Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Hey everyone,
This is the extra blog assignment that I want to you to collaboration on if you: 1) didn’t finish your blog assignment for this week; 2) didn’t turn in your paper for your reflections; or 3) would like some extra credit.
This should be easy. I want you to answer one or more of the following questions about the album “A Love Supreme”. I've posted videos of the entire album, but I'd prefer if you could go to the library and listen to and look at the entire thing.
1) How would you describe the piece? What are the highlights/low points of the album to you?
2) How did this album exemplify John Coltrane taking a chance? [there is ample information on this question on the internet and, probably, in the Columbia library.]; does this exemplify a change in John’s identity? Or is this something else? Is it a change in his sense of self?
3) Many people have indicated that this album demonstrated a change in John Coltrane’s style. Does this stylistic change tell us anything about John Coltrane’s identity as an artist?
4) What was his message in creating this album?
5) What would you like to know/understand better in order to better appreciate this piece?
6) How would you describe his creative process for producing this work?
7) How is the audience supposed to receive this work? What did he intend the audience to feel by creating this piece?
8) Pose your own question relating to the guiding questions of the unit as it pertains to this album. You must, however, try to answer this question.
For those of you who didn't type out the reflection paper, please hand them to me on Wednesday. You can post your responses to this question in the comments section of this post. That is, unless you'd prefer to do an entirely new post.
8 comments:
His piece is a very relaxing and mellow piece. One of my favorite types of music is techno, so I'm used to listening to music with no words, so therefore I didn't mind listening to his work. He shows how much he can get across by using very few cords, and how many different feelings and emotions he can show with his music. I would like to know why he decided to make this piece and how it all just came to him so quickly.
This was intended to be a spiritual album and he was able to show a lot of different emotions. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan. I like Jazz music and jive and swing, they are all really fun and entertaining, however, this reminded me too much of my little brother playing his sax in his room (not well i might add). Each part started out very enjoyable and fluid and then suddenly a burst of energy and craziness came over and it was messy, squeaky noise to me. I think if the quartet took longer than a day to write and record this album, maybe it would sound more put together for lack of a better term. It was listed as one of the greatest jazz albums of all time and it sold over 500,000 copies...in six years. those two statistics dont seem to match up. you'd think it would have sold that much in the first year if it was so AMAZING! i don't know, that's just my opinion. Some others may have loved it.
To describe the John Coltrane piece I wanted to do this thing called a Descriptive Review. Which is a step by step system used on/for artist, students and teacher to look at any form of art with out jumping into judgment right away. I didn’t want to just say if I liked or didn’t like it, and I didn’t really know how to just start talking about it so I thought this might help...
what do you hear?:
drums, horns, bells, ringing, taping, bass, dripping, tinging, voices, a clock, piano, plucking, a duck, crashing
What does it remind you of?:
It reminds me of rain, the light patter turning into downpours of water
It reminds me of love/relationship, first its new and light then it speeds up and then changes and shifts, sometimes into something bad and disorderly
what questions does this piece raise?(I wonder...)
I wonder if he was on drugs when he wrote this
I wonder if he lived a sometimes very sad life
I wonder if he preferred horns more then the piano
I wonder if he was inspired by his life
I wonder if the recording of the music was easy or hard
I wonder what it would sound like if someone was singing the horn part, and what the lyrics would be
I wonder if the horn was meant to be the “voice” of the piece
I wonder why he called it “Love Supreme”
I wonder what it would be like as a live show and who would go to it
Speculate:(what are the intended understandings?)
I speculate the artist wanted the music to flow from order to disorder at times
I speculate he had a love hate relationship with music
I speculate the artist intent was to capture feeling and emotion
I speculate the artist was sometimes very anger at times from the thrashing of sounds made.
I speculate John Coltrane preferred horns to the piano
heres the a link for Descriptive Review if any one cares
http://opd.mpls.k12.mn.us/Descriptive_Review2.html
Listening to this was kind of confusing overall. I feel like that there is a lot more for me to know to be able to formulate an educated opinion. I don't listen to jazz at all. The only jazz I hear is elevator jazz in Panera bakery. I have no idea what makes jazz good or bad. I also don't know anything about John Coltrane. I have no idea what his style was before or during Love Supreme. I also don't know anything about him personally either. So basically I just listened to a blur of weird experimental music that I didn't either enjoy or dislike. So yeah.
Thanks Dana,
If these questions seem too broad to you, then try to follow just describe what you heard.
I'm not a jazz expert and I don't expect that any of you to be.
John Coltrane has something very similar to an artist statement in the liner notes of the album. I expect that if you went to the library and checked this out that you'd be able to answer some of the questions I posed about his identity as an artist.
Also, if you didn't feel like you understood the piece, then what do you think would make you understand it better?
1. Well after listening to all of the videos, the only part I actually liked was the first video, it seemed that throughout the videos Coltrane became more experimental. I can see why many people hated this album compared to his other work.
2. From listening to previous work by John Coltrane, such as My Favorite Things, I can just hear the changes in his style of playing. After hearing the pieces, I think it proves that the musicians in the band were really truely spectacular. I can see why later artists were inspired by Coltrane's experimentation and creativity.
To start off, I like jazz, but I do own much so I can not compare this to other jazz pieces. This piece definitely does a good job making me feel all types of emotions. At first, I felt kind of sad, but then this energy built up. I had to get up and move. In the next part, I was chilled and relaxed in a quite room. Quickly that quiet room changed into a bar or party with some friend although still relaxing. Then I thought I was losing my mind. I felt like I should have been yellowing out at someone or doing something with strong emotions. By the end, I thought I felt like I had lost something and that i should give up.
I was very impressed by the emotions that I felt while listening this John Coltrane. I have no knowledge of music so I have no right to call it messy or well done musically, but from a listener's view, I thought this piece was well done. I would of liked to be there the night they recorded. I wonder what was going through his mind that night.
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