Focus on Music and Drama - Essay Example

Musical Essay: Focus on Music and Drama I attended a live concert at Kingston Mines in Chicago where the Chi-town Hustlers Band was performing on Monday 19th November. There were many performing groups consisted of W. Williams, Carl Weathersby Band, J.W. Williams and the Chi, and Town Hustlers. The band held a live concert where they performed several blues songs including “In My Lonely Room” by Phil Collins (2010) and “You've Stayed Away Too Long” composed by Willie Nelson (2009). The performers were eight in number where guitarists were divided into bassist, soloist and rhythm, one on keyboard, three vocalists, and a violist. J.W.

Williams was the leading performer in the band and controlled everything although he was the one playing bass guitar. All the songs, which Chi-town Hustlers Band performed, had a mixture of classic blues elements, funk and R & B. Most of their songs were romantic in style and in performance. Chi-town Hustlers Band performed well organized and moving blues and their dancing was vigorous and sometimes toned down to accommodate the beats. Most outstanding of their performed songs which were interesting to me were “In My Lonely Room” by Phil Collins (2010) and “You've Stayed Away Too Long” composed by Willie Nelson (2009).

When they performed these songs, you would think they were their own compositions. It was “In My Lonely Room” song that was well performed and in which musical elements were professionally blended. As a music student, I could note that the song’s melody focused on the first, fourth and fifth chords in combination. In this case, the music started in the ‘A’ chord and could predict the subsequent chord ‘D’ and ‘E’. This predictability on my side made the song appealing and interesting to me.

The melody of the song emphasized on the 3rd, 5th and 7th major scales flattened. This produced a harmonious blues piece that appealed to me and moved the audience. Moreover, in the song “In My Lonely Room”, the band was careful on the rhythm because the song consisted of the repetitive 12-bar and 48-beats pattern. The other interesting fact in the song was its characteristics of lyric in the form of repetitive question in the first lines and answers in the subsequent lines. For example, “Have I stayed away too long/…I'm just outside of town” (lines 1 & 11).

The song beat was a repetition and this created a regular rhythm and tone that made the song outstanding among others. Interestingly, the band would blend blues beats with R & B and rock elements to produce hybrid beat (DuNoyer, 2003). It is in this song where full performance and music can be seen and most notable was the combination of beats and meter that the guitars let in the interludes with the mastery harmony. This interlude is memorable because of its simple and enjoyable melody created by the guitarists and a combination of other ensembles.

This way, the song “In My Lonely Room”, is a satisfying song for the audience and its ensembles are what a music lover can long to experience. Although I am not saying it was badly done, the performance of the song “You've Stayed Away Too Long” was not well as I expected, given that I knew the song. The song has a better musical text compared to the song “In My Lonely Room”, but the musical element support was lacking. The song is divided into stanzas of four lines each. Regardless of this predictable key note, I realized that there was a disorganization of the melody in this song, right from the time its performance started.

I could hear that the rhythmic patterns produced were not harmonized may be because the band took the beat to be simple and thus never took it seriously. This led to the dominance of weak beats where strong beats rendition lost smooth melodic contour. This weakened the meter and the beat of the song and I could not enjoy it to the fullest. In conclusion, I think the aim of the composers of most songs performed by Chi-town Hustlers Band was to entertain through their rendition, dramatized dancing and performance.

In the two selected songs, these elements and goals were attained. This was because of melody, great harmony of the instruments and the vocalist, and the performers’ energetic dancing. References DuNoyer, P. (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (1st ed.). Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. Phil, Collins (2010). “In My Lonely Room.” Performed live at Kingston Mines by Chi-town Hustlers Band; Chicago, 19 November, 2012. Willie, Nelson (2009). “You've Stayed Away Too Long.” Performed live at Kingston Mines by Chi-town Hustlers Band; Chicago, 19 November, 2012.

Appendices “You've Stayed Away Too Long” composed by Willie Nelson Have I stayed away too long Have I stayed away too long If I came home tonight Would you still be my darling Or have I stayed away too long The love light that shone so strong Sweet love light that shone so strong If I came home tonight Would that same light be shining Or have I stayed away too long I'm just outside of town And I'll soon be at your door But maybe I'd be wrong To hurry there I'd best keep out of town And worry you no more Maybe someone else Has made you care Have all of my dreams gone wrong My beautiful dreams gone wrong If I came home tonight w Wuld you still be my darling Or have I stayed away too long If I came home tonight Would you still be my darling Or have I stayed away too long In My Lonely Room by Phil Collins Every single time You take me out with you You always flirt around With someone new But I never criticize The tearful things you do Cause I'm so afraid Of losing you But in my lonely room Tears I don't have to hide Cause I just lock my door And let myself go and Lay right down and cry Every place we go People are whispering About your flirting ways And it hurts me so to hear But in the public's eye I just push behind All my hurt inside And pretend I don't mind But in my lonely room Tears I don't have to hide In my lonely, lonely Lonely, lonely room I push my pride aside And lay right down and cry In my lonely room In my lonely room Let myself go. [fade]