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Killing in the Name Analysis
CW for the lyrics; swears, allusions to police violence The next video in the chronological random grab bag of songs I want to analyze is Killing in the Name, by Rage Against The Machine.* This song is originally from the early 1990s (I saw 1991), but the message is unfortunately still relevant. In hopes of…
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Satin Doll Analysis
*Disclaimer: Schenker was a terrible human. For people who might not know, I was influenced by Schenkerian Analysis in that I like see how chord structures might be more or less surface level or used prolongationally, but I don’t have any kind of insistence on a certain background structure, I don’t really look at melodic…
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Heu me domine, Lusitano
This motet was published in an appendix to a Music Theory treatise in 1553.* It is for 4 singers. The text is included at the end of the post. You can read a bit about the composer, and listen to it here. Like I said last week in my post, I did this analysis predominantly…
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New Analysis Project
Musical analysis is something we do when we want to understand music better, whether for appreciation or learning to perform or emulate a certain piece or composer. Western Music Theory has long disregarded music that doesn’t fit inside its predetermined box. I grew up in this environment and studied primarily pitch analysis, specifically chord analysis.…
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Writing updates
In the past I’ve gone thru cycles where I either wrote music or wrote words, but not on average, both. For awhile, I wasn’t really doing either, just trying to get established after moving, finding jobs that might be even remotely related to my specialties. So, I haven’t been writing about Theory or Analysis, but…
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Brief Survey of Famous Women Composers
*Of course, there are tons of women composers. This is something I did as an intro for non-music major type folks. If you want to use women composed pieces for examples in a theory class, I’ve been using this resource: http://musictheoryexamplesbywomen.com/ and there’s also this: https://adaptistration.com/2018/01/02/an-operational-women-composers-database/ There are more, but to keep this brief, I’m going to…
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moving and mundane changes
so, I’ve moved cities and jobs. I’m now working what amounts to full time (6.5 hr days) and with the stress of moving and unpacking and getting acclimated to the new schedule (early mornings!) I have had no energy/brain power to write the last couple weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to write next week, as…
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Actively Creating Safe Spaces in Music Classrooms
The following ideas are not a complete list and are only food for thought. They are based on a multitude of such similar suggestions for dealing with trans people in general and my personal experience. The main tenets for the tl/dr crowd: speak carefully and amplify trans voices/stories/art. ~~~ I attended a talk…
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blog updates
I’ve been lazy this summer and not written as often. However, now school started again, and I’m trying to get back in the habit. Today I updated several of the Music Fundamentals posts, some just missing commas, but most substantially Intervals 1 and 2. I’m planning to make some further practice/worksheets for treble and bass…
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delay
So apparently editing and submitting my paper took all my writing brain cells this week. Either that or I’m more effective at the beginning of the week, and Friday is not a good time to write! I’ll try to have a post up on Monday or Tuesday; this time I’m planning ahead so that I…