VISUALIZATION AND AURALIZATION
Individual artistic works and collections of music, drama, mixed media, and photography reveals how we as patrons of, and makers in, the arts should work to understand and appreciate the role of the arts in our daily lives. Who benefits from music and the arts, and why? Music ensembles, for instance, help people develop important life skills such as teamwork, discipline, entrepreneurship, and how to relate to others. The importance of fine and popular arts in our daily lives is very similar to that of music. Art, in its various forms, is vital to sustaining life. It should be viewed as highly important to education to create a thriving society with meaningful expression, imagination, and flourishing cultures. America's global culture of innovation depends deeply on the strength of its arts and music.
Celebrating Linguistic Diversity within the ESL Classroom
Gracie Stewart
Since colonial times, there has been an observable suppression of linguistic diversity deeply rooted within the United States. This has been experienced by a range of populations; settlers were discouraged from using their first language, Native Americans were brutally forced to abandon their language and culture, and more recently, bilingual students are forced to assimilate to a majority language. Over the last few decades, ESL specialists and linguistic experts have observed a steady increase of the English learner population. Despite this growing community, many school administrations do not have the resources to adequately prepare educators to provide an environment and instruction that celebrates the linguistic diversity found within their classrooms. By educating in-service teachers on the positive outcomes of developing one’s target language alongside their home language, we will give multilingual students, and their families, the confidence they need to succeed while promoting the celebration of linguistic differences throughout the community.
As the world continues to become increasingly interconnected, multilingualism grants both personal and professional benefits. Studies show that being proficient in more than one language promotes cognitive, social, and emotional development within the individual. More specifically, multilingual students have shown enhanced self-confidence, communication, memory, attention, and problem-solving skills, as well as a greater ability to understand diverse cultures and perspectives. As this population enters the professional sphere, multilingualism has proven to be a beneficial communication skill that can open various career opportunities. Unfortunately, despite the positive impacts of simultaneously developing one’s first and second languages, it is extremely common for multilingual students to be discouraged from utilizing their full linguistic repertoire within academic settings due to the misconception that home language use will hinder the development of one’s target language.
In order to celebrate linguistic diversity within the classroom, educators should lean on translanguaging, community partners, and visual supports to encourage proficiency across all languages known to the student. Translanguaging is a theory and pedagogical approach describing the fluidity in which multilingual individuals move between languages to communicate and make sense of the world around them. By utilizing this tool, students will have an easier time learning new content, accessibility in creating meaningful peer relationships, and increased comfort within the classroom. For educators, translanguaging creates the opportunity to bring in multilingual community members in the learning process, showing that their unique skills and experiences are important. Educators should also utilize students’ home languages within the physical environment and instruction through visual supports or texts. By doing so, students will have linguistic support throughout the learning process, and learn that their linguistic differences are valued.
Although celebrating linguistic diversity within the ESL classroom is a pillar of culturally responsive education, it is often overlooked. By encouraging multilingual students to develop proficiency across known languages through translanguaging and community partnerships, they’re given the opportunity to excel inside and outside of the classroom, and celebration of linguistic diversity is encouraged throughout the community.
How Has COVID-19 Affected Live Music?
Sara Drozdowski
Live music has been a main source of entertainment for almost two centuries, booming in the Roaring Twenties when jazz took the stage to give black communities a voice during the times of racial segregation in the United States. It’s a multi-million dollar industry, not just with the artists themselves but with recording companies, venues and ticket sellers, tours and travel, and production companies. Albeit the range of genres and platforms, all performing artists have one thing in common: an audience. Artists like Ariana Grande and Harry Styles will sell out a live show in minutes, with thousands of eager fans waiting to see them up close. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down venues all over the globe, affecting not only world-famous musicians but emerging artists, professional ensembles, music students, and K-12 music programs, live music has had to take a pause. With their creative minds and ability to adapt, many musicians have found new ways to continue performing despite COVID-19 protocols.
Thankfully, we live in a time when social media dominates our world, and livestreaming gives artists a way to reach millions through a screen. Using platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, artists can stream a performance that fans can view live but also access later. YouTube also has a feature called “YouTube Premieres” with which artists can premiere a pre-recorded show, giving them a way to offer a “live” performance without the stress of a livestream. Many music schools have adopted this as well; students who have to give recitals as part of their degree requirements can stream their performance for their friends, family, and peers to watch from home. JMU’s School of Music YouTube channel features a playlist of student recitals that were livestreamed; this offers students the ability to retain the experience of performing in a recital hall while being conscious of social distancing guidelines.
As one could imagine, ensembles such as professional orchestras and military bands have had to find ways to incorporate social distancing and mask-wearing in their rehearsals and performances. Wind instruments carry and spread the player’s air, meaning the risk of spreading an airborne virus is much higher in an instrumental ensemble. Bell covers act as masks for the instruments, and standing at least thirteen feet apart lessens the risk of transmission. Wind players have also come up with ways to wear masks while playing; many will wear a surgical mask with a hole for their mouthpiece to go through and another mask on top to cover the hole when resting. JMU’s ensembles have had socially-distanced rehearsals with players spread around the Concert Hall or outdoors to ensure social distancing, and instead of live concerts, performances are recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
Although the pandemic has limited musicians all over the world in their means of performing, the ways they have incorporated technology into their performances will likely stick around as the world returns to normal. Livestreaming and uploading performances online can build an artist’s platform, also offering accessibility to those who may not be able to afford tickets or transportation to see live shows. Socially distanced rehearsals and performances have improved instrumentalists’ listening and playing skills; playing in an ensemble that is spread so widely apart makes it more difficult to play in time and blend with one another. Despite the pitfalls of the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians and performers have found ways to preserve the influence of live music on the entertainment industry.
A Revolution in the Music Industry After the Pandemic Ends
Shukrana Shukrullah
As live music and what seemed like the whole word came to a stop, time and space seemed ready for change and innovation. Making 85% of record industry profits, streaming revenue skyrocketed. In total, record labels made $1,000,000 every hour of every day in 2020. At a time when the world needed self-expression and relief the most, music came through with artists releasing new albums and live performances through virtual shows. As virtual reality technology continues to progress and become more prevalent, it has certainly caught the attention of the performing arts industry.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I finally got my hands on the popular Oculus VR headset that was backordered for weeks due to heavy demand. As soon as I put on the headset, I was mind blown. Without leaving the perimeter of my living room, I traveled to a virtual theatre where I was able to step into different auditoriums and watch reruns of concerts and play performances. At the same time, I could walk the length of each room and interact with other users, hearing other conversations as though we were actually in the same room together. In augmented reality shows, audience members can interact with one another in a similar way through different mediums such as The Weeknd’s concert on TikTok and Travis Scott’s performance on Fortnite. Being able to attend a live concert, virtually anywhere in the world and from the comfort of your own home is not, and will not, be reserved only for pandemic times.
The collaboration of live music and virtual reality goes beyond temporarily replacing in-person concerts. At a pivotal time of social movement during the pandemic, the GRAMMY Award-Winning artist John Legend partnered with the virtual music platform, Wave, to gain support and spread awareness on his FREE AMERICA campaign. Through this collaboration, Legend hosted a highly successful virtual reality concert, promoting his campaign’s goal of reforming the U.S. criminal justice system. Audience members gave donations towards his campaign as they watched his performance. The virtual reality technology was able to mirror Legend’s real body movements with his virtual avatar in incredible detail. This included even the smallest changes in his facial expressions, which translated to a more authentic and intimate performance with the live audience.
Breaking through many barriers of distance, costs, and time, VR concerts are the next best thing in live music accessibility and experience. After all, an invention is a solution to a problem. And although VR has its own hitches to tweak, it does not take much to say that it is heading towards something big. As pandemic times has proved, the music industry can flourish without in-person shows.
This does not mean that live show will decrease or fade by any means. On the contrary, after the pandemic, live music is expected to boom. After a long period of isolation, people will run at the chance to experience an in-person show. However, this does not take away the need or demand for virtual reality concerts. Instead, this difficult time has simply brought awareness to what is possible. Entertainment companies around the world are placing big investments and initiating major partnerships with virtual reality technology as global media prepares for a revolution.
Creating a Brand for Yourself in the Music Industry
Kiera McCrohan
All too often people are warned against becoming musicians and working in the creative field due to the fear of becoming a starving artist. It is true to some degree that musicians make little money in comparison to the revenues they generate in the industry- one that is currently worth over 25 billion as of 2021! So when streaming alone is not enough to make a stable income, artists need to recognize and establish other sources of income to become successful and financially stable in the digital age of music.
This then begs the question: If only the most popular and successful artists are financially stable, how did they do it? How do artists get their name out there in such a growing and competitive industry? The answer is simple: through creativity, individuality, self-branding, and marketing.
At its core, what makes a successful artist is a successful brand in today’s age of digital music. You could write incredible music, be a phenomenal performer– but so are millions of other musicians. Therefore, musicians and bands who are able to develop and promote a strong visual identity for their music, and develop visual brands for themselves as performers, are those who become the most successful in this industry.
In my pursuit of understanding how to become successful in the modern music industry while in college, I became an Independent scholar at James Madison University. My self-designed major focuses on answering this question of how to make a name for yourself in the music industry through a creative lens. In seeking answers to this question, I fell down a rabbit hole learning about artists such as David Bowie, Prince, and Tyler, The Creator who exemplified this idea of becoming successful through creative expression and individuality alone. These performers and musicians were able to differentiate themselves in a competitive industry, create a platform for themselves through visual expression and creative vision, and successfully communicated their music through art, fashion, and more recently social media.
David Bowie and Tyler, The Creator--notably very successful in the industry--are both known for having different personas and aesthetics for each album released, and promoted such albums through merchandise, experimental fashion, and touring (using their performance personas to further promote their tours). Through this authentic creative expression, these two artists utilized creative tools of graphic design, fashion, and had an overall artistic vision that using graphic design, fashion, and artistic vision, David and Tyler (and many other musicians) formed strong visual representations of their music and sold a visual brand to their audiences that had formed inevitably out of their creative process. These brands resonated with audiences, differentiated both artists from the rest, and enabled these performers to grow their platform and build a deeply loyal fanbase. It’s important to emphasize that their fanbase is who would essentially provide their financial success: through buying into their image, going to concerts, purchasing merchandise and wearing or displaying it, and following these musicians through social media (moreso Tyler in this case).
These two musicians inspired me to pursue an academic curriculum that explored the idea of using creativity to build a platform for oneself, and build communities who resonate with one's artistic and musical image. In my pursuit of finding a successful (financially stable) career in the music industry as a creative, I wanted to follow the journeys of people in the industry who were known for their creative take on music promotion and expression
A Game of Chance
Michael Agren
A common occurrence when working as a music producer remotely is failing to capture what the artist wants. I've produced hundreds of beats—now laid to rest on a hard drive or the cloud—that will never touch ears again. Like a stereotypical label restricting what an artist can and can’t create, it feels as if there’s an inherent, creative limit when collaborating in this fashion. And in the end—even while achieving what feels like 50/50 odds of getting it right—the artist may send a compliment your way, surprise but never write or record to it.
But no fault to them; creativity is complex. When the distributed beat is not only good but truly conveys what they feel, there is frequently only a small window to be emotionally in tune with the music. Working remotely can unexpectedly pull that window closed. Here are a few of the hundreds of instrumentals I created and personally like, but that never got used.
John Williams and His Romantic Influences
Sara Drozdowski
Films and film series are, and always have been, a core element of our entertainment. Our generation grew up watching timeless films such as The Wizard of Oz, Home Alone, and Superman, and we all know the social significance of Star Wars and Harry Potter. What we often overlook while watching these films is the music; film scores bring silent pictures to life.
John Williams, an Oscar-winning American composer and conductor approaching his nineties, is the face behind the fantastic scores of legendary films such as Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Schindler’s List, and Harry Potter. He’s known as the best film score composer of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; his grand symphonic scores bring out the emotion in motion pictures, and he has created an entire musical universe for characters in these films.
Where did John Williams get his inspiration? In many of his works, we hear influences from romantic and neo-romantic composers such as Gustav Holst, Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. The scores from the original Star Wars trilogy are some of the most memorable pieces of film music ever written, and his influences are obvious when comparing his musical ideas to those of the early 20th century. Gustav Holst, a British composer of the late romantic era, wrote the “Planets Suite” in 1916, which is a thrilling seven-movement orchestral composition inspired by each planet in the solar system (minus Earth and Pluto). This trip into outer space was a clear inspiration for many of Williams’s themes in the trilogy such as the “Imperial March” and an excerpt of “Star Wars (Main Theme);” we can hear almost identical melodies between these themes and the movement “Mars” from the Planets Suite.
Williams’s inspiration for symphonic scoring also comes from the works of romantic composers in terms of instrumental color. “The Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky (written in the early 1890s) includes a variety of instrumentation as a form of storytelling; for example, the flute and other members of the woodwind family have prominent parts in the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” intending that the dance is to be delicate and flirtatious. An example of John Williams using this technique in his writing is in the famous “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter series. A prominent instrument family in this piece is percussion (especially the xylophone and marimba), which create a mysterious, magical sound–the sound that embodies the series.
There are many other composers Williams found inspiration from simply in his desire to write grand symphonies; these works were the pinnacle of the romantic era, so composers such as Wagner, Strauss, and Mahler were many of his influences. Common characteristics of romantic music include large orchestras/brass sections, sweeping and powerful melodies, dramatic harmonies and dissonances, and the use of rubato (fluctuations in tempo for emotional emphasis). The romantic era was all about beauty, emotion, and imagination, and these ideas reflect through the music of that time; they also happen to be necessary to create passionate, intense film scores, which is why we see so many similarities in the music of John Williams.
Tchaikovsky: Master of Emotion
William White
Music is a powerful tool to evoke emotion. Triumphant music arouses feelings of happiness and pride. Sorrowful music conjures sadness and grief. Tchaikovsky is a master at evoking strong emotion from his audience.
Tchaikovsky is most commonly known for his music written for ballets, such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty, but he also wrote some incredible solo orchestral works. His symphonies are all incredibly powerful. He has also written some incredible concerti (his first piano concerto is truly a masterpiece). What I want to look at today, however, is his Symphony No. 6, named “Pathétique.” Tchaikovsky originally named the symphony with a Russian word that translates as "passionate," but with the new French name, it was misnamed leading to the name being changed to Pathétique. The word pathétique in French translates to “emotionally moving, notably through demonstration or evocation of suffering.” This is fitting considering this symphony is frequently referred to as his suicide note. Regardless of what you know the symphony as, Tchaikovsky lives up to both names.
Although, it’s not a confirmed suicide, nine days after the premiere of this symphony, Tchaikovsky died. The official cause of death is cholera due to the consumption of something infected several days earlier. Tchaikovsky led a particularly challenging life, especially considering there is lots of speculation that he was a homosexual living in a time and place that was particularly unwelcoming to those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Now we can start to take a look at the actual music. This symphony was orchestrated with a standard orchestration. The first movement spends most of its time in B minor, with E minor poking it’s head in every once in a while. The secondary theme of the movement is in D major. However, so there’s a very strong feeling of push and pull between happy and sad. Overall, the mood of the first movement is almost angsty.
The second movement is very characteristic of the music that people associate with Tchaikovsky. Although it spends most of the time in 5/4, it feels very much like a waltz, that is, something that could be danced to. The odd timing, however, makes it feel a little bit off. People tend to call this a limping waltz, as at the end of the bar it almost feels like there is a beat missing. The overall movement feels very light and uplifting, with a slightly darker B theme.
The third movement feels like a storm. It is incredibly fast, the transitions are incredibly abrupt and come without warning and the music is very aggressive. The music in this movement feels very triumphant, there is a lot of play with adding a minor chord where you would’ve expected major that ties this movement in with the rest of the symphony, but overall, this is another light movement. This movement leaves you full of adrenaline and in a hyper state only to be crushed by the fourth movement of the symphony.
The fourth movement is dark and melancholy almost the entire way through. I’ve spent hours just listening to this movement alone as the emotion that he was able to pull out of me with his composition is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. The music is slow, often quiet, but he uses large swells to emphasize the emotion. This movement feels like someone who just found out that the person they loved the most had passed. With lots of low melody and quiet themes, Tchaikovsky is able to force you to feel something. You’re instantly able to see what is going through his head while he was writing. This piece is one of the most impactful symphonies I have ever heard. I listen to it frequently. If you’ve never heard it before, I can’t recommend it enough. Just make sure you have some tissues at the ready.
Notes on Fashion
Anna Lee
Visualization is arguably one of the most important aspects of the fashion industry. Clothing was once used as a tool simply to keep people warm, but as times changed it became so much more than that. Fashion as a whole is largely influenced by artistic eras from medieval, to renaissance, to pop art, to contemporary and everything in between. Fashion as a whole is ever changing and innovating alongside the artistic world. Not only does art affect fashion, but fashion itself is an art form all on its own.
The Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York City celebrates fashion through its annual Costume Institute Benefit, more popularly known as the Met Gala. This benefit, being one of the most highly regarded social events in the world, is attended by several of the most well known and prosperous celebrities. The Met Gala is the primary source of funding for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute, raising millions of dollars a night each year. The Gala has been a staple event that marks the opening of the annual fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum since 1948 when the Costume Institute was first gaining its footing.
Each year the Met Gala has a formal dress theme that encompasses the essence of the annual exhibit. The attendees are expected to think outside of the box and dress the part in order to match the theme. For example, in 2019 the theme of the exhibit was Camp: Notes on Fashion. Camp fashion is an area of fashion that regards something as appealing based on irony and bad taste. Prior to the Gala the guests would have to come up with an idea that embraces the theme of the exhibit in order to allow the press and followers of fashion to visualize what the exhibit may hold.
Monáe’s Gala attire, although outrageous, is just EYEronic enough to fit the theme of the night and allow the audience to visualize what the exhibit may include. On the other hand, Bieber’s elegant Alexander Wang does not match the theme and does not express the collection of the year adequately, therefore not allowing the audience to gain any knowledge about the Camp Fashion aesthetic.
Another one of the annual exhibit title’s was 2018’s Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. The name of this exhibit is far easier to visualize. Most have an idea of the religious iconography, and so most people hit this theme head on.
Above we can gather the essence of the Metropolitan’s Costume Institute exhibit through the fashion worn by these three women. Grande’s Vera Wang dress, complete with the religious iconography displayed on the ceiling of the sistine chapel represents the exhibit title well. Lively’s Versace look was topped off with a golden halo while her counterpart, Gigi Hadid, also wearing Versace, dressed in an angel wing inspired gown.
The exhibit theme’s for each year of the Met Gala have been portrayed both well and inadequately over the years. Despite the misses that have occurred in the past, the fashion displayed at the annual ball allows the public to visualize the idea of the exhibit without having to see it with their own eyes. This particular visualization will always be important to the industry because each annual, innovative collection inspires new collections and years of work in the making. Fashion is always going to be a visual game because, all in all, fashion is art built from art.