Music Class: A Report on Concerts Attended During the Class

The date was December 8th, 2017, I had the pleasure of seeing the Saddleback College Jazz Combos perform at the McKinney Theater. The theater is quite large holding about 100~200 seats but seemed to offer a good acoustic balance for the combos that played. Also, one can tell that it was the holiday season by just entering the theater. It was festive as it was decorated with christmas trees with christmas lights and the front was filled with light up flower vases. Furthermore, this concert is a cumulation of different jazz students put into small groups and perform in front of an audience. This concert also showcases their efforts as a group as well as differences in skill level amongst the combos.

I chose the genre string quartet and attended a concert at First Presbyterian church on October 19th, 2014. Because of its location the sanctuary where the concert took place had many stained glass windows. It was marvelous and in my opinion well suited the feel of classical music. The audience was very responsive and attentive. They applauded when the musicians appeared, in between pieces, and at the very end. They were quick to join in the sing along portion of the concert. Overall the people attending were an older crowd but you could tell they truly appreciated the music. The concert’s duration was around an

During the performance there were many overtones and one fundamental tone, which deals with the timbre and tone quality. “The overtones produce additional sounds that enable us to distinguish between different instruments even when they are sounding the same pitch”(Kaemmer:60). The tone quality of the performance was very good. The music sounded evenly distributed and it was very easy to hear the sounds of the various instruments. The band played two songs and one song had a slow rhythm and the other had a faster rhythm. Rhythm means more than a basic beat (Kaemmer:65). During the performance there was a steady rhythm. Also during the performance there was a section of the song that sounded different and after about ten seconds the song goes back to its previous sound. That sound was a melody. Melodies are combination of pitches and rhythm patterns that produce a distinctive line of sound (Kaemmer:62). When the band first began to play the song started in a low tone and the music began to escalate and it reached a climax where the loudness of the performance was at its peak. Once at its peak the music began to get softer and lower. This is an example of a linear form of the performance. Linear form means a performance having a definite beginning and ending. The overall musical sound of the performance was delightful and pleasing to the ears.

When the concert first began, the three instrumentalists walked with energy despite their age. The first song, “Sonata I in G-Major Op. 2, Nr. 1” by Michel Blavet, was a Baroque Sonata. There were five movements and was played by the harpsichord, flute, and cello. All movements of the song were polyphonic because of the three instruments that had different parts and equal importance. In the first movement, I noticed that the flute tended to rise in pitch. In the second movement, I noticed that the melodies often repeated. Throughout the rest of the song the tempo changed from fast to slow and the flute would usually take the lead. On the last movement, the cello and the harpsichord

I attended the Baylor University Concert Jazz Ensemble directed by Alex Parker on Tuesday, November 10th. This ensemble consisted of saxes, trombones, trumpets, drums, a piano, and bass. The concert showcased many individual talents by including solo’s or duet’s in every song. The program consisted of seven songs with no intermission. The pieces I selected were “Big Dipper” by Thad Jones and “Undecided” by Frank Mantooth.

On November 17th, 2016, I attended a jazz concert and had quite a time. The experience was captivating, and gave me a warm feeling inside. There were three different bands that play in the hour slot, and all of them sounded magnificent, but “The Santé Fe Jazz Combo” and “Santa Fe Big Band” stood out the most. The only thing these two bands have in common is that some of the musicians play in both bands. Otherwise, these jazz fanatics are polar opposites.

The University of Alabama Faculty Jazz Band along with guest player, Bill Peterson the jazz pianist, made up a chamber ensemble and performed beautiful and upbeat jazz music. The faculty members include Tom Wolfe, the guitarist, Chris Kozak, the bass player, and Mark Lanter, the drummer. The entire concert was played in a major key and had nothing but positive energy. The pieces and players were extremely creative and they managed to tell a story and create beautiful imageries through the changing sounds, rhythms, melodies, keys and texture.

Musical Time Period: As far as the musical time period we haven’t covered the Classical era yet in class. However, new developments such as Mozart’s daring harmonies and the rise of opera music were characteristics new to the classical era.

I went to the Colorado Springs Philharmonic on October 22 2017, the concert was performed at the fine arts center and lasted 2 hours. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic performed under Josep Caballe-Domenech the conductor. The concert was put on as part of the October arts month at the Fine Arts Center. The Music was from the Romantic Period, it featured a full symphony. The musical instruments that were featured was a full range of strings including: violin, viola, double-bass, and the cello. It also featured a whole set of brass and wind instruments.

For my concert report, I chose to attend a University Chambers Players performance. Within this classical genre of music, the pieces performed were all homophonic in texture and each melody introduced was supported by chordal accompaniment. All of the pieces performed ranged from an eighteenth to twentieth century time period, and furthermore, each performance employed the use of western world instruments, such as the piano, cello, violin, and viola.

I chose to attend a jazz concert at UNCW on September 28th, 2016. The musicians playing were: Jerald Shynett on trombone, Andy Whittington on piano, Natalie Boeyink on bass, Justin Hoke on guitar and Michael D’Angelo on drums. There were two special guests playing with this ensemble: Lynn Grissett on trumpet and Ryan Mulder on saxophone (joined them on stage for only a few select pieces).

This concert took place on Thursday March 16, 2017 in the Atkinson Recital Hall located at New Mexico State University in the Music Center at 7:30 in the evening. The concert consisted of four jazz bands, NMSU jazz one and two as well Las Cruces High school jazz band one and two. The first the stage the NMSU jazz II, director by Pancho Romero. The first song they had played was “Primera Vista composed by Wayne Wallace”. Along with the jazz band they also have a few percussionists as well, on bongos, xylophone, and a drum set. The band also played two more songs called “Undecided arranged by Mike Tomaro/Shavers” and “Afro Blue arranged by Michael Mossman/Santamaria”. My favorite was the Afro blue song, there was a lot of solos which I loved

On Sunday, May10 2015, a concert was held in The Broad Stage. The concert was played by Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor is Dr. James Martin. For this concert, I would identify myself as a referential listener at this concert. I say this because I am not an expert in music, therefore it would be hard for me to be a critical listener. I wouldn’t be able to tell what went wrong with a performance even if some incorrect notes were played. I was more of a referential listener because the music was soothing and brought my mind to peaceful thoughts. This essay will tells my experience of the concert in order to persuade my friend to  attend a classical music concert with you in the future.

The beginning of the concert started off with a performance of Claudin De Sermisy’s “Content désir (1544). There were viols and recorders used during this performance. I wasn’t very impressed by the overall performance. The muscians were not always on the same page and it sounded bad at times.

Furthermore, he tried to pretend playing guitar in the air which can bring the entire environment atmosphere to the peak. He said some confession about himself, he said the music made him happy and his song was based on the darker side of life. This was considered as authentic because he liked to talk about himself, he let us knew more about his inner self and he talked to us like friends. There was a section which there was a curtain that separated from his band and the audience which made the performance looked like a mini-concert that brought us together as a