Orchestra Essay

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at the Berlin Philharmonie, gifted the audience with a masterful rendition of the movements within the symphony. The Symphony divides into three separate parts, in which the movements complement each other's characteristics. The symphony orchestra features a myriad of orchestral instruments featuring the Brass, Woodwinds, Strings, and Percussion families. Furthermore, the various movements throughout the performance utilize various musical concepts that bring the music to life. Albeit, the complexity of Mahler’s symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performed superbly throughout the performance.

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.

This journal is about the musical piece composed by a man named Benjamin Britten titled The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. This piece was surprisingly interesting to me as it created different feelings of emotions through the instruments volume, sync, and rhythm. I do like various instrumental styles of music, however, I was hesitant about listening to a classical style orchestra. Throughout the piece it seemed the sounds would constantly change, which reminded me of the early black and white cartoons that relied on classical style music to show the emotions they were trying to make the audience feel. For example, I remember a scene from an episode of the old cartoon Popeye, when there was fast paced instrumental music in the background while Popeye was saving Olive Oyl from a dangerous situation and they both were running to get to safety. The xylophone from Bitten’s composition is what made me think of that exact episode of Popeye and Olive Oly running to get to safety.

The Baroque Era started in 1600 and lasted till 1750. Some of the famous composers from the Baroque Era include Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel, and JS Bach. Music in Baroque society became amusement for aristocrats, modern orchestra began to evolve, and the idea of opera are beginning to develop. In many Baroque pieces the use of a Basso Continuo, which is played by two instruments typically a keyboard and a member of the strings family was found in many pieces during this time. The Baroque period can be characterized with clear and distinct meter, repeated rhythmic patterns, homophonic texture, and terraced dynamics. The Baroque is also classified by its distinct genres including Fugue, Solo Concerto, and Cantata. The Ritornello form being introduced had an impact on Baroque music because it is outlined using harmonic progressions, key modulations, and motives from the main theme in order to give character to a piece.

I decided to attend the Symphony on the Prairie on July24, 2015. I haven’t been to a Symphony Orchestra since I was very young and I was unable to attend the Symphony last Friday or Saturday. My fellow classmates invited me to the concert on July 24, 2015. I wanted to view a concert so I agreed to attend the Symphony with them. I also like Harry Potter and Star Wars; and they played pieces from both movies in the Symphony concert. Unfortunately there wasn’t any vocal throughout the concert but there were many instruments. These instruments include the entire string family (violin, viola, cello, and contrabass), the woodwind family (flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and contrabassoon), the brass family (English horn, horn, trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, and tuba), and the percussion family (timpani, harp, and keyboard)

The best teachers can do is to not allow students to see when the students have not meet the expectations they had and when students do not meet their own expectations, the teacher needs to encourage the student to try again and learn from their previous experience;

In classical music, the structures emphasize more the grace of proportion and balance, moderation and control; polished and elegance in character with expressiveness and formal structure held in perfect balance. Furthermore, the forms do not vary as much as the Romantic era, they had forms like sonatas, symphonies etc. The melodic phrases are usually balanced and symmetrical made up of two phrases of the same length. For an example, in Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, the music is very symmetrical and well balanced, in a variation form. However, in Romantic music, they rather emphasize on the emotional content than trying to sound balanced and symmetrical, and expanded their use of forms and created new forms, like impromptu, ballade, etude, nocturnes etc,. Moreover, the melodies normally have either really long or short phrases, increased in range, but also increased in chromaticism. For example in Mahler's symphony no.1 in D major "Titan", we can see that except it is in a ABA form, the whole movement was not as symmetrical and well balanced as the Mozart, although it is in a variation form, the melodic phrases have increased in range, are either really long, for example in the first 18 bars, or really short, where the melody can be hardly seen in bar 134-137.

I have never been personally a fan of the romantic orchestra music but going to listen to a concert live is breathtaking. I attended the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Masterpieces concert with music director Fouad Fakhouri performing Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.1 in D major. There was a full stage of musicians and a complete choir to back it up.

First, in the baroque period vocal and instrumental music had the same importance, this allowed that the composers had a wide range in composition types. Some composers chosen more vocally style and others preferred the instrumental style, which generated an amount of balance in composition during this period. In addition, instruments were created with specific features to perform the baroque music, they presented a sound and form characteristic, they were built to sound full and rich, but in small-type-sized, mainly strings instruments. The bow and the technique to play this kind of music required a careful and distinct method which caused that its texture and timbre were unique and special for that era. The most representative instruments of baroque period were organ and harpsichord, however, in most of the compositions of this period strings, woodwinds and brass instruments were also used by the compositors, and these instruments were important for the baroque orchestra. Some instruments used in the baroque period were: violin, viola da gamba, lute, violoncello, oboe, bassoon and trumpet. Moreover, baroque orchestra was characterized as small number of instrumentalists, and it was form mainly by strings instruments with a few woodwinds and brass, which gave the colorful contrast in the orchestra, this was called chamber orchestra. On

During this assignment I will talk about three types of Work of Art from three different artists from the Baroque period through the postmodern era. 1). Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio; 2) Rembrandt van Rijn; and 3) Peter Paul Rubens, these three artists were known for their religious theme in their art work. The naturalism that was visibly demonstrated in each of the artist work with high contrast of lighting that noticeably appeared in these paintings. Each artist was well known and respected for their work.

At the same time, Baroque has influenced not every medium of art in the works of contemporary artists of the 21st century. Such elements as sculpture, architecture, and music have been hardly influenced by the inspirations of the previous centuries. Indeed, the style that has emerged during the period of discoveries in new sciences, exploration of new lands, increased trade and the reformation of church, could barely provide any solutions for artists born three centuries later, especially in those mediums of art, where the reference for the past signifies of the regression of an art element development.

Composers rely heavily on ritornello form. More freedom in the form although a sinfonia proper is later developed.

This essay looks at the time in history beginning in the 1400’s to the mid-1700’s which we identify in art history as The Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo periods. Focusing on the influence new scientific knowledge had in the art produced during this time with specific examples from each period and artists of the time.

The baroque period of music commenced in the year 1600 and ended around 1750 (Fuller – “Baroque”). Its texture was mainly polyphonic (Fuller – “Classical”). Polyphonic means that two or more different melodies are played simultaneously (McComb). This provides an energetic rhythm, long melodies, and many ornaments. The most famous composers of this time period were Vivaldi, Corelli, Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, J.S. Bach, and Couperin. Many new styles of music were introduced, such as operas, sonatas, oratorios, suites, fugues, and concertos. Orchestras began to develop, but it was not until the classical period when orchestral music was perfected (Fuller – “Baroque”).

Among the many musical types of the period, the classical period is best known for the symphony, a form of a large orchestral ensemble. The symphonic pieces generally had three movements, the sonata, the minuet and the finale. Building of the achievements of earlier composers,