Walter's MUSC-1020 Blog

 "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles was released in 1966. Despite the song's popularity, today was the first time I had ever heard the song and listened to it critically. I really enjoyed how unique this song is in its instrumentation. I immediately noticed a lack of percussion instruments, which is odd for popular music (or at the very least the types of popular music I gravitate towards). I believe that "Eleanor Rigby" has a string quartet instrumentation, which works very nicely for this song -- every voice plays an important role in this track and is enjoyable to listen to both on its own and in the context of the song. The rhythm with which each chord is played vaguely reminds me of baroque string quartet music, which I found quite interesting. The harmonies used in the song seemed unique to me as well, leading me to believe that this song may utilize church modes rather than the diatonic scales most of us are used to, though I'm not as confident in that an...

The piece "Ornithology" is a highly energetic jazz standard written by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Benny Harris and first recorded in 1946. The piece features a driving percussion section as well as virtuosic sax, trumpet, and keyboard solos. For stretches in between these solos, the brass and sax sections play in unison or in harmony with each other. Like many jazz pieces, “Ornithology” features a good deal of syncopation, giving the piece a lot of rhythmic color. The name “Ornithology” is quite fitting for this piece, as the word “ornithology” refers to the scientific study of birds. Birds, much like this piece, give a carefree and energetic impression as they soar through the sky. I can’t help but think of birds taking flight and floating through the sky when I listen to this piece. When I was reading about the history of this piece, I learned that its name is a reference to Parker’s nickname “Bird.” I also learned that this piece is a contrafact, meaning ...