2019-2020 Mystery Composer Contest
We are off and running!
Students received their first "clue" at the August Group Lessons. We discussed the list of composers I take the current year's Mystery Composer (M.C.) from, the list of former Mystery Composers and a description of the general historical periods of music. Additional clues are handed out at the October, January and February Group Lessons. The April Group Lesson is spent on the history and music of that year's Mystery Composer. As each Group Week is completed, I will post the clue in this section. See below for August's clues.
Rules of the contest are:
Prizes:
Happy Research!!
Students received their first "clue" at the August Group Lessons. We discussed the list of composers I take the current year's Mystery Composer (M.C.) from, the list of former Mystery Composers and a description of the general historical periods of music. Additional clues are handed out at the October, January and February Group Lessons. The April Group Lesson is spent on the history and music of that year's Mystery Composer. As each Group Week is completed, I will post the clue in this section. See below for August's clues.
Rules of the contest are:
- Students must do their own research. They may use the internet, the library, or books you have at home. (Early elementary students may have parental help at the computer. Parents, please do not do the work for students--let them figure out how to use the clues to search for their information needed. You may "guide" your student by asking them leading questions.)
- You must email the results of your research (no telephone conversations or texts, please) for I print the correspondence and place in your Group Notebook. In order for you to receive a correct answer you must include the following:
- Name of the Mystery Composer
- Dates of birth and death (unless still living)
- Why did you pick this particular composer? Which part of my clue did you use?
- If used, list any and all websites you searched.
- I will answer your email as soon as possible with either a "congratulations" or a "hmm.....this part is good but I need (fill in the blank)."
- There will be ties. Group lessons are held on 3 different days in the week; each group will be allowed the same amount of time for students to research and turn in the results of that research. I will say that the competition in the High School Group has been rather cutthroat in the last several years. The contest now is not for which level of prize to aim for but to see who can qualify for the grand prize in the shortest amount of time. This makes for very interesting and fun emails.
Prizes:
- Grand Prize: $20.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes and Noble
- Group Prize: $15.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes and Noble
- Honorable Mention: $10.00 Gift Certificate to Barnes and Noble
Happy Research!!
M.C. Contest WinnersWinners of the various levels of prizes will be posted on this website one week after Group Week. This will allow all students in all Groups (including those who missed Group) the same amount of time for research. Good Luck!
M.C. Winners (2019-202 TBA). M.C. CluesAugust 2019Links to two of the clues are: List of Composers; Previous Mystery Composers.
Ages of Music
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German Clavichord
(replica) |
above: Flemish Harpsichord
(replica) right: Pipe Organ |
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Classical Period (1740 - 1830)
This age saw the rise of the "pianoforte" or "fortepiano" (terms intermixed) and the orchestra as we know it today. The pianoforte used strings that were struck by a hammer. For the first time a performer could produce both soft and loud sounds at the same time on a keyboard stringed instrument by changing the amount of weight used in his hand each time he struck a key. This instrument combined the new "hammer action" with the case and materials of the harpsichord producing a new type of keyboard sound. Due to the Age of Reason, the influence of the church on people's lives started slipping; instead of church music being the emphasis, music for entertainment became as important as church music. Opera became the grand form of composing with keyboard music seeing a rise in the sonata (three and four movements) and concerto forms. Dances were still composed but no longer in the five to eight movement suites of the Baroque. Theme and variations were also still composed but now geared toward a melody with chordal accompaniment. The Alberti bass became a favorite tool for the left hand in keyboard music emphasizing the homophonic and melodic structure.
A replica of a Viennese Pianoforte (Stein)
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Bartolomeo Christofori's 1720 Fortepiano (Italian)
Housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it is the oldest surviving piano. |
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The Mozart Vienna Orchestra
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Haydn's opera La Canterina
(The Diva) |
Romantic Period (1810 - 1910)
This era saw the perfection of the modern day piano. this instrument was enlarged and perfected in its action, pedals, frames, and sound boards. The piano now used large metal frames inside the wood casings. Concert grands were as large as nine feet long and able to produce a wide range of sound. Other pianos were square, thin and tall, or rectangular in order to fit into the homes of the now large middle class. Composing for, and playing, the organ came back in style with the improvements of wind supply and the ability to have huge, orchestral organs. Virtuoso playing, chromatic harmony, the um-pah-pah bass and idiomatic keyboard figures were the standard of the day. Leaving the courts (many "courts" were disappearing), music was performed in concert halls. Forms include program and character pieces, rhapsodies, fantasy sonatas and concertos, two-piano works, and etudes along with the ever evolving sonata, concertos, and variations.
Above: square piano ca 1880
right: upright grand piano ca 1900 
Above: Steinway Concert Grand
right: steel plate/soundboard |
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Victorian era "home" piano
1870 Chickering Grand Piano
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20th Century/Contemporary/Modern (1900 - present)
The last century has seen a theme and variation on the keyboard instrument. Today we use the organ, piano, celesta, harpsichord, electronic keyboards, digital keyboards, even I-pads and I-phones and can perform on an instrument while being accompanied at the same time by that very same instrument. This is the age of experiments in harmony, tonality, and sonority. Various percussive touches, a return to motivic and polyphonic writing and complex meters are also used. Taped sounds can be used as well as "prepared" instruments. Music is performed in concert halls, churches, auditoriums, stadiums, arenas and even on our smart phones or I-Pads. The musical theatre is important as are the scores of movies (think of Phantom of the Opera or the Harry Potter series). We can also hear music of any kind and age on the radio, television, recordings, computer and, once again, our smart phones. Forms used are those of the past as well as "chance" pieces and through composed.
Moog Synthesizer. Switched-On Bach anyone?
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Clavinova digital piano, circa 1990.
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Electric piano, circa 1975.
Yamaha digital Grand piano, 2017.
Left: C.24 Wireless I-Pad Piano Keyboard. |
October 2019
The history of Western music is essentially the history of changing styles. History itself--wars, the rise and fall of governments, famines, epidemics, and brief periods of peace and prosperity--has a huge affect on the styles of music, those who compose it, and those who perform it. This year's M.C. survived three different wars including one "civil war" in his home country with the result his country's political government changed drastically. WWI was to prove disastrous for M.C.'s country; over 4 million of his countrymen were held as POWs by 1917. Yet M.C.'s immediate family survived.
Despite the political turmoil of his early years, M.C. was able to finish school. Even though his mathematician father wanted him to continue the family profession, M.C. at an early age showed an propensity toward the fine arts: poetry, painting, and piano. He can even be called a child prodigy.
M.C. became a teacher who was aghast at the lack of good teaching pieces in his country--so he wrote some. M.C. said that music for students should nurture their love of life, human beings, nature and their country, and arouse their interest and feeling of friendship toward the peoples of other countries. He believed that these pieces should be of superior quality, teaching not only basic techniques and skills, but also developing the students' artistic tastes and their creative imagination.
Despite the political turmoil of his early years, M.C. was able to finish school. Even though his mathematician father wanted him to continue the family profession, M.C. at an early age showed an propensity toward the fine arts: poetry, painting, and piano. He can even be called a child prodigy.
M.C. became a teacher who was aghast at the lack of good teaching pieces in his country--so he wrote some. M.C. said that music for students should nurture their love of life, human beings, nature and their country, and arouse their interest and feeling of friendship toward the peoples of other countries. He believed that these pieces should be of superior quality, teaching not only basic techniques and skills, but also developing the students' artistic tastes and their creative imagination.
December 2019
After starting his teaching career, M.C. became interested in his country's political approach to music--composing and teaching--dividing himself between the more cosmopolitan modernists in the Association of Contemporary Music and the radical leftist Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. When such organizations were disbanded in the early 1930s, he gravitated towards their official replacements, becoming a senior figure in the newly formed Union of Composers in 1938. From, 1940 to 1946, he was senior editor of the magazine Sovietskaya Muzyka, a position giving him great powers over the fate of other composers' music. Narrowly escaping public criticism inn the 1948 campaign against 'formalism', he strengthened his role as an arbiter of official taste, outspokenly favoring music based one the simplest academic models with a strong basis in folk-song and 19th century Russian music.
M.C. made a crucial impact one the musical education of children in his homeland. His ditties and nursery-rhymes for very small children, his prolific output of study-pieces for young pianists and other instrumentalists, his innumerable songs, cantatas and anthem for the youth organizations mae him easily the most familiar composer to anyone who grew up in the USSR. His children's piano pieces have found a wide outlet with teachers inn the West.
His music for adults, including 4 symphonies, 5 operas, 8 concertos, quartets, sonatas and much else, usually aspires to the same condition as his children's music. He favored clarity and simplicity of form, traditional melodies and gestures, sweet moments of melancholy in the slow movements and cheerful optimism to end, often with a bracing dash of neo-classical motor rhythms.
M.C. made a crucial impact one the musical education of children in his homeland. His ditties and nursery-rhymes for very small children, his prolific output of study-pieces for young pianists and other instrumentalists, his innumerable songs, cantatas and anthem for the youth organizations mae him easily the most familiar composer to anyone who grew up in the USSR. His children's piano pieces have found a wide outlet with teachers inn the West.
His music for adults, including 4 symphonies, 5 operas, 8 concertos, quartets, sonatas and much else, usually aspires to the same condition as his children's music. He favored clarity and simplicity of form, traditional melodies and gestures, sweet moments of melancholy in the slow movements and cheerful optimism to end, often with a bracing dash of neo-classical motor rhythms.
January 2020 [tba]
Just like last year’s Mystery Composer, Francǫis Couperin le Grande, this year’s M.C. composed music for his students. There are 20 piano collections alone containing 153 pieces specifically for pedagogical (teaching) purposes. M.C., in his book Music and Education: A Composer Writes About Musical Education, M.C. states that music for children should be “the same as for adults, only better”. This quotation is the guiding principle behind all of M.C.’s music for children. He did not want to compose simplified or dubbed-down adult art, but good art for children. M.C. believed that “no piece of music, however short and modest, should pass by a child without touching his mind and heart.” And it is easy to hear in his pedagogical works that he was focusing on developing a real musical culture in young people rather than just practicing five finger patterns and/or scales.
It is worth saying that M.C. considered music to be for people of all ages. His specific emphasis was on creating good music first, then helping students understand the music. Even though the titles refer to children, his piano collections continue in the tradition established by composers like Schumann and Tchaikovsky in creating well-crafted, approachable pieces that focus on specific pedagogical techniques that piano students of any age will find valuable.
“We live in a difficult—interesting but difficult—epoch, but still life is wonderful. Great art can only come from love for life, love for man. Art must serve society, the people must understand it. The love of man must be there.”
—M.C.—-
It is worth saying that M.C. considered music to be for people of all ages. His specific emphasis was on creating good music first, then helping students understand the music. Even though the titles refer to children, his piano collections continue in the tradition established by composers like Schumann and Tchaikovsky in creating well-crafted, approachable pieces that focus on specific pedagogical techniques that piano students of any age will find valuable.
“We live in a difficult—interesting but difficult—epoch, but still life is wonderful. Great art can only come from love for life, love for man. Art must serve society, the people must understand it. The love of man must be there.”
—M.C.—-
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Some Past M.C.s
2012-2013 M.C.:
Johann Sebastian Bach with student Preston Huff
May 22, 2017
Papageno [from W.A. Mozart's "Magic Flute"] with Vivian and Elsie McNeely. Mozart was the 2016-2017 Mystery Composer. |
2013-2014 Mystery Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
May 19, 2018
Clara Schumann, Mrs. P, and Robert Schumann, 2017-2018's M.C. |
Mrs. Pullin with Herr Beethoven. May, 2014
May 21, 2018
Clara Schumann singing from cycle of songs written for her by Robert Schumann. |
Above: performing his music at the harpsichord.
Right: with Miss Ella Ishii
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Francois Couperin le Grand.
(1668-1733). 2018-2019 Mystery Composer.
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