Explorations in Music

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Hillary Klug - Role of the Performer

If you’ve ever tried to do two things at once, you know it’s difficult to keep them both going. The classic example is when kids try (and sometimes fail) to rub their stomach and pat their head at the same time. There are so many things you could try to multitask with, and Hillary Klug has found her passion: her unique blend of fiddling and dancing. Hillary Klug was born and raised in a small town in Tennessee, only recently moving to Nashville. She had already been practicing the dance style of clogging for years when she took her first violin lesson at age 13. Her family really had no connection to dance or music, so Klug was out on her own. Even so, her family was very supportive. She found a mentor who taught her how to fiddle–different from what she learned at violin lessons–and soon fiddling became a core part of her identity. Later on, another mentor helped her shift her clogging into buck dancing, a similar style, and inspired her to carry on this tradition. Her mentors became ...

Carnatic Music - Take a Musical Trip

The Trinity of Carnatic Music Southern India has its own classical music style distinct from Northern India, called Carnatic music. It was likely either named after the location Karnatakam, or the Sanskrit term Karnātaka Sangītam, which refers to traditional music. Starting in the 12th century AD, the music of Northern India, Hindustani music, saw influences from Persia and central Asia, while Carnatic music did not. They continued to diverge, and by the 16th century AD, Saint Purandara Dasa, often considered the “father of Carnatic music,” had composed thousands of devotional songs and solidified the traits of this classical music style. Bhāva is extremely important–the expression of thoughts and emotions. This blends together with bhakti, devotion, to create stories in the lyrics, both expressing one’s human feelings and addressing a Hindu deity. These requirements are rooted in Carnatic music being a ritual of early Hinduism. The world around them was incorporated into the music, ...

The Violin Bow - Innovations and Evolutions

When someone mentions a violin, viola, cello, or double bass, you likely picture a wooden instrument with strings in that distinctive hourglass shape. But there's something just as important that many gloss over: the bow. As seen above, just as the shape of each instrument is the same, the shape of the bows are the same. In fact, the make of standard bows hasn’t changed since 1800! So what was going on before this, and how did we arrive at the bow we use today? The Baroque Period In Western music history, the time period that comes just before 1800 is the Baroque period, covering the 1600s and 1700s. The style of bow used during this time is appropriately named the “Baroque bow.” Even though tweaks were being made over time, 2 traits were apparent: the wooden stick had a convex shape, and they were shorter than modern bows. In the image below, compare the modern violin bow on top to the recreation of a violin bow from the 1600s. Top to bottom: modern bow, classical bow (1750-1900),...

“C-R-O-W-N-E-D” - Musical Analysis 2

Videogames were a big part of my childhood, especially playing them with my older brother. Our favorite game was Nintendo’s “Kirby’s Return to Dreamland,” a cute, stylized 2-D platformer released in 2011. It was part of a larger franchise with many other games, but this was the only one we owned, so we played it all the time. You can imagine we eventually got to the final boss and beat the game. And while I never noticed as a kid, the background music, titled “C-R-O-W-N-E-D,” is very intricate and sets the perfect tone for a grand finale. This piece, along with the whole soundtrack for the game, was composed by Hirokazu Ando and Jun Ishikawa. They’ve worked together to compose for several other games in the Kirby franchise. Ishikawa has said that he writes music with the intention to “entertain players,” keeping it isolated within the game and not with the intention of “performing live” (Wikipedia). We will get into all of the entertaining details in a moment, but first, what are ...