...THE PIANIST; THE COLOR OF THE HUMAN SPIRT Color conveys meaning to us in many different ways. We associate color with emotions in our daily lives. Red is the color of love. Blue is the color of sadness. Yellow the color of sunshine and so on. These types of color association are ingrained in our subconscious. In film, color often speaks to us psychologically and allows us a broader understanding of the story being told. The color contrasts in the film The Pianist allows the viewer an understanding of the extreme emotional distress, sadness and despair of the characters. Color emphasizes the differences between the life of the Polish and that of the Jewish people separated only by a dark wall Through the multiple layers of color symbolization the viewer is able to recognize first the happiness and normalcy of the Szpilman family. The film opens with brightly colored scenes and their daily life of the Jewish and Polish in Warsaw. The appearance of the characters is clean with rich and colorful clothing. Wladyslaw, the protagonist, is dressed in soft blue suits giving him a very content and soft appearance. The apartment in which the Szpilman family lives is full of warm colors and rich furniture. There is a welcoming atmosphere and a comfortable, homey feel to the apartment. When outside the sun is shining and people smile in the streets. The Jewish people interact with the Polish comfortably, there seems to be no noticeable differences between the two nationalities living in...
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...Kramer Lawrence, the author of Beyond The Soundtrack: Representing Music In Cinema, described Szpilman as “he is a man who lives only for music.” Evidently, he chose to perform certain music pieces that closely portray his current situation. In total, four famous music pieces are played in the film. The first piano piece played at the Warsaw radio station is Chopin’s Nocturne in C-Sharp minor. Szpilman performed this piece calmly and softly in a slow tempo, which expresses his peaceful life as a pianist. Interestingly, this music was never played throughout the film until when the war was finally over and Szpilman returned back to his normal life as a pianist. The title of the music that was played when Szpilman discovers the abandoned house...
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...ENG 235 Final Exam Paradox of War It is said that men lose their rationale in war. The primitive instincts take over where knowledge and civility once dwelled. It was my understanding that there was never any room for kindness in the chaotic environments of war. The Pianist certainly breaks my pedantic understanding of war. It shows the reader that even in the most dreadful of circumstances, acts of kindness prevail. There are three instances that best categorize these paradoxes of war: the kindness amongst those being oppressed, citizens, those individuals who are not being oppressed, helping the victims and perhaps the most astonishing instance of all – the chivalry of war. These acts of kindness during moments of despair are what truly epitomize the paradox of war. The German invasion of Warsaw, Poland brought about the beginning of one of the worst mass genocides the world has ever seen. Almost immediately, the Jewish people of Warsaw were discriminated and the oppression seemed to literally come overnight. One of the most gut wrenching scenes of the novel has to be that of a young boy being halfway trapped in a wall separating the Ghettos from the rest of society. Wladyslaw Szpilman sees the boy squirming as fast as he can, trying to get through the wall before the German officer’s capture him. After watching the boy struggle and hearing the officers tugging on the boys legs, Mr. Szpilman immediately jumps in to help. The boy is beaten alive and killed with Mr. Szpilman...
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...The Pianist is a historically based film that captivates the audience with its intense, riveting scenes. The movie outlines Hitler’s policies against the Jewish race during the holocaust in the late 1930’s. It focuses on the lives of one particular Jewish family during the period in which Hitler invades and occupies the Polish community of Warsaw. The title was inspired by the career of the main character before and after the Holocaust. The film chronicles the experiences of a Jewish pianist and his survival through the Holocaust with determination and the help of others, while millions of other Jews perish. The theme is portrayed effectively throughout the movie. The merciless treatment of the Jewish people convinces the audience to empathize with the characters in the movie. The movie begins with the pianist, Szpilman, in the studio playing the piano while the community of Warsaw is being bombed. The first scene in the film is a montage of grainy black and white scenes of Polish life before the Nazi invasion of Poland. The footage shows a dated world with old European style building and technology, people are shown walking around the town in aged clothing. The grainy dated look of the film also makes the scenes appear gloomy but relaxed at the same time. These images are used to drive the notion that it is set in a time long ago, in a different era. This scene is a critical part in the film as it refines the time and emotion, in which the film is set, so the audience can relate...
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...The Holocaust, which ignited World War II, was a systematic genocide orchestrated by Nazi Germany, leading to the widespread oppression and extermination of over five million European Jews, along with millions of others, such as Poles and disabled individuals, deemed undesirable by the Nazis. During this period, many people lost faith in their community and society as a whole. The Holocaust prompted individuals to question human nature. Human nature, rather than being defined by a particular group, is shaped by individual morals and ethics, and it continually challenges expectations. Typically, people on the good side of history are good and those on the bad sides of history are bad; however, in The Pianist, audiences learn an important concept:...
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...On the piano there were many prominent performers that have contributed to the jazz piano but if I have to choose four I would choose these pianists: James P. Johnson, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin, and Mary Lou Williams. James P. Johnson was a “stride pianist”. He was able the piano in a virtuosic manner with his left hand playing bass-chord pattern while his right hand would play difficult but free flowing lines and scales. Also in the stride piano there was still the swing feel to the music making it different from the ragtime, which is a straight eight beat music. James was an important figure in jazz piano history because he helped developed the style of performing the piano in jazz. Thelonius Monk is a performer and a composer during...
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...Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was a jazz musician that was a composer, pianist and bandleader of jazz orchestras. Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. Ellington started to get a profile at a cotton club in Harlem with his orchestra he led. By the 1930’s Ellington and his orchestra had a tour and Europe and was being known by many. At this point Ellington wasn’t even the category of jazz, he was in the category of American Music. In Ellington’s orchestra were some excellent jazz musicians, such as saxophonist named Johnny Hodges. His band was the best-known orchestra in history of jazz. The band members that were apart of Ellington’s orchestra stayed in it for several decades. Ellington has several songs written by his band...
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...music pretty much his whole life. Williams’ early life looked a lot like other great musicians and composers, lot of music playing from a early age. Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Queens, New York. When Williams was four he started playing piano. After completing high school, he moved to Los Angeles for college. He soon drafted into the military during college, cutting his college career at the University of California short. After serving in the military for three years, he came back to America, and he set his focus on music. When he got back from his military service, he came to New York City and became a jazz pianist. Even though he worked as the jazz pianist, he still went to the Juilliard School to learn to be a better pianist and composer. He studied with renowned musician, Rosina Lhevinne learned concert pianist. John Williams’ said in a interview in 2012 with NPR he said, "players like John Browning and Van Cliburn around the place, who were also students of Rosina's, and I thought to myself, 'If that's the competition, I think I'd better be a composer!'" Him thinking this has lead him to be one of the greatest composer of the modern era. One of William’s greatest compositions is the main theme from Star Wars. This is one of the most recognizable pieces ever, if you think of Star Wars or someone starts humming along, you will most likely know it also. Why is this piece of music so memorable, and what makes it so anyone who has heard it...
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...Gillespie, Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Ben Webster who traveled overseas to find a wider, more accepting audience and to escape the racism to which they were regularly subjected to in the United States. Having all these jazz legends living in Europe enabled a large cultural exchange between the musicians of America and the musicians of Europe. Jazz music was quickly internalized by the European musicians who were eager to add tinges of their own folk music and culture to the ever expanding melting pot of American jazz. Due to the fact that the Europeans were so open to cultural exchange and so willing to except and support jazz - through the likes of the avant-garde Polish Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, Norwegian pianist and composer Bugge Wesseltoft, and Sweedish jazz pianist and composer Esbjörn Swenson - the once dying art form is once again flourishing, and this time it’s on the world stage. Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, often described as the ‘Polish Miles Davis’, is one artist who found that jazz is synonymous with freedom. Stańko was initially turned on to jazz via the Voice of...
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...Now that the 21st century has begun, people often forget individuals and arts that helped shape what it is to be American art. One of these innovators was Duke Ellington, a composer, jazz pianist, and big band leader. No other artist single handedly has defined American Music as this jazz giant. He gave American music and jazzes an identity, the first true American art form. Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, DC on April 29, 1889 to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Ellington. At the age of seven, the young Ellington began taking piano lessons from Marietta Clinkscalps. Both of his parents were pianists. James Edward Ellington preferred operatic bits as Daisy played primarily parlor tunes. At this point in his life, Edward Ellington was more interested in playing baseball with his mates rather than playing the piano. During this time in his childhood, Ellington would acquire his famous pseudonym “Duke.” The title came from his schoolmates. Edward was reared by his mother and her dignified friends. Through this, he developed a Great Gatsby esque demeanor demonstrating a sense of grandeur and grace similar to a noble gentleman of that era and ones forgotten. Many of his peers noticed and deemed him “Duke” Ellington. Ellington’s interest in the piano would not reemerge until he began sneaking into local pool halls looking for the thrills of an older lifestyle. Furthermore, while in those pool halls, he began listening to eclectic styles of the pool hall...
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...The ways in which the Baptist church worship THE TRADITIONAL SERVICE Music: Currently, this venue continues to enjoy the great hymns of the faith. A hymnal can still be found in the pew pocket. However, there are many who know most of them by heart. The song leader leads the congregation like a choir in singing everything from Amazing Grace to Zion Haste, accompanied by a pianist and an organist. There will always be a "special," just before the message, referring to a | | solo or small group musical presentation or perhaps even the choir. A Southern styled gospel quartet fits very well into this type of venue. Message: With his suit and tie uniform looking every bit the man of God he is, the pastor preaches a sermon from the Word of God to a spiritually hungry congregation. Regardless of the topic of the hour, the conclusion of every message will contain the plan of salvation. Doubtless, a hymn of invitation will be sung at the conclusion to invite sinners to come and kneel at an old fashioned altar to do business with God. As the hymn, "Just as I Am" is sung (or a similar hymn of invitation), those who respond to the calling of God's Spirit are met by personal workers up front who pray with them if needed. Souls are saved and lives are changed. | - THE CONTEMPORARY SERVICE Music: Two electric six-string guitars, a bass guitar, a digital electronic keyboard, and a set of drums flank the pulpit. The choruses are flashed up on to the angled ...
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...33 minutes. It has the following three movements: Allegro maestoso, Andante in F major and Allegretto. The Piano Concerto No.25 concerto has long been neglected in favor of Mozart's more "brilliant" concertos, such as Piano Concerto K. 467. Though Mozart performed it on several occasions, it was not performed again in Vienna until after his death, and it only gained acceptance in the standard repertoire in the later part of the twentieth century.[1] Mozart's pupil, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, valued it, as can be seen in the influence it had on Hummel's own Piano Concerto in C, Op. 36.[2] III. FORM AND GENRE The concerto was performed by The Cleveland Orchestra, with the famous musician Mitsuko Uchida as the conductor and pianist. The Form of this concerto has three definite movements, Allegro maestoso, Andante in F major and Allegretto. There were both soloist performance and orchestra’s group performance. The chamber orchestra was constituted of the basic casts: first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, basses, harp, flutes, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, trombones and tub, but no clarinets. This concert...
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...“Duke” Ellington was a jazz musician that was a composer, pianist and bandleader of jazz orchestras. Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington D.C. Ellington started to get a profile at a cotton club in Harlem with his orchestra he led. By the 1930’s Ellington and his orchestra had a tour and Europe and was being known by many. At this point Ellington wasn’t even the category of jazz, he was in the category of American Music. In Ellington’s orchestra were some excellent jazz musicians, such as saxophonist named Johnny Hodges. His band was the best-known orchestra in history of jazz. The band members that were apart of Ellington’s orchestra stayed in it for several decades. Ellington has several songs written by his band members that have been popular. Ellington had a writing companion named Billy Strayhorn, who was his composer-arranger-pianist. When Ellington was 7 years of age he started to take piano lessons from a young lady. His mother decided to have him around a lot of women so he could live elegantly and to be respectful. As he grew older his friends noticed that he was well mannered and was dressed nice, so they gave him the nickname “Duke”. Duke did not want to always play the piano. His dream was...
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...level of works of art” (Alves). He was able to truly define the folk music of Magyar as its own rather than gypsy music, as it was formerly classified. His research did not stop with Hungarian music. Bela continued to study folk music of many different cultures including Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian and more. In turn, Bela Bartoks’ work as a composer began to become infused with the style of pheasant Hungarian folk music by including thematic, harmonic and rhythmic nuances. During and after the First World War, Bela’s composing began to shine. Not only did he compose two ballets and an opera, he created two masterpieces known as Cantata Profana and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta as well as many other pieces. His pianist abilities really exploded as he began performing concerts throughout Western Europe and the United States. This gave Bela the opportunity to share as well as preserve the traditional Hungarian folk music with the world. Bela fled Hungary to the United...
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