Download CAN YOU HEAR

CAN YOU HEAR
Music by James Papoulis / arranged with Francisco J. Nunez
From the Sounds of a Better World = small voices calling
STYLE PERIOD/GENRE 1. Contemporary
2. choral music
COMPOSER/ARRANGER/EDITOR 1. Music by James Papoulis 2. arranged with Francisco J. Nunez
COMPOSER INFORMATION About the Composer: James Papoulis’s work focuses on combining the music of his roots – classical and jazz – with
the rhythms and influence of world beat, folk, and multi-ethnic sounds. His compositions for choirs, orchestras, string quartets, and chamber ensembles
have been performed worldwide, including London’s Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a 300-member children’s choir, and
at the Great Wall of China with a 500 member children’s choir. He recently collaborated with Geoffrey Holder to re-create the Alvin Ailey Dance
Company’s signature piece, The Prodigal Son, and a 45 minute orchestral/tribal suite for the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
He enthusiastically participates in the Arts in the Schools program, introducing various forms of music to students, and writes and produces songs with
them. The lyrics that the children write, reflecting their thoughts and hopes, have been a great source of inspiration to him.
Project Notes from the composer: Can You Hear is from the project Sounds of a Better World = small voices calling, a series of songs focusing on
children, which examines their world and how small steps can be made to improve it. When this journey began for me almost five years ago, I was very
disturbed to learn of various incidents around the world where childr4en were subjected to adverse conditions. I began to wonder how they could
possibly develop into caring, responsible adults, with such hardship defining their childhood. As I read more and explored our attitudes as a society
toward children, I began to feel that we (as Dr. Martin Luther King said) “…must ask ourselves how responsible we are for the well-being of others…”
Do we have the courage to feel responsible? What ideals do we strive for? How can we find innovative ways in which the personal and social problems
of childhood can be overcome? Can music be utilized as a potential bridge to reach out and address these issues?
What I have come to understand is that we must send the best part of ourselves into the future through our children. If we want society to evolve, we
need to understand the importance of childhood, and how vital our role should be in doing whatever we can to nurture every child. We should all be
aware of our powerful influence on their minds. Through this incredible journey that Sounds of a Better World has taken me on, I hope to have somehow
addressed these issues and to have embraced the joy that children can bring to this world.
1. still alive 2. music focus on kids world wide
3. composes varied genres
TEXT
1. inspirational
2. by Jim Papoulis, Leo Schaff & Regine Urbach 3. English
SOUND
1. SATB Choir
2. piano
HARMONY
1. Major
MELODY 1. prominent melody
3. percussion (clapping)
2. homophonic
3. simple, not changing
2. soprano voice
3. repetitious/ jumpy
RHYTHM 1. developed from the text
2. syncopation
-
the process of displacing 'expected' beats by anticipation or delay of half a beat. The natural melodic accent which would
fall, in 'square' music, on the beat, is thus heard on the off-beat. This adds a flavor of ambiguity as to where the beat is
GROWTH/FORM
3. triplet figure – 3 beats performed evenly over one count
1. strophic (
or 'chorus form', commonly associated with folksong and art-songs based on folk-song, a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on
the repetition of one formal section or block played repeatedly. It is the musical analogue of 'repeated stanzas' in poetry or lyrics: where the text repeats the same rhyme scheme from one stanza to the next, the
accompanying music for each stanza is either the same or very similar from one stanza to the next.)
2. bridge (
the B section of an AABA song form, also called 'release' or 'channel', which, in jazz, goes into a different often remote key. By extension, a bridge (in this case,
also called transition) is any transitional passage connecting two sections of a composition)
TIME SIGNATURE
1. 4/4 time signature – 4 beats per measure, the quarter note gets the beat, 2/4 time signature – 2 beats per measure, the
quarter note gets the beat.
2. duple meter – felt in 2 not in 3
3.
= 110 – tempo is 110 beats per minute (with a joyous feeling throughout)
KEY SIGNATURE
1. Key of Eb Major (three flats, Bb, Eb, Ab)
2. Key of F Major (one flat, Bb)
3. Key change – moving from one key signature into another in the same composition – intensifies the music building to the end
NOTEWORTHY
1. Text stress/syllable stress
2. Intent of the composition – take care of children 3. Finale – the last song/a closer
Dynamics – indicators of the relative intensity or volume of a musical line. Dynamics are critical to the development of a piece
ff, fortissimo - very loud
f, forte - loud
mf, mezzo forte – medium loud (literally, half as loud as forte)
mp, mezzo piano – medium soft (literally, half as soft as piano)
p, piano - soft
ritardando (rit.) gradually slower, retarding, to hold back, holding back, held back (gradual change of tempo), gradually delaying the tempo
molto rit – very much slowing
tutti (handclaps) – all together