Geography class music notes: Carmina Burana, JS Bach, Jelly Roll Morton, Aaron Copeland

Carmina Burana Longhorn Version
Originally uploaded by kinjotx

Music is an important consideration in studying world cultures. Each week in this class I will play selections from a particular artist or musical work so that your memory and understanding are enhanced. And expect test questions on the basic info. Eventually I think you will be able to do well on a Listening Test.

1. Carmina Burana represented the dramatic, joyous Medieval chorus. Sung in Latin to melodies composed by a German, Carl Orff, it is a popular piece for movie and advertising soundtracks.

2. Johann Sebastian Bach, according to Wikipedia, was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. He enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.

Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, the Magnificat, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, the English and French Suites, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, the Cello Suites, more than 200 surviving cantatas, and a similar number of organ works, including the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor and Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

3. Jelly Roll Morton - early 1900's - was a ragtime player and jazz pioneer. He was a pianist and he wrote compositions for jazz orchestras.

4. Next week: Aaron Copeland, 20th century American composer for orchestra. See Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man.