I Attended The Christmas With The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

On Thursday, 9 October 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center UAB choirs performed eleven pieces; these included Exultate justi, Frostiana, Wedding Cantata, Zion’s Walls, Cantate Domino, Bogoroditse Devo, Ehre sei Gotte in der Höhe, Mid-Winter Songs, Belleilakka, and This Little Light of Mine.

The rabbi began the service fairly casually, greeting the congregation in English. After the English greeting came a more traditional greeting in Hebrew, and then a song to greet the Sabbath, or Shabbat, which is the word that was used at the synagogue. The Hebrew might have been strange to me, but there were English translations for just about everything in the prayer book, along with the prayers and songs written out in Hebrew. My personal favorite part of the service was the singing. There were two singers, one male and one female. All of the songs were beautiful, and caused me to consider the fact that many religions use songs and music in order to convey their messages. I believe that this is a good practice, because music is a common language, one that everybody can understand regardless of whether they speak Hebrew, or any other tongue. Although I’m

And I had to think, as they danced and sang, what would an American culture show look like? And then, what would a white American culture show look like? You could, to some extent, put on a black American culture show with rap, jazz, and blues. And you could, in some sense, do a Hispanic American culture show using the sort of Passion play we saw in the video (though that might be in bad taste; although the Indian dances and the Japanese taiko drums were originally religious, too). But it would seem more pretentious and racist than anything to start putting together a European American culture show with traditional music like Beethoven or whoever. And maypoles and whatever festivals were held in the Old Country haven’t got any connection to modern Americans. Religious traditions are really no good, we’ve got Gregorian chant, not dancing. But I really think “white” culture is ultimately indistinguishable in that sense. Maybe you could point to certain outlooks on life (the boogeyman individualism) but there’s nothing that presents a visible connection in the same

I attended the Temple College Vocal Point concert on November 1, 2016 at 12:30 pm in the Jackson-Graeter Backstage Theatre. The Theatre, located in the Mary Alice Marshal Performing Arts Center, at Temple College is small, seating approximately 100 people. Since the setting is quaint, it makes for a personal experience, allowing the audience to truly see and hear the entertainers character. The stage size also has a downside, at times the actors would trip over each other while dancing.

They also have someone who plays the piano and sings along with the choir. They are all try to match the same color, (The day that I was there, they were wearing red and black) using their own clothes. Some of them use dresses and the men use a suit or a formal dress shirt.

The Mormon service I visited, had a few similarities but also a few distinct differences from the Catholic service that I am used to. Before this particular Sunday, I had never attended a Mormon service, nor had I spoken to anyone who believed in Mormonism or the “Latter Day Saints.” With that being said, I was welcomed much more openly than I had originally thought. Before entering, I was approached by two members of the church; two young women (sisters) between the ages of roughly 19 to 22. I arrived about an hour before service, that way I could ask a few people some questions, but the two girls beat me to the punch. They initially asked me if I had visited before and I responded saying that it was my first time, and I was attending as a student observer, with no intention of converting, but would love to learn about the faith. They nodded and proceeded to explain to me the reasons as to why they believed so strongly, and also a bit of background information on the faith. One of the girls, explained to me that there has been a lot of skepticism about Mormonism due in part to the fact that Joseph Smith Jr, was so young and how his explanation of “Moroni” (An angel no one had ever heard of), and his entire religion and the scripture used, “Book of Mormon,” could have just been a part of his imagination. The other girl told me how she was beginning to lose faith a couple years back, but she then regained it, after she experienced her own tests, and was able to get passed her

With selections from various choirs in the community, PVC’s own, blessed the audience with a classic favorite, singing, “Old Time Religion.”

There were three choral groups performed, and they sang different songs with different language. The first group used the drum instrument and the third group used piano instrument. The second group didn’t use any instrument.

Music is a universal understanding of one’s culture. It allows people from all parts of the world to come together to appreciate and love one another for their differences. My mother is Filipino and my father is Mexican. Though both ethnicities are rich in history, I have chosen to specifically focus on the land of my father, Jalisco, Mexico. With lively rhythms, different vocalists, and historical dances, Jalisco’s music comes together to tell a story.

The choir only sang five songs, however, oddly enough their performance lasted almost forty-five minutes. In all of the songs but one, there was an abundance of repetition. I have not heard the majority of the songs they sang before, so I am unaware if this is how the songs are written or if this is simply how the Grammy award-winning choir chose to perform them, but they would sing one verse, which would flow into the bridge, and once they started the chorus they would sing it repeatedly. This, however, I found to be a great idea, seeing that all of the churchgoers were singing, dancing, and clapping along

American music teachers need to understand and meet the needs of their Latino/a students, and Palkki (2015) researches approaches that would aid music educators, specifically high school choir directors, in reaching and serving this population in his article “If it fits into their Culture, then they will have a Connection: experiences of two Latina students in a select high school choir.” Palkki (2015) presents a qualitative case study regarding two Latina students in which Palkki (2015) seeks to learn about their choral experiences and thereby discover avenues to improve choral teaching methods. A literature review is presented and after this the case study of these two students was explained

The concert I attended was called the Faculty and Student Recital, which took place in the Cisco Auditorium on April 11, 2017. The music that was on the program was mostly what is called “classical” music, as well as a Chinese Folk Song, an electronic composition, and variations on an Indian Tala. In the classical pieces, the instruments that were used were the violin, the piano, the cello, and the oboe. In the electronic composition, the computer was used to make music. In the Chinese Folk Song, the piccolo was used to imitate the unique timbre of a Chinese flute. In the Indian tala, drums from Ghana were used to imitate the rhythm and sound of Indian drums. The piano, the violin, the cello, and the piccolo all originate

The first half of the concert was only instrumental. There were two violins, two violas, and two cellos. They sat on stage with the violins one my right, then the violas in the middle, and the cellos on the end. The violins played a few songs solo. The second half of the concert was only the choir and a piano. Their performance started with the song Daybreak. The song Daybreak also had a few girls playing percussion, one of them had a tambourine. Using SHMRG, the Harmony of most of the choirs songs were very homophonic. The Melody of most of the songs were mainly slow, though a couple songs were very fast, and upbeat.

The overall concert offered a wide verity of choir song, from classical pieces composed by Mozart to musical show tunes. The combination of which resulted in an overall enjoyable experience. The concert was not the first choir concert I had ever attended so I went in expecting it to be similar to the high school choir performances I have seen before. I was not expecting the scale of the concert to be so large. Instead of being one choir and an hour-long program there were four groups along with a much longer program. Each of the choir groups had a different dynamic, sound and feel to it. The differences made it interesting.

Somehow, no matter what we are facing we always seem to pull it together during the concert. I loved the 2 soloists in 1-2 and how much courage they had to give it their all even though it was their first time being in choir. Choir 3-4 always amazes me with their rich sound. They sound so sophisticated and mature. It was also interesting to hear them perform another rendition of a song we had sang last year. Also, the middle schoolers did wonderful with their carol of the bells. In terms of our set list, I would say Gborn was our best piece. I heard the most feedback from the audience about how that song was beautiful, angelic, and just rich overall. I think we could have worked on dynamics at times but it is definitely a song that should be taken to tour. My personal favorite was “Merry Christmas Mozart” because it showed the fun side of us and gave the audience some perspective. Plus, as I looked around during that song I saw nothing but smiles. The most touching part of the performance was when the alumni came on stage and sang “Carol of the Bells” with us. It brought back memories of them being with us. It also signified how much of a family we are even after we go to