Anabella Discovering the World of Music

 For the second part of my art in action project I have to incorporate art into my theme “Earth Day”. The first element I used was music. For art, I made a shaker/drum out of a recycled container (filled with beans) and painted the top and sides. One of my friends also made a can-jo out of recycled materials and I wanted to incorporate that too! My thought process here is, since my discipline is music therapy, if working with kids doing an Earth Day theme, they can work on songs about earth, and decorate/use recycled material instruments. The first part of my project goes with this second part by using song writing and making instruments around the Earth Day theme. 

 I played this piece for my piano jury last semester from memory. It’s such a pretty short piece and I love the phrasing in the melody. 

 This is a piece I played for a recital about a year ago. I love the nocturne style, and this piece has such a mysterious sound to it that I love. It was so much fun to learn to play! 

 I played this piece last semester for my jury and I love it. It has a lot of technical skills involved like many of Bach’s pieces. This is a short technical Prelude no. 7 that I have memorized. 

For this project, I'm working on a short song about the earth/Earth Day, which is coming up soon! The song starts in E minor and then goes to the relative major, G! The lyrics are a short poem that I wrote, "Mother Mother Earth, what have we done to you? Mother Mother Earth, how will we make it through?" (which is in E minor), "Plant a tree, clean the sea. Help the lovely buzzing bees." (which is in G major). This is all I have written of it so far! 

 This is a piece that I worked on last fall for a recital and it is from one of my favorite musicals, "Anastasia." The song "Once Upon a December was really challenging to learn but I remember I was really happy with how it came along (though there are always a few places for improvements to be made!). I really love this piece and how complex it is. 

For my work in progress, I'm currently working on June by Tchaikovsky from The Seasons, which I plan on playing for my jury at the end of the semester. I picked this piece to learn because it is very much the aesthetic of music that I like to play. The last three pages of the piece are still a work in progress but I hope to add another video to this post of the whole thing in its entirety when I've polished up the last section. 

  One of my favorite art pieces in downtown Spartanburg is the “I Love You” ASL hand sign which is made from a bunch of different metallic hands put together. I always try and see it when I go downtown. I also tried to keep my eyes open for other art pieces that were around because you'll never know what you might find! Downtown Spartanburg reminds me a lot of my hometown, with art and music a central part of the atmosphere!

I really enjoyed learning about Ira Tucker and how he was featured on one of Paul Simon’s songs “Loves Me Like a Rock.” I loved the listening samples that were provided and enjoyed his jazzy music style.  I also enjoyed learning about Gianna Rolandi and hearing her amazing singing voice. I thought it was admirable how in New York she went on to have over 30 opera roles.  Finally, I learned about David Ball and enjoyed hearing his samples of country music. I’m not much for country music but I actually didn’t mind his music! I also thought it was interesting how he was a bass player in the Spartanburg Symphony while he was in high school. http://spartanburgmusictrail.com