Classical Music Performed by Noted Musician Yo-Yo Ma - Essay Example

The second piece is a piano piece entitled Adagio Sostenuto performed by Daniel Barenboim It is by and large soft and delicate. The perpetual melody of only three notes brings all of the other elements of the composition into incredibly sharp focus. This piece is also almost entirely in a minor key, underscoring a sad or somewhat mournful attitude.

This is an amazing piece that I like quite a lot. One of the things I like about it is its huge amount and variety of textures, and rolling mini climaxes without that show that you can create a peak in music without going overly loud or increasing tempo overly much. I also like that it is soft and delicate without being in any way tentative, every stroke is done with precision and determination, and even after a moment of hesitancy, the stroke comes down powerfully. The next song is the classic “Smooth Criminal” by the ever-famous (even posthumously) Michael Jackson.

Its genre is, strictly speaking, pop. It is incredibly danceable, in a strict and somewhat predictable four-four time. It also has an incredibly catchy and single-able chorus. It incorporates a wide variety of influences, however. There are touches of proto-industrial music in the percussion, which sound like they may be clanging on metal pans or the sides of a building. Furthermore, rap has a significant influence on the song, with its tersely spoken-word style narrative, as does funk through the wide use of synth and base.

So while this is a pop song through and through, it has a wide variety of influences. This song is a really enjoyable one to listen to for a wide variety of reasons. Firstly, Michael Jackson has an incredibly interesting voice, which he layers and uses to great effect in this song. It also is a great representative of 1980s pop, almost overusing synth while somehow being able to pull it off effectively at the last minute. This is a song by Cold Play. It is a pop-rock song, falling into four-four times with an emphasis on the two and four, though it interestingly has a bass drum on every beat.

Unlike many pop-rock songs, this forgoes traditional instrumentation, choosing to augment the classical base-guitar-vocalist-drummer set-up with at least a quartet of string instruments (the cello carries the melody for much of the song, but there are places one can hear a viola and or a violin as well), along with a wide range of non-traditional (for the genre). I am indifferent to this song because it does some things well but some things poorly. I think the choice of instrumentation is very interesting to listen to and carries the song very well.

The problem, however, is that I do not feel that the lyrics are very evocative, and fail to carry the song properly. The final song is “Back to Black” by the gone-all-to-early Amy Winehouse. This is an incredibly interesting song. By far the most important instrument in this composition is vocals, with Amy Winehouse providing a powerhouse performance. It also has a string section, a drum kit, and possibly some horns kicking in the back, which all lead to a very layered and rich sound. This song harkens back to Motown Era R&B, with a heavy influence from the soul.