Tutor profile: Autumn S.

Explain why the Harmonic Minor is more frequently used in pieces than the Natural Minor.

We can build every major key by using a pattern of whole steps and half steps. The pattern is (Home note, Whole step, Whole step, Half step, Whole step, Whole step, Whole step, Half step). The half step at the end of the scale is actually very important. It is called the Leading Tone, and it makes us want to go up to the home note when we hear it. In a Natural minor key, we don’t have the Leading Tone to lead us back to the home note, so we add our own. By raising the 7th of the scale (the note right before the home note), we make the scale into a Harmonic Minor scale and add a Leading Tone. This Leading Tone is very important for the resolution of chords and scales, so we will often include it when we compose pieces in a minor key, which leads to the Harmonic Minor being used much more frequently than the Natural Minor.

Who was Ludwig van Beethoven, and how did his music throughout his life reflect the shift from the Classical to the Romantic Era?

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German pianist and composer who lived from 1770-1827. Towards the beginning of his career, Beethoven began to write music in the Classical style- following the example of composers such as Haydn and Mozart as he wrote dignified-sounding melodies with a straightforward form of progression throughout each piece. However, towards the middle and end of his life, Beethoven's frustration with his impending deafness, along with cultural changes in art and literature in Europe, began to bleed into his music. He began to include more harmonic dissonance, dynamic contrast, and emotional feeling in his works. These changes in music would lead to the Romantic Era, as other composers began to follow Beethoven's example of creating emotional and expressive music.

What were some of the ideological movements or ideas that influenced the Founding Fathers and other Americans during the years leading up to the Revolutionary War?

Americans during the years leading up to the Revolutionary War were inspired by the ideals brought forward during the Age of Enlightenment. Among those ideals were personal liberty and a focus on the separation of religion and government. Many Americans were also influenced by the writings of John Locke, a 17th century English Philosopher, who believed that all men had the right to govern themselves and to be able to have control over their own decisions and possessions without the interference of a monarchy.