Category: Prompts

Imagine that a ghost arrives on Earth who erases all music of the past. Every score, every recording, every history book, every performance of every single piece of music written in the past is suddenly and mysteriously vanished. You can recall names of great composers (e.g. Mozart, Handel) but you can recall nothing of their artistic contributions. What is now available is only music of the present day in October 2020.

First, discuss any ethical implications of playing music exclusively of the past. Then please write about the music you would then perform on your instrument and include any links to this music, if possible. Why are you including the music you select? Finally, offer your cogent opinion on this quote from Nietzsche:

If you are to venture to interpret the past, you can only do so out of the fullest exertion of the present. Only when you put forth your noblest qualities in all their strength will you divine what is worth knowing and preserving in the past. Like to like! Otherwise, you will draw the past down on you.

A lot of people do play exclusively music of the past, and this has made a sustainable lifestyle for many people. But I think the consequences to exclusively doing it would just mean for music to not progress. Musical ideas are always being copied, interpreted in different ways, and progressing through time. So if past music was to vanish from us, it’s hard to say what would happen to  our music other than we’d have to start all over again. Also I don’t understand if you mean all the music of the past regarding to every genre? or do you mean just Western Classical music? But i’m going all music. So with that, I would perform this song I enjoy called “going out” by Role Model, I’m including this because I think it would be fun to interpret in my own way, and its one of the only songs I know that came out this October.  It’s definitely a different type of singing that i’m used to, but I think singing in this pop style would be really fun to try out. Lastly, what I got from Nietzsches’ quote was basically to not copy music of the past. What that means for my major (voice) is to not resort to a recording of someone singing the piece i’m about to learn. Not portray what I think the poet felt in that moment they wrote the poem, but to learn the music with nothing but the sheet music in front of me, and reflect my own substituted thoughts and experiences as to why I might feel a certain way in the piece. This doesn’t mean to not listen to any recording at all, but make it original in my own way first before listening to other interpretations.

Imagine you’ve been hired by Elon Musk to create a golden record type project for a space probe leaving Earth today.

Select 3 examples of music, sound or noise that you would include. Include links (if possible) of your choices.

Write a 30 word description for each example. Then write a 60 word rationale of why you think these 3 selections should be included on a golden record project. Really consider why you think these are particularly powerful examples deserving of an extra-terrestrial audience.

1. The Beatles – Here comes the sun

Apparently this song was already considered to be on the Voyager, but at the time The Beatles record company didn’t was to give the rights to Carl Sagan for him to put in on the record. So that brings up the question, what would their thoughts be on releasing this song now? or would they still deny access to putting this song on the new golden record?

2. Van Halen  – Eruption

Though I am not a guitar expert by any means, I know Eddie van Halen’s Eruption solo was a monumental piece of work in that time. That solo was revolutionary to how we view the electric guitar and rock music today, and it was performed just under 10 years after the Voyager left the Earth.

3. Dominic Fike – Politics and Violence

This song represents the new music of today. Dominic Fike’s new album What Could Possibly Go Wrong? released July 31, 2020, only 2 months ago. His alternative hip hop genre shows just how much further, or maybe, in a different direction we’ve taken to making and listening to music today.

These pieces I believe all contrast massively in musical style and genre, giving new perspectives to the evolution of music. The music on Carl Sagans Golden Record includes tons of classical, blues, jazz and music from other countries, all of which are mostly older than the Voyager itself.  So I think the three pieces I picked well portray the passage of time in our musical history. If I had more choices, or if I was asked what songs I would put on the record in general I would totally add more 2000s songs, detail more on the evolution of hip hop, and the evolution of punk rock/rock.

1. Looking back at the “bones of summer” how have you engaged or created art? If you haven’t engaged or created art, please describe why.

Though I made sure to practice my voice a lot since that is my main instrument, this summer I found myself in a more hands on art. My mother brought me down to the beach and showed me a stump embedded with rocks and covered with barnacles.  She said to me “you should turn this into a table” and me, not doing anything due to covid quarantine said “sure why not”.  So I brought this stump up to my grandpas shop and sanded it for about a month. Using a flap wheel grinder to get the sun-bleached cracked wood layer off, a die grinder to get into the nooks and crannies, and normal sandpaper to make it look pretty.  From there, my second big project was a bench that I wood burned with a microwaved. The patterns burned into the wood are called Lindenberg figures, basically a electric current running through the wood from a microwave transformer… I did electrocute myself doing it. Exploring a more physical art this summer was an amazing experience and a valuable skill working with wood/metals, and something i’ll use for the rest of my life.

2. What things, if any, surround you that you consider powerful?

I consider my family powerful. My father determination to go to work online each day to keep my family stable financially is powerful, keeping me determined to do my job (school) online each day.  My mother, keeping the house clean everyday though everyones home, cooking meals, maintain her wonderful garden, is powerful. And my grandpa, who can fix any problem that comes his way, and teaches me woodworking/carpentry is powerful in knowledge.

3. Over the next couple of days, take note of the dominant sounds in areas that you consistently walk. What are the sounds you notice most of all? Be specific.

I notice more high pitch, melodic sounds, (e.g.) the birds chirping, people using power tools in their houses, the beep of the crosswalk when I press the button. I also hear the gears on my bike switching, the tire spinning while I don’t pedal, and the cars pass by on the road.

4. How do you relate to the phrase “free time only works if you steal it?”

Yes I can steal time from the time I should be using on more important tasks, which I often do, but that dark playground usually fills me with tremendous guilt. If i’m gonna get free time it should be earned, and I don’t think that of stolen time, I believe it’s very valuable and deserved.

5. Do you have any other takeaways from the film?

Leslie can make his art out of anything. I was shocked to how in depth he observed the burned door hinge and the beautiful art he made from it. He was not afraid to make art of what he truly found interesting, and that mindset is something I strive to have.