Music Elements: Music Analysis

It’s amazing to listen to musicians who do not normally play with each other come together and leave the audience in complete awe. That is exactly what happened on the day of Thursday November 26th 2014. The Bill Crothers Varsity Winds comprised of grade eleven and twelve students along with a few, talented grade tens went to listen to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play. We travelled via a typical yellow school bus that took us to Roy Thomson Hall where we went right to the top level and took our seats. The seating seemed rather helpful because from a distance you could hear every instrument when you focused on it. It was beautiful. The band presented well with their “Penguin” like attire that was kind to the eyes. They appeared very organized,

The concert was very good overall. I am not interested in the classical music concert, but this concert made me thing different towards the classical concerts. Also I learned about the instrument called organ, very interesting instrument. I strongly recommend going to the organ concert. Especially if Dr. Carol Williams and Martha Jane Weaver are starring, you should definitely attend. No regret

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.

Music is not simply a sound that we find pleasing. It is the culmination of notes, chords, rhythms, melodies, harmonies, voices, and instruments. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are the rudimentary elements of music. Rhythm is the most vital element of music. It is the beat and is arguable the reason that a song is initially appealing. I find it interesting that although the deaf cannot hear music they can feel a beat. Melody is the tune of a song and the part that is most recognizable. Melodies are made up of a succession of pitches, whose highness or lowness can dictate the overall mood of the piece. The harmony of a piece of music is designed to support and enhance the melody. The harmony is present to add depth to a piece of music. When I was part of the high school choir I was an alto; although the harmony was more difficult to learn, it was, as my choir director would put it, the “gravy” of the piece, meaning that even though the melody could stand easily by itself, the harmony adds an element far more

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

Usually, music from the side of the listener is heard differently, it could be appreciated but music from the side of the originator, from the person who is playing it has a different feeling. The interaction between the instruments, the players and the band in general is a beautiful thing to witness. And as the narrator explained, as one instrument beckoned to the other, as as another instrument answered with an equal amount of sonorous beauty, it created a cacophony and beautiful sounds that the singer called “the

The instruments in the first gathering included bass, drums, conga, trumpet, alto saxophone, shaker and vibraslap. They performed two quick tempo melodies for drums and percussion, and every instrumentalist was given the chance to hold a performance. All through the execution of the first gathering, the bass player was absence of innovativeness and specialized abilities that should have been be cleaned; his spontaneous creation was a progression of specific scales that were dull and basic. Then again, he was extremely rhythmical and had decent state of mind toward the group of onlookers, coordinating great with drums and knew how to connect with the gathering of people. Particularly, the alto saxophone player was not the same as different instrumentalists, since his tones were more vividly communicated than some other payers. His act of spontaneity was confounded and inventive too. His pitch and rhythms were exact. Notwithstanding that, he executed as harmony with trumpet player in a brief moment performing melody, where he demonstrated a decent feeling of flow. In general, despite the fact that every part of the orchestra possessed the differential musical skill, but they coordinated with each other quite

2. The sounds (and silences) that comprise a musical work organized in some way * Music is a form of organized sound

My favorite part of the concert was the second part. The group played a song called “Body and Soul.” The guitarist played slowly before the others joined. They created a relaxed atmosphere with an old-school effect. All the notes were legato except the melodies of the drum which was staccato. The combination added character to the piece and made it entertaining. At 19:00, the pianist played briskly but beautifully, then the guitarist did the same. The notes became high pitched and the tempo and dynamics increased. After the guitar stopped, everything went into decrescendo and the melodies from the bass and drums became choppy (staccato). Overall the piece surrounded the theme of dependence and how it affects one’s happiness or strength. The piano and the guitar brought the happy aspect to the piece and without it, everything weakened and became uncoordinated. Initially it celebrated peace,

This piece has a different theme than the other songs that I am reviewing today. Built to give thanks for the Russian victory over the French in 1812, the “1812 Overture” gives off a very strong and heroic feeling. The “1812 Overture” was introduced with a forte entrance with the help from the brassier, deeper instruments like the trumpets and trombones. The tempo of the song juggled back and forth between slow and fast paces to set the theme of the song. The “1812 Overture” started more at a homophonic texture followed by some imitative polyphony when the flutes were introduced. The flutes accented the song with their mesmerizing high pitch tones creating the audience to picture a scene where bells were ringing. The accompaniment of the flutes with the brassier instruments really intrigued the audience and left them wanting to hear

At the beginning of the piece, the trumpets had a established a good melody and were clearly louder than the rest of the band. At measure 9, the band did a good job of getting quiet and the trombones were able to carry the melody through measure 17. At measure 17, the trumpets regained control of the melody and there was a good balance between the trumpets and the winds. At measures 25 through 43, it was a little difficult to tell who had the melody as many instruments were playing at a mezzo forte dynamic marking. At measure 46, we had a nice chord that was led by the Euphoniums and trombones. At measure 47, the clarinets did a good job of regaining the melody. The band started to cover the melody at measures 55 through 63 as more and more instruments were being added. At measure 71, the band found the melody in the trumpets and the winds and sustained it until measure 103. At measure 103, we went right back into the flute melody which was played until measure 120. At measure 120, we had a good transition and then the trumpets gained the melody and played it well above the band. The trombones also did a good job of filling in with a melody of their own at measures 120 through 135. At measures 135 through 143, the trombone melody was completely lost and the backgrounds were way too loud. At measure 143, the trumpets regained the melody and played well over the band and the trombones also played their counter

Never could I have thought that my first concert experience was going to be in a college class, performed by various composers of classical music. During the concert, I got to listen to four performances. First, the Oxycotton was played by Tim Sanchez. Second, Samantha Post played Acht Stucke on flute, followed by Nicholas Gledhill, playing Blues and Variations for Monk on horn. Finally, the CSU Graduate Brass Quintet performed a piece named Misty. In this essay, I will share my personal experience of the concert and discuss the different elements of music seen in the different performances.

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.

The concert was performed on the Southam Hall stage at the NAC; this is a large hall with extremely good acoustics. It is a nationally known stage, so the quality of the hall is very good. Generally, the audience was very receptive as it was composed of adults, who were all silent. The acoustics were very good as the hall spread the sound throughout the hall without making it echo. This had a positive effect on the performance, because it was possible for the orchestra to be clearly heard from any point in the entire hall. I was impressed by the large number of students that I saw that night because the show deserved to have been heard by many young people.