Review of "Sonny's Big Day" in Downbeat Magazine

The brilliant tenor man - Sonny Rollins celebrates his 80th birthday at Manhattan New York concert jam. The concert is sold out and everyone is expecting a great show. The performance was very enjoyable and everyone was fascinated to hear Rollins dispatch solo after solo in somewhat of a private atmosphere. 

Jim wanted to "chat it up" with those involved in the celebration. Russell Malone states "Sonny plays for real, like he's at the gig. It's so interesting to hear his style in an intimate room." Roy Haynes says "He plays happy with a lot of feeling." 

Sonny Rollin's is a much respected man in the Jazz world and so many people look up to him as a magnificent musician. He is happy to inspire young musicians. He states “I’m really humbled by these guys. I'm happy when the younger cats can get something from what I did." 

One of the pieces that I chose was Philip Glass's composition. I liked it because it was very peaceful and relaxing to listen to. It sounded like it had mostly piano in the piece. There were not many things going on in the piece which made it easy to listen to and not complex. This piece would fit well in a serious or sad movie.

Reasons why I dislike this piece is because it is in a way creepy and mysterious. The piece seemed to go on forever and it became boring. It also kept repeating the same tune over and over again. I also don't enjoy music without words therefore; this is definitely   not something I would enjoy listening to in my free time.

I liked the composition by Steve Reich because it was very soothing and constant. The musicians did a good job playing together and with just 18 musicians. It sounded cool how the music was echoing and changing at the same time. I liked how the beat changed in the 4th minute.

The reasons why I disliked the piece was mainly the same as my reasons for Philip Glass's piece. This type of music seems to be very monotonous and predictable. It doesn't appeal to my taste because it is so repetitive. It does not have enough differences between the constant beat and steady tone.

This is a minimalistic composition that has a steady pulse and mostly the instrument that is being played is the piano.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields. She produced major works of theology and visionary writings of music. She was one of the few women who produced music at the time, and it was very rare. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She was the daughter of a knight, and when she was eight years old she went to the Benedictine monastery at Mount St Disibode to go to school.  When Hildegard was eighteen, she became a nun. Twenty years later, she was made the head of the female community at the monastery. Within the next four years, she had a series of visions, and devoted the ten years from 1140 to 1150 to writing them down, describing them. Hildegard travelled throughout southern Germany and into Switzerland and as far as Paris, preaching.  She died on 17 September 1179. Her surviving works include more than a hundred letters to emperors and popes, bishops, nuns, and nobility She wrote 72 songs including a play set to music.

            The kind of music she wrote was very creative and origan and not like anyone elses.   Even though she received no formal training in music, her talent and motivation drove her to write 77 chants and the first musical drama in history, which she named The Ritual of the Virtues.  The purpose of her music was to be played in churches and speak for the Lord.

          Michael Praetorius is a German composer. The son of a pastor who had been a pupil of Luther, he became organist at the Marienkirche, in 1585. From 1595 he served the Bishop of Halberstadt as organist, demonstrating a new instrument there to many famous organists the following year.  He published a lot or beautiful pieces of music.

Michael played in the middle creative period. He published a lot or beautiful pieces of music.  His purpose of music is to show is to play the music that her loves.

            The compare and contrast of these two artist and two songs in that Michael Praetorius’s music does not have words but it is more complex and had more going on.  Hildegard of Bingen has words and singing in her sonds but it has less going on and more calm.

           

My reaction to this video was that I enjoyed watching Evelyn express herself through music. It was sad that she is blind, but she is able to be a very talented musician because of this.

She is able to listen to the music through vibrations, which I thought was very interesting. The longer the vibrate was means the deeper the note was and the quicker the vibrate means the softer the note was.

She is also able to memorize the music staff which means she is able to play music. But, unfortunately she is not able to hear the beautiful sound she can make. It is sad the she is deft but is is good she make good music.

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