Music

__**MYP5**__ Maybe not everyone cares about what has gone before but personally, I think what has gone before is actually quite important. What has gone before in some ways gives prior knowledge. This prior knowledge is what helps to make things better. Caring about what has gone before makes it more important to some people and less important to others, but those who really do care tend to be the people who can bring about great change. If we didn't care what had gone before we wouldn't know how to improve certain things. By just working off of what is going on now, it is possible to make the same mistakes that someone has made before therefore making little to no progress. I think that without caring what has gone before, we can't progress because the past would be irrelevant. Maybe in some ways some things should be forgotten, but moving forward it what's important.
 * __Who Cares What Has Gone Before?__**

__**Are Dead People Important?**__ I think that dead people are important to some but irrelevant to others. Some people that are dead today were some of the greatest minds of our history and helped us to understand the world around us and ourselves as well. Maybe every dead person had sentimental value to someone, may that someone be a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a cousin, a husband, a wife etc. but that person will not necessarily mean that much to you per-say, therefore they are not important to you. Dead people may be important in that aspect, sentimental value or scientific discovery etc. but in my personal opinion someone's time alive is much more important than them being deceased.

__**A B A Compositions**__ In approaching the compositions, I was slightly apprehensive in the fear that they would come out sounding horrible or wrong. Once I put that fear aside I just experimented a little before I found my feet and in the end I came up with 3 compositions that I’m quite happy with. Another thing I struggled with was trying to make each composition have its own uniqueness. I think I managed to accomplish that but I came to the point where I was running out of ideas or worry that they were to similar. Once I had composed each piece I listened to them and then moved a few things around in each to make it sound better. For example, in my 2nd composition I replaced the A section with the B section because it seemed to work better that way. I would have to say my favourite composition would be #2 because to me, it’s the lightest one and the one I enjoyed composing the most.

Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer born on 2nd March 1824. When his family moved to Prague in 1839, he was teased at school for being from the county, because of this he began missing school. Instead he would attend concerts and operas and eventually he joined a string quartet for which he composed simple pieces. He pioneered the development of a musical style, which became closely identified with his country’s desire to become statehood. He is best known for his opera “The Bartered Bride”. Ma Vlast is a set of six symphonic poems, composed by Smetana between 1875 & 1880. This is often played in one piece in six movements. I have chosen to do the second poem “Vltava” describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, the unification of both streams into a single current. The Vltava runs through woods, meadows and even a landscape where a farmers wedding is being celebrated. The Vltava then joins the St. John’s Rapids. It then widens and flows toward Prague and then majestically vanishes into the distance.media type="youtube" key="Wwd51vB7Uow" height="315" width="420"
 * __ Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) - Vltava __**

Richard Strauss was a German composer born on 11th June 1864. He was well known during the Romantic period being mainly known for his operas. When he was younger, he was the principal horn player of the Court Opera in Munich. He received musical education from his father and wrote his first composition at six years old and continued to compose almost until his death. Don Quixote is based on the novel ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’ by Miguel de Cervantes. He composed this piece in 1897 and depicts the story of Don Quixote when he encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them as an approaching army. media type="youtube" key="4xSG2j-WWdo" height="315" width="420"
 * __ Don Quixote __**

When Tina Turner said she found performing in Africa boring, that the Africans were just boring people trying to live off of the land and that she didn’t like the food, I was shocked. It was as if even though music is what made her as successful as she is today, she had no respect for the history of that music. I also think it is rather ridiculous that even though she is an African-American woman, she doesn’t enjoy the time she spends in Africa which is part of her heritage. She then proceeds to compare Africa to Europe of all places, which in many ways is better off financially. Of course hotels, food and the energy of the crowds are going to be different. Her music might not necessarily be what Africans find exciting and energizing where as Europeans might do. They’re two entirely different places with entirely different people. To top it all off she then says that their music is not something she has looked much into which in turn makes her opinions uneducated and not researched.
 * __Tina Turner: An Uneducated Comment (Friday 13th 2012)__**