Script Draft: Vocal Performance

EVE ONTIVEROS, HOST: 

The music building at Arizona State is a terra-cotta colored, circular building. Dubbed, the 'birthday cake', it hides in the southwest corner of the ASU campus.  Boasting a talented faculty, rich library, and fine facilities, proficient musicians flock to ASU to get a degree.

The music students here spend most of their time in the practice rooms.  When walking down the long, curved hallway of the music building, one can note the trills, and the scales as each musician works hard to perfect their sound and skill.  

SOUND BITE OF PRACTICE ROOMS

Here, the reed instruments mix with the brass, and the strings blend with the percussion.  They sound coherent--yet jumbled, and each with a unique tone.  But something rises above the others.  It is a sound that all the musical instruments were designed to emulate:  the sound of the human voice.

It is not too uncommon for a vocal performance major to also minor or double major in a language--since the study of a foreign language is part of the course requirements.

Students like Rebecca Woodbury find that their love for languages and love for music go hand-in-hand.

REBECCA WOODBURY:  There's a lot of great operas and songs written in German.

Rebecca is  junior majoring in voice performance at ASU with a minor in German.

WOODBURY:  I actually did an opera program in Germany in-between my senior year of high school and my first year of college.  We worked in an opera company there and participated in some of their shows.

I had  taken two semesters of German already as dual enrollment at a community college while I was in high school. Then I went to Germany and I was like, "Wow I love Germany and I love German music."

For Rebecca, studying German was something crucial for her potential career.

WOODBURY:  It is actually easier to be a full time opera singer in Germany because all the opera houses are subsidized so you can get a two year contract to be "the" soprano at a certain opera house and you get government benefits and a stable job. It's really predictable and that's pretty unique in the world. Most of the places you get contracted for a role. Then you'd be working in one place for six weeks and then you'd have to go across the world and work at another place for another six weeks. And you're always traveling unless you can get a  job in Germany when you can stay in one place . Some people stay for years and years at one opera house. Then you can have kind of a normal life.

So I was like, "hmm, if this opera thing works, out Germany would be a great place to go."

EVE ONTIVEROS:  I didn't know the 'world of opera' worked that way.

WOODBURY:  The Arizona opera--for instance--hires singers that perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and just from all over. They'll hire them--they learn their role wherever they happen to be. They learn music and then they come here for probably  four to six weeks of rehearsal. And then they perform for two weekends and that's it! They get paid for that and they have to go find a job somewhere else.

ONTIVEROS:  I always wondered how the met could perform "Don Giovanni" one weekend and do "Carmen" the next. 

WOODBURY:  Singers are contracted--some singers are Met favorites so they're always working at the Met--but the soloists for the one show and the rest of the year are working around the world doing concerts or working at other opera houses. Unless you're in the chorus and that's your real job and you live in New York and do most of the shows.

It's so different from instrumentalists that work at one orchestra and that's their job and they can live there and have a normal life.

ONITVEROS:  What was that like--starting to learn German? Are you usually inclined to foreign languages or did you have to struggle through the pronunciations?

WOODBURY:  I love learning languages. I took Latin in junior high, Spanish in high school and I took German and also I had to take Italian and French for my major so I studied a lot of languages and I really enjoy it. We also take diction classes about how to pronounce the languages--covering the really minute details. Sometimes it conflicts with spoken diction. Just like when you sing in English, it's different from speaking in English.

ONTIVEROS:  So do singers always get coaching?

WOODBURY:  We get coaching all the time. I remember getting diction coaching for the first time with a German.  My mind was blown from all the minute details with the different vowels. I was like,  "I don't understand! I can't even hear the difference."

It sounds so  silly to be like, "I'm working on diction," because it's so tiny, but it makes a big difference in the performance.

ONTIVEROS:  What kind of difference does it make?

WOODBURY:  A lot of composers set the music based on the sound of the language: what makes a song sound really German can be how you pronounce the words.  And there are so many expressive techniques just in the use of the language itself. It's something unique to vocal music--because we're the only ones who have words . It's a big tool for how we express ourselves, and it works with the music itself, really, in tandem.

For Rebecca, performing is more than singing musical notes with words. It's creating something for the audience to experience through her singing.

WOODBURY:  Sometimes when you perform in different languages there are subtitles so people get a sense of what you're speaking. But when we perform for each other in studio classes, there's no subtitles. I think it's interesting to use the language to inform. I think in pictures when I sing--I have a little scene that I'm walking through or if I have emotions, they're usually connected to visuals.

So I'm having this visual experience; I'm in this other place and thinking through these emotions that I want to communicate. It's always interesting what people who are listening who don't really know what the words mean; what they get with that. What visual or emotional experience did they walk through that could be different from what I'm experiencing--but is because of what I'm expressing.

ASU Reacts: Next Generation Identifies with John Williams

EVE-ANA ONTIVEROS, HOST: 

John Williams’ music is recognizable—to say the least.  He is the film score composer for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, and E.T.  He’s just celebrated his 80th birthday and has no plans of slowing down.  His legacy can be felt even in this current generation.

OLIVIA SNYDER:   When I think of star wars I think of--*hums opening credits of Star Wars*

(LAUGHTER)

SNYDER:  --and the words coming down the screen.

ONTIVEROS: That’s Olivia Snyder, a senior majoring in linguistics at ASU.

Olivia identified with a quote by Lukas Kendall, founder and editor of Film Score Monthly.

ONTIVEROS:  “It’s extraordinary how you get just two notes for Jaws, or five notes for close encounters and have them feel like they’ve always existed.”

Olivia agrees with this assumption and mentions the 2006 film, “The Holiday.” 

SNYDER:  Have you ever seen the movie, “The Holiday?”  One of the characters, Jack Black’s character is a film composer for Hollywood and he talks to her about how incredible John Williams is because of those notes and I hadn’t thought about that until you pointed it out. 

ONTIVEROS:  But how does this generation interpret William’s theatrical scores? 

SNYDER:  A lot of film scores I would say are a lot more subtle in the background and you don’t notice them, but his are noticeable and unique but they’re also like, really important for the story.  And they don’t take away from it. 

ONTIVEROS:  The current generation continues to make a distinction between regular film scores and John William’s scores.  He has a style that seems to transcend the silver screen, with these moving themes finding a way into the hearts of the audience long after the movie concludes.

ONTIVEROS:  For ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY RADIO, I’m Eve-Ana Ontiveros.

Genre Analysis: John Williams' Inevitable Themes

I chose the story, "John Williams' Inevitable Themes" by NPR because this genre appealed to my audio essay topic which centers around the vocal performance major at ASU. In the NPR story, Jeff Lunden used the audio from an interview with John Williams. Williams is a modern day classical composer and musician best known for his work on film scores. He is responsible for composing the score for the Star Wars movies, E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, and many others. The title, "John Williams' Inevitable Themes" seems to encompass how Williams' musical works connect with audiences across America, and that each theme is easily recognizable and synonymous with the movie.

LUKAS KENDALL:  His themes sound inevitable. They sound like they fell out of his sleeves; they sound like they've always existed.

NPR makes a good use out of this assumption by playing audio clips of his most famous themes without emblazing each with a title. Lunden only refers to common emotions felt by audiences.

LUNDEN: For well over 50 years, John Williams' music has taken us to galaxies far, far away...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM "STAR WARS")

LUNDEN: ...on adventures here on earth...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM "INDIANA JONES")

LUNDEN: ...made us feel giddy joy...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM "ET")

LUNDEN: ...and occasionally scared us to death.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC FROM "JAWS")

The format of this segment relies heavily on transitions and progresses at a comfortable pace. The host uses familiar language and terminology that anyone in America who appreciates music, film, and John Williams would find interesting.  It has a semi-formal tone, speaks in a conversational, yet intelligent manner. I also noticed that they used sound bites from Steven Spielberg's speech at William's 80th birthday party.  When using quotes from interviews or sources, the host always includes a brief introduction after the start of the quote. It reminds me much of book-reading. For example:  if you read a Pooh book,  you will notice this typical dialogue,

 "Oh," Pooh said with a frown, "I seem to have lost my honey-pot."

(Please excuse my odd attempt, and I'm sure Christopher Robin would be appalled. Try to focus on my point.) NPR did something similar for this story; they started the audio clip of the quote, then paused for the host to provide a brief introduction, then the quote resumed.

LUKAS KENDALL: John Williams is best known for bringing back the theatrical symphonic film score in the 1970s in "Jaws" and "Star Wars." But he has a breadth and depth of talent and career that really started before there were The Beatles.

LUNDEN: Lukas Kendall is founder and editor of Film Score Monthly.

KENDALL: His themes sound inevitable. They sound like they fell out of his sleeves; they sound like they've always existed. It's extraordinary how you get just two notes for "Jaws" or five notes for "Close Encounters" and have them feel like they've always existed.

A lot of music clips were used in this story.  The clips were at least 15 seconds long to give the listener the full effect of the sample.  Just like the program's title, "Deceptive Cadence," the story samples enough music to unexpectedly stir your heart, and incline your ear long enough to get your attention and provide a segue into an informative interview.

At the end, the story concluded with a restating by the host of the central focus of the story.  It functioned to reflect on William's composition career, his philosophies on old-age and retirement in the music industry, what constitutes a 'good day' in his line of work, and left us more informed about the man behind the music. 

As for my topic, I will be exploring the world of the vocal performance major of ASU. My underlying argument is to discuss unfamiliar things related to the major. Language and music go hand-in-hand: most operas are in German or French. I would like to explore the world of practice, pronunciation, and the life of a vocal performance major. I got my topic idea by overhearing the tutoring session of my friend at the music library:  it seemed she was coaching someone the correct word pronunciation for singing. I hope to find some people to interview--either students or faculty. I also hope to get some audio clips from the hallways outside the practice rooms and various vocal performances on campus. 

Project 2 Reflexion: Ambiguity

The things that came easily to me for project two included solidifying my topic, analyzing each side, and researching to find the appropriate resources to back up my arguments.
Writing the project was a chore. I remembered the nightmare of project one and forced myself over one weekend to write all 2000 words. Toward the end, "paralysis by analysis" began setting in. I pushed myself to write it and ended up with eight free hours before the due date. For once in seven weeks, I finally had a quiet, relaxing sunday.

My biggest struggles included the 'take away' and 'how-to' factors.  I honestly still don't even know if I fully understand evaluative writing. I understand it's purpose, but I do not know HOW to sit down and write it. It was a constant "catch 22" process for me. Sometimes I felt like I was writing in the dark. I'm used to solid rules when writing expository essays. I really latch onto these basic parts of writing. They're almost written in stone because they're so necessary for strong and reliable writing. For example:
Introductory paragraph--starts out your paper and alludes to a few things you'll be discussing in your body. Ends with a thesis.
Body paragraphs--start with intro statement that introduces the topic and transistions, include the gist of the argument aided by the 'golden bricks.' Ends with a concluding sentence that sums up and transistions to the next paragraph.
Concluding paragraph--begins with restated thesis statement, reviews the important points covered in the paper and concludes with a noteworthy concluding statement.

I understand paper writing when it's put in the said format. During the project, I was constantly in the process of figuring it out as I went along--sticking to one format and hoping it worked.
Even after I read the chapter (which was really long and talked more about blogs/reviews than academic essays) spoke to the professor, asked lengthy questions in workshop, read my peer-reviews, and revisited my rough draft I was still confused how it would work.
It was only until four days it was due, that I Googled, "How to write an evaluative essay" and found out how to write my paper. In this case, it wasn't About.com that helped, it was eHow.com.

I learned that I need to improve my in-text citation and works cited skills. I can't tell you how long I wrestled over the formatting of the works cited.
I also learned I need to work harder at setting time aside to finish the final draft.  Assignments kept getting in the way, so finalizing took place on Friday, instead of Monday-Friday. That really kept me super stressed during the week.

My evaluation seems as strong.  However, I have no idea what the annotations are doing. I tried to create a 'lens' as best as I could, but I still feel like they were missing something.

In the future, I will get someone to look over my final draft and give feedback.  It's as simple as that.
Hopefully, in the next 4 years I won't have to publish online drafts of evaluative essays.  I get the idea of a blog, but I feel like the tangible map option would have been WAY easier. I can't stand meshing academic essays and blogs together.