A Poem
After reading Chapter 2, read the poem, "Introduction to Poetry", by Billy Collins. Can you draw parallels between a) Copland's "planes of listening" to music and b) the approaches to reading poetry suggested by the narrator in Collins's poem?
Copland's Musical Recommendations for Chapter 2
The end-of-chapter recommendations include many long works, including a four-hour opera. Often, it will not be practical to listen to them in their entirety. At least sample them, and if Copland has mentioned them specifically in the chapter, think about how to apply his ideas to them.
1) Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier.
2) Beethoven—The Nine Symphonies
Listen HERE to Symphony 6, probably the most accessible of Beethoven's symphonies. You can easily find all nine of of them on Youtube.
• Click HERE to watch the musical score while listening to one movement of Beethoven's Symphony 6. Don't let it scare you; Copland won't try to teach you to read music or conduct an orchestra! Just start by seeing whether you can see the up and down movement of the high melody parts in the top lines of notes. Then see if you can follow other lines below the melodies, in the voices of other instruments. Can you name the instruments you are hearing? If not, Copland and I will try to help.
These recommendations include shorter works that fit with the subject of the chapter.
I welcome recommendations from readers for this section of each resource page, particularly of music from other genres than classical.
As you listen, think about the following aspects of music, as you understand them now: melody, rhythm, harmony, color, texture, and form. Your further reading will add to or correct your understanding. Promise.
• Bach: Fugue in A Minor, Modern Jazz Quartet
• It Never Was You, Kiri Te Kanawa, Andre Previn
• Waltz for Debby, Bill Evans Trio
• Once in a Blue Moon, Nanci Griffith
• Dueling Banjos, from Deliverance
• 47b Idumea - Second Ireland Sacred Harp Convention, 2012
For more about this kind of music, at Wikipedia, see Shape note and Sacred Harp. You will see that the solfège syllables are different from the well-known do-re-mi.
• Another version of this hymn, with lyrics, HERE.
* YOUTUBE TIP: Try to develop the habit of hitting your computer's "sound off" button just before going to Youtube, because many pages assault you with noisy (insulting, even) advertisements. Then dismiss the ad as soon as you can, and turn the sound back on.
Or you can subscribe to YouTube Premium, and get rid of advertisements altogether. (If you are a teacher who uses YouTube resources in the classroom, you can easily subscribe while your course is running, then cancel.)
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