The Entertainer by Scott Joplin - Essay Example

Art Appreciation- Music and the Performing Arts "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin " The Entertainer" by ScottJoplin The great musician, Ludwig van Beethoven said, "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life." The life and times of a composer have a great impact on his music. The Ragtime music of Scott Joplin was very popular in the 1920's., but it was overshadowed by the World War and the Jazz music which followed it. It was revived in the 1970's, with Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" being the theme music for the 1976 Oscar winning movie, "The Sting" Scott Joplin was born in the United States and lived between 1868 and 1917 when slavery had just been abolished. Joplin's father was a former slave, and his mother cleaned homes. He played with a group of minstrels before he settled down in St.Louis in 1890.He played in the Chicago World Fair in 1893. The railroad crash at Waco in 1893, inspired his composition "The great crash collision" Scott's life was not a bed of roses, he contracted syphilis from which he died in 1917. His long ill health affected his work. His African-American heritage had a great influence on his music.. Early influence on Scott was that of his musical family-Scott's mother payed the banjo and sang, while his father played the violin .His mother bought him a piano from the money she earned by cleaning houses Her influence can be seen in his early composition "Treemonisha" published in 1911. He was given free piano lessons by Julius Weiss, a German music teacher., whose influence on Scott's music was significant. Weiss taught him the intricacies of classical music form. His early training in classical music instilled a love for the classical form in Joplin, which is evidenced in his classic rags .Joplin made use of Afro-American folk music tradition in his rags. Ragtime music gets its name from the 'ragged rhythm' it uses. Having been composed mainly for the piano, "The Entertainer" is primarily in C major. In the "B" section, the melody is played on a higher octave. Its texture is homophonic, with a single melody The music is strongly tonal, with many sections of the music ending on a tonic chord. Although the rhythms and pitches are influenced by the African-American folk music traditions, the music has a definitely European - American form. Tempo is another aspect of Joplin's music. Joplin wrote instructions on his music not to play it at too fast a tempo, which would ruin the music. The Entertainer" is now considered one of the top ten songs of the 20th century.. Art Appreciation- Music and the Performing Arts Performing and Visual Arts - a descriptive essay Performing and Visual Arts . Each form of art like painting, music, dance or theater has evolved in its own way in different countries of the world, and each has its own characteristics. The arts, like painting, theater, dance and music ,have a wide range of techniques of expression. Painting has evolved from our primeval visual heritage Painting helps the painter to express the joy, enchantment and wonder he feels for the visual phenomena of the outside world, by using colors and drawing to express his ideas Paintings can be naturalistic, abstract or symbolic. Among the many techniques of painting, oil painting, pastels and Oil pastel, watercolor and acrylic painting are the most popular. While landscapes and still life painting are usually naturalistic, medieval painting was dominated by religious motifs Although different schools of painting use different ways of expression, there are some elements which are common to all types of painting. The basic elements of painting are shape, line, texture, tone and color. According to Peter Owen, "Most paintings, whatever their style and subject, and however many other aspects they may offer us, can be appreciated as patterns of shapes defined on the picture surface."(Owen . p1) Since the painter can communicate his ideas to the viewer only as a two- dimensional, immobile and silent picture, he uses shape, tone , texture and color to convincingly express a three dimensional object on a canvas Shapes are used by painters in many ways- to define the boundaries of three dimensional objects, and to give texture to the painting. Pen and ink technique relies on shape. Line is another element of painting which can transform a picture. Movement can be depicted by the use of curved lines and a flat shape may be made to appear as an undulating surface by drawing curved lines across it. Painters of oil paintings use different degrees of shading, known as tone.,Rembrandt used the darker tones for his Interior, while Monet usually used lighter tones Although. Color was not considered significant until the nineteenth century, it has now been recognized as an important element for acrylic, oils and water colors Music is an art form in which is emotionally expressive, with the performer being able to express joy, gaiety, sadness, pathos The Sama Veda of the Hindus is the oldest known music in the world. Whether it is the Indian Raga, the Western classical music, the Chinese opera, or the Jazz, it appeals to our emotions. .Some of the techniques of music are cadence, repetition, tone and triads, sevenths and scales. As in painting, there are characteristic elements in music too, such as pitch, melody, rhythm, dynamics, tone and timber. While music differs from culture to culture, some of these elements are common for all music. According to the Encyclopedia, "Pitch is an attribute of every musical tone; the fundamental or first harmonic of any note" Another attribute of music is the rhythm, which is a pattern made by repeating sounds and silences, forming a steady beat. Tempo is another element of music, which refers to its speed. It can be fast or slow, and it influences the mood of the music. A characteristic which is unique to music is melody. Melody is the tune, it is made up of a series of notes played one after another. A melody can sound different if the harmony, which is played behind the notes, is different. Melody contains pitch, dynamics and timber. Rhythm belongs to repetition. Theater is a branch of the performing arts, which happens when one or more actors act. The Greeks, Egyptians, Indians and the Chinese had evolved specialized forms of theater, with their own strict rules. Some of the techniques of theater are dialogue, stagecraft, direction, stage lighting and sound effects, among others. Being an art form based on the story- telling instinct of man, theater combines dance, music and other performing arts to tell the story effectively. Aristotle has mentioned in his critique, "Poetics" that theater should have six elements- Plot, character, idea, Language Spectacle and Music. Plot and Language belong to "Dialogue", Idea and character belong to "Direction", and Spectacle and music belong to "Stage craft " and "sound effects". Ancient Indian theater relied heavily on speech and gesture, while the plays of Shakespeare have a strong plot . Theater can be in the form of mime, opera, musical or the classic dialogue style of play. The plot is one of the unique characteristics of theater, whether it is a tragedy, comedy, musical or mime. There are usually one or more characters in a play. Spectacle is usually used to enhance the impact of the play, by making it appealing to the masses. Dance, which is one of the most popular of the performing arts, has many techniques of expression the chief of which are, movements, form and spatial expression. style, structure and time Music and .body language play an important part in dance techniques.. . Unlike in theater, in dance, the emphasis is on image, not on plot. Posturing, balance, centering and rhythm are the elements of dance. Posturing has to do with form and alignment, Centering and rhythm belong to movement . Dance also uses silence as an element Each form of the performing and visual arts have their own techniques and characteristics. References Owen, Peter. ( 1970) ,Painting: An Appreciation of the Arts/5 London.: Oxford University Press. "Pitch in Music". The Columbia Encyclopedia Sixth Edition.{2004) Columbia University Press. Read More