[Subbie]

Okay, this is hard to explain. First of all, we have 13 years of school here in Germany before we graduate. The goal, of course, is graduating with the "Abitur" in our hands.
Some stupid politicians had a "brilliant" idea to give us more work and created a fifth thing for exams to get the Abitur. You need two subjects and need to connect them together. The presentation process will involve 30 minutes of talking about it in front of a panel of teachers etc and then they will have 15 minutes to question me. I chose music and history as my subjects, but can't think of a concrete question to cover.
Do any of you have any ideas or suggestions for themes I could possibly attend to?
Thanks to you all,
Subbie

 

[jbtsax]

How about a brief comparison of music and other art forms of the same period such as Baroque music, Baroque art and architecture. You could focus upon similarities in form, style, ornamentation, texture, contrast, etc. Just an idea.

John

 

[daigle65]

Well you play sax, how about the history of the saxophone(it's invention) and it's influence on 20th century music.

 

[Saxydude]

How about a brief comparison of music and other art forms of the same period such as Baroque music, Baroque art and architecture. You could focus upon similarities in form, style, ornamentation, texture, contrast, etc. Just an idea.

John

I had to complete a project exactly like the one you mentioned as a final for one of my classes. I chose something similar to the idea mentioned above (I focused on the music, art, and literature of the Middle Baroque Era) and the project and presentation couldn't have gone better! On an even more positive note, it was very easy to find research materials, the information was interesting, and the paper basically wrote itself. Good luck!

 

[Subbie]

Well you play sax, how about the history of the saxophone(it's invention) and it's influence on 20th century music.

I was definitely going to go with the sax, yeah. But "20th century" is way too broad for my teacher. There's gonna be way too much information to read and compile and then come up with something that'll fit snugly into 30 minutes. Maybe I should pick a great sax player and check his influence on.. that's where I'm at. I don't know whom to apply his influence on. And I'm stuck on who to pick, there are so many greats out there. Maybe I could compare two from similar times who were essentially different. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your input til now, all of you. It's getting me thinking.

Subbie

 

[daigle65]

Maybe I could compare two from similar times who were essentially different. Any suggestions?

Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.

 

[Subbie]

Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.

I will look into that. Thanks!
Any more suggestions? I'd like a few more ideas before i need to present my thoughts to my teacher.

 

[Subbie]

In my opinion, it would be the easiest to compare two saxophonists from the same era (like Hawk and Lester Young) and then see how they changed their contemporary society and the market for tenor players etc etc. Any seconds on that? Any different ideas?

 

[ZatSax]

If you wanna go more modern with jazz you could try James Carter and Joshua Redman, although I'm not sure how much material about either of them there is floating around. For classical you could try Fred Hemke and Don Sinta, maybe not the best comparison, but they're both still around and have tons of students floating around that could be interviewed.

 

[Jonathan C.]

John Coltrane.

 

[bari_sax_diva]

If you were here in the states, I'd suggest discussing jazz/blues in the context of the civil rights movement. Don't know if that's going to work in Germany, though.

That said, I'm sure there's a hundred different ways you can discuss music and its impact on history, or vice versa.