what exactly does 'representative of the elective topic' mean? (1 Viewer)

[demosthenes]

because my elective is 1900-1945, and i played a piece today, arranged for saxophone in 1942, with a helluvalot of alterations, originally by vivaldi. and my teacher is threatening to fail me. was i in the wrong? I mean, baroque was being composed in my elective period, and i play saxophone, not harpsichord (ie instrumentation is rep. of elective.)
What do we all think?

 

[sugared plum]

yeah for sure.
talk to him/her about how the period was of innovation, changing traditions, and used existing musical devises in a different way. different instrumentation, ornamentation. cos like baroque music orginally was almost nothing without the ornamentation/figured bass (you know how they wrote the numbers under and people figured out what to play) and if you were vivalda you would have played your composition in line with the musical trends of baroque period. but now you are in 1900-1945 and play that composition with all jazz stuff coming out theren. so just taken a 'tune' and changed its context. interestingly this method of appropriating music from earlier times was very big in 1900-1945.

for example there is a cello piece by Max Bruch called "Kol Nidrei". it is based on a prayer whcih dates back to like the 10th century, sung at the jewish festival yom kippur. but Bruch composed his piece in 1880. so if you were to perform that piece, you could do it under music of the 19th century because the way the tune is embellished in very romantic/19th century and it is reflective of 19th century music. it doesn't matter that parts of it were composed years earlier.



also, i kind of think it's stupid of the syllabus to say, this is the prototype of music from 1900-1945 and pieces which aren't like it aren't representative of the period. like you omit heaps of good shit when saying representative. viva la difference

 

[Phanatical]

Also point out that during the early 20th century, a lot of composers were attempting to "redefine" music - the general gist of the period was Anti-romanticism, which lead to the development of many new styles, and the rediscovery of old styles. Paul Hindemith, for example, explored Baroque music extensively in his minimalist works.

 

[soulshine]

seee demo! seee!

 

[demosthenes]

grrr. maybe i should call the board as well as him so that I know he isnt lying to me?
Thanks soulshine! You da bomb!

 

[trumpet geek]

nah dont play it. I know it sounds silly but its unsafe to play a piece thats originally baroque, even if its altered. I had the same problem with my comp - i wanted to write a big band piece that had elements of baroque in it but my teacher wouldnt let me, cos the markers are looking for understanding of the topic, so its gotta be purely in the style of ur chosen topic. Which is stupid because there is no such thing as a musical style of 1900 - 45 anyway - some composers were still writing in the classical or romantic style then, at the same time gershwin and ellington and others were writing jazzy stuff. HSC is stupid.