Nolan Stolz
As Professor of Music at USC Upstate, I teach composition (composition, arranging, songwriting, etc.), theory (traditional, jazz, popular), popular musicology (Black Sabbath, early Heavy Metal), and drum set. Early in my career, I taught at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Southeast Missouri State University, University of South Dakota and two community colleges in Connecticut. I have taught a variety of courses such as music composition (lessons, seminar, orchestration/arranging, etc.), music theory (all levels: from freshman up to graduate courses such as post-tonal theory, counterpoint, and form/analysis, as well as aural skills and keyboard harmony), jazz studies (big band, combo, jazz theory, jazz improvisation, drum set), music history, and music appreciation.
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Books by Nolan Stolz
Available at all major online retailers, such as
https://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Black-Sabbath-Listeners-Companion/dp/1442256915
Essays in Books by Nolan Stolz
Papers/Journal Articles by Nolan Stolz
Conference Presentations/Invited Talks by Nolan Stolz
This paper presents these towns organized into five categories. The first category consists of ghost towns where few or no people remain. Most ghost towns are located on private property, so one could count the property owner(s) regardless of whether they live there full-time. The next category includes places that were never incorporated or had a post office but nevertheless had some population base. Many in this category are listed as census designated places with the United States Geological Survey. There may be, or have been, buildings such as a church or school that help define the place as a community. The third category, what I call near-ghost towns, includes places with a small population with or without active businesses that at one time had a much larger population. The fourth category consists of places that are no longer referred to by the original name (e.g., perhaps annexed by another community). The final category includes places that I have yet to determine why they appeared and disappeared from maps with no information as to what they were. I also mention places along Route 66 that others have referred to as ghost towns that I do not consider to be ghost towns nor near-ghost towns. I have excluded ghost towns that ceased to exist before Route 66 was officially designated (1926).
Fifth International Conference of the Progect Network. University of Oxford, August 2022
Black Sabbath’s contributions to heavy metal cannot be overstated, but because of this, their engagement with other musical styles is often overlooked. This presentation shows how Sabbath was a much more eclectic band than many people know them to be. Also, we can learn about what is “metal” in Sabbath by taking notice of what is not “metal” in their music. This talk illuminates their incorporation of blues, jazz, Latin-jazz, fusion, prog-rock, classical, and even rap into their compositions by providing some, but certainly not all, musical examples from throughout their career that engage with these styles.
I was commissioned by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Theatre and Dance to compose incidental music for their October 2014 production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth using only pre-recorded electronic sounds (i.e., no live musicians). To begin the compositional process, I set out to answer two questions: 1) what music existed in eleventh-century Scotland, thus known to Macbeth?, and 2) what music was intended for the earliest productions of Macbeth?.
The first section of the paper will summarize what is known about music in eleventh-century Scotland, the setting for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In his 1838 book, William Dauney encouraged further discourse on early Scottish music, calling it an “obscure subject.” Little research has been done on the subject since then, but some sources have been useful for this project. Joanna Clements observed in her 2009 thesis that there are very few sources on early medieval Scottish music, calling their interpretation “contentious,” and, that as a result, scholars have supplemented them with sources on early Irish music. Using the relatively small amount of sources on early Scottish and Irish music, I will describe the instruments, the makeup and function of various ensembles, melody, harmony, rhythm, and meter used in eleventh-century Scotland, and then expand the scope by including Ireland and centuries earlier and later.
The second section of the paper will discuss the music intended for the earliest productions of the play and its relation to medieval Scottish music. Shakespeare’s script calls for two songs, presumably composed by Robert Johnson with text by playwright Thomas Middleton. The PowerPoint will show the scores (i.e., musical notation) for the songs and play audio examples from a 2010 album that included them. The script also calls for flourishes of drums and trumpets, calls to arms, a military retreat, and hautboys (double-reeded instruments of Shakespeare’s time). Although drums and brass instruments existed in eleventh-century Scotland, hautboys did not. Its medieval equivalent would be the shawm, but it too did not exist in Macbeth’s Scotland. Although the use of hautboys in a play set in eleventh-century Scotland would have been a historical inaccuracy, they were used in his plays to evoke an ominous mood, i.e., foretelling that something bad will happen to the character(s).
In composing new incidental music for Macbeth, I used samples of medieval instruments and of new instruments emulating medieval instruments to create the electronic score; selected were instruments similar to ones believed to exist in eleventh-century Scotland or Ireland. For instance, a shawm-like instrument was used to emulate the Irish buinne in place of Shakespeare’s hautboys. This final, and lengthiest, section of the paper will discuss the use of these samples with sound excerpts from Incidental Music for Macbeth embedded in the PowerPoint to support.
Available at all major online retailers, such as
https://www.amazon.com/Experiencing-Black-Sabbath-Listeners-Companion/dp/1442256915
This paper presents these towns organized into five categories. The first category consists of ghost towns where few or no people remain. Most ghost towns are located on private property, so one could count the property owner(s) regardless of whether they live there full-time. The next category includes places that were never incorporated or had a post office but nevertheless had some population base. Many in this category are listed as census designated places with the United States Geological Survey. There may be, or have been, buildings such as a church or school that help define the place as a community. The third category, what I call near-ghost towns, includes places with a small population with or without active businesses that at one time had a much larger population. The fourth category consists of places that are no longer referred to by the original name (e.g., perhaps annexed by another community). The final category includes places that I have yet to determine why they appeared and disappeared from maps with no information as to what they were. I also mention places along Route 66 that others have referred to as ghost towns that I do not consider to be ghost towns nor near-ghost towns. I have excluded ghost towns that ceased to exist before Route 66 was officially designated (1926).
Fifth International Conference of the Progect Network. University of Oxford, August 2022
Black Sabbath’s contributions to heavy metal cannot be overstated, but because of this, their engagement with other musical styles is often overlooked. This presentation shows how Sabbath was a much more eclectic band than many people know them to be. Also, we can learn about what is “metal” in Sabbath by taking notice of what is not “metal” in their music. This talk illuminates their incorporation of blues, jazz, Latin-jazz, fusion, prog-rock, classical, and even rap into their compositions by providing some, but certainly not all, musical examples from throughout their career that engage with these styles.
I was commissioned by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Theatre and Dance to compose incidental music for their October 2014 production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth using only pre-recorded electronic sounds (i.e., no live musicians). To begin the compositional process, I set out to answer two questions: 1) what music existed in eleventh-century Scotland, thus known to Macbeth?, and 2) what music was intended for the earliest productions of Macbeth?.
The first section of the paper will summarize what is known about music in eleventh-century Scotland, the setting for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In his 1838 book, William Dauney encouraged further discourse on early Scottish music, calling it an “obscure subject.” Little research has been done on the subject since then, but some sources have been useful for this project. Joanna Clements observed in her 2009 thesis that there are very few sources on early medieval Scottish music, calling their interpretation “contentious,” and, that as a result, scholars have supplemented them with sources on early Irish music. Using the relatively small amount of sources on early Scottish and Irish music, I will describe the instruments, the makeup and function of various ensembles, melody, harmony, rhythm, and meter used in eleventh-century Scotland, and then expand the scope by including Ireland and centuries earlier and later.
The second section of the paper will discuss the music intended for the earliest productions of the play and its relation to medieval Scottish music. Shakespeare’s script calls for two songs, presumably composed by Robert Johnson with text by playwright Thomas Middleton. The PowerPoint will show the scores (i.e., musical notation) for the songs and play audio examples from a 2010 album that included them. The script also calls for flourishes of drums and trumpets, calls to arms, a military retreat, and hautboys (double-reeded instruments of Shakespeare’s time). Although drums and brass instruments existed in eleventh-century Scotland, hautboys did not. Its medieval equivalent would be the shawm, but it too did not exist in Macbeth’s Scotland. Although the use of hautboys in a play set in eleventh-century Scotland would have been a historical inaccuracy, they were used in his plays to evoke an ominous mood, i.e., foretelling that something bad will happen to the character(s).
In composing new incidental music for Macbeth, I used samples of medieval instruments and of new instruments emulating medieval instruments to create the electronic score; selected were instruments similar to ones believed to exist in eleventh-century Scotland or Ireland. For instance, a shawm-like instrument was used to emulate the Irish buinne in place of Shakespeare’s hautboys. This final, and lengthiest, section of the paper will discuss the use of these samples with sound excerpts from Incidental Music for Macbeth embedded in the PowerPoint to support.
Moreover, this version brings out the characters by the way the vocals are presented. For instance, the Father was recorded at a slightly faster tape speed to give a thicker timbre to his voice. Also, this version is transposed down to give the Father a deeper register. The Son—sung in falsetto and recorded at a slightly slower tape speed—has a thinner, childlike timbre when played back at normal speed. The Erlking character is sung with a creepy voice. Musicologist David Moskowitz says about this approach: “The overall effect is dazzling and creates even more fully defined character delineations.” The studio recording will be played to demonstrate these characteristics, but the lecture-recital will conclude with
a live performance by the Nolan Stolz Rock Orchestra. Unlike the studio version in which the original German is mostly retained, their live version is sung entirely in English and utilizes two vocalists, the boy sung by a mezzo-soprano.
Already signed to Vertigo (an early prog-rock record label), Sabbath began to experiment with different timbres on their 1972 album Vol. 4, such as the orchestra on “Laguna Sunrise” and the Mellotron on “Changes.” They toured with several prog bands from 1969–73, and as this paper argues, not coincidentally, Sabbath’s next four albums were more experimental and included elements of progressive rock. For instance, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) was their first album to use keyboards extensively (including an appearance by Yes’s Rick Wakeman), and they used an orchestra on “Spiral Architect.” A chamber choir was used throughout the “Supertzar” from Sabotage (1975), which had a marching rhythm in 9/4 meter.
Because Sabbath began to use more keyboards and orchestral sounds on their albums, keyboardist Jezz Woodroffe joined the band for the Sabotage tour. His synthesizer work on Technical Ecstasy (1976), especially on “Backstreet Kids,” was reminiscent of American progressive rock bands such as Styx and Kansas. Unlike their previous two albums, Technical Ecstasy was recorded in the U.S. Interestingly, some of the opening bands during Sabbath’s 1975–77 tours were Boston, Journey and Kansas. This “Ameriprog” (Covach 2000) or “prog lite” (Holm-Hudson 2005) style certainly played an influence on Technical Ecstasy. As Covach defined Ameriprog as a “stylistic echo” of British prog, this paper argues that Sabbath’s prog-rock tendencies for this album was less like classic prog, but a stylistic echo of Ameriprog.
Keyboards played a prominent role in Never Say Die! (1978), especially Don Airey’s performances on “Johnny Blade” and the prog-rock/jazz-fusion song “Air Dance.” Continuing the style from their last album, “Over to You” had a Boston-like keyboard introduction. Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was displeased with the band’s musical direction (e.g., his opinion of having a jazz horn section on “Breakout” was “stretching it too far”) and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio for their 1980 release Heaven and Hell. Although this album was more-straightforward hard rock, there were certainly elements of prog (e.g., the instrumental section in “Die Young”).
This paper discusses not only Sabbath’s prog-like instrumentation, but also their use of meter, rhythm, harmony, melody and song structure. Although this paper does not argue for Black Sabbath as being primarily a prog-rock band, it does, however, illuminate the progressive rock elements found in their music, a style which paved the way for prog-metal bands in the 1980s.