Choose one of the videos from Listening #1 and answer the following questions in your response:

1. What is the purpose the music serves? Is it for entertainment, religious worship, self-expression, something else?

2. Who is performing? Solo singer, orchestra, singer plus orchestra?

3. What instruments can you identify? Don’t worry if you can’t identify everything – just try to pick out one or two different instruments.

4. Why did you pick this video? Was there something interesting or compelling about the video?

______________________________

Listening #1

Please watch and listen to all the videos on this page. Your first graded assignment will be based on these videos.

Music serves a wide variety of social purposes, is made by many different types of communities and come in an endless variety of styles. This is a very small sample but I hope gets you excited about what a deep and meaningful experience music can provide!

Enjoy!

VIDEO 1 2001: A Space Odyssey (Links to an external site.)(film dir. By Kubrick (Links to an external site.) (1968); opening music from Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (Links to an external site.) (1896))

VIDEO 2 Kol Nidrei (Links to an external site.) for the Yom Kippur (Links to an external site.) service, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Sung by Cantor Buchdahl in 2012.

VIDEO 3 Lady Lifers (Links to an external site.) A TED talk given by the women lifers of Muncy State Prison in Pennsylvania.

VIDEO 4 Nessun Dorma (Links to an external site.) from the opera Turandot (Links to an external site.) (1926) composed by Puccini, sung by Placido Domingo

VIDEO 5 Aretha Franklin ~ Nessun Dorma (Links to an external site.) from wire dream (Links to an external site.) on Vimeo (Links to an external site.). For more on Ms. Franklin click here (Links to an external site.).