Santiago Rafael García Valerio

Portfolio

The purpose of this portfolio is to show two projects that were done during this term
in Reading and Writing II. In this portfolio you will find the projects “Definition
Paragraph” and “C&C Paragraph”. These works were my favorite ones, and my
best works.

Definition Paragraph
Music is one of the seven arts that exist in the world, and it helps human
beings to express their feelings. According to the Oxford Dictionary (2015) music is
compound by sounds that are arranged in a way that is pleasant or exiting to listen
to. In fact, many evolutionary psychologists today make the argument that music is
a predated language (Greenberg, 2016).There have been many musicians through
history, and one of them is Johan Sebastian Bach (1685- 1750), he is considered
the biggest composer of all the times (Biografias y Vidas, 2019). Music is
everywhere and around us all the time. It is not only for concerts hall or clubs
(Tackley, 2015). For example, you can listen music while you are going to your job
or school; even some musicians have inspired their works in the music that is in
the environment. Furthermore, music sharpens your memory; students hone their
memorization skills and strengthen their muscle memory through musical practice.
Moreover, it teaches discipline, because music is discipline (Mountain Heights
Academy). In conclusion, this is one of the seven arts that help human beings to
express their feelings, this is music.

Reference list

Biografias y Vidas. (2019). Biografias y Vidas. Obtenido de

https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/bach_sebastian.htm

Greenberg, D. (3 de August de 2016). Psycology Today. Obtenido de

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psycologytoday.com/us/blog/the-
power-music/201608/what-is-music-exactly%3famp
Mountain Heights Academy. (s.f.). Mountain Heights Academy. Obtenido de
https://www.mountainheightsacademy.org/6-reason-study-music/

Oxford University Press. (2015). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. New York:
Oxford New York.
Tackley, C. (27 de August de 2015). The Open University. Obtenido de
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/music/?p=1142

Reflection 1

By writing this paragraph, I learnt how to organize my ideas, and how to define
something that maybe some people do not know. This work shows my strengths of
reading because I had to read a lot and many documents, so I could define clear
and exactly what I wanted. The hardest part of this paragraph was to make it easy
to understand. I had to write it like three or four times because my ideas cross each
other, so they were very difficult to understand. Now I know how to organize my
ideas better and easier to understand. This paragraph helped me a lot with that
because I had to other paragraphs like it. Something that I could learn about my
self was that I am good to summarize ideas, but that I was bad to organize them. If
I had to do it again, I would probably explain more and give more examples.

Bach, Mozart and Beethoven

Bach, Mozart and Beethoven are known as the fathers of Music, but they

are not similar in any aspect of their life or music style. Their differences are in their

living periods, music style, number of works, level of difficulty of their compositions,

and appreciation of their music. First, Johann Sebastian Bach was a German

musician who was born in 1685 and died in 1750, his last name means “river” in

English. His music style is baroque. This kind of music is characterized for his

counterpoint in harmony, and Bach is considered the most important musician in

this area. He made 1128 works in all his life. Most of his works are for intermediate
level musicians, and the rest are very difficult and complex works. For example, his

work named “The Pasion of Saint Mathew” is around 3 hours of music; it includes a

complete orchestra, a choir, and soloist voices. To understand his music you have

to be in an advanced level of musical studies, so you can hear all the harmony

details and his feelings. Even Beethoven said “Bach is not a river, he is an ocean”.

On the other hand, Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart,

known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Mozart, was an Austrian musician who

was born in 1756 and died in 1791 when he was just 35 years old. His music style

is the classicism. This is the opposite from baroque; here is not counterpoint, here

is a principal melody that goes with simple chords, but not in this case. Mozart

used to work with complex chords, and some of them were invented by him. He

made 626 works, including operas, mass, symphonies, arias, and concerts. The

level of difficulty for playing skills for all his works is intermediate. He used to write

commercial music. That is why it is not difficult to play. For example, the song

“Twinkle, twinkle little star” belongs to Mozart. Since his music is very commercial,

it is not difficult to understand what he wants to say in the harmony of each chord.

At last, Ludwig van Beethoven. He is a German musician who was born in 1770

and died in 1827. His music style is the romanticism. He is one of its forefathers.

This is characterized for the feelings, emotions and intuition; the rules from the

baroque and classicism can be broken. He made 343 works. 138 works were

named and numbered by him; they were named “Opus”, but there were 205 that

were published after his dead, so they were not named by him. The level of

difficulty for playing of his works can be from easy to very hard. When Beethoven

started to write, he did it very easy and not complex to play and appreciate. Then
when he got deaf, he wrote more difficult works. At the end, since he was very

perfectionist, he wanted to find the perfection in his works, and his last works are

for a very advanced level. He made the first symphony that had a choral; this is the

“Ninth Symphony” that is called “Ode to joy”. That is how he became in a forefather

of the romanticism. All his works are easy to understand, even if you have not

studied anything about music, you can feel all what he wanted to say. His harmony

and chords are easy for musicians to understand and copy. That is why many

musicians prefer to write as Beethoven rather Mozart or Bach. To conclude, these

three musicians are known as the fathers of music. Even if they are not similar,

they have made the music better than ever. Their differences have made the word

of the music full of color. There is no way to say who of them the best is because

they have been the best of the best in their ages.

List of References
DIFERENCIAENTRE. (2014, January 8). DIFERENCIAENTRE. Retrieved from
diferenciaentre.info/diferencias-entre-mozart-y-beethoven/

Difiere. (n.d.). Difiere. Retrieved from https://www.google.com./amp/s/difiere.com/diferencia-

beethoven-bach/amp/

ForoClasico. (2002, Abril 3). ForoClasico.com. Retrieved from

www.foroclasico.com/foro/archivo/mensajes.asp?f=beethoven&idC=W38

YAHOO! ANSWERS. (2007, October 28). Retrieved from

https://es.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071028123128AAjs3yx
Reflection 2

I learnt how to contrast and compare two or more objects or people. I did not know
that there were two ways to contrast. This is my favorite work because I had to
read a lot; I could write about something that I really love. Also I was so inspired
when I wrote this. I had to read and watch many videos to understand more about
this topic and how to make it easier to understand. With this work I could show that
I like to write and that I am good at this. As you can see I wrote more than 600
words. The hardest part of this paragraph was to summarize the ideas because
they were very long. I could learn that when something catches my attention, I can
write without lose my inspiration. If I had to do it again, I will probably change my
paragraph for a real essay. I am just kidding, but I will try to make it shorter.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, my greatest challenge was my C&C paragraph. This is the

biggest work that I did for this class. It was a challenge because I had to become a
hard topic easy to understand, so this is the assignment that makes me feel more
proud. If I had additional time, I should probably give more details in my work, and I
would probably give more examples. On a scale of 1-20, I give it 19 because I
have to recognize that I sometimes procrastinated during my works. I could do
better works.