Fitzgerald VS. Babbitt and Ligeti’s Use of Upper Register Assignment | Get Paper Help

BELOW is a list of LINKS from last week’s classes. Research the Links in preparation for writing.
PLEASE CHOOSE several songs, techniques to write about in your paper.

Ideas for WRITING YOUR PAPER’S FIRST half:

Ella Fitzgerald’s tonal scat song, “One Note Samba”, is included for comparison to Milton Babbitt’s more abstract, atonal work “Phonemena” which was influenced by scat singing style. In what ways are these compositions similar and/or different? Babbitt’s “Phonemena” has two (2) versions:

voice with piano accompaniment; the other: voice with electronic sounds accompaniment. What’s your impression of these? In addition, there is another performance (on stage) included by SBU alumna Rachel Schultz singing with the electronic accompaniment.

What’s your impression of her performance version and that of Judith Bettina?

Ideas for WRITING YOUR PAPER’S SECOND half:

Does emphasis on the upper vocal register increase tension and stress or lend mellowness to the drama? As experienced in the excerpts, below, is this drama unbelievable and improbable or does

it in any way resemble contemporary life? Describe any aspects of Barbara Hannigan performance

that seem striking and particularly dramatic to you, her interaction with the instrumentalists,

and what is conventional or unconventional and avant-garde about this.

Music Links & Background Information, below:

PHONEMES –word details, units of sound (speech), syllables, which distinguish one word from another in a particular language, they are discrete abstractions. English has about 24 consonantal phonemes and 20 vowel phonemes (altogether 44 phonemes), but only 26 letters in writing.
The **IPA has a unique letter for every phoneme in English. The development of phonological representations for words and their parts is a major step in learning a spoken language.

**INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

Ella Fitzgerald : “One note Samba” (scat singing)

1969 Jazz vocal improvisation using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing

Scat: musical language of Nonsense Syllables/phonemes/sounds/pitch or non-pitch.

Playful, improvisatory, virtuosic singing style.

Milton Babbitt composed “Phonemena” for Voice and Piano (1969).
More abstract, atonal. Body language of scat singing.
Composition = organization of materials, variations.

Babbitt uses serialism technique in composing/organizing his work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique

You can experiment with your own 12-tone row (series of tones) and this will

generate a matrix of variations, transpositions for you:

https://www.andreaslehmann.com/musik-tools/reihenquadrat/

Performance sung by Judith Bettina, soprano:

Milton Babbitt composed “Phonemena” (1975) Voice and Electronic Sounds.

Recorded RCA synthesizer sounds: Electronic sounds recorded on tape; tape was played back during the vocal performance sung by Judith Bettina.

Milton Babbitt: “Phonemena” voice with electronic sounds accompaniment.

SBU’S alumna Rachel Schutz, soprano, performs “Phonemena” for soprano and recorded tape sounds in a fall 2010 concert at the Univ. of Hawaii where she teaches.

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Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s avant-garde opera “Le Grand Macabre” tries out

various extremes. He also includes a Countertenor singer, the uppermost tenor voice register.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countertenor

Example of countertenor singing voice:

The 17th century Baroque composer Henry Purcell’s song “Music for a While”
is sung by Philippe Jaroussky, a noted French countertenor.

Henry Purcell is considered to be one of the greatest English composers;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Purcell

SONG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WAgJifIxzI#action=share

Macabre, means:

Upsetting or horrifying by association with death or injury; gruesome, grotesque,

ghastly. Constituting or including a representation of death.

This “sets the stage” for you to hear the more abbreviated dramatic stage

performance version György Ligeti: opera: “Le Grand Macabre”, Berliner Philharmoniker.

Film Trailer of the opera:

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/concert/23478/?a=youtube&c=true

A Scene from the opera:

About this unconventional, bizarre opera work, including synopsis:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Grand_Macabre

Barbara Hannigan performs an abbreviated version of

György Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre” based on the opera