Music & Me

Hello. I am Samuel Prosser. I play the clarinet and piano. I am a freshman in a Clarinet Performance major. I was born in Canberra, ACT, but was travelling around Australia as I grew up. I moved to America when I was 9 years of age. I started to play the clarinet and violin in 6th grade. I started piano in 8th grade; teaching myself. I decided to pursue a professional career in clarinet my junior year of high school. I have been working towards that goal ever since.


1. Let me inform you as to why King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is currently my favourite band. Not only do they have one of the largest ranges of genres I have seen in a single band, but they also hail from the great Commonwealth of Australia. They compose music ranging form jazz-rock to "semi-acoustic cosmic ballads." That is just two of the multitude of other genres their music may be classified as. One of the reasons I enjoy listening to them greatly is because their songs are never boring. One thing I generally struggle with listening to popular music nowadays is that they are repetitive and predictable, and I get bored quickly. Predictable is not a word I would use to describe the music of the legends King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard; nor is boring. I am sure all of the Gizzheads out there would agree with me. One of their most popular songs is Work This Time. The slow and lethargic nature of this song creates a calming and reflective mood. The lo-fi style drums and soft-spoken lyrics make it easier to digest and a good starting point for new listeners.



2. Music that has been meaningful to me from a young age is the Harry Potter soundtrack. I started reading the first book when I was gifted it for my 5th birthday, since then I have read and reread all of the books and watched the movies multiple times. I have always had an interest fantasy books and movies and this was my first introduction to that genre. The Harry Potter movies are the first films that I remember having an orchestral score. Hearing the soundtrack in the movie always brings me great joy and nostalgia. The opening scene of the first movie is accompanied by "The Arrival of Baby Harry."



3. Music that I just do not understand is minimalist music. Minimalism in classical music is just as bad, if I may pontificate, as repetitive pop songs. I dislike any music that I consider to be boring. For myself, that means basic chord progressions or the lack of interesting harmonies. Repetitiveness has its uses, however, it can very quickly lend a song to become boring. A fairly safe example, as far as I can tell, of a piece I am willing to declare boring, is Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No.1. I find that the repetitive patterns of rhythm and chords as well as a lack of flair for a violin concerto makes this piece incredibly boring. When I watched it in person at the Peace Centre, it was all I could do to not fall asleep.



Comments

  1. Mary Ashton GarrettJanuary 5, 2024 at 9:46 AM

    I have to agree with you about the minimalistic style. I too find it very boring because of the repetitiveness and lack of interesting things going on. I too have heard the Philip Glass Violin Concerto No.1 live and found it very boring. I also enjoyed what you had to say about the Harry Potter soundtrack and I too find great joy when listening to it.

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  2. MCHudsonJanuary 5, 2024 at 10:33 AM

    While I wouldn't ever find myself idly listening to the minimalistic classical music, I could have in the background reading or something of that nature but other than that I wouldn't look towards it. Also King Glizzard and The Lizard Wizard is an amazing name and their music is really cool. Thank you for the introduction to it.

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  3. DaleJanuary 5, 2024 at 1:58 PM

    I think when looking at more avant-garde styles of music from the 20th century, the song sounding "good" kind of gets put to the side. It may be more about the method used to compose or perhaps a different feeling the music evokes rather than just sounding groovy. Regardless I probably couldn't make myself listen to that entire concerto again for at least a month.

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  4. SantinoJanuary 8, 2024 at 5:36 PM

    I agree with you about the violin concerto. I think it has some very beautiful moments, but I also agree that it's repetitive, and it's not something I could listen to a lot of because my attention span quite frankly couldn't take it. "Work This Time" is very unique and something that I quite enjoyed listening to. You weren't kidding when you said that it creates a calming and reflective mood. Listening to this song has encouraged me to start listening to other King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard songs, which I am very much looking forward to doing!

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