Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student assistant Luis (class of 2025) and features songs to help you decompress after a busy day.
Letting Go Of My Thoughts
This a playlist of mostly indie and indie pop artists with a few classic older songs from bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Jim Croce. I find that listening to these songs helps me decompress when I’ve had a long day and allows me to ease all the thoughts in my head.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
The musical Les Misérables is the stage adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name. The musical was initially written in French and first performed in 1980. After a short performance in Paris, Cameron Mackintosh produced an English-language version for British audiences. The DVD edition we have in our library is a copy of the recording on October 8th, 1995, the 10th anniversary of the musical Les Mis at Royal Albert Hall.
The story takes place in France in the early 19th century, about a French peasant’s desire for redemption. Jean Valjean was in jail for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and was released in 1815. Inspired by the Bishop, Valjean decided to break his parole and start his new life; however, a policeman named Javert refused to let him escape from justice but continued to hunt him for years. To avoid the wrath of Javert, Valjean found him in Paris on the eve of the 1832 Paris Uprising.
The release of the musical Les Misérables was overwhelmed by positive and negative comments, and some condemned the decision to convert classic literature into the musical. Nevertheless, the song “Do You Hear The People Sing?” is still on my playlist, and I will never forget the feeling when I first heard it.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student assistant Nicole (class of 2024) and features music by and for independent women.
I Can Buy Myself Flowers
This year has welcomed us with remarkable women in music, stepping up to show how much they are worth and how they don’t need no man! For starters, Miley Cyrus has given a new anthem to all women around the world who have ever been mistreated or underappreciated by their significant other, with her new song “Flowers”. This is a playlist for all the single ladies who have felt the need to roll their eyes at relatives and friends asking if they received any flowers for Valentine’s Day. An independent woman can, in fact, buy herself flowers.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
If you or a musician you know have ever learned a challenging piece, one of the most important things you can do to successfully practice is count as you play. Measures, rhythms, polyrhythms, fingerings, tempo… numbers are all over music, whether explicitly or hidden between the notes. What you may not realize is that the mathematics of music has been studied for thousands of years and is a widely expanding field today. In the book Mathematical Music: From Antiquity to AI, Nikita Braguinski explores this relationship from 550 B.C. to the present-day and future.
If this doesn’t sound interesting yet, here are a few fun facts from the book:
– The first machine entirely dedicated to “composing” music was designed around 1650 and combined random snippets of notes to generate a melody. Referred to as a “musical thinking machine”, this demonstrates just how long people have been using machines and mathematics to create music – hundreds of years!
– Some of the same names we know from calculus and other advanced math reappear on the music scene as well. Both Euler and Leibniz published works searching for the hidden mathematics behind what makes different ratios of frequencies (or intervals) delightful or unappealing to the human ear. Although they didn’t find anything concrete, they introduced the idea of listening as an art of subconscious counting.
– The (then) newly-formed Soviet Union had an intense interest in structural formalism in music and created multiple initiatives dedicated to art as a science. This coincided with an era of musical exploration into dissonant, atonal music and shows how the new revolutionaries distinguished themselves from the traditional Russian music of years past.
– Today, we have the computerized tool of neural networks, a deep learning AI technique to generate music on the spot given a certain style (or input parameter). Where do you think this will take music?
All of these stories, experiments, and techniques can be found in the Parsons Music Library. If you’re intrigued, be sure to check out this book along with others on the interdisciplinary nature of music.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Esther (class of 2025) and features songs for waiting in the UR dining hall affectionately known as Dhall.
Dhall
Songs I don’t understand but keep me happy while I wait for my panini.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Amy Winehouse’s album Back to Black has been my top album since I was 16. Not only is the unique quality of her voice astounding but her lyrics perfectly encapsulate the realities of an abusive relationship.
Back to Black was Winehouse’s sophomore album and the title track, “Rehab,” suggested the album would be nothing like its predecessor Frank (released in 2003). Frank sounded as if Winehouse had taken the lyrics of an artist like Michael Bublé and added a bit of hip-hop to it, the most notable piece was her voice.
These raspy painful notes that begin “Rehab,” a Top 10 hit in the UK and US, point to the three years between Frank and Back to Black being far from easy. After Frank debuted, Winehouse began a very topsy-turvy relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, a music video assistant. Fielder-Civil has come forward and admitted to being Winehouse’s introduction to hard drugs. The two would get into physical and verbal altercations in public, the catalysis of this being Fielder-Civil leaving Winehouse at one point for his ex-girlfriend.
Fielder-Civil leaving was the inspriation for the song “Back to Black.” It described the dark moments of depression she felt after he left. It also described how she went back to abusing alcohol after he left because she didn’t have anything else to cope with.
Another of her famous singles “Love is a Losing Game,” a long metaphor for love being an unfair game, the song, while quite simple with lyrics like “Know you’re a gambling man/ Love is a losing hand,” is considered to be one of Winehouse’s most powerful songs because of its deep meaning.
My personal favorite song, “Tears Dry on Their Own” is an anthem for those who need the hard truth: it is time to get over it. In an interview with BBC, Winehouse described her inspiration for the song: “I was with someone that I couldn’t really be with and I knew it wouldn’t last. But I think because I knew it couldn’t last, it’s kinda like saying, “I’m upset, but I know I’ll get over it, I guess.”
After a stint in rehab and an arrest for marijuana possession, Winehouse won five Grammy Awards in 2008, an award ceremony she was not able to attend as the US denied her visa on grounds of use and abuse of narcotics. That same year, Back to Black was said to be the second-highest selling album in the world. Winehouse died of accidental alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was one of the most famous Russian composers. The general public greatly enjoyed his music due to its tuneful melodies, perfect harmonies, and attractive orchestration, all of which together invoke a strong emotional response. He is known for the ballets Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1889), and The Nutcracker (1892).
Tchaikovsky took up serious composing at the age of 14. In 1862 he began his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and starting in 1866, he began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky revolutionized ballet: transforming it from a grand decorative gesture into a staged musical drama.
I’ve found Tchaikovsky’s music to be particularly useful for helping me focus while studying. Although his work can sometimes hijack your attention, I find it useful to break away from the books and listen to Tchaikovsky’s melodies as a break.
You can check out this book in the Parsons Music Library if you’d like to learn more about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his work.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student assistant Isaac (class of 2025) and features songs he listened to on walks around Westhampton Lake.
Walks Around The Lake
Like most, my first semester of college was a lot rougher than I imagined. I was confused, lonely, stressed, and honestly, I just missed my mom’s cooking. I would take walks around the lake to help ease my mind. Cold or hot, wet or dry, these walks were a necessary part of my routine, and I allowed the music I heard take me where they pleased. A few more semesters in, I’m loving college in a way that shocks me considering how miserable it was at times in the past, but I still take these walks occasionally. Here are some of the songs I listened to on these walks:
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
A newer Disney classic, the musical movie Moana hit theaters in late 2016. The story follows Moana, a Polynesian Disney princess on a mission to return the heart of Te Fiti that was once stolen by the demigod Maui. Throughout the movie’s twists and turns, a lively soundtrack mostly written by Lin-Manuel Miranda makes the audience feel as though they are part of the adventure. Known for the creation of the Broadway musical Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a beloved song writer and performer who makes all of his work memorable for years and years to come.
