Musical Investigation

[simplisticwonders]

So my music teacher wants an outline of our MI tomorrow.

and he's not being very helpful as this is the first year of IB music.....

And I have no idea where to start.

I don't know what i want to do.

I want to do something either with Alex Mitchell (www.alexmitchell.org) or Mark Wood (www.woodviolins.com , www.markwoodmusic.com)

If i do Alex, it's gonna be struggle compared with like, russian sailors dance. they're both like, minor.

struggle sounds russian; it has that heavy sound and I think it's in a minor key.

Russian Sailor's dance, of course it's russian and has that heavy sound, but i'm not sure those can be used as links.

If i do Mark Wood, then i'd compare Sawdust to some indian piece.

it sounds indian.

I might do Alex Mitchell against like, palestrina. cause Alex uses delay and looping pedals and it makes that points of imitation sound. especially in living history.

could i do something about an american "love sick puppy dog song" such as something by the jonas brothers compared to like, a mexican "love sick puppy dog song"? would comparing something american to mexican even work as far as musical cultures?

I just don't know.

I saw some online that were websites. they didn't have these deep links that my teacher wants us to have. both of those are like, 2 pieces that use ___.

I'm thinking I'm doing a powerpoint, but is it practical to do a 2000 word powerpoint?

I don't know what qualifies as "Distinct Musical Cultures" either....

Alex Mitchell is a 20 year old sophmore at fordham university in NY.

Palestrina was a Ren. composer in like, italy.

Wood is a rock violinist. He invented a whole line of instruments.

I'm really stuck. I'm really considering doing the Living History vs Palestrina.

Thanks for the help and for reading this long mess....

even though nobody is answering. at all....

Edited December 27, 2009 by simplisticwonders

[KyleAdams]

Our teacher told us simply to find the musical link between the two songs and build on that. Make that your primary focus, but also expand on that to tell how it influences the rest of the song. Personally I am doing a comparison of polyrhythm Perfume's song of the same name and Debussy's Arabesque no. 1. I have already found the musical link, now I need to discuss how that affects the music and how and why it connects the two songs musically.

[lastminuteman]

The most important thing that you must do as soon as possible is to get your hands on the criteria. There's also an 'additional clarification' booklet published by the IBO. There, it defines what constitutes a musical culture and what's a good media format. Your teacher must have a copy. If he doesn't, download it. Criteria is the most important thing to follow in the IB.

In a nutshell, a musical culture is a different way or style of making music. Generally, comparing two different pieces of world music is fine, but they have to have different influences, for example, it wouldn't be so wise to compare two different pieces of South American music in the same style of folk music.

You've definitely selected two distinct musical cultures here, but I'd recommend finding many links that you can draw between the two pieces. The links should be musical, and although you can compare two songs with the same purpose, you *have* to talk about the music.

The similarities can be as simple as instrumentation, although comparing into more depth such as what figures of the scale are used in the melody and what is the texture of the accompaniment.

If you're stuck for a topic, find some world music CD's and look for really obvious similarities between two pieces. Are there prominent drums in both pieces? Is there a repeated ostinato/riff in the bass? You also can look at differences too... is the guitar being fingerpicked in one whilst the other strumming power chords?

The most important thing is that you're talking about the music itself. Find a strong musical link that you can look into some depth, and then listen to the pieces over and over, write everything you can think about them (musical features, harmonies, rhythm, texture, instrumentation, structure etc.), drawing similarities and differences.

Now, with that being said, do the analysis first, and like you'd write up a year 8 history report, put all of your information into a format. Magazine articles are pretty safe, but you have to present it like one. Websites are pretty common, but I think it has to be a mass media format, so maybe don't try the powerpoint.

[simplisticwonders]

Ok.

My teacher is of no help.

1 year later I still don't know exactly what a musical culture is, and to be honest, i'm not sure my teacher does either.

I have that IB definition, but it doesn't make sense.

I'm def using Russian Sailor's Dance.

What am I not allowed to compare it to?

He told me I can't compare it to anything we cover in our music history... the problem is, that's pretty much everything.

Would I be allowed to compare it to some Russian Folk Tunes?

Or is music composed in 2001 for electric violin in a different musical culture than RSD?

ugh. I'm so lost.

[simplisticwonders]

Now I'm starting to write the paper; I got the topic passed off.

I have absolutely no idea how to begin writing this. Any tips?
My teacher is still being of no help... He's very strictly following the rules of "the teacher must give minimal help"

edit:
2 questions.
What's included in the word count for the website?
If I have multiple points of comparison do I need to separate them out into different sections or is it safe to write one giant long thing?

Edited October 25, 2010 by simplisticwonders