Ornette Coleman Paper Essay

Ornette Coleman is one of the most influential artists in jazz and considered an American icon and legend. There are not many musicians that emerge who dramatically changed the way we listen to music. Ornette Coleman was of the major innovators of free jazz as well as a great saxophonist and composer. Coleman’s bluesy, playful music revolutionized jazz by ignoring regular harmonies and rhythm. He even created his own theory â€Å"harmolodic† and applied it to rock instrumental in his group Prime Time. The musician’s new style helped to regenerate jazz by allowing for the genre to go into a new direction and be placed for his music to be placed in a group of major 20th century composers. This paper will discuss how Ornette Coleman borrowed from the world of jazz to influence concert hall compositions. Ornette Coleman was a revolutionary saxophone player who expanded contemporary boundaries of music. He gained those remarkable skills by teaching himself how to play saxophone at the age of 14 and by playing with musicians in local rhythm and blues bars while growing up in Fort Worth, Texas in the late 1940s and early ‘50s. Some of his legends include Charlie Parker and two local musicians in Fort Worth Ben Martin and Reed Connors. Coleman loved Charlie Parker and bebop and thought of it as the most advanced collective way of playing a melody and at the same time improvising. Parker taught Coleman many lessons especially about the quality of what he could play and knowing the audience (Ratliff 63). The musician decided to travel to L.A. and played in various establishments. He eventually made his way to New York with his first band having a good sense of melody and ideas of playing without any preconceived chord changes (Ratliff 55). People thought of him as a genius and others denounced him as a charlatan. His music was considered controversial for instance in his quartet th ey had no chordal instruments such as the piano. Listeners said his music was radically rejecting jazz traditions, but a few praised him and said the music was an extension of the historical practice (Martin,Waters). As he was traveling  in R&B jazz bands across the country, he switched back and forth between alto and tenor sax. Resistance was normal for Coleman, and he was use to being fired. In 1950, he wrote an unpublished book that deals with a theory that melody has nothing to do with harmony, chords, or key centers. In 1958, he formed his own band that was established on a mode of playing which no one player had the lead but anyone could come out and play at any time. Beginning in 1959, Coleman and his quartet went to New York and developed the concept of free jazz (George-Warren and Pareles). Free jazz and improvised music did away with any of the strict forms of jazz and classic music such as tonality, chord changes, formal shape and structure, etc. Coleman was put into the category along with Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, and they abolished the traditional hierarchy of instrumentation in jazz, classical rock, and pop allowing for any instrument to be equal in improvising. Many performers were encouraged by these individuals to go beyond the regular technique to develop â€Å"extended† techniques (Cox, Warner 252). Coleman’s group debut in New York was unlike anything anyone had ever heard. The bassist or drummer did not function in a conventional rhythm sense, and there was no piano to provide chordal harmonies. When Coleman played with his group, they did not have any idea what the end result would be. The group was even able to get the attention and approval from conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and composer Virgil Thompson along with other writers and painters (Europe Jazz Network). Each player in his group contributed what he felt in the music at any moment, and each member is not told what to do but play what they hear in the piece themselves. He also stated that in a sense that there is no start or finish to any of his music, but there is a continued expression, continually evolving strands of thoughts that link all of his compositions together (Coxer, Warner 254). Other things that summarized Coleman’s style of music include: fragmented, pointed melodies, melodic connections based on motive structure and large-scale gestures and abstract relations among pitches, little or no use of conventional harmony and voice leading, but solos often have loose shifting tonal centers, variety of melodic rhythm, nasal insistent tone, loose rhythms, use of middle and upper range o n instrument, passionate expression, and deviation from standard intonation (Martin, Waters 271). Coleman started to explore different music possibilities by mixing and  extending elements of honky-tonk, blues, funk and bebop in areas of harmony, rhythm and the melodic structure. His musical styles alienated him from the jazz world that musicians walked off the stage when he showed up for a show. His new innovations later became known as â€Å"harmolodic†, which helped change jazz by pointing it in a direction away from the musical styles of bebop, but also established a place in a group of major 20th century composers such as Charlie Parker, Harry Partch, Charles Ives, and John Cage (Europe Jazz Network). From 1962 to 1965, Coleman withdrew himself from the spotlight and taught himself to play the trumpet and violin. He began to turn his attention to writing compositions for various musical forms such as woodwind quintets, chamber orchestras, string quartets, symphonic works and vocal works. This is the point in his life where his music began to affect the concert hall. The first public performance of one his pieces was the string quartet piece Dedicated to Poets and Writers. Performances of some of his works are scarce and have not been performed or recorded. The release of his two pieces Saints and Soldiers and Space Flight performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra cleared the way for his most famous piece Skies of America symphonic suite. The piece is scored for jazz ensemble and orchestra and debuted in 1972 at Newport in New York Festival and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra (George-Warren and Pareles). This work stands as Coleman’s harmolodic manifesto. There are some themes that people can recognize. Coleman enters the scene halfway through the piece with his saxophone during â€Å"The Artist in America†. His modulations have a fresh, sometimes abrupt sound as a result of movement of the melody and the chords. There are a number of different c hord changes which are considered correct even though it does not sound correct. Throughout the piece the works of Charles Ives comes to mind with the jumble of melodies and heavy densities. The entire work introduced his â€Å"harmolody† theory in which harmonies, rhythms, and melodies function independently and equally (George-Warren and Pareles). The theory relates to the use of similar melodic material in different clefs and keys, producing a texture of predominately parallel motion (Martin, Waters 271). He wanted to be like famous musicians George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Charles Mingus so that he could help break down boundaries between â€Å"modern jazz† and â€Å"serious concert† music. Coleman translates his ability as an improviser into orchestral terms. With his  orchestral works, he was able to create a peculiar timbre and certain licks unlike any other composer writing orchestral works. During the 1970s Coleman’s musical horizons continued to expand. He formed the group Prime Time which incorporated rock and funk rh ythms and melodic fragments similar to R&B music along with its harmonic possibilities. The free jazz/classical composer now created dance music that combined elements of jazz, funk, R&B, and rock with an unusual mix of instruments two guitarists, two drummers, two bassists, Coleman on the sax, violin, and trumpet. This group’s music included multi-layered melodies, polytonal and polyrhythmic textures which were defined as harmolodics. This style shaped more music other than jazz, and Coleman’s music influenced affected many rock musicians during the 70s especially Frank Zappa (Europe Jazz Network). While Coleman influenced rock musicians, he continued to diversify his music and became interested in African cultures. He traveled throughout Africa with Prime Time and created a new album Dancing in Your Head featuring field recordings with the group while they were working with tribal musicians in Morocco. In the 1980s Coleman revised and completed Skies of America after being commissioned by Caravan of Dreams, an arts center that opened in his hometown of F ort Worth, Texas. Coleman continued to write for all instrumentation and group sizes. He continued compositions for the concert hall such as the Meet the Modern series and The Sacred Mind of Johnny Dolphin. His group Prime Time eventually mixed ac (Martin and Waters)oustic and electric instruments. In 1993, his most monumental recordings from Atlantic were released in a box set entitled Beauty Is a Rare Thing. He went on to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was featured by the New York Lincoln Center which hosted a festival of his works featuring a performance of the Skies of America by the New York Philharmonic and surviving members of his band Prime Time (Europe Jazz Network). One of the greatest jazz artist and composer of all time is Ornette Coleman who influenced music for the concert hall and popular music genres such as jazz and rock and roll. His music for the concert hall was innovative and creative as stayed true to his artistic style and capabilities. One of his most influential pieces for the concert hall was Skies of America which helped blend many different styles of music into an orchestral work. Individuals were influenced by his pioneering work in  creating free jazz and the use of improvisation styles as well as his newly created harmolodic theory. Coleman was not afraid to step out on the limb to perform and create music without boundaries and that did not follow the traditional Western theory practices. He did receive a lot of criticism for his approach but affected and changed many by his abilities. Bibliography Cox, Christoph and Daniel Warner. â€Å"Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music.† Change of the Century. New York: The Contiuum International Publishing Group, 2004. Europe Jazz Network Musicians . 20 February 2010 . George-Warren, Holly and Jon Pareles. â€Å"Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock And Roll.† Ornette Coleman. Boston: Simon & Schuster , 2001. Martin, Henry and Keith Waters. Jazz: the frst 100 years. Belmont: Thomas Schirmer, 2006. Music, The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over. â€Å"Ratliff, Ben.† I Know Who You Are Ornette Coleman. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2008.

Fly-by-Night Case

Part A There were many signals shown in the financial statements and other exhibits in the case that represented poor cash flow through Year 14. The most obvious of them all is that the collectability of the accounts receivables was problematic. It seemed as if Fly-by-Night had a good system of collecting their sales on account from year 9 to year 10 as the accounts receivable number decreased during those years. However, the accounts receivable account increased by more than six times through years ten and fourteen.Because of this poor system of collecting accounts receivable, Fly-by-Night’s cash flow would suffer. The same can be said about the inventory account. Because the amount of inventory increased by almost five times through years twelve and fourteen, the cash would continue to decrease at the same rate. Another area of concern that affected Fly-by-Night’s cash flow negatively was their income from continuing operations. All of the companies’ expenses o n its comparative income statement had enormous increases from year 13 to 14.This was the first year that Fly-by-Night recorded a loss from continuing operations and it was a pretty big loss. This suggests that they paid too much to run their business. Some of the ratios presented in the case also suggests a negative flow of cash for year 14. The long term debt ratio dropped from 88% to 0% in year 14, which means that the company paid all of its long-term debt in year 14 and that would have a huge impact on cash flow.The quick ratio also had a major drop from year 12 to year 14, which indicated that the amount of cash and accounts receivable to cover its current liabilities was becoming a problem. Part B I do not believe that FBN can avoid bankruptcy by year 15. In the case, it states â€Å"As of April 30, Year 14, the Company is in default of its debt covenants. It is also in default with respect to covenants underlying its capitalized lease obligations. As a result, lenders have the right to accelerate repayment of their loans. Accordingly, the Company has lassified all of its long-term debt as a current liability. † The way the company is moving, it does not appear that FBN will have enough cash to cover these now current liabilities. The company has to implement new strategies in order to avoid bankruptcy. First of all, there has to be better communication between the members of the board. It says that Mather received a loan authorized by the board for $1,000,000 when later that month the board said it was unaware of this loan and that it never authorized it. Obviously there was fraud occurring when Mather was the CEO.With better oversight by the board, problems such as this could be averted. Also, FBN needs a better system to collect its accounts receivables. As said in Part A, the accounts receivable amount had increased so much in the past 5 years and that negatively affected cash. It is a misnomer that high revenue is the sign of success when re ally it should be how much cash the company has. That is why Mather was confused why there was a problem with cash and the reason was that the company did not pay enough attention to the cash flow statement.

Can Literature Tell the Truth better than other arts or Essay

Can Literature Tell the Truth better than other arts or - Essay Example Modern technology is so increasingly dominating the world minds that the taste for art and literature has taken a back seat in our interests. Literary compositions--- poetry, drama, prose, novel, and story are a very old form of art and have always been very close to human heart. The immortal compositions of great masters continue to entertain the human hearts of all generations. The present day masters in the field are in no way inferior but given the other faculties of entertainment that modern technology is offering this art is attracting lesser interest. Now the question---- can literature tell the truth ---- has two aspects of thought, what it tells and how No literary depictions are factual events, but they always reflect some objective observations of the artist. They are the feedbacks of truth if not the actual truth. There are lots of literary works based on true historical events but they do not depict the historical events in the truthful perspective. The artist here by his artistic talents produces a piece of art though related to the historical facts. The purpose of the artist here also is not to depict an historical event but to create a piece of art. A literary artist is not a historian whose duty is to find out the real truths and present them before the reader and preserve them for use by all future generations. The truth of a historian is determined by how he has toiled to find out the truth and how honestly he has put it in his work. The literary artist has no such obligation to fulfill. He writes for the pleasure of the reader by fabricating events through the rich flights of his imagination just like a painter who paints a painting the details of which touch the cords of human heart so deeply that it becomes a joy forever. A present day poet or novelist or a playwright is a professional too. He has to keep pace with the other professionals in maintaining himself financially. He writes according to the tastes of his readers that would fetch him enough money besides name that he wants for himself. He is not much interested in the service of the literature as the old masters in the field used to be. He is not expected to write about true stories or events but at the same time his work cannot be away from the hard realities of life. They should reflect them truly otherwise public cannot appreciate them and he can be thrown out of the public gaze. The modern literature thus really tells the truth by reflecting the facts of life. Literature, in fact, has the capacity to tell truths better than other arts as different forms of literature have a much larger field. Take the case of poetry in almost all the languages of the world, both the widely used and little used, it is the oldest form of literature that continues to entertain people at all levels since time immemorial. Poetry has always been closest to the human heart in all ages for it's reflecting the truest and hardest realities of life. It continues to do so and cannot be equaled or superseded by any other form of art whatsoever. Though no serious poetry depicts in its

Analyzed the movie Margin Call from a legal perspective Term Paper - 1

Analyzed the movie Margin Call from a legal perspective - Term Paper Example is no character featuring the film that breaks the law, gets involved in conspiracy, or does anything any reasonable person would call unquestionably illegal. Even when the film’s fictional bank CEO makes the decision to peddle all the toxic assets in company’s - the act that factually sets in motion the total collapse of the whole American financial system – this is an understandable, if challenging, choice. If he does not sell first and begin the catastrophe, someone else is there waiting to do the same. That is the core puzzle of what economists name a collective action matter. If no specific individual or firm’s actions can change things, the only reasonable thing that can be done is assuming everyone else will adopt their most selfish (and perhaps destructive) instincts. Everybody has an incentive to adopt the worst path they think others of following, and hence it becomes a self-fulfilling insight. This not only explains why the bubbles burst, but also illustrates why they build up firstly. After all, why did big investment banks begun packaging and selling big amounts of mortgage-backed securities that ultimately triggered the crisis? It is because all the other banks did it. They were seeking greater profits, obviously, but profits are the purpose of any company and its survival basis. Each bank’s employees were aware that if they did not get in on this exceptionally lucrative new business branch, they would fall behind their rivals, their share price go down, th ey would get fired. The difficult certainty is that with systemic catastrophes like the one that has lead to our current economic crisis, no one is to blame since everyone is to blame. In the end, though, this sympathetic bankers’ dilemma portrayal offers perhaps the most pejorative indictment one can make in the modern capitalist fiscal system (Bernstein 1). After all, if disaster like this can occur even when decent individual are more or less endeavoring to do their best, hence

How financial crisis affected businesses in the UK economy Literature review

How financial crisis affected businesses in the UK economy - Literature review Example Thus, British faced the worst financial crisis in a number of decades; with several business operations affected, there are still aftereffects that can be seen such as the large sum of national debt. Britain also faced falling housing prices which contributed to the capital city’s despair. The Prime Minister at that time, Gordon Brown, had given a bank bailout plan which was accredited and which created a template followed by US and countries across Europe later. However, the recession was seen as persistent by the economists. The British currency had also fallen in value outside the Eurozone. Britain managed to play a major role in order to coordinate and find an international response to the financial crisis. There were G-20 meetings in April 2009 that were hosted by London, and PM Brown drafted a well-aimed and ambitious plan to fix the international financial regulations. After these meetings, the British finance ministry had to announce more bad news that the country was not breaking even on banking interventions and would probably end up losing more than $87 billion (Rayner, 2008). The financial crisis thus wiped off the country’s major banks, investors, companies, and markets. It was one of the days during the crisis when the pound suffered the worst one-day fall since 1992 on Black Wednesday. This indicated the severe global recession that was going to hit Britain and last for a very long time. The stock market had also been starting to face the shockwaves of the American corporate meltdown. Economic experts had analyzed that Halifax Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, had lost about 13% of its value and had high risks of being immensely affected by the global financial crisis (Rayner, 2008). The royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays also had a 9% decrease in their share prices. Thus the feat grew that other major investment banks would be affected severely following the

The HIstory of Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The HIstory of Slavery - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that its legacy continues to be a matter of dispute among scholars and the basis for contemporary debates about public policy. This is because slavery is considered the classic expression of American racism, and its effects are still perceived as the roots of the problems faced by blacks in the United States. Slavery seems to be the wound that never healed that has become the moral core of the oppression story so fundamental to the identity of blacks today. It is not surprising that the bitterness generated by recollections of slavery has turned a generation of black scholars and activists against the nation's Founding which in turn is against identification with America itself.This study discusses that  in America, although there were many among them who shared prevailing prejudices against blacks, the abolitionist movement contained the first antiracists. Prominent abolitionists agreed that blacks were civilizationally inferior and incapable of ruling themselves. But they agreed that black inferiority is no justification for slavery; rather, it is the product of slavery itself. Some abolitionists propagated the idea of helping blacks to resettle in Africa, but those who recognized the implausibility of such schemes opined that blacks were capable of living as free people.  In order to directly rebut the Southern argument that blacks were better off being ruled by a â€Å"superior† race, abolitionists began an inconspicuous quest for intelligent blacks. who would be standing refutations of theories of intrinsic inferiority. Although the issue of diminishing manpower arose along with anti-slavery campaigns, yet at one point, some 400,000 Britons were refusing to eat slave-grown sugar. There were antislavery committees in practically every town in the British Isles. In 1792, 390,000 people signed protest petitions to Parliament on the subject. And the House of Commons unanimously voted to abolish the slave trade. Unfortunately, The House of Lords refused, and British slave ships continued to cross the Atlantic. Nevertheless, a great movement was under way, and ultimately with the powerful help of huge slave rebellions in the West Indies, slavery came to a stop in the British Empire a full quarter century before it did in the United States. The British antislavery movement not only initiated with astounding suddenness, it pioneered virtually every major technique of political organization used even to this date like consumer boycott, answer a direct mail appeal, put up a political poster, paste the logo of an environmental group on transport vehicles, or join a national lobbying

Sociology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Sociology - Assignment Example The first aim of a person is to ‘live’ and then live happily. A person has to take life as a natural gift which cannot be destroyed or wasted by the person himself. Life is a precious gift of nature and God bestowed on the people with a direction to take care of it. Law, society and people fight for their rights and all these efforts are in search of a happy life. If people would start running away from difficulties and may take death as a resort, life will become worthless and meaningless. People will eventually stop putting efforts to have the best possible thing in life to eat, wear, reside and acquire. Does it mean that people must stop thinking about dying? Certainly not! The concept of living is to be encouraged to live, work, put efforts and think about future. This does not mean that a person must take this life as immortal. We see, hear and observe many instances of accidental, age factored and usual deaths and hence cannot deny the fact that one has to die some day. However, the concept is not to leave today’s happiness and comforts for tomorrow’s sorrow. According to me, we are in this world to make it a better place to live, to innovate and to explore the nature. We are not here to wait for the death – the end of our life. It is worth mentioning here that the concept of assisted suicide is flawed in my opinion. Each and every minute of our life is important, even the most painful moments. Life is subjected to bear the unwanted and fight the uncalled. If we think about society, promoting such a concept will not only affect people’s perception about life but will also eliminate the charm to live. Encouraging assisted suicide or making it legal will change people’s views and they will be less motivated to work, study and even to earn. They may involve themselves in other harmful activities, crimes and unethical practices as they know a way out of their consequences. In conclusion, we can say