Carlos Salzedo

The title of the first song is “Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9” , preformed by the Youtube Symphony Orchestra and written by Hector Berlioz. It is a classical piece composed by Michael Tilson Thomas. The tempo for this song was all over the place. It starts off as a crescendo, then towards the end of the crescendo it becomes a mezzo-forte allegro. Suddenly it drops down to a pianissimo largo. It goes on like that for a few more steady beats then turns into a piano. As more instruments join in, it becomes a mezzo-piano adagio. When the chorus comes on it turns into an allegro. Throughout most of it, it is legato. There were many times in the beginning and end that it was an accelerando, but through most of the middle it is a ritardando. I could not tell what the meter was for this song because it seemed like it was all over the place. For rhythm, I noticed that there were a few parts that were repeated, but there was not any syncopation. The melody was predominantly conjunct and it seemed to be very tuneful. The harmony became a little dissonant in the beginning, but during most of it, it was consonant. The texture was homophonic because there were many instruments playing for most of it. The only time it was monophonic was at the start when there was a solo. The concert section that was an allegro, put me in thrilled mood. The decrescendo largo part was so moving that it made me want to cry. Overall, I liked it, it was very consonant, which made it pleasing to listen to. It was very good because the temp was vivace for a good amount of the song. This music made me picture a relationship between a man and a woman. Throughout parts they fight and during other parts they don’t, but no matter what they do, they are very passionate throughout it all.

It started off with two saxophones, who I thought played beautiful together. They started off at the exact same time, which I thought was very impressive and was in unison their whole performance. I also enjoyed the sopranos that sang. They both had beautiful voices, but I liked the second one who sang Over the Rainbow from “The Wizard of Oz” a lot better. Her voice was softer and less aggressive. The flute and piano ensemble was probably my least favorite performance of the night. She seemed unconfident and hesitant about herself and her performance. It appeared from a listening standpoint that she missed or was off on notes, which is bad if an audience member

The second piece that is discussed is Toccata in F major, by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a solo piece that was performed in a unison and dissonant harmony. Surreal coordination and impressive pedal solo was extremely impressive and gave this particular piece a broad spectrum of dynamic change and tempo. Ascending and descending theme constantly repeated throughout this performance, alternating in crescendo and decrescendo, which brought life and movement to a classical piece.

I loved the improvisations for this recital, especially the saxophonist from Konrad Plays Klarinet, Colin Houlihan. As a former saxophonist, the tone and constant improvisation was incredible as he put his entire soul into that instrument. Sweating, smiling and happy, anyone could tell that Colin was happy to be there. “So Dance Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim also had a lot of improvises. “So Dance Samba” started with the frontline playing together for a certain section before individual solos played. The clarinet improvised with long notes at a high pitch and gradually got faster in notes as the sound increased. The trombone solo had a strong forte resonance with a percussion background and electric guitar background. The pianist solo used syncopated notes and many arpeggios that were in the higher register. The electric guitar solo slowly built up his part, the clarinet played another solo and then the last solo went to the percussionist. The percussionist and the entire band made it seemed like the piece had ended, and then they would play again which made me very

The members didn’t go by the particular order that was on the program when performing the lead saxophone player just announced each name. All their songs had melody theme which stay in the chorus of them. The saxophone, flugelhorn and trumpet phrases were all legato during their solos throughout the pieces. In the dynamics during each of the songs were mezzo forte or higher. When each person did their solo they crescendo leading to the end of them. I really enjoyed that the lead of the band explained the background information of every piece that was played I tried to take that into consideration while listening. If he didn’t put his explanation in before each song I wouldn’t be able to understand the main concept.

The pieces were quite odd for me at the first time, first hearing, but I got used to it at the end of the each piece. “The Gospel Train” and “Little David, Play On Your Harp” were African-American Spiritual songs, which I kind of enjoyed, because I was also, very spiritually active. The last song, “Precious Lord Take My Hand” was very calming songs. I liked the lyrics of the song. The lyrics were very touchy that it made me ponder after the applause.

     The third piece that was played was “Pange Lingua.” This song reminds me of when I am in church. Everyone sings loud and there is no one person that sings first and is followed. There is a lot of confusion in this song because everyone is singing something different and they are all very loud. I did not like this piece for that reason. I don’t know if that is how it’s supposed to be played, but I think it would have sounded better if only some people sang loud and other people sang soft so the attention could be focused on the people

The second performance of the night was “East of the Sun,” composed by Brooks Bowman in 1934. This composition is from the modern era and the genre of this piece is also a sonata as it was played by the two performers of the night. This piece was more of a moderato allegro tempo as it was at fast pace but not as fast as the first song. This songs was very jazzy and soothing. In the middle of the piece the piano had a solo. After the solo, the piece slowed down and got quieter. Overall, this piece was calmer than the first song.

The harp and pizzicato bass strings accompany a legato string melody in major. There is a crescendo and diminuendo, and then melody is repeated. The music is quite fast and again has a ¾ rhythm. There is a modulation to minor and the strings play a sequence, which is repeated by brass. Major harp scales close the piece.

The first work was played was called Suite: 3 Airs, composed by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1666-1729) from the Baroque period. This piece had a very stepwise and conjunct melody. The key was mostly bright and major. The harmony was a bit resolving and consonant. The polyphonic texture was recognizable because of the multiple melodies playing together. The tempo of this piece was very constant and remained allegretto throughout. The dynamics was mezzo forte or moderately loud. The formal structure was in the ternary form in which the main idea of the piece was repeating after a small contrast in the middle. Overall, this piece seemed quite unique to me because it was my first time listening to the organ.

It started with a rather slow tempo that had a call and answer type of theme, with the call part being more loud and dramatic while the answer was soft and then after a part that flowed without the call and answer theme, it was vice versa- so the call part was soft and the answer was louder and more dramatic. This movement faded out and into a slightly more fast paced part, however it wasn’t the end of that movement because it wasn’t a complete stop. The second movement was quicker and much shorter than the first movement. The third movement was very similar to the first, in that it was a little slow and has very short pauses that fade into a different paced part of the same movement. This movement had variations to the first theme and had a short harpsichord solo. The fourth movement, Menuetto alternativo- trio had a faster pace and sounded like a non imitative polyphony with the violins and viola as the main melody and the cello and harpsichord as the second melody at most times and as the background accompaniment at other times. The last movement was much louder, more dramatic and more lively than the rest of the movements.This movement had multiple parts that sounded were crescendo and then decrescendo. They finished the song with crescendo and it was a very dramatic ending. Most of the movements in this piece were played by the strings, and the harpsichord was rarely heard because the strings overpowered it and were much louder than the

There were a total of four music pieces performed. They were “Overture from the Singspiel”, “Concerto in e minor”, “Concerto on b minor,opus 104”, and “Symphony#2 in b minor, opus 5”. I think pieces were performed belong to classical style.

The setting of this performance was just in the classroom. It was very informal, which was nice. The audience was mostly students from our class as well as being students from a theory class. The first piece String Quartet No. 5, Op. 18, by Beethoven, was very upbeat. It felt like I was in at formal dance or almost like a ballroom at a fancy party. It was very interesting to listen to as it had a very brisk pace, but then went to a tone that was a little darker and then followed with some happy again. The second song was String Quartet No. 4 by Leon Kirchner was quite interesting. The song had many notes that contrasted with one another. It was out of harmony at first, but then as the song progressed, it slowly became more cohesive. This song made me

The music was performed by an instrumental-only orchestra. The orchestra was made up of string, wind, brass, and percussion instruments. There were no vocal parts. I am afraid that if there were any vocal parts, they may have taken away from the musical aesthetic. The music had a gentle flow and remained low for the majority of the performance. Sometimes the music would build and gradually get faster then fall back down from loud to low. To me, the music sounded very melodic, like a spring breeze. It was pretty and I was able to tell that it was creating a story. There were many different songs and they each sounded similar, but were different in their own ways. They stuck to a specific style. The wind instruments especially kept up with a similar rhythm and tune throughout. Every song pronounced a different mood and was made up of energy bursts.

The section begins with the harp as the solo playing a quasi-cadenza using the same thematic material as before. The strings and piano then respectively play unison glissandos and arpeggios supporting the flute, clarinet, and trumpet playing the bluesy melodic line motive while flutter tonguing. A brief transitional section begins at rehearsal 25 with the horn stating the previous thematic material before leading up to the second piano cadenza at rehearsal