Read the instruction file and the example file
“SixSongs of Me” Playlist
Instructions |
Read two articles: one from ” Answer the following questions, using complete sentences to explain why you included each song. Include a YouTube or other link for each of your selections. Be sure to check the attached rubric for further guidelines for this assignment. 1. What was the first song you ever bought? 2. What song always gets you dancing? 3. What song takes you back to your childhood? 4. What is your perfect love song? 5. What song would you want at your funeral? 6. Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you. Keep in mind: · Titles of songs should be in quotation marks or italicized. · Please spell out “featuring” instead of ft. |
“SIX SONGS OF ME” PLAYLIST
Angela Tipps
1. The first song I ever remember buying was “
Cherish
” by David Cassidy. I was in the second grade (1972) and had a huge crush on David Cassidy of “The Partridge Family.” For Christmas that year I had received a portable plastic turntable that folded like a suitcase, and I purchased this single as a 45-RPM record. I can remember playing that song over and over in my room. Thus began my extensive collection of pop songs from the 70’s, by groups that I will never admit to having purchased. Sadly, I never became David Cassidy’s wife, nor did I bear his children, as was my hope in 1972.
2. The song that always gets me dancing is “
September
” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. There is something infectious about the opening rhythm and horn licks that just make one want to dance. Couple that rhythm with a thumping bass line and the catchy “ba-dee-ah” refrain, and it provides all the elements of a great dance song.
3. The song that takes me back to my childhood (besides “Cherish”) is “
This Land Is Your Land
.” My father was a music supervisor for Rutherford County schools in the late 1960s. His job was to travel to the rural elementary schools and direct a chorus. One of my earliest memories is as a preschooler, sitting next to my mother (who played the piano for these choruses), and watching Daddy lead dozens of young children in songs like this one by Woody Guthrie. Every semester when I teach this song in MUS 1030, or when I conduct the MTSU Women’s Chorale, I think of my parents and how their love for music and education were passed down to me.
4. These questions certainly get harder as they go! It is very difficult to choose the perfect love song. However, the lyrics to “
The Way You Look Tonight
” are simply beautiful. Doesn’t everyone want to have that special someone sing those words to you: “Someday, when I’m awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you and the way you look tonight.” There are several versions of this song, but my favorite is Harry Connick, Jr’s. His voice is so smooth, and the instrumentals don’t get in the way of the words.
5. There is no way I can narrow down one song for my funeral. I play the organ and direct the choir at an Episcopal church, and the liturgy of my denomination provides many opportunities to have hymns, anthems, and instrumental music throughout the service. My choir members tease that my funeral will be at least two hours long, just to get through all the music I’ve selected. But aside from the musical traditions of the Episcopal church, one of the most beautiful pieces in all of music, to me, is Mozart’s
Clarinet Concerto
. I’d pick the second movement, Adagio, because of the beautiful simplicity of the melody.
6. If my funeral song was difficult to select, then this “what makes me, me” choice is impossible. I keep coming back to the third movement of Igor Stravinsky’s “
Symphony of Psalms
.” It was my life-changing moment, similar to Eric Whitacre’s in the TED talk we watched in class. I was a seventeen years old freshman, at the first rehearsal of MTSU’s Concert Choir, and I was simply transformed by the beauty of the opening word, “Alleluia.” It was then I realized that I wanted to be a choral conductor.
This particular movement starts basically unaccompanied, with lovely legato, soft voices. Then the movement blasts into a rhythmic fanfare of instruments over which the voices sing the text of Psalm 150. Perhaps this piece best combines my two career paths: church music and higher education. Quiet passages (when life is easy) interjected with complicated rhythmic passages (when life is a little more difficult), all the while with voices singing praise. I suppose that sums up my life quite well.