestra powerful. the same applies to all leadership and replaces the autocratic style of long ago.

Don’t take yourself so seriously! (Rule No 6)

“Lighten up,” Says Zander, “and you lighten up those around you.” This is not to suggest that you shouldn’t take your work seriously (you should), or even that you shouldn’t take yourself seriously (that may depend on time and place), but for absolute certainty we must all get over ourselves. There is perhaps no better way to “get over ourselves” than the use of humour.

One buttock playing

When musicians truly get into the music and play it with such heart and emotion that audiences are moved beyond words, Zander noticed that the music was flowing through the musicians, taking control of their bodies as they swayed from side to side. Zander, then, urges musicians to become “one-buttock players,” that is to let the music flow through their bodies, causing them to lean and to move from one buttock to the other. If you’re a musician, or making a performance of virtually any kind, and you are totally in the moment and connecting with the language of the music and the audience, there is no way you can be a “two-buttock player.” You’ve got to move, you’ve got to connect, and you must not hold back your passion but instead let the audience have a taste of the commitment, energy, and passion you have for the music (or the topic, the ideas, etc.).

Benjamin Zander – Landmark

Benjamin Zander – Davos Summit 2008

Benjamin Zander