Beauty is an object, person, or an idea that creates a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is found in many everyday things such as nature, art, literature, and music. The most beautiful of all of these is music. Music is beautiful in a way that nothing else can be. Music is beautiful because it makes the listener have pleasure and satisfaction while listening to it, but it also leaves the composer with pleasure and satisfaction from writing it. Some ways that music is beautiful are that the listener can relate to the lyrics, the composer can express their feelings through the lyrics, and a song can tell a story.

Irving Berlin was born in the poverty stricken town of Tyumen, Russia. He was born on May 11th, 1988 and his birth name was Israel Baline. He was the youngest of 9 children born to Moses and Leah (Lena) Baline. In 1893, escaping Russian persecution, the Baline’s fled to America and settled in the lower East side of New York. Baline’s father was a shochel for the Jewish synagogue in Russia and after arriving in New York he was forced to work in local markets. The Baline children had to work selling newspapers to help the family, like so many other immigrated families had to do. Shortly after his fathers death in 1896, Baline ran away from home. After leaving home, Baline earned money by singing at popular cafes and restaurants in the Bowery.

A product of his times....that seems like such a cliché way of telling a story – but, yes! A product of The Age of Enlightenment, Beethoven was all about some revolution. Through his free and fierce nature, he wrenched music out of the 18th century and into the next - Stravinsky would do the same thing a century later. What Beethoven did makes him if not the last of the Classicists then arguably the first of the Romantics. His adventures in disregarding 18th-century structure, requirements and protocol marked his music and his daily life, and in both areas he achieved a virtually complete freedom of expression. He was like Elvis Presley of the symphony...only he never wiggled his crotch on Ed Sullivan.

Duluth Minnesota, May 24th 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born. 69 Years and over 45 albums later Bob Dylan has completely altered the face of popular music since his debut as a fresh faced folk singer in 1962. His early career forged him into an informal chronicler and then he later developed into an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest [Gray, 2006] and became a voice for a generation. His songs have been covered by many artists in a wide span of genres and he has remained a prominent and highly influential figure in the history of popular music over the past five decades. [Gates, David, 1997]

The song “Teardrop” by the 1980's British brand Massive Attack, which was written by the Scottish singer Elizabeth Fraser, explores the theme of love through the diction and use of repetition (Ankeny). Amy Tan's fictional novel, the The Hundred Secret Senses, also explores a theme of love similar to that of “Teardrop” through the depiction of the protagonist Olivia's and her husband, Simon's relationship.

On August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a music legend was born. Leonard Bernstein was Jewish and went to school at Garrison and Boston Latin Schools while learning to play the piano. He found a love for music early on. When Leonard went to Harvard he met some great people, such as Walter Piston and A. Tillman Merritt. While at Harvard he wrote music to “The Birds” and directed and performed in “The Cradle Will Rock” by Marc Blitzstein. He then went to the Curtis Institute of Music in PA and studied piano, conducting and orchestration.

The band Rise Against is one the best and outspoken bands today. Almost every one of their songs are about and deep social issue and lead singer/songwriter Tim is a very smart person who puts a lot of heart into his songs. Their most recent album Appeal to reason has three songs with very different and strong issues. Re-Education (Through Labor), which is about the 925 lifestyle and the dog-eat-dog world we live in do to things like the declining economy and the rising unemployment rate. The environment and global warming are discussed in Collapse (Post-Amerika). Lastly the song Entertainment talks about the issues with celebrity worship and the way the paparatzi and Hollywood treat their celebrities.

When most people think of music coming from Athens, Georgia, they think of the B-52s and R.E.M. However, there is a new genre of music coming out of Athens called Athens Rock. Even though it is called a rock genre, it has a little bit of all the popular genres including country, hip-hop, blugrass, and rock. This genre has been newly created by these three particular artists that have not actually signed record labels yet, but are still very popular. These

When I read on the course syllabus that the first short assignment of this course will be writing a review for a performence of Richard Wagner's three-act, romantic masterpiece: Tristan and Isolde, I was ecstatic. I've always enjoy love stories, but even more so when it is put into music. To me, love and music are like two pieces of puzzles that completes

On Thursday, February 13th, I went to a club performance at Smalls Jazz Club on 183 W. 10th Street to hear Joe Magnarelli on trumpet play a set with a pianist, bassist, and percussionist. The set lasted over an hour and was appreciated by a large