Posts

Showing posts from October, 2021

Music and Stories of The Greatest Showman

Image
The Greatest Showman is a wonderful recent rendition of the story of 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum, a family man with a dream. The movie is a musical drama and tells the story through different musical pieces. The movie centers about Barnum and his circus of "misfits" or "oddities", with the music detailing how our differences make us unique and it's a good thing that no two people are the same. The musical piece from this movie I'll be focusing on is "This Is Me", which tells the morale of the story: to accept others regardless of their differences. The song This Is Me , performed in the movie The Greatest Showman , was composed by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek and released in the U.S. on October 26, 2017. Listen to it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjxugyZCfuw  This defiant song was written to align with the lessons of the movie and to arouse self-acceptance. This Is Me  is a fight song for those who are not generally accepted by society

Role of the Performer - Ariana Grande

Image
Ariana Grande. Most everyone knows the name. Though only 28 years old, she has already had quite the performing career. After performing onstage as a child and in a Broadway play at age 15, she landed lead roles on a couple of TV shows in her teenage years. She then dove into her chart-topping musical career, having released five successful albums to date. She's also got 6 #1 hits and multiple Grammys! Though Ariana Grande has assisted in writing some of her music, the large majority of her songs are composed by others and performed by her. Her role as a performer is bringing those songs to life. She is well-liked, very popular, and her performances can usually be seen at the top of the charts. One popular song Ariana Grande is known for is Bang Bang , which was composed by Nicki Minaj, Rickard Goransson, Savan Kotecha, & Max Martin and released in the U.S. on July 29, 2014. Check out Ariana Grande performing Bang Bang  live here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLp7G8dYRlQ 

A Musical Trip to Colombia

Image
Colombia is home of some wonderful music and some wonderful dancing to go along with it! Colombia combines both traditional and modern culture into their music, making the expressions very diverse. While many songs have a heavy Spanish influence, a mixture of African, European, and even modern American musical expressions can help to result in this diversity. Colombia is known as the "the land of the thousand rhythms" because the music has a rich and diverse cultural heritage, with every part of Colombia moving to a different sound; each region has their own rhythm! There are more than 1,025 folk rhythms grouped into 157 different genres.  One song that really has caught my attention is Mala Muer  by Paola Jara, which was released in Colombia in 2019. Check it out here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbIyusl1fos  Mala Muer  has a very dramatic sound to it, but is also sung with a lot of passion. Music is not only something to listen to in Colombia, but it is a lifestyle an

Piano Evolution

Image
Pianos have not always looked or sounded the same. They have evolved to be the way they are today and bring the sound they do. Pianos have evolved from square to upright to grand to digital. Pianos have always attracted many interested listeners, though they have not always sounded the same. The first song I'm analyzing is Fur Elise , composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and Giscard Rasquin on April 27, 1810 in Vienna. Listen to it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mVW8tgGY_w  Summary: Pianos have evolved quite a bit since the composure of  Fur Elise  back in 1810. This piece of work was composed using a square piano, which was initially designed in France in 1777. The piano's name doesn't make a ton of sense, since it was actually rectangular and not square at all. These types of pianos were commonly used to play music in salons. An interesting fact about this song in particular is that even though it was composed in 1810, it was not published until the year 1867, after