When it comes to film music，I have to introduce you the Hollywood music Godfather John Towner Williams. Williams has won 5 Academy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards and 21 Grammy Awards. With 49 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated person, after Walt Disney. Do you want to know why the Williams has become the Hollywood music godfather？

By  130907124  XuemengZheng

John Towner Williams was born in February 8, 1932. He is the one of most successful film composer. At 1980, he was appointed as the Boston Pops Orchestra nineteenth commander, since 1993 has served as the orchestra conductor emeritus retirement. At the same time also served as the artist that the Boston Symphony Orchestra the Tangle wood Music Festival.

In a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including Jaws, Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock’s final film), the Star Wars series, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, the first three Harry Potter films, Catch Me If You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha, War Horse, and Lincoln. He has had a long association with director Steven Spielberg, composing the music for all but one (The Color Purple) of Spielberg’s major feature-length films.

In Jurassic Park，the classic science fiction movie ,he combined the piano and string together, to create a magnificent scene, warm emotion and vitality primitive. The Schindlers List soundtrack is one of the most classic works and breakthrough in transition. He didn’t use a large Symphony that he has been good at, but with a violin solo as the music tone, echoed this piece of black and white photographic style with a documentary temperament. Indisputably won the best soundtrack award in academy again.

After the movie “Great white shark” get a huge success, Spielberg’s brother Lucas at a cost of 10 million dollars, take the science fiction film” Star Wars “. Lucas asked Spielberg who is the music soundtrack master, Spielberg didn’t hesitate and said:” John Williams!” John think the movie should use the romantic music to let high school boys watch conviviality. So he wrote a “empire” style of music, but also to the London Symphony Orchestra hundred ensemble. Soon afterwards the film sold worldwide and the soundtrack is very popular.

The last time John Williams received two nominations at the same time in 2001, when the “artificial intelligence” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone” soundtrack are both listed. Meanwhile, John Williams also appointed as the academy awards commander. Therefore some people specifically asked that year the academy ceremony director Michael Seligman: if the Williams won, he would speak all the time as long as he wants. Because the band is followed him, he did not command, the band can’t remind winners speech timeout. However Michael Seligman replied: “no, we prepared the tape, if the timeout we will put the tape on the music to reminds him.” Of course, the last tape is not playing, because that year the “ring king” Howard Seaan beat John Williams.

Let us have some musical knowledge!

By : Xiaowen Wang 120307235  Class 4

 

Traditional Chinese music and modern Chinese music have many differences. Here is a brief look at some of the differences.
First, traditional Chinese music often uses traditional musical instruments such as erhu, flute, and drum and so on. In traditional orchestras, the combination of all the different instruments served to create a harmonious and beautiful auditory atmosphere. Unbelievingly beautiful music was made and is still made. Many instruments can produce purely unique and amazing sounds. Some famous traditional pieces have been amassed below for your listening pleasure. Modern Chinese music uses piano, violin, guitar and many new musical instruments. Sometimes people use different instruments to create new music in order to give others special feelings.

People play traditional music when they think of old days and during traditional festivals. Today, many singers work for their companies. The companies help them make records. People can buy the records to listen and also can go to the singers’ concerts.

In traditional music, musicians write the songs, but they don’t play the songs themselves. And in modern music, singers write the songs themselves or they can invite famous singers to help them. The companies they work for also help them write songs.

Traditional music often tells about new life, good times, beautiful hometown and so on. People play it to show their love for country, life, nature. Modern music is about the busy city life and young people’s love. People express the emotion of wanting to love and to be loved by playing the music. But in some modern songs, we don’t even know what the singers sing.

Chinese music is changing all the time. It follows the fashion of the day. We should open our ears to the beautiful Chinese songs.

 

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music, or hip-hop music, is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping,DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beat boxing.

By Ke Liu 134102207 Class4

While often used to refer to rapping, “hip hop” more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing and scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.

There are four periods in the history of Hip-hop: Roots of hip-hop, old school hip-hop, new school hip-hop and golden age hip-hop. And there are so many kinds of hip-hop music in US, such as Acid rap, Bounce music, Electro, Freestyle rap, Gangsta rap, Grime, Hip-hop soul and so on. There are mainly two schools of US hip-hop: West Coast Hip-hop and East Coast Hip-hop. The most famous one is West Coast Hip-hop.

After N.W.A broke up, Dr. Dre (a former member) released The Chronic in 1992, which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop chart, #3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single with “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang.” The Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction,influenced strongly by P funk artists, melding smooth and easy funk beats with slowly drawled lyrics. This came to be known as G-funk and dominated mainstream hip hop for several years through a roster of artists on Death Row Records, including Tupac Shakur, whose double disc album All Eyez on Me was a big hit with hit songs “Ambitionz az a Ridah” and “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted“, and Snoop Dogg, whose Doggystyle included the songs “What’s My Name?” and “Gin and Juice“, both top ten hits. As the Los Angeles-based label Death Row Records built an empire around Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and the rapper-actor Tupac Shakur. It also entered into a rivalry with New York City’s Bad Boy Records. (See the article on the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry.)

In fact, WC Hip-hop has given a great influence all over the world. Jeanguy and Paxi, two hip-hop dancers working in China, they say:”West Coast is the best because East is bad in the art of singing and South is dirty .The best singer&rappers are almost from West such as 2Pac,Dr.dre,Snoopy Dogg.” In their opinions.Hip hop music is not just a type of music, but also represents a kind of attitude to life. Being asked about the situation of hip-hop nowadays and the future, they say:”As 2Pac said, Hip-hop never die.”