Tuning in The General ~ ~~ Note from the editors:
Whether you l ike punk, rock, classical, jazz, hip hop or anything in betwe en, sharing music has be en a part of human history for centuries. Enjoy our sick music special. -Karen Garcia & Rebekah Marki ll ie [ }
UP graduate collaborates to compose fi lm score
Illustration by Rebekah Marki ll ie
When a beat hits your brain By Al ina Rosenkranz
Most people that listen to music have experienced the effect it can have on their emotions and thoughts. It can feel like music has the ability to create magical moments. Music is part of our everyday lives, but we don’t often think about the effects it has on our minds.
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Your heart beat mimics the music you listen to according to Luciano Bernardi, a professor of medicine at the University of Pavia in Italy.
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According to a study done by Nusbaum and Silvia (2010), over 90 percent of people have experienced chills running down their spine while listening to music. How strongly music affects us depends on our personality. The study suggests music has more powerful effects on people with a high “openness to experience.”
3.
People associate colors with music and it appears that people from different parts of the world associate the same music genres with the same colors. A study done by Palmer (2013) shows people from the U.S. and Mexico both associate sad music with dark colors and upbeat music with lighter colors.
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Music utilizes the entire brain. It can activate motor, creative areas and emotional areas of the brain according to a study by Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland).
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Research by Ferguson and Sheldon (2013) suggests that actively listening to music as opposed to letting music wash over us leads to a higher emotional experience with music.
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Playing music on a regular basis will change your brain structure. The cortex volume is the highest for professional musicians according to Dr. Pascale Michelon who has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and worked as a research scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis.
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Listening to music while you work out has the ability to strengthen your workout performance according to research done by Costas Karageorghis and David-Lee Priest from Brunel University.
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According to a paper from the University of London, music can even influence how we see visual images. Through an experiment, researchers found that happy music made happy faces appear happier and sad music made sad looking faces perceived as even more melancholy.
Photo by Thomas Dempsey
The concert is Saturday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. Reserve your free ticket at BC 235 ahead of time. Call the PFA office at 503-943-7228 for more information. A livestream of the show can be found through the orchestra’s Facebook page. By Michael Shively While some may have spent the four long months of summer break sunbathing, traveling or interning, Dana Coppernoll-Houston was busy composing music for four to six hours every week day. Coppernoll-Houston was awarded with a research grant that allowed them to compose the score for the orchestra accompaniment of one of the most critically acclaimed silent films of all time, “The General.” Beloved by film buffs everywhere, “The General” gave Coppernoll-Houston a lot of material to work with. The story follows a railroad engineer during the Civil War whose fiancée is accidentally taken away on a stolen train. A rescue mission ensues with one comedic, stunt-filled obstacle after the next. Coppernoll-Houston says that the event has something for everyone. “If you really like old movies and the history they have in them, you can come to this concert,” CoppernollHouston said. “If you really like watching strings play, come to the concert. If you really like exciting action movies, come to the concert. If you’ve have a stressful day and you just want a break for an hour and a half, come to the concert.” According to music professor David De Lyser, hearing the soundtrack played live is something most people don’t get the chance to experience; it’s unique because it brings a whole new level of energy to the film. Although CoppernollHouston is currently working on her Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree at UP, she and De Lyser
first met when she was an undergraduate student minoring in music, with a focus on composition. “I was taking lessons for two years from De Lyser before this project even started,” Coppernoll-Houston said. Coppernoll-Houston has been writing music since middle school, where she played percussion. Her first pieces were written for her and her fellow drummers, but her vision soon grew. Before long she was writing compositions for the entire band and soon other musical groups. In high
"I love playing in these dynamic shows. It really adds another element that ke eps the audience engaged." - Crysta Ross school she got composition software, and the rest is history. Although CoppernollHouston admittedly has “tons” of composition in her laptop, only five of them are finished enough for a band to play. Aside from “The General,” two of her other pieces have been played, one for a wind symphony, and the other for an orchestra. This is the only piece she has done for a movie. “With normal compositions, I could write whatever I wanted, like choosing to paint with any colors I want on a canvas,” Coppernoll-Houston said. “But with soundtrack composition, which is what I did here for this piece, it’s much more restricted by what’s happening in the movie.” On top of the hours she
put in over the summer, Coppernoll-Houston’s writing continued into the school year, with nearly two hours a day spent perfecting her work. The entire process took 10 months and finished just before March — the first time the show was performed. This Saturday will be the second, and likely final, performance of the work. Crysta Ross is the principal flutist of the piece, and has been playing with the orchestra for over a year. “I love playing in these dynamic shows,” Ross said. “It really adds another element that keeps the audience engaged.” Ross noted that this engagement also held true with the orchestra’s previous show, last semester’s “The Snowman,” which was accompanied by a narrator. She said that having both composers present in the orchestra during the performance was useful, because it allowed them to make changes during practices and see how excited the composers were to see their work come to life. Coppernoll-Houston suggests that anyone itching to see the fruits of their own creative labor should start composing their own music. “Just really listen to the music you are already listening to,” Coppernoll-Houston said. “Ask yourself: ‘Why do I like this?’ and really think hard about it.” You can come experience the hard work of CoppernollHouston, DeLyser, and all of the 53 orchestra members, this weekend. If you can’t make this performance, the orchestra will play two shows with the Bravo Youth Orchestra on Feb. 28 and in April.