Corrections Essay

What works for one individual may not work for another. If the offender is serving time for pedophilia, rape, murder, or drugs it could be that it Is who they view themselves as and will not change for the better. The recidivism rate for all prisoners, no matter what their crime may be, is high in prisons all around the world. The more time that a prisoner spends time in prison, the more likely they are to either return to prison or to violate their parole. The fact of the matter Is one has to see the change they want in themselves before omen can force them to change.Prisoners who are enrolled in prison rehabilitation programs are still as likely, If not more, to return to prison. It Is only those who successfully complete the education programs provided for them who have lower recidivism rates. This is because they have sought to change for the better, and were not forced to change. However, most prisoners who attend these programs are usually the ones who have been in prison the l ongest. Those prisoners who successfully completed the programs where more often then not, the ones who had better chances at becoming successful parolees.The criminal Justice system should focus more on punishment-oriented programs to discourage prisoners from returning. If prisons began enforcing very strict and difficult prison policies, it can make a prisoner see the change that society wants to see for themselves. Most repeat offenders feel more comfortable on the inside then they do on the outside. This Is a very sad and true fact. They become so adapt to living In prisons that they almost consider It a home. When they are subsequently released, they feel Like they do not belong In normal society, thus returning to crime.Another sad reality Is that many businesses and corporations will not higher these inmates due to their records. If the united States penal system enforced strict and almost hellish conditions in these prisons, such as solitary confinement for the majority of their sentence this may change. The prison systems could focus on such harsh punishments, such as no contact with others. The only time contact with others should be allowed is when they choose to attend rehabilitation programs. As time goes on, and the more successful the inmate becomes in the program, prison officials can lessen the rashness of their punishments.This, in the beginning, forces the prisoners to attend the program. However, the prisoner must find It within themselves to successfully complete their education. This makes the prisoners work for their freedom and the change that they want to see. If a prisoner does not complete the requirements of the rehabilitation then can go back to the strict punishments. It Is their choice, and they cannot be forced change. They have to want it. On the outside innocent. They should do this by upholding the law to such a standard that encourages individuals that they do not want to commit a crime.Law enforcement agents should have th e power to do whatever is necessary to take down those who break the law. Currently law enforcement officials have more restrictions placed on themselves by the law, then the criminals breaking it, which makes it that much more difficult to enforce the law. There seem to be far to many loopholes in the Justice system that protects the offenders. It is my personal belief that once you break the law, you have limited rights. We should not be sending our own people who protect there to Jail for police brutality and so on.If someone rapes a woman and then tries to attack the arresting officer, the police are well within their respective rights to do whatever it is necessary to bring said individual to Justice. Such acts will discourage many from committing crimes. If you decided to break the law, well then that is a conscious decision that you made. It is you who should pay for the crimes, not the police. People should feel safe around the police if one has not committed a crime, but if you do break the law one should be terrified. The fear should come from what he police are capable of doing to you to enforce the law.However, law enforcement officials should be trained to asses the amount of force needed to instill enough fear within the individual by a case by case basis. If you get pulled over for running a red light, a cop cannot pull you out of the car and start beating you. Although, if you murder or rape someone, cops should be allowed to punish you. This will in turn instill fear within the offender not to commit the crime again, due to the treatment you receive from the police, and then the harsh prison system mentioned previously.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox- Summaries

The The Adoration of Jenna Fox By: Mary E. Pearson Pages 1-50 Jenna Fox has just woken up from a coma after an accident she wasn’t supposed to survive and doesn’t remember a thing about her life. She is slowly starting to adjust to her new surroundings and learning small things she knows she should already know how to do. Her mother suggests that she what the discs her parents had been making since she was a baby. Jenna watches the disk and is vaguely reminded somewhat of her childhood. When Jenna explores her house she lives in she is curious as to why it is so empty and unlived in.One day when her mother goes to town and her grandmother, Lily goes to her greenhouse to avoid contact with her, Jenna sneaks out the front door and goes for a walk. On her adventure, she meets Mr. Clayton Bender, and makes friends with him. On her way back, Jenna cuts herself, which frightens her mother very much. Jenna all of a sudden has a memory of a trip to the beach with Lily that happ ened almost 15 years ago, an impossible thought but a memory none the less. After that Jenna starts remembering small things like her best friends and the T in Boston.She learns of her father’s latest invention, Bio Gel. The gel can make organ last indefinitely instead of having a limited shelf life. When Lily takes Jenna to a mission, she gets a sudden urge to get back in school to pick up where she left off. Everyone thinks it is an outrageous thought but her mother soon gives in and allows her to go to a small charter instead of a widely populated school where she could be put in a dangerous situation. Pages 51-100 Jenna is now determined to take control of her life back. On her way to Mr. Bender’s house, Jenna meets the boy he warned her about, Dane.This boy that lives at the end of her street seems to be very curious. At Mr. Bender’s House, Jenna is forced to turn away his hospitality towards her because of her special diet. After he told her he did researc h she did research on him as well. She learned that he was keeping a very big secret about his identity. When he confessed to her she felt they were better friends because of the secrets they shared. Jenna continues to watch her home movies and sparks a few of her lost memories. She remembers that she loved hot chocolate but her mother and grandmother get angry with her for disobeying her diet.She wants to pick up where she left off in school so she asks permission to start school again. Her mother allows her to attend a small charter that has a flexible schedule and a smaller class size. The first day she meets her few classmates and recognizes Dane. A boy named Ethan leads a discussion on Walden. When he makes an error, she corrects him, surprising him and her also. She is shocked again when Ethan invites her to join their group for lunch. At lunch Jenna gets a chance to meet the rest of her few classmates. Allys is the only other girl other than Rae, their teacher, and is the fir st to open up.Since everyone at the charter has a special reason for attending, Allys shares that her’s was a fatal disease that cause her to lose her limbs. Now she has prosthetics and is also the first person to tell Jenna they like her. Jenna opens up a little more about her condition. She also starts to grow a liking for Ethan as well. Lily and Claire get in an argument about Jenna’s social relationships. Jenna continues watching the discs and learning past details she’d forgotten. She starts working with Ethan at the mission until she finds a community service project of her own. She grows a closer bond with him and becomes fascinated with him.Allys expresses her feelings about FSEB and ethics problems unknowing that Jenna’s dad, founder of FoxBiosystems and creator of Bio Gel. Pages 100-150 Jenna explores the downstairs of the Cotswold and finds interest in Claire and Lily’s rooms. In Claire’s room she finds a locked door and has a nat ural instinct to look under the mattress and finds the key. Before she gets a chance to open it she is called away by someone at the door. Ethan visits her and they talk which slowly leads to them sharing a passionate kiss. Because Lily got upset with Jenna after the kiss, Jenna rebels and pours mustard into her nutrients before Lily can stop her.Jenna watches the last disc in her box and it shows Claire and Jenna having a fight about Jenna’s ballerina career. Jenna is determined to find out what is behind the closet doors. She pretends to go for a walk but sneaks into the closet instead. Inside she finds three boxes one with her full name on it. Trying to get it loose she cuts her wrist on an edge. Worried about what her mother will do she hurries to her bathroom to look at the gash. When Jenna falls down the stairs from being too dizzy, Claire discovers the cut. Now her parents are forced to tell her why there is hardly any blood coming from her wrist.They explain that she was terribly burned in the accident and something had to be done fast or she wouldn’t have made it. Her father informs her that her entire body is made up of Bio Gel. The only thing original in her is 10% of her brain. Jenna has a really hard time understanding the situation and believing that she is a real human being. She asks why they relocated and her father tells her that where they live now has a consistent temperature that will help her shelf life. She also learns the second reason for their location is Jenna being illegal with Bio Gel making up the substance of her body.Lily and Jenna have a conversation about why Lily acts so different towards Jenna. Her answer is that she let go of her granddaughter eighteen months ago and now has her in a different form. At school, Jenna is more unsocial than ever before. She is still trying to figure out what she is and what she needs to do next. Pages 151-200 Lily talks to Jenna about things she feels Jenna should know. She infor ms Jenna that before the accident she didn’t go to her room when Claire told her to; now she naturally goes without hesitation.Jenna is upset about the information but wants to prove it for herself. She waits until her father and mother chat on the Netbook and puts on a flipping plates show for them. When Claire furiously tells Jenna to go to her room, Jenna resists the urge. Her father and mother explain that they uploaded things into her when they were working on her scans. They were afraid she’d be so behind in school they uploaded the 10th through 12th grade curriculum. Jenna meets Ethan at the mission where he shares his dark secret that has burdened him.She trusts him enough to share the information she has just received. He doesn’t leave her but instead assures her she is going to get through it but warns her not to tell Allys because of her ethical standards. For a bacteria lesson, the group goes to a river scene. During her lesson, she starts talking ab out the FSEB which sparks something in Jenna. They get into a heated discussion that doesn’t end the best way. When Jenna visits Mr. Bender, she learns that someone broke into his garage but took nothing. She feels like she remembers seeing his car before but doesn’t know where from.She asks if she could use his netbook to do some research. The research is on her accident. She learns that Kara Manning and Locke Jenkins died after that accident and she would have been trialed if her condition wasn’t as deadly and severe. Jenna talks to her parents about them being dead and they said they didn’t want to push her with that information. Her mother is redecorating her so she asked for red drapes instead of the only color in her wardrobe, blue. She remembers getting the red skirt with Kara and goes on a rampage for it through the entire house.Lily shares with Jenna the escape plan if anyone from the government were to show up asking questions. When her mom goes to pick up her dad, Jenna goes to the closet. This time she discovers that the other two computers have Kara and Locke’s names on them. This sends Jenna over the edge. She runs into the forest and just lays there. Pages 201-265 Jenna gets mad at her parents for all the secrets they kept from her including the boxes. They told her they were backups in case something was to happen they would have all the blueprints and information needed to reboot her.They share the risks and complications of her situation. When she asks where Kara and Locke were they tell her that after their parents thought she was the one that caused them to get hurt they wouldn’t let the doctors in to prep everything. They both died before they could do anything. In class, they watched a long speech having to do with the FSEB. They have made many bad medical changes that negatively affected a lot of sick and injured people and the new medical act will take all control from them. Allys realized that Jenna is the daughter of Matthew Fox who she highly dislikes for his work with Bio Gel.After Mr. Bender somewhat saves Jenna from a sneak attack in the forest they go off and talk. Jenna admits she knows his name is Edward and he is her dad’s friend who set up the house and helps get her out of the country to Italy where the temperature is consistent. Jenna remembers the accident. She wasn’t driving, Kara was. But no one but the backups and she will ever know that. Jenna finds the real last disc and sees that she was under so much pressure to be perfect. At the beach, Jenna finally admits that she is tired of being on a pedestal and having so many expectations.When they get home there is a strange man there who is talking to Jenna’s father about moving the backups to a safer location. Ethan and Jenna go visit Allys who has Lupus which is causing her body to fail. They stay and talk to her for a while. Jenna confesses to her that she is really Matthew Fox’ s daughter. On the way back Ethan doesn’t want Jenna to get caught by the government and offers to take her anywhere. Lily and Jenna devise a plan to get rid of the backups. When they do, her parents are furious and tell Jenna those backups could have saved her. Jenna just wants to live her life without having a backup if she messes up.She wants to be normal more than anything. Allys’ parents visit Jenna’s parents and ask if they can help fix Allys up like they did with Jenna. The next part takes place 260 years later. Allys and Jenna live in Mr. Bender’s house. Everyone they know has past but they’re still there. They have traveled around the world speaking to people just like them. The laws of medicine have changed so much. Jenna has a daughter who she will eventually have to leave because no parent should outlive their child. The Bio Gel has been modified to make sure no one lives beyond an acceptable and appropriate time.

Diversity in learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Diversity in learning - Essay Example Bilingualism can be a virtue of growing up while using and learning two languages simultaneously. Argumentatively, human beings can naturally acquire bilingualism. The acquisition of an additional language is sequential bilingualism. Therefore, interpretation of bilingualism is subjective to individual definitions. Bilingualism encompasses a significant amount of contexts and proficiency. In children, bilingualism may restrict the use of the first language for familial and domestic purposes. English language is mostly a second language with the highest preference for communication in official environments and outside home. Sequential bilingual learning is similar to learning of a first language. The newly acquired language must be appropriate and accurate. The language learning processes are similar and have differences too. For instance, bilingual learners approach learning additional language with a background linguistic system, rules and structure. Additionally, the process of learning a second language starts at different ages and not from birth. Therefore, it involves different strategies for acquisition of the same. Linguistic differences and primarily low proficiency in English is a cause of low academic achievement. Argumentatively, the statement is plausible as it implicates English medium for learning by students with limited comprehension of the language. The students with poor mastery of the teaching language have problems with instructions and expression as well. Cultural difference also affects a student’s social life. In a case where the student cannot interact with colleagues, feeling of loneliness ensues. Moreover, solitude forms a fundamental foundation in acquisition of fear and low self-esteem (Meisel, 2013 p. 397). The manifestation of personal feelings is observable in withdrawal from extra-curriculum activities and poor participation in class work. For instance, bilingual students that are composed rarely do not ask questions

Human Development Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human Development - Coursework Example The article uses the example of Luke in demonstrating the unwillingness of boys to deal with their emotional sides. As the article envelops, it manifests that Luke has emotional issues that he needs to handle. This reveals in his opinions as he castigates every member of his family. He thinks that all his family members are absurd (Kindlon, Thompson, & Barker, 2009). It is arguable that Luke’s emotional issues could be centered on family’s limited attention towards him. This means he is feeling neglected. Unfortunately, Luke is growing up in a culture that men are not supposed to express their feelings. It is essential to highlight the importance of engaging culture in such a contentious debate. This is because, mostly, human beings’ behavior is not largely defined by complex psychological situations, but is mostly influenced by contemporary cultural attitudes. Such cultural attitudes, for instance, are responsible for factors such as sexism and racism. When wrong ideas and attitudes in life inculcate in a human being at a young age, one is highly likely to grow up with such flawed perceptions in life. This creates a society-wide disaster because everyone believes the same. Wrong societal attitudes thrive on creating hegemony. For instance, in depicting complimentary gender roles, boys are taught to be tough and objective. These ideals do not allow for emotional development of boys. The society creates such hegemony because boys are constructed as protectors of women. In addition, boys see themselves more as leaders and holding powerful positions in the society. This is unlike the female who attains a huge capacity to be emotional and weak. In the end, the female has the expectations of being a homebuilder and a nurturer. Limited emotional development, however, ignores the fact that every human being has emotional needs. A young boy, such as Luke, who suppresses his emotions may become

Digital Evolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Digital Evolution - Essay Example Looking at it in high level, Barrett tackled what is going on around the world referencing significant improvements in technology that has changed the face of humanity and of the world. He then moved on to discuss the importance of such technologies highlighting his company’s contribution to the evolution of technology. With this, Barrett pointed out two important opportunity areas where technology can be utilized to not only change how things are done but to deliver benefits to the population. These are the areas of healthcare and education. Based on the profile of Barrett, it could be noted that he has a strong advocacy for improving education in the United States as well as the rest of the world. Being a staunch supported of research in the academia, Craig together, with Intel, has made significant partnerships with educational institutions to promote and fund numerous research programs. With Intel focused on product-oriented research devoting around $6 billion annually for research and development, he strongly believes that research is vital for innovation and moving the nation and the world. Because of this, he has poured significant investments in research with these institutions to help improve and build on technology as it exists at the moment with a vision in fulfilment of what Gordon Moore has postulated and predicted decades ago. In relation to his company Intel, it has been reported that Barrett’s concern is capitalizing on the rapidly evolving digital world. The prospects on the electronic sector are really great. As believed by Intel, standardization is key to ensure that the different technologies produced and provided by different companies will work together. As such, Intel is looking into the expansion of manufacturing products that people actually want (What does the future hold for Intel, Apple and Microsoft?,  2004). Finally, Barrett in his 2004 article has

Perspectives on Hroup Conflict on the Iraq Conflict Essay

Perspectives on Hroup Conflict on the Iraq Conflict - Essay Example Chandra (2001) postulates that ethnicity is both fluid and it is influenced by external factors within the community. In this context, therefore, Chandra (2001) has criticized how constructivists view the notion of ethnicity and states that ethnicity is more suitable to political approach than any other approach. Achieving peace in Iraq seems to be an impossible element. The major reasons behind this notion lie in the fact that, the number of deaths that have occurred seems to be so high since 2003, and an additional 600,000 persons seem to have lost their homes and are displaced. The intense booming that happened few years back seems to torment most of the Iraq people. From the constructivist point of view the Iraq 2003 conflict, the whole issue can be viewed as social problem constructed within the society. According to Alexander (2009) the identity of the crisis is identity together with factors that drive the identification process, and that they are socially constructed. This pa per is organized from the first part that presents the view of nationalism, along with the notion of constructivist/ instrumentalist, primordial and ethonosymbolic. A closer analysis of how these prospects view the Iraq conflict, and the implications on how to manage these conflicts have also had a great part of this case study. Nationalism is an interdisciplinary factor that needs to be considered using different perspectives. This can be achieved by obtaining historic materials that are very important and understanding how political mechanisms work within different institutions (Brown, 2000). Thus political scientists have to share their ideas on how nationalism works. The theories of nationalist have developed as academic themes since the year 1980s. Political scientists have discussed the theories of nationalism to include; ambivalent strategies that focused on social theories and on the other hand, they focused on liberal, Marxist and conservative ideologist. They also state th at the primordial’s and modernist view the nation as an element that organizes the society. Currently instrumentalist have emphasized on shifting and politically contingent nature of ethnicity (Brubaker, 2004). The primordial’s point on the other hand, points out the high degree of correspondence between cultural and genetic makers (Salters, 2003). Ethno-symbolic constructed nature of ethnicity shows that ethnicity is strongly path dependent. They look at cultural bound such as language, race as old ways of demarcating boundaries and they fail to confine these to the modern period. Primordial approach appeals to emotions, personal constraints, so as to give explanations on ethnic issues. The instrumentalist or constructivist view ethnicity as a dependent variable, therefore, ethnicity is developed based on its strategic utility in achieving political gains within a given territory. Perennials view ethnicity as predating modernity. As indicated by Hechter and Okamato (2 001) primordial’s is not present in several literary materials. The primordial’s theory argues that the demand for a nation-state does depend on the societal ethnic self-

Operation management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Operation management - Essay Example But one thing we wouldn’t like to do is to pay much for such services. To be able to deliver quality services and goods to the customers, there are management skills that are needed. Operations management therefore focuses on such management skills that lead to higher productivity and increase responsiveness, providing more choice to customers and delivering quality standards. In short, operations management involves analyzing business processes and how to improve them (Investopedia, 2013). Progressing further, operations, management can be defined as the administration of business practices in order to create the highest level of efficiency in an organization. It is thus concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services in an efficient way in order to maximize the profit of an organization. Therefore, the operational management team is concerned with designing the inputs (materials, labor, and overhead) conversion methods, into outputs (goods, services and value added products), that brings benefits to the organization. Arguably, one would say that high level efficiency in an organization may be attained without employing certain administrative practices; hence operational management has no importance in making the business attain efficiency or maximize profit. This paper is meant to find out the solution between either using operation management or no operation management to achieve organizational efficiency. Nonetheless, one would wonder if firms that do not employ proper operations management techniques would also be able to maximize on their profits as they improve on the efficiency of the firms. This is as opposed to those firms that are keen about the kind of operations management techniques that are employed in their daily operations. Obviously, it becomes very necessary for all types of organizations to consider operations management since they all produce a mixture of some goods and services. In smaller organizations, many o perations management activities are done by the other employees who are involved in many other operations of the firm such as marketing staff and accountants. Operations management is considered important in any organization as it aids in making the decisions that would impact the costs of producing the products and services that the firm is involved in. It also aids in making a decision that would impact how well the products and services are delivered, which then is critical to the revenue that the organization receives. This would then mean that, when good operations management programs are put in place, the cost of production would be less while the products and services delivered would be of high quality, hence the resulting revenue that would be received by the organization will be high. When poor operations management programs are put in place, less revenue will be earned, hence good operations techniques are essential for profit maximization in any organization. Following th at, to illustrate this fact, a certain restaurant has employed two different operations management techniques in order to compare the cost of operations involved in running the restaurant. For the first three months, the restaurant hired excess workers and used to purchase materials in excess so that extra material could be given to the workers to avoid going bad. After the here months, a new management was put in place and there was a difference in the

Understanding the marketplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Understanding the marketplace - Essay Example This results from the fact that the business can conduct a survey and hence research on market trends and the techniques employed by other producers and therefore improve on their products. Statistics from a global perspective are effective when making vital decisions on production (Harrington, 2007). This is mainly because since standardized products are popular, it is easy for the producers to make an assessment on best practices that can help improve their production. This methodology is usually effective for organizations whose performance is deteriorating, as standardization helps formulate and implement effective strategies. It should also be noted that not all organizations that sell standardized products succeed. In as much as standardization may be favorable due to many reasons, other factors such as promoting and setting at prices may make it unfavorable (Quelch, & Deshpande, 2004). This prompts local market conditions to take control of standardization. In an argument by Harrington (2007), product decisions are crucial as they determine the success or failure of the business. Surveys show that 50 percent of businesses decline because they do not understand the market demands of their products. On the same note, two-thirds of them succeed by supplying their goods to regions where they are popular. From the statistics, it is advisable to standardize products of global consumption such as medicine and medical implements. Therefore, before a business decides to standardize its products, it should be capable of establishing whether their products into local, international or multinational categories. This will give them hints on whether the products should be groomed for either local or international

The Zoos Are Really Very Cruel to Wild Animals Essay Example for Free

The Zoos Are Really Very Cruel to Wild Animals Essay All I can say is that through my opinion zoos are really very cruel to wild animals. Why is this so ? Well because they don’t think of the wild animals habitat and the liberty which they need. The shock of being in captivity would actually depress the animals; they would even act violently and might hurt people near them. And it is not the animal to be fault. Firstly, the ecosystem became unbalanced. Secondly If the humans kept the wild animals in the zoo, they will ruin their food chain. Animals need to run a lot, but their kept in the zoo where it is lack of spacious area. They need to hunt for their own food, however while in the zoo the foods are provided. There is no freedom for the animals for being kept by humans. Worst case possible is animals would get depressed and attack people randomly. People should not blame the animals if they got attacked; it is their own fault for keeping the animals in cages. Animals can die prematurely in zoos. For eg. In 1991 twenty-five Asiatic Lions were born in zoos around the world 22 of them died. In the same year 166 cheetahs were born in zoos, of which 112 died. And the last but the most important is that the animals are born naturally in the wild and us humans cannot provide them what nature gives for their needs. This is the crucial motive where animals should be freed   Or they should put them in sanctuaries instead and ask people to do animal safaris if they wanted to see the animals . at least the animals will get their freedom and live in peace.

The Second Brandenburg Concerto Essay Example for Free

The Second Brandenburg Concerto Essay Composing for the inauguration of a harpsichord he had acquired in Berlin, Bach prepared the Brandenburg Concertos in 1720. [1] Drawing from a wide range of musical influences and styles, Bach pays tribute to and in many ways surpasses the works of his contemporaries, ultimately and undeniably furthering the concerto form. The concerto is a genre of instrumental works of three movements performed by one or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra. In a musical context, the term â€Å"concerto† (from the Latin concertare; â€Å"to contend, to dispute, to debate† and â€Å"to work together†)[2] was initially used inconsistently to refer to a variety of forms and functions, including vocal ensembles, mixed vocal/instrumental groups, and the act of accompanying. As the form developed, the term gained its lasting definition. The instrumental concerto emerged in the late 17th century. In Italy, two distinct styles arose, reflecting different approaches to musical structure and scoring. The Roman concerto featured a small ensemble of instrumentalists (called the concertino) playing in unison, contrapuntally or in alternation, accompanied by the larger concerto grosso or ripieno. Northern Italian concertos were written for much smaller orchestras, with sometimes as little as five instrumental voices, and emphasized the role of a single soloist (usually a violinist) backed by relatively light accompaniment. The genre flourished in the early 18th century with the many innovations of Antonio Vivaldi. His earliest concertos made use of the ritornello form, in which tonalities are established and reestablished throughout a movement by orchestral refrains. The form was the first to regularly present a recurring musical motif in several contrasting tonalities. Vivaldi also incorporated techniques largely unused outside of opera, such as the orchestral unison and onomatopoeic effects. His compositions contain slow, lyrical passages that allow for and encourage improvisation and embellishment. Suited to a variety of settings and functions, from secular to recreational, Vivaldi’s concertos were highly accessible and diverse. 2 Bach was among the many influenced by Vivaldi’s style. An unofficial student of the Italian composer, Bach devotedly transcribed Vivaldi’s concertos by hand, often rescoring them. [3] Bach’s attention to detail and expertise in musical structure gave his own works a refreshing individuality. His compositions included new, virtuosic instrumental techniques and applications, particularly for the harpsichord. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos brim with dense compositional textures, complex instrumentations (combining strings, brass, woodwind and keyboard instruments) and unusual mixtures of conventions usually exclusive to their own specific form of concerto. Featuring an astonishing amount of instruments, the Brandenburg Concertos make for a tonally diverse listening experience. Taking every sound in his palette into consideration, Bach orchestrates passages both instrumentally homogenous (specifically, string ensemble) and unusually varied (combining recorder and trumpet). The instrumental parts are as unique and unusual as they are difficult: violas da gamba back atypically soloing violas, a recorder fights to sing above a trumpet, and a violin piccolo plays a fast melody customarily reserved for other members of its instrumental family. [4] Following the conventions of the concerto grosso form, the second Brandenburg concerto features two ensembles: the concertino, a small group of soloists, and the ripieno, the larger orchestra accompanying them. The concerto is scored for the violin, viola, flute, trumpet, oboe and continuo. The elaborate interplay between the soloists and the ripieno is most apparent in the manipulation of recurring musical themes. [pic] mm. 1-7 The first measures establish the ritornello, played in unison by both the soloist and larger orchestra, with contrapuntal voices in the accompaniment. The theme is grandiose; the repeating 16th-16th-8th note motif excitedly calls for the listener’s immediate attention, heralding a rising and falling stream of 16th notes that seems to relay some thrilling news. [pic] mm. 8-9, violin A second theme, a brief solo, follows the ritornello, marking the entrance of a solo instrument in its every occurrence. The solo instrument is supported only by the continuo and at most one other instrument in the concertino; the orchestra is at rest. The melody floats sweetly, lingering on a trill as a temporary reprieve from the uproar of the orchestra. The second theme is played by the violin in its first instance and in subsequent occurrences by the oboe, flute and trumpet, respectively. The two themes (the first truncated) alternate in rapid two-measure exchanges. Changes in pitch and direction in the solo passages bring about modulation in the restated ritornellos that follow, shifting the mood of the piece and establishing the soloists and the driving force behind its movement. As the solo guides, the opening of each ritornello serves as a point of arrival. [5] This pattern is characteristic of Vivaldi’s style: his concertos typically began with a full statement of the orchestral ritornello, which would re-emerge between alternating solo passages in a notably altered form. 3 [pic] mm. 9-11 (top), 13-15 (bottom) The first example of this occurs in the transition from the solo passage to the restatement of the ritornello in measures 14 to 15. Reflecting a single change in the solo (a high C replaces the F in the last note), the transposed ritornello moves the piece into the key of C, the dominant to the tonic key of F. To the listener, the key change instills a sense of triumphant accumulation and a desire for eventual resolution. [pic] mm. 31-37, trumpet (top) and oboe (bottom) The next modulation takes the piece to the key of D minor, the relative minor to the tonic key. Against a suddenly (and unexpectedly) downcast orchestra, the high-pitched trumpet introduces a new theme: a simple, prolonged four note sequence that contrasts with the complex and rapid movement of the accompaniment. The oboe answers this sequence between the trumpet’s restatements, gradually guiding it to a lower pitch range. As the trumpet’s sequence tapers off, the full orchestra returns to another restatement of the ritornello.