Live performance reflection - Essay Example

Live Performances Downtown concert hall held jazz and traditional performances on March 15, The performance took place in the evening. This gave me an opportunity to attend the concert and accomplish part of my assignment. Both local citizens and some of my classmates attended the concert. The Legends Jazz Ensemble performed folk song and jazz during the concert. They held this concert in previous years but this was my first time I attended it. During the concert, a Korean folksong ‘Arirang’ from eastern culture performance took place.

The performers were dressed in traditional Korean clothes when performing this eastern traditional folk song. The performers varied throughout the performance in five different ways. The first variation turned into rapid sixteenth notes. The clarinets, saxophones and temple blocks formed these notes at the beginning before the entire band harmonized. Then the entire band played these notes in unison until the end. This performance marked Viv ace. The band played the second variation slowly what marked Larghetto.

The first part of the variation performed by a solo oboe then ended with solo play using a trumpet. Then trumpets played a series of eighth notes. The band repeated this until they reached the climax. After that the band played a whole band scale from high to low voices to mark the end of the variation. They played the fourth variation slowly using woodwinds and brass complemented by a series of chords. This marked So-tenuto. The last variation started much faster with a highly long solo. They played the second phase of this variation using flutes and the preceded brass.

The conductor has played downbeat since the woodwind play three beats of the measure. The excitation increased as the music played as they approached climax. The song then ended with a melody of sixteenth note from the first variation (Rockwell 78). Two jazz songs were performed during the concert: “Blue Velvet’’ and “Autumn in New York’’. Tony Bennet has written "Blue Velvet", while Dickson arranged it. It had a swing rhythmic feel when one of the performers played a walking baseline, and the other one played ride rhythms on the cymbals.

The song had sounding consonance at the beginning. Two performers danced passionately like real lovers as the piano and saxophone alternated the melody of the song. This created a romantic mood. The saxophone and the piano complemented by other instruments changed the texture of the melody as the performers swayed the audience. The song had a steady rhythm from the beginning but increased when the performers reached the song's climax. The song became louder at the climax, so that increased its dynamics.

This continued until all instruments met at the top with a bang. Then the dynamic levels changed moderately level until the performers concluded the song performance. “Autumn in New York” was played the night of the concert by guest trumpeter. The guest ‘comped’ chords behind the soloists. Then bassist, pianist, trumpeter, saxophonist played the extended solos. This song did not have two beats or baseline walks. One of the performers switched to flute and the other one used a Harmon mute.

The song later changed into a more consonant harmony. The performers maintained this harmony throughout the rest of the song. The trumpet and the piano produced a polyphonic texture. It had mixed melody from the beginning to the end. The song had a happy and a bright melody at the beginning. Then the mood became cool and relaxing when the performers held tempo notes for emphasis and the tempo continuously changed. The song also exhibited different dynamics. The song began to change from very soft to very loud.

This crescendo remained until the end where the pattern reversed. This marked the first time in my life to attend such a concert. I enjoyed all the songs with and the ambience of the music created by the jazz music performance. The performers had so much passion that created so much enjoyment. The performance of the Korean folk song made me feel as if I was living in the past when warriors performed war songs. The evening had great music and intellectually stimulating experience of music. Diversification was an important lesson learned at the end of the concert.

In a world of music a lot of different genres exist. Discovering this by an individual makes him or her more diversified. The folk song had a different genre of the jazz music. Also, both of the jazz songs were different variants of similar genre. This exposed me to different genres of music. The perception I had, that folk and jazz concerts may be boring to attend, disappeared. Boredom did not hit me at any part of the concert and I cannot wait to attend the concert again. Now I understand better these two genres of music after the concert.

“On my honor, I have neither given nor received any aid on this assignment.” Your signature Works Cited Rockwell, Coralie. Kagok, a Traditional Korean Vocal Form. Providence: Asian Music Publ, 1972. Print.