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Descriptive Essay On A Concert

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For my first official concert at Stephen F. Austin I attended the Stephen Page guest recital on Monday, October sixteenth. Despite my high expectations for the performance I was sorely disappointed with the concert. I enjoy the sound of the saxophone, but the tone colors produced when combined with the piano as an accompanist ruined it for me. The concert opened with In Transit by Mischa Zupko which consisted of five movements. The first movement, called Red Walls of Fog, opened with the piano and saxophone tones clashing extremely. Although this bothered me at first, I felt that this was a stylistic choice on the composer’s part because the clashing tones were shortly resolved with long suspended notes. It presented a very suspenseful tone and drew me in as the listener. Heavy crescendos from both the piano and the saxophone also built up the suspense throughout the first act. Apart from the drawn out high notes performed by the saxophone, I really enjoyed the first act. The second movement, titled Mango Café, was extremely busy sounding. It produces a polyphonic texture instead of the piano purely acting as an accompanist. From the title I understand how the composer was going for the sound of a busy café, but the loud banging of the piano’s melody makes the café sound on fire. I did enjoy the sections of the movement where the saxophone preformed trills while the piano provided support with a smooth legato sound. So Alone Am I, the third act, was much softer and slower

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