Dallas City Performance Hall

On Sunday, 14 October, Jeffrey Phelps, cello and Lee Jordan-Anders, piano, performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major, Opus 69 (1808) and Claude Debussy’s Sonata (1915)

Having never attended any classical music concerts before, I had no idea what to expect. While I was most likely the youngest person there, and most certainly unfamiliar of concert etiquette, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. While the Emerson String Quartet played three different pieces and all of them were incredible, I chose to focus my report only on the first piece, “String Quartet in F Major”, and its different movements. I found this piece to be the best piece of the night, possibly because of its continually changing sounds and powerful climaxes, or possibly because it was the first time I had experienced a quartet live. Either way, I loved this piece and the way every movement was unique, but united by repeating the same themes from the first

For the second and final concert report, I listened to the performance of Beethoven’s 9th symphony, as played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Beethoven lived in Germany during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and was an influential figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in western music. The performance requires a large number of instruments, with woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings, and even a choir during the 4th movement.

Part of the beauty of living in a Dallas highrise is the lock and leave lifestyle and convenience of having everything at your fingertips. And that includes the nearby cultural venues that enhance your quality of life. The AT&T Performing Arts Center, also known as the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, is just one of the many such sites that bring you a wide variety of cultural, educational and other entertainment opportunities.

I chose this museum because it is located in one the city’s oldest parks on the southeastern edge of downtown and allows us to visually experience what life was like in North Texas during the 19th and early 20th century. It is situated along a charming redbrick Main Street, and has 38 exquisitely restored building that are fully furnished buildings, some of which include-- a log cabin, a Greek Revival style mansion, a school house, a shotgun house and a farmstead that dates back to 1840 through 1910, and invite us to scrutinize the past through self-guided tours and winsome living history presentations. Added to the atmosphere are live farm animals and a host of reiterating events, costumed docents, that range from mock gunfights to historical replications.It makes us step back in time at this wonderfully bizarre, victorian-era park.

I attended Western Kentucky University 's symphony concert. It was on Friday, October 30th at 7:30pm. It was held in Van Meter Hall. Their event was named “It 's time for a treat.” The symphony was conducted by Dr. Brain St. John. Before it began, I read over the program that was handed out to find out basic information. The history of the pieces helped in understanding them. The concert featured many well-known works by famous composers such as Camille Saint-Saens, Modest Mussorgsky, and Berlioz. The three pieces that are the most memorable in my mind are “Overture to La Cenerentola”, “Là ci darem la mano”, and March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique.

For my piano critique, I went to see Sean Cavanaugh with accompaniment of Dominic Muzzi, play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15. This recital was performed on campus, in Recital Hall November 6, 2017 at 8:30pm. Both Cavanaugh and Muzzi performed their portion of the piece on the piano.

On the weekend of Friday, October 17, 2014, to Sunday, October 19, 2014, the San Diego Symphony presented Van Cliburn Gold, a Jacobs Masterworks Concert of the 2014-15 Season. The performance was held at the Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall and featured works from Ludwig Van Beethoven, Serge Prokofiev, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The conductor for the performance was Jahja Ling, and Vadym Kholodenko performed on the piano (Bromberger, 2014, p. 13).

The performance I decided to watch was the “Gulf Coast Symphony: Star Wars Family Fun Concert”. It was a fun event that allowed many Star Wars fans gathered in to watch, that is the reason I decided to go to this concert, I am a big Star Wars fan and have seen all the movies. This performance was performed at the Barbara B. Mann performing arts hall. It is a very good venue for concerts or and shows. The sound was great the theatre really projected the sounds of the whole concert. The seating was also pretty decent. There were no bad seats, anywhere you sit you get a great view of the show. The only complaint about the seats was that they were kind of small. There was little elbow room and I was rubbing against the people next to me. Overall

For my second concert I decided to see Gloria Cheng, on piano, and Ryan Dudenbostel, conducting, accompanied by the Western Washington University Symphony Orchestra. The whole performance was wonderful. I enjoyed every movement, as it has been awhile since I have attended a symphony performance in awhile. They played two compositions; Century Rolls by the American composer John Adams, and Symphony No. 9 in E minor by Antonin Dvorák the Czech composer. I will be reviewing the first two movements of Century Rolls and the last movement of Symphony No. 9 in E minor.

On October 10, I attended the performances of the University Symphony Orchestra, with guest soloists Trio 180, comprised of Professors Miller on violin, Flyer on cello, and Leong on piano, along with having the pleasure of an intermissionary lecture about the possible survival of Beethoven and Schubert with the help of modern medicine led by Professor Blankenship from the School of Pharmacy. Before the first piece, Principal Violin Vogel led the tuning of the orchestra in the traditional B flat. Trio 180 then emerged onstage and were recognized as the soloists as Professor Leong led the tuning of the trio.

I attended a performance by The Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Thursday November 19, 2015 at the Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. There was also a brief performance by The Women of the Dallas Symphony Chorus as part of the last piece of music performed. The Meyerson Center is a beautiful venue with brilliant architecture. The inside of the actual concert hall is set with a mood that makes the listening experience magical.

Organising a concrete form for a style such as Wagner’s is difficult given that the music lies on the edge of what was common practice in the 19th century. The music does not easily organise itself into the neat forms that we recognise from the classical and baroque time periods, but instead goes beyond the confines of form and tonality that today’s listeners are not familiar with. This gives the music some unique qualities such as being unpredictable, unending, and for some, brings less attention to the music and more attention to the drama that is being presented. Given this ambiguity, there will certainly be different analyses and interpretations that will result in different organisations and conclusions. Despite this however, I will attempt make a few overarching statements about the excerpt’s form, tonal organization, sequential processes, motivic use, and drama as a whole on this multifaceted analysis of this excerpt in the hope to better understand how Wagner fits into our history of western classical music.

On September 7th at 7:30pm, I attended the Chamber Music Trio Concert at Williams Hall. The three musicians were the cellist Dr. Martin Gueorguiev, the violinist David Harned Johnson, and the pianist Dr. Joanna Kim. In total, they performed four pieces, two duets and two trios, one of which was an original composition by David Johnson himself. Their pieces included a wide range of styles, from upbeat majors to dark, emotional minors and from standard classical to zesty tangos. Having played the piano since third grade and taken music theory, I felt that I was able to resonate better on an emotional and technical level.

Although Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde has the modern reputation of being one of the composer’s most famous operas to have been premiered, was not viewed fondly as it is today. the public initially frowned upon such production, as it put forth a potentially nihilistic effect, confronting listeners with the an intolerable truth about human life-- a truth that is demoralizing and paralyzing. With themes spotlighting societal aspects such as adultery, a love that could only be fulfilled by death and the utilization of uncommon musical stylistics, Tristan und Isolde broke the hearts of many of its witnesses, leaving them to sleepless nights full of sorrow, which is the reason as to why when the world started to change, and further their insights