Michael Gillette's Selections From West Side Story

In West Side Story both Acts 1 and 2 are mostly instrumental, allowing suspense to form in each scene. In the 1950’s, gangs are growing more and more. With West Side Story being in New York, there were the Jets and the Sharks. Jazz music help bring out the actions in each of the two gangs and helps bring out each of the characters and shows who they really are. In ‘Tonight,’ the characters are reflecting on their hopes and dreams. Bernstein crafted the music to mirror the visions of each character. Jazz music helps build suspense in many scenes in West Side Story, for instance, in “The Gangs Fight in the Street,” the music starts to become allegro and the snaps of their fingers build the suspense even more. The jazz helps show the differences in each gang and how their actions are like that of the sounds of jazz orchestra. West Side Story also has classical and pop music played throughout it, and at certain instances all three can be heard together. At the very end of the musical, the music become piano; and the hurt and anger from Maria is radiated from the music choice.

The next song I listened to is called “Suna”. It is written by Timothy Constable and composed by Michael Tilson Thomas. The Style of the music seems to be medieval. The song starts off with a mezzo piano and adagio. It stayed that way pretty much throughout the whole song because this song was very repetitive. There was a part where they used accelerando, but the rest stayed the same until the end. I believe that they used a duple meter. The melody was conjunct and

This piece is once again played by the trumpet, the piano, and the trombone whom all make up the brass trio. The mood set in this piece has the sound of mischief and power. The dynamics in this song are found thin the forms of accents on individual notes, as the entire song is played at a loud volume. The use of pausing in this song gives the listener the ability to appreciate each of the three instruments additions to the piece, and adds excitement for when they reenter. The was a very bright and brassy tone color used in this piece, implicated by the playing of crescendoed dynamic accent notes and staccato articulation. My favorite part of the piece was towards the end when the trumpet played in dissonance with the other two and created a thee tone chord out of the three instruments that was pleasing to the ear. The texture of this piece was polyphonic because of the use of both the trumpet and the trombone for separate melodies and the piano playing the repeated harmony. The piece was interesting because the melody was changing keys continuously, making the listener unable to predict what would be played

The music played throughout all of the concerts adhered to be diverse. The instruments, the individuals performing, and the conductor all proved to be outstanding. The concerts proved to be interesting as I witnessed them, first hand.

The harp plays ascending scales whilst the oboe plays a minor legato melody. The bass strings play pizzicato then the rest of the string section play tremolando and Crescendo. The brass repeats the melody, accompanied by the orchestra and a string tremolando inverted pedal. A string melody follows, accompanied by pizzicato strings and brass. There is a series of suspensions in the brass with perfect cadences, then an anticlimax with descending strings and brass. The main melody is repeated again, syncopated, in augmentation then there is a diminuendo as melody strings then French horn play melody.

As the man confesses his love to the woman, the music is light-hearted and fairy like. Then, as the woman is standing by the side of the ship alone, a boat comes into view. The music matches the approaching visitors and their mysteriousness. It becomes slow, low, and dark. However, as the people on the boat take the girl the music speeds up and crescendos and then finally tapers off as they leave in the boat.

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 concert opened with the “Carmelo’s by the Freeway”, which composed by Bob Florence. I hadn’t heard this compositionbefore. Through the movement, the tenor saxophone and trumpet took turns at the melody to warm up the audience in the form of solos. I recognized the composition “Easy Living”, which occurred in the movie of the same name. The Cool Era influence could be heard in the lyrical rhythm composed by the piano and saxophones. I felt relief when following the simple but lyrical melodies. I also recognized the work “Tuning Up” and it was written by famous jazz musician Toshiko. I heard itwhen I watched the recording of her jazz concert

Vuelta del Fuego is a Mexican based piece designed to captivate the “Zorro” like sound generated in Hollywood films. It combination of this with the “over-the-top romance” feel of Mexican style gives it a certain uniqueness and swagger to each melodic line that is passed throughout. Translated to “(The) Ride of Fire” this piece is long imaginary thrill ride that elevates an ensembles musicianship to the next level. Its fast tempos in combination with difficult melodic lines make this piece enjoyable to listen to, and it is slowly becoming a staple in the brass quintet

The instrumentations were two guitars, keyboard, tenor sax, electric bass, and drums. It is an energetic piece. They started together then everyone was having a virtuoso play. Between each solo, the drums would fill in four to eight beats. When they were doing solo, other instruments would only played few chords with syncopated rhythm to support. The only instrument that did not have solo was the bass; he was mainly playing the root and “walking bass” pattern to support the melody. Before the last section, the sax was having solo and it started with steady slow rhythm and it sped up with aggressive rhythm and the whole song ended with everyone playing together.

From the beginning of the film, the score was a peaceful piano piece that went along with the scenery. It was gentle and non-threatening. There is a flute, or other woodwind, that joins the piano, and this is when a car is seen driving by. Later strings join the ensemble and the music all continues to be soft. This reassured me that the movie would not be dark or overwhelming. The theme music and film’s focus on

The music for this production was very vague. The only music that accompanied this play was during the set changes. At first, I felt as if the music was appropriate because it

The first song played from the Orchestra was Infernal Dance. The whole orchestra plays a loud chord to show the intensity of the piece. The rhythm of this movement is syncopation due to the rhythm not being on the beat. This makes the strong beat weak, thus giving a chilling ambience. Infernal Dance then transitions to the soothing movement Berceuse. Berceuse is a lullaby played by the bassoon. The Orchestra concludes the concert with Finale. Finale is the finishing piece of The Firebird and uses one french horn for the melody in a dynamic of piano. The whole orchestra soon joins in creating a hymn like choral. Instead of ending with a grand note, the brass takes the melody at a faster pace developing a celebratory ending. With its uneven rhythmic and extravagant arrangement this Suite fashions a spellbinding

The tempo plays a significant role in creating this exhilarating mood because of the drastic tempo changes. This mood has help from the violin’s pitch along with their tempo creating an anxious feeling. There are a few sudden changes throughout the piece, especially in the beginning, but overall gradual changes in tempo are more common. The piece begins with a nice flow with a dynamic level of piano and suddenly changes to fortissimo, which coincide with the tempo changes. These sudden changes work together in order to create dissonance, with simultaneously accenting the trombone and its low key throughout the entire piece. This dissonance is a major part of the piece and plays an important role in the tone color. Overall the piece has a light, carefree feeling to it, but this back and forth of dissonance brings a heavier feeling, but it does not completely weigh down the overall light feeling. The high strings, such as violin and viola, and woodwinds, such as the flute, oboe and clarinet, bring about the light feeling. Then the brass instruments, bass, and percussion come in to bring the countering dissonance, and also creating a fuller sound. A kind of back and forth between consonance and dissonance is created that keeps the listener on edge, waiting and then fulfilling their expectations.

“Cool” from the theater production, West Side Story, is a classic. Contrary to many song’s we’ve listened to in class, this was written for theater, and therefore is an example of popular music. The song is clearly jazz, it’s slow, follows a typical jazz-like rhythm, and more importantly has finger snapping. The piano plays the same rhythm cyclically, but at different pitches. There is repetition throughout the song lyrically, as well. At around 1 minute in, the continuous lyrics stop, as well as the finger snapping and piano starting and stopping. Jazz instruments can be heard, like the saxophone. Leading up to that, a brass-sounding instrument can be heard, it heightens the tension before the one minute mark. The music gets more intense,