Concert Analysis: A Guest Tuba Artist Recital - Essay Example

? Concert Report Concert Report I attended the Penn College of Arts and Architecture festival en d “A Guest Tuba Artist Recital” performance organized by School of Music Orchestra’s on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 8.00 pm in the Esber Recital Hall, Music Building I. The hall was already full when I arrived, which was what I expected least. At the start of the live concert, the New Horizon Brass Ensemble headed by Kate was seated on the podium; women wore black dresses or pants, and males in the band wore tuxedos. Kate, who was the band leader and concertmaster, came out to coach the band, while the conductor entered the hall to make a brief introduction of the performance that was almost to be staged (Range & Smith, 1999). Esber Recital Hall is a famous hall that provided superior sound quality and actually made the piano played by the performing group sound nice and complete whilst New Horizon Brass Ensemble played their piano. There were several performances during this particular night, which included Salve Venere, Salve Marte by John Stevens; sonatas such as Allegro Leggero, Aria ,and Allegro Moderato; there were also French sets, which included Apre un Reve by Gabriel, Improvisation by Francis, and Nuit d’Etoiles by Claude; and dances such as spooky, insouciant, impudent/ponderous, bluesy, con ritmo Latino, and slowly declamatory/fast (Range & Smith, 1999). Candidly, this night turned out to be a most memorable attendance at Esber Recital Hall, primarily because it took no lengths for me to be lost in the performances such as Salve Venere, Salve Marte by John Stevens, originally composed by Kate. From the performance, my favorite dance was bluesy dance, which was vigorously performed, and it brought the whole house down. The Salve Venere, Salve Marte performance was starling one in the entire concert because this performance really embraced the key elements related to music (Range & Smith, 1999). It was pleasant to hear the various aspects that I learnt in music class, and this time it was performed live. By this I imply that it was pleasant to hear that the initial movement was in the form of allegro, and from my classroom experience, I anticipated that the second movement would be adagio. Furthermore, the third movement during this performance was allegretto, which I know implies that dance movement was omitted in this case. In allegro, there were numerous dynamic changes, and in some moments that ignited the fresh moments of Haydn’s astonishment. Salve Venere, Salve Marte was composed in the Romantic era. The instruments heard comprise the trombone, bassoon, flute, oboe, which belong to the aero-phone family; and the violin, cello, viola, and double bass, which belong to the chordophones family of instruments. This piece has a general homophonic texture. The genre is a piece of music that is divided into two key movements: Andante con moto, and Allegro moderato. The Allegro moderato movement follows sonata-allegro form. There are two themes that were evident from this starling performance, as well as the movement is in triple meter in a small key. It starts at a soft dynamic level and progresses in a crescendo (Range & Smith, 1999). It is usually conjunct with a fine range that finally expands into a broad range. The softness of the opening creates a theatrical atmosphere full of emotions. This movement demonstrates a recapitulation — the summary of the themes because the major two themes reappear all through the piece. The other set of piece that made my day was Apre un Reve by Gabriel under Blue Band. Like in the first piece, the volume varied from mezzo forte to strong suit yet down to some moments of piano; however, in general the volume remained more constantly within the mezzo ranges. In addition, when there were variations in volume, pitch and tone were steady and appeared to fit satisfactorily as opposed to just being haphazard. There was much more of a principle in this work and the polyphonic scenery of the piece, a constant of the Baroque, decreased much easier than that of the initial work. All of the instruments collectively appeared to be on equal resonance and were all pleasant compliments to each other, mainly the bassoon and clarinet, which played off each other completely enabling sweet and melodic sound to echo all through the chapel. Yet again, pinpointing the Baroque area, the piece had a very apparent, succinct and linear melody with very even transitions (Range & Smith, 1999). Decoration was visible as it was effectively utilized in this live concert – in a very victorious and successful way, in my judgment. The artistic goals and objectives of these performances were unmistakably better organized and defined than in the starting of the live performance at 8 p.m.: with an upbeat tempo and general reasonably loud volume, it appeared as if the composer was focusing to stimulate and fuel the audience with its dynamism and vigor, which I enjoyed immensely. The performers evidently had this in mind when they were performing since they presented the artistic aim wholly, which placed me in a grand mood for the rest of the day and in class (Range & Smith, 1999). While watching these performances, the major theme was very vibrant and sounded jagged, and then this theme would fluctuate sporadically into nearly a major key, prior to returning swiftly to the major key. Amid themes, the piece had softer phases in which, I believe, the splendor of Puerto Rico was to be exposed. Gradually, the theme, which had formerly comprised disjunctive arpeggio chords, was consisted of conjunct scales connecting the arpeggio chords in the main theme jointly. Then, the theme made differences in this key, in rising movement, to the point when the piano played in such an elevated pitch that it sounded nearly maniacal (Range & Smith, 1999). Therefore, the big range of the piece brought about an impression of unbalanced lunacy. The piece then ends with a short-lived silence following curtailed tempo and concludes with a recurrence of the major theme in its initial key except the piano pitch, closed by the echoing of the final note by use of the bar, parting the piece and vanishing into the distance, similar to a ship sailing away from an island. While watching the live performances at Esber Recital Hall, I felt that there is a need to look into aspects of costumes and ornaments. There is a need for artists to embrace costumes and ornaments that fit their individual performances. This will make the performances more realistic and appealing to the audience (Range & Smith, 1999). I enjoyed the live concert at Esber Recital Hall and was in fact astounded at how the performances were well-organized. As this was my first music concert of the sort, I was surprised to see the manner in which the concertmaster entered the hall to organize the band and to witness the conductor of the initial work perform in “A Guest Tuba Artist Recital” at Esber Recital Hall. In summary, all the experience was very challenging, educating, and enjoyable. The concert went on throughout the night, and I left the hall at 5 o’clock in the morning. Reference Range, T. E., & Smith, S. P. (1999). The Penn State Blue Band: A century of pride and precision. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press. Read More