Lasting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lasting - Essay Example â€Å"Lost Your Head Blues† is a blues song popularized by Bessie Smith in 1926. It is composed in an AAB format, characteristic for blues songs. This song is written based on a â€Å"vaudeville† or solo stage performance, which is very common during the 1920s. The songs talks about painful relationships and difficult circumstances. The song reflects the typical musical taste and genre of the African American population and heritage. â€Å"Lost Your Head Blues† uses only three instruments: piano, vocals, and trumpet. Most blues songs are composed or played using these musical instruments because during the vaudeville times or stage style blues period, these instruments are nearly ubiquitous because of the rise of the ragtime music in the 1920s. The song starts with an introduction of a trumpet with an accompanying piano that combines with the singer’s voice. The trumpet makes some bending of tones and melodic layback. On the other hand, â€Å"Erlkonig† is typically sung or played using vocals or piano or both as it was originally adapted, particularly by Franz Schubert. Nevertheless, nowadays, this song is performed in a concerto-style performance with a soloist, usually a soprano, accompanied by a symphony

Evaluate the evidence for a critical period of language acquisition Essay

Evaluate the evidence for a critical period of language acquisition. At what point does the brain appear to lose its plasticity for language - Essay Example Apart from the small things or concepts taught by the parents, siblings, schools, etc, etc as part of life’s and academic education, the children will tend to learn many things on their own. The children using their brains and other sense organs will learn from the environment, the things they handle, the images they see, and importantly the words they hear, etc. So, the crucial formative years only functions as a perfect setting for the child to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and also vocally. Vocally in the sense, they will develop the ability to acquire multiple languages and speak in them. But, as the child grows, the ‘plasticity’ of the brain to acquire languages tends to weaken. So, this paper will discuss why the brain appears to lose its plasticity for language, from different angles. Even though, the vocal box, and other vocal and auditory organs only help the humans to listen, speak and thereby acquire languages, the brain only plays an omnipresent role in all the process. That is, when children hear languages in the form of sounds, their brain, which will be in the developing stage, will try to form patterns and importantly will try to reproduce it. And only when the child’s brain develops further the formation of pattern will accelerate, resulting in seamless reproduction and also own creation of sounds and languages. â€Å"†¦ before babies utters their first slobbery syllable, they have been hard at work mentally calculating the statistical nuances of their parents language. Not only are babies capable of deciphering sounds, she said, but they also can map how the individual sounds are combined, how syllables are stressed, and what the intonation qualities are--"all by the time they celebrate their first birthday (NIDCD). So, the bottom line is, in the critical period of language acquisition, the brains plays a crucial role.