Music Appreciation | Monday, period 1
"Good morning," Hannibal greeted them all. He was dressed as usual in a three-piece suit of a fairly subtle plaid with a paisley tie and differently patterned shirt. It somehow all worked. "Welcome to the first summer term, and the first class of that term, Music Appreciation. Introductions are traditional, and we've the advantage you won't have gotten tired of them yet."
He waved toward a neatly set up table to one side. "Please, help yourself to coffee, tea, and pastries. As you'll all no doubt soon learn, I enjoy feeding people. I'm Dr. Hannibal Lecter; when I'm not teaching various other artistries, I often teach the culinary arts here."
The other teacher at the front of the room, the one in the black leather who was casually leaning back against the desk, arms crossed over a chest that was openly on fire - sorry, new students - gave a little nod at that.
//And I'm Jono Starsmore. Professor Starsmore is fine if you absolutely have to be formal, but I much prefer 'Jono,' really. Mostly I run the music shop in town and teach classes like music, live entertainment, surviving the end of the world...//
Typical school stuff.
//In this class, Hannibal - and I get to call him that even if you don't - and I will be bringing two different perspectives on music into our lectures, talking about classical and contemporary music and shared themes between them. If, ah, you can't guess which of us prefers which...//
Then you clearly weren't paying much attention. Or you eschewed stereotypes; good for you. (But you'd be wrong in this case.)
Hannibal smiled. "To begin with, now that you've heard our introductions, we should like to hear yours. Please give us your name, grade, and one song with an introduction you feel is memorable."
//It doesn't have to be something great or generation-changing,// Jono added. //I would pick Pearl Jam's opening to Alive as a song with an introduction that immediately grabs me, for example.//
Because of course he would.
"And I might choose Mussorgsky's Promenade to Pictures at an Exhibition," Hannibal said. "It's something many who aren't terribly familiar with Classical music will still have heard, and a theme that runs throughout the entire piece in one form or another, rather masterfully."
He nodded at the nearest student. "So, tell us your information and your memorable introduction. If you don't feel we'd know it, please play or sing or hum it for us." He paused to let the students introduce themselves.
//And that seems to be everybody, which actually brings us to our lecture of the day,// Jono said, giving a little nod. //Introductions. Overtures. Songs that set the mood for the rest of a set, musical, or album to come.//
It had seemed topical.
"What do you think it's important for an introduction to do?" Hannibal asked. "Should it grab your attention, make plain what's to come, or ease you into the music gently? For my pieces today, I have chosen the Overture to Gounod's Faust, the Overture to Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and the Einleitung, or overture, to Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, which some of you may have heard before. Listen to them, and see how they introduce what may come next, how they engage you, and what you might expect from the music after them."
//In more contemporary music, especially in the last few decades, modern artists have started a bit of a trend of opening their albums with a short track, usually less than a minute, that sets the mood for the rest of the music to come. They can be anything from instrumentals to short spoken pieces, can be dissonant or intensely symphonic, and might share nothing whatsoever in the way of composition with the other tracks to follow,// Jono said, picking up the ball from there. //So I've got a handful more than Hannibal to share with you today, because of their length, but also because of how diverse they can be.//
He reached for the remote and started clicking through the songs - or just the audio tracks - that he'd chosen.
//For example, the opening track on Our Lady Peace's Spiritual Machines album, R.K. Intro, is six seconds long, and is simply one man speaking some words. The same voice shows up a few more times throughout the album, tying everything together, making it into a bit of a concept album... we'll probably talk about those later. The Offspring use spoken word to a different effect in their intro track, Disclaimer, giving something of a tongue-in-cheek commentary about the content that the rest of the album will contain. The Gorillaz track, adequately titled just, Intro is an instrumental number punctuated by the sound of sirens, giving you a feel for the sort of image the band wants to invoke of themselves when you listen to their music. They Might Be Giants' Theme From Flood makes it very clear that you're listening to the album of a band that doesn't take itself terribly seriously, and Pink Floyd's Speak To Me... well, there's a mixture of heartbeat sounds, spoken word, and clock-ticking sounds that leaves the listener appropriately unsettled while presenting a unifying theme for the album yet to come.//
... He was done listing off intro tracks now. Of course he was cutting himself off with the creepy laughter cash register track. You're welcome, class.
//Intros have become a shorter and simpler beast than the overtures that used to usher in symphonies, but their purpose is arguably the same. Setting a particular mood, stirring up a certain mindset or tying what's yet to come together with a small taste of the rest of it. The songs that follow are often great in their own right, but if an album - or a symphony, or an opera, or any other musical experience - is meant to be listened to from front to back, a composer or band might feel that a primer is necessary, so that the audience is in the proper mood to appreciate the rest as it was intended.//
By the end of Jono's enthusiastic description, Hannibal was looking amused. Welcome to a class where the teacher without a mouth talked the most, students.
"So, what do you think of these various introductions? What is their purpose, and how well do they fulfill it? What, if anything, would you suggest they do differently? Let us discuss it."
He waved toward a neatly set up table to one side. "Please, help yourself to coffee, tea, and pastries. As you'll all no doubt soon learn, I enjoy feeding people. I'm Dr. Hannibal Lecter; when I'm not teaching various other artistries, I often teach the culinary arts here."
The other teacher at the front of the room, the one in the black leather who was casually leaning back against the desk, arms crossed over a chest that was openly on fire - sorry, new students - gave a little nod at that.
//And I'm Jono Starsmore. Professor Starsmore is fine if you absolutely have to be formal, but I much prefer 'Jono,' really. Mostly I run the music shop in town and teach classes like music, live entertainment, surviving the end of the world...//
Typical school stuff.
//In this class, Hannibal - and I get to call him that even if you don't - and I will be bringing two different perspectives on music into our lectures, talking about classical and contemporary music and shared themes between them. If, ah, you can't guess which of us prefers which...//
Then you clearly weren't paying much attention. Or you eschewed stereotypes; good for you. (But you'd be wrong in this case.)
Hannibal smiled. "To begin with, now that you've heard our introductions, we should like to hear yours. Please give us your name, grade, and one song with an introduction you feel is memorable."
//It doesn't have to be something great or generation-changing,// Jono added. //I would pick Pearl Jam's opening to Alive as a song with an introduction that immediately grabs me, for example.//
Because of course he would.
"And I might choose Mussorgsky's Promenade to Pictures at an Exhibition," Hannibal said. "It's something many who aren't terribly familiar with Classical music will still have heard, and a theme that runs throughout the entire piece in one form or another, rather masterfully."
He nodded at the nearest student. "So, tell us your information and your memorable introduction. If you don't feel we'd know it, please play or sing or hum it for us." He paused to let the students introduce themselves.
//And that seems to be everybody, which actually brings us to our lecture of the day,// Jono said, giving a little nod. //Introductions. Overtures. Songs that set the mood for the rest of a set, musical, or album to come.//
It had seemed topical.
"What do you think it's important for an introduction to do?" Hannibal asked. "Should it grab your attention, make plain what's to come, or ease you into the music gently? For my pieces today, I have chosen the Overture to Gounod's Faust, the Overture to Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and the Einleitung, or overture, to Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, which some of you may have heard before. Listen to them, and see how they introduce what may come next, how they engage you, and what you might expect from the music after them."
//In more contemporary music, especially in the last few decades, modern artists have started a bit of a trend of opening their albums with a short track, usually less than a minute, that sets the mood for the rest of the music to come. They can be anything from instrumentals to short spoken pieces, can be dissonant or intensely symphonic, and might share nothing whatsoever in the way of composition with the other tracks to follow,// Jono said, picking up the ball from there. //So I've got a handful more than Hannibal to share with you today, because of their length, but also because of how diverse they can be.//
He reached for the remote and started clicking through the songs - or just the audio tracks - that he'd chosen.
//For example, the opening track on Our Lady Peace's Spiritual Machines album, R.K. Intro, is six seconds long, and is simply one man speaking some words. The same voice shows up a few more times throughout the album, tying everything together, making it into a bit of a concept album... we'll probably talk about those later. The Offspring use spoken word to a different effect in their intro track, Disclaimer, giving something of a tongue-in-cheek commentary about the content that the rest of the album will contain. The Gorillaz track, adequately titled just, Intro is an instrumental number punctuated by the sound of sirens, giving you a feel for the sort of image the band wants to invoke of themselves when you listen to their music. They Might Be Giants' Theme From Flood makes it very clear that you're listening to the album of a band that doesn't take itself terribly seriously, and Pink Floyd's Speak To Me... well, there's a mixture of heartbeat sounds, spoken word, and clock-ticking sounds that leaves the listener appropriately unsettled while presenting a unifying theme for the album yet to come.//
... He was done listing off intro tracks now. Of course he was cutting himself off with the creepy laughter cash register track. You're welcome, class.
//Intros have become a shorter and simpler beast than the overtures that used to usher in symphonies, but their purpose is arguably the same. Setting a particular mood, stirring up a certain mindset or tying what's yet to come together with a small taste of the rest of it. The songs that follow are often great in their own right, but if an album - or a symphony, or an opera, or any other musical experience - is meant to be listened to from front to back, a composer or band might feel that a primer is necessary, so that the audience is in the proper mood to appreciate the rest as it was intended.//
By the end of Jono's enthusiastic description, Hannibal was looking amused. Welcome to a class where the teacher without a mouth talked the most, students.
"So, what do you think of these various introductions? What is their purpose, and how well do they fulfill it? What, if anything, would you suggest they do differently? Let us discuss it."