Monthly Archives: March 2019

I attended this concert on the Friday night of March 15^th, 2019 with a close friend of mine. She is a fan of Debussy and we were motivated to come to this event by the charm of Debussy’s “La Mer”. The concert consisted of three pieces by three different composers from different time periods, which felt like being subtly arranged.

The night was started by “A Northern Suite” symphony. The composer is a modern Canadian named John Luther Adams and this piece is dedicated to nature in Canada. The music was intended to convey the feeling of mountains, forests, glaciers, oceans, and winds. It was the first time of this piece being performed and therefore it was recorded. The music was less of melodies with strong emotions, but more of an imitation of the sense of pictures in nature. “A Northern Suite” consists of five movements, “Blue Ice, Crystal Air”, “Mountains Without End”, “Cloud Forest”, “Rivers of Ice” and “Valleys of Frozen Fire”. In the second movement, the music started with the percussions hitting slow and powerful beats which lasted when the strings joined in with a temperament like a cold and nippy wind. You can imagine the wind whistling through the layers of vast mountains in the winter of Canada.

The second piece was a clarinet concerto composed by Jean Francaix. This one is not as related to nature, but rather light-hearted or even mocking. The clarinet soloist Carlos Savall-Guardiola showcased his ability to lead a fast and dynamic melody hopping through the movement. His encore inherited the same style and was beautifully performed as well.

Finally, after intermission, there came the “La Mer” by Claude Debussy. It has three movements with each depicting a portrait of the sea. However, there was not a story that people can easily relate to in their minds, and they would rather feel a blur of senses. The structure was not obvious as the exposition and development parts are hardly distinguishable. The first movement was named as “From dawn to noon on the sea”. It started off with a gentle texture, gradually unveiled a vivid sense of motion, and then ended in a majestic brass chorale. The second movement was called “Play of the waves”. It had a lively texture full of color in comparison to the first movement. It brought us into the fantasy of water with an ever-changing pattern. The third and final movement, “Dialogue of the wind and the sea”, called for awe towards the power of nature. The music conveyed an ultimate majesty that easily held the breath of the audience. The conductor Jonathan Girard brought up the atmosphere whole-heartedly and delivered an overall beautiful and sensational performance.

The whole experience of this concert was mind-blowing and awakening. All of the three pieces are interesting and enjoyable. It gave me the opportunity to have a taste of contemporary Canadian music, a modern and vibrant concerto, and a classic masterpiece of Debussy. It was a night full of senses and imaginations evoked by the full orchestra. We discovered a useful tip of listening to UBC Symphony Orchestra upon entrance which might be worth sharing here: Chan Center offered free tickets for students at a separate window on the left of the ticket office.

On Friday March 15, I was fortunate to watch the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s “Sea to Sea: The Farewell Tour” concert, conducted by Jon Washburn, at the Shaughnessy Heights Church in Vancouver, BC. This performance was particularly poignant because long-time conductor Jon Washburn is retiring at the end of this year, and this performance was one leg of his final tour. As such, they themed the songs such that they performed their “biggest hits”, so to speak. The Choir searched out their most-performed songs and compiled the program based on that. (They listed the performance count of each song under the titles – some pieces had been performed over 100 times!)

The first piece of the evening was from the Baroque period – Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden by Johann Sebastian Bach. As the opener to the first half, the piece was expertly performed with ease and comfort. The piece featured entries by imitative polyphony, with a gorgeous polyphonic texture throughout generally. Having grown up a musician, I’m not a big fan of Bach and prefer more rubato and melody-driven pieces, but the choir made the song enjoyable and interesting. My favourite piece of the evening, by my favourite composer of all time, was a set of songs by Claude Debussy; as mentioned by Jon Washburn, the three songs were the only songs for voices that he ever wrote. The first song of the set, Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder, is a song that I know well, and is characteristic Debussy; everything sounds like watercolours, and yet everything makes perfect mathematical sense. However, the other two, Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin and Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain were quite different in tone and style. The pieces were sharp, sudden, loud, and staccato. The pieces I had originally associated with Debussy weren’t so much like that, but hearing the pieces having been composed by Debussy in this way were certainly interesting and different.

A highlight of the evening was Hymn to Saint Cecilia, composed by Benjamin Britten. The poem, provided by W.H. Auden, was brilliantly put to music such that the structure of the poem was completely retained, and the beauty of the words shone through, while still being a musically complex masterpiece. The piece, composed relatively recently in the 20^th century, featured aspects of madrigals such as madrigalisms which I found intriguing. Near the end of the piece, voices were used for instrumentation. A woman’s voice mimicked a violin, a tenor’s soulful song sounded like a bugle call, and the basses in the choir had a marching bass line that mimicked drums. This is absolutely appropriate for not just the text (“O trumpets that unguarded children blow…) but for the Saint in the title; Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music in the Catholic tradition and honouring her in this way was most likely important for the composer. Additionally, the refrain, which appeared after each verse, was done differently each time, allowing the listener to get excited about what the next refrain would sound like.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jon Washburn’s own compositions present in the program! Two of the medleys which he has composed were performed – the first being A Stephen Foster Medley, featuring songs of Stephen Foster such as “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Camptown Races.” This set of songs were particularly fun because almost everyone was familiar with the source material, so hearing the Choir’s spin on songs that everybody already knows was exciting. Another set of songs composed by Jon Washburn included Rise! Shine! Four Spirituals, composed by Washburn for the choir’s trip to the former Soviet Union (designed so that the set of songs was nothing like anything the Soviets had ever heard before). Once again, many people were familiar with the source material, and even sung along to “There is a balm in Gilead,” a familiar church song for many.

Overall, I was so fortunate to have attended this performance and I look forward to attending many more performances by the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

Although the last time when the Vancouver Opera Bizet staged Bizet’s jaw-dropping opera, Carmen was already five years ago, we were thrilled to watch an encore of Carmen Live presented by the Metropolitan Opera, one of the most prestigious opera houses on earth, in 2010. Carmen, which was composed by Georges Bizet, is an immensely interesting opera for its atypical story and characters. No wonder when Carmen was first performed in 1875 that the audiences all felt scandalized by its unconventional content – and a flirtatious yet attractive character. Considered as the genre of opéra comique, Carmen is indeed a groundbreaking masterpiece in every way and has perpetually changed the perception of the development of western opera. 

Carmen, the fictitious gypsy beauté portrayed by French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine in this Metropolitan production, became arguably the most famous seductress in the world of theatre and drama. There is no doubt that even though some of my peers were not able to see Carmen in person, they are familiar with this mesmerizing character and some of her acclaimed arias, such as “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle,” also known as Habanera in first Act. This aria was so powerful that it explicitly manifested Carmen’s life motto – eagerness and courage to embark on every journey of love, which would entangle her in two love affaires with two men, namely Don José and Escamillo, and eventually led her to a fatal destination. 

My first impression of Carmen was also from this famous aria – performed by the eternal Maria Callas – so I had a strong preconceived standard about how this timeless tune should be sounded like. Surprisingly, I was so impressed with Clémentine’s performance that for a moment I stopped comparing her to Callas or other greatest sopranos I knew. It was only a little regretful that Habanera in this production was rather brief and insignificant in terms of propelling the narrative. In my personal opinion, this production will even be more captivating if the director chose to slow down the pace of the first act and highlight this mesmerizing aria, namely “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle,” or Habanera, as the audiences were all anxiously anticipated. Personally, I really looked forward to it because I had practiced the piano version of Habanera almost for a year when I was thirteen! 

Although being a French opera, Carmen had an authentic Spanish touch not only because the story was set in southern Spain, but also through the music composition. Bizet had appropriated many Spanish elements to his music, for example, the famous aforementioned aria, Habanera, was based on a folk melody, “El Arreglito,” composed by a Spanish compare Sebastián Yradier. Rearrangements like this were numerous in Carmen, that Bizet had incorporated many Spanish folk melodies as well as the musical tradition that was associated with flamenco music. This inclusion of foreign elements might be accountable for the unique charm of Carmen and its enduring popularity. 

However, Carmen was still a French opera which entertained four acts. Another most known melody in Carmen, namely the Toreador Song, ushered the bullfighter Escamillo into Act 2. From then on, the waggish love triangle between Escamillo, Carmen, and her former lover Don José began to unfold, lifting the curtain of a drama of love, hatred, crimes, outlaws, and murders. The whole plot was driven by the charming personality and passionate love affairs of a beautiful woman who was situated at the bottom of the society. 

Clémentine’s portrayal of Carmen was ingenious and deserved the highest praise. Not only did her superb vocal techniques perfectly interpret all the arias and duets, which precipitated strong emotions, but also had her performance of this role as a whole made Carmen alive. This role was tough to play, as we perceived, that it involved a substantial portion of dancing, acting, and flirting; it required the actor to utterly forsake her own identity and immerse in the proletarian environment of Carmen, surrounded by soldiers, prostitutes, and smugglers. Despite all the seeming difficulties, I was appalled and genuinely impressed by Clémentine’s performance. She became Carmen herself on stage, in spirit, and from every meticulous detail. 

Overall, I was very grateful that I was able to enjoy a world-class rendition of Carmen Live by the Metropolitan Opera without buying very pricy tickets. I suppose it might be the best way for young people like us to freely explore the world of opera – to watch films of opera Live in a movies theatre is affordable and will not sacrifice too much of our viewing experiences. At least for this time, the vivid character of Carmen as a complicated, mesmerizing, and lovable woman has planted a seed in my head; she will continuously appear and inspire me in the future. 

A Concert with Personality, Music on the Point had Jose Franch-Ballester on clarinet, and Jane Coop on piano. It truly was music with personality, as the interpreters played with their whole hearts. Franch-Ballester particularly, embodied the feelings in the pieces with his whole body. Coop provided a marvelous accompaniment, at times rivaling the clarinet. Ballester has experience rich in being a soloist and chamber music as well. Coop interestingly won first prize in CBC’s national radio competition.

The evening began with Three Intermezzi by Charles Villiers Stanford. First was andante espressivo, then allegro agitato, followed by allegretto scherzando. The first being very soothing, the second putting me at the edge of my seat, and the last adding a nice finishing touch to the piece. Overal this piece contained a beautiful interplay of melodies. The piano at times wonderfully accompanies the clarinet. These pieces switch back and forth between being homophonic and polyphonic. At times one instrument would be prominent, other times they would have equal prominence.

Next came the Grand Duo concertant for clarinet and piano by Carl Maria von Weber. First came allegro con fuoco, then andante con moto, lastly rondo:allegro.  My favourite of the three being the andante con moto – due to its lyrical sad sounding clarinet part, and chordal piano part. This was a virtuosic piece, described as a double concerto without the orchestra. It was polyphonic, having imitation between the piano and clarinet. The second movement was bel canto, containing a beautifully sweet singing tone produced by the clarinet. It was also quite homophonic in texture. The third movement had the instruments talking to one another, imitating one another – sounding like squirrels running at one point.

Alan Berg’s Four Pieces for clarinet and piano began with the clarinet, and built up dynamically, and Franch-Ballester produced some low tones out of the clarinet. It had what I would consider an unconvential beginning. The remarkable thing about this piece, however is the amount of silence it contains. Silence speaks is what I found. The silence made what was played even more weighty and infliuential. In a way I found I did not like this piece, however I enjoyed the way it incorporated silence.

Johannes Brahms’ Sonata No.1 in F minor for clarinet and piano was the last piece of the night. It starts with allegro appassionato, andante un poco adagio, allegretto grazioso, and ends with vivace. It began monophonically with the piano, then came in the clarinet with an inquisitive melody. It quickly rises to great heights, but proceeds to mellow down. It seemed like the piano at times competed with the clarinet, but the clarinet managed to soar over the piano throughout the piece.

Overall, it was a good experience listening to a different instrument I didn’t have much experience with – the clarinet – and seeing how the accompaniment supported the pieces. There was good chemistry between Franch-Ballester and Coop, making the music that much more entertaining. The performance put on made me want to make music in a much more passionate way.

I was excited to attend BRAZZ, as I have an affinity for jazz music. I also have a great appreciation for brass instruments – although I do not play myself, I have friends who are brass musicians who have told me of their struggles. BRAZZ was a Wednesday Noon Hour concert put on by the UBC School of Music, and featured five trumpets, four trombones, three horns, a euphonium, a tuba, a piano, a bass, and drums.

The ensemble was introduced as a large jazz band, but with no saxophones and some extra brass instruments. This reminded me of a concept that we discussed in class: a consort – a group of instruments with sounds that blend nicely. This is was definitely the case for BRAZZ, as the brass instruments blended nicely to create a uniform sound.

Although the sounds for each instrument blended nicely, there were also efforts to highlight different instruments. Some pieces included call and response sections, where the trombones would play a short motif and the trumpets would respond with another immediate after. This reminded me of antiphons which we studied in class. Although BRAZZ certainly did not play religious music, the aspect of having alternating parts with a call and response format is similar.

In addition, I though that the selection of pieces that were performed did a good job of highlighting some instruments in certain pieces, while featuring other instruments in other pieces. In a number of the pieces, soloists on different instruments were featured, which nicely audibly broke up the piece into sections. One the reasons that I enjoy is jazz is for its improvised solos, which I find extremely impressive as it demonstrates the soloists’ musicality and virtuosity.

I’ve never played in a jazz band myself, but I thought it was interesting that BRAZZ didn’t have a conductor. Having some experience playing an in sub-par high school band myself, it was very impressive to me that the band was able to play through pieces cohesively and in time with one another despite not having a conductor for most of the program. Although the pianist, Fred Stride, did count the band in at the start of pieces and stood up to conduct the last few measures at the end.

Overall most pieces were homophonic in texture, with a single dominant melody line persisting throughout. The moments when a soloist was performing, the texture was homophonic as there was one single melody line (the soloists’) with no other melody that was in  competing for the listeners’ attention. This homophony was contrasted with short polyphonic moments when the entire ensemble played, with different instruments playing different and contrasting parts simultaneously.

As the soloists played, they were accompanied the rhythm section, which was made up of the piano, drums, and bass. Although they played at the same time as the soloists, they were not competing for the listeners’ attention. This rhythm section reminded me of a basso continuo – the Baroque rhythm section that also accompanied the principle melody. Having written the midterm and being more familiar with musical concepts discussed in class, attending BRAZZ was not only interesting to listen to, but was interesting to think about the music in terms of terminology learned in class.

On Sunday, March 10th, 2019 I had the pleasure of watching the Richmond Orchestra and Chorus in their Sing Shalom! Concert. Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, and as suggested by the title: this concert features Jewish music, both sacred and secular that promotes that very idea of harmony.

The very first piece that stood out for me was one titled Ani Ma’amin, sung beautifully by the tenors and basses in the first half of the concert. The part that stood out for me was the spoken part, read by one of the women during the instrumental interlude in the middle of the piece. She read out the context of the piece, telling the story about how this song was known to have been sung by Jews on their way to the gas chambers during the Holocaust, illustrating how much they believed in their faith and the coming of Messiah until the very end.

The feature piece of this concert was Aaron Copland’s In The Beginning – a song about genesis featuring Mezzo Soprano Tabitha Brasso-Ernst. The Soloist tells the story while the choir paints the context of the story of the creation of the world. This piece uses a lot of word painting, for example during the part where they talked about dividing, the choir sings in polyphony, while every time they say the word light they all sing a high, ringing chord that makes me picture light. This choir excels when they’re singing homophonically with forte dynamic. This piece was meant to be sung acapella but they were accompanied by piano (a fact that conductor Brigid Coult pointed out), and the piano anchors the choir due to the extremely tricky tuning in the piece as they keep switching between major and minor keys. This fact makes the soloist even more impressive to me, as she does a fantastic job finding her pitch with no cues from either the piano (other than the beginning) or even from the choir. A lot of her starting pitches are not members of the chord the choir just sang, and sometimes they aren’t even in the same key and noticing this made me respect her even more as a musician.  Overall I thought this piece was incredibly stunning and does a fantastic job of using music to recreate the story of the book of Genesis.

The second half of the concert features Jewish secular folk music, which included Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs. The standout piece of the second half for me was Bashana Haba’ah. I noticed that in this piece they repeated the whole verse and chorus twice. The first time they sing the lower parts gets to sing the verse and the women take over the melody in the chorus, as the overall sense of octave placement goes higher and higher until the end of the first verse. The second time they sing the verse and the chorus, it starts with the higher voices singing the verse, gradually going lower until the men take over the chorus, creating a nice contrast and avoiding repetitiveness in a relatively simple song.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this concert and walked away feeling very wholesome. I loved watching how much the singers seemed to love sharing the music and how the rest of the audience responded to their singing, as I could hear them commenting on the joy they felt after watching each song and how beautiful they thought the experience was. I couldn’t agree with them more.

Going into my first Wednesday Noon Hour Concert, I didn’t know what to expect. Despite the familiar instruments, the pieces performed were nothing like I had ever heard before. The program was musically cohesive, which each piece distinct enough to be remember individually, but also similar enough so that the entire concert portrayed a common theme. After sitting through the performances, it seemed to me that the overall feeling of the concert was one of intensity and urgency, as many of the pieces portrayed these feelings. There were total of four performers: Paolo Bortolussi (flute), Megumi Masaki (pianos), Keith Hamel (electronics), and Joe Franch-Ballester (paper).

Thought all the pieces, I noticed the use of trills to build intensity and a sense of urgency in the music. A number of the pieces also used unique methods of producing sound that I had never witnessed before. The flautist utilized the sounds of the keys beings pressed down as part of the music, while the pianist reached into the grand piano to create sounds in addition to traditionally pressing down onto the keys to produce sound. The first performance by the flautist also produced wind-line sounds in addition to musical notes, which created a unique airiness in some segments of the music. As the music was so dramatic and tense, the music reminded me of something I wound hear in the background of a movie during a critical scene. It also sounded as if much of the music performed did not contain meter, as the music was not being played in time with any particular beat.

One of my favourite aspects of the concert was how the music was combined with multimedia. The solo piano piece utilized a short film, which helped further emphasis the feeling of the music. The pianist alternated between moments of serenity and intensity, creating a strong juxtaposition between the two through both music and the video. During the serene moments, the music was slow, soft, and almost still and suspended sounding. In comparison, the musing during the intense parts was loud, and fervent.

The flute and clarinet duet also utilized multimedia in their performance. In the video, the flute was represented by a red spark while the clarinet was represented by the blue. Personally, this was my favourite piece performed as I loved how the music mimicked the behaviour and movement of the sparks relative to each other. The flautist and clarinetist perfectly captured the way the sparks moved across the screen, by embodying their energy and brightness. I also thought the small detail of the flautist and clarinetist dressing in the colour of their respective spark’s colour was a thoughtful touch.

Overall, this concert was a brand new experience to me and has opened me up to a whole new type of music. The concerts that I have attended in the past were typically of classical music or of the jazz genre, so this was definitely an eye-opening experience. The use of unconventional sounds and the incorporation of multimedia into the musical performance intrigued me. I’m interested in exposing myself to new genres through these concerts put on by the music department.

On March 9, 2017 I was grateful to have the experience to watch a piece of musical theatre called “Come From Away” by Broadway Across Canada.  “Come From Away” tells the true story of what happened to the remainder of people who were flying in airplanes on the day of the September 11, 2011 attack.  Emergency landings were put into order in Newfoundland, which had one of the biggest airports in the world at the time.  The town of Gander, Newfoundland immediately became a temporary home to 7000 stranded passengers from all around the world.  Before they got off the plane, I can imagine that this would be quite a traumatic experience especially having no access to a phone, no television or communication with the outside world – they were stranded in Canadaof all places.  This was especially scary because these people did not know what had happened and why they were making this sudden detour of events.  However, when the people got off the plane, they were informed of what had happened and were given access to telephones, food, clothes and shelter: They received amazing hospitality from the Newfoundlanders.

As expected, this sequence of events seems quite all over the place, an enormous roller coaster of emotions, especially watching from an outsider point of view.  Most of the musical was accompanied by music that I would describe as stereotypical of Newfoundland, including the flute and the fiddle, which stood out as main instruments.  At the end of the musical after the bows, the band came on stage and played one song and I found it incredible how passionate and engaged in the music they were… the flutist was jumping up and down very energetically while playing the flute!  I can’t imagine that would be easy.

The music and dialogue that accompanied the telling of this story contained elements I thought were similar to opera seria, as there were songs that mimicked recitative and aria accompagnato to guide telling of the story.  Further, the concept we just learned, singspiel – song and dialogue – was evident throughout the piece because there was not one continuous song and as I mentioned, recitative was apparent throughout the piece.

The cast being of around 18 people, there was homophony within the harmonies being sung. As well, the use of imitative polyphony was able to be heard especially during the finale with the line “I am an islander”, the men singing it first and then the women repeating it later on in the song.

I like to think that musicals in the modern day are a branch off of opera seria and older theatre.  Though the stories may not be similar, the idea of telling a dramatic story through song, theatre, dance and acting still remains as the guiding principle of musicals.

If you ever get the chance to see this show, I highly recommend it because not only is it an amazing musical experience but the story and the way in which it is told really tugs at your heart strings and I would say especially if you are Canadian, after watching this musical, this would make you very proud to be Canadian.  I’ve included a link to the finale of the musical if you are interested in watching.

I had a wonderful evening listening to UBC piano and clarinet performers at “Premieres: Music by UBC Composers.” The performance took place on Friday March 8, 2019, at the Barnett Hall at UBC. The evening was like nothing that I had ever attended before; certainly, I’ve attended plenty of concerts and I’ve heard lots of classical music growing up as a young pianist and vocalist. However, each piece this evening was performed by a combination of pianos and clarinets. I had never heard these instruments played together and was very curious to ear the combination. Not only that, but I’m not incredibly familiar with the clarinet, so I didn’t know much about its expressive qualities. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the clarinet is a beautifully emotional instrument! Based on how it’s played, it can sound like a saxophone or trumpet, as well as mimic piano sounds, so it’s quite a versatile instrument. Pieces were (mostly) composed as duets between piano and clarinet, and as such typically most pieces went one of two ways. For example, in the piece beauty after all composed by Jackson Bell and performed beautifully by Astrid Hawkes and Emily Picard, the piano and clarinet worked in tandem, as though the piece were written for one voice and the instruments split them in half so that everyone could get a chance to play; this kind of piece was very cohesive.  On the other hand, it was also possible to listen to songs that sounded so vastly different that it was hard to tell they were of the same piece, yet somehow, they showed signs of cohesion in things like keys and chord progressions – this was illustrated in songs like Underneath composed by Alex Tosh and performed by Miranda Wheeler and Matthew Leung. The song was very unique in that the two melodic lines didn’t fit perfectly, yet certainly complemented each other.

One of the most interesting things about “Premieres” was that all music was written by UBC students, and in addition, performed by UBC students. The pieces were all so unique and so experimental in their own senses (I have never heard music like this before!) – and because they were so impressive, it was hard for me to believe that each piece was written by a composer-in-training, and that the music that I was listening to was not being performed by working professionals. However, realizing this opened my eyes to the amount of great and fantastic talent at the UBC School of Music, and made me proud to be a UBC student.

One piece that really stood out to me was “Flowers on the Train,” composed by Roan Shankaruk and played not just by a clarinet and piano, but by a student on viola as well. This was the only piece of the evening to feature an instrument other than a piano and a clarinet, and it worked absolutely beautifully in the scope of the song. The piece was set up like an argument between two people (between the viola and the clarinet), and the piano in the background acted as a mediator. This song was my favourite because it had characteristics of both types of songs that evening; there were parts where viola and the clarinet were finishing each other’s musical phrases, or “sentences” so to speak, and there were parts where everyone was moving in an entirely different direction.

Overall, I was so grateful to have the opportunity to listen to the songs of UBC composers as performed by UBC students, and I’m certainly going to seek out more opportunities to watch concerts like this again.

Today on March 6, 2019 I attended the UBC School of Music’s Wednesday Noon Hours’ “Brazz” at Barnett Hall.  They were a lively, humorous and passionate brass jazz band that I had the pleasure of listening to.  What had initially sparked my interest in choosing to attend this performance was that work by Paul McCartney and John Lennon were mentioned as being part of the program.  As the Beatles is one of my favourite bands, it was a no-brainer for me to attend this noon hour show.  When I first saw the program, I admit I may have been a bit upset when I saw that there were neither any Beatles tunes nor anything by Lennon/McCartney on schedule to be played.  However, my frown was instantly turned upside down when the band started playing. Sitting in the second row, it was amazing to hear up close, the homophonic texture of each instrument when played together: the French horn, the tuba, the trombone, the trumpet in conjunction with the piano, euphonium, bass and percussion.  I found this experience to be a pivotal moment of realization concerning my ability to listen and observe different elements of music that I had never noticed before.  There are elements in which we have been learning in class, which I was able to apply to my enjoyment of this performance.  The presenter and conductor, Fred Stride was also the pianist and also arranged many of the pieces that were performed.  These pieces were:

A Sleeping Bee (Arlen)

Fanfare for the Common Man (Copeland)

Jitterbug Waltz (Waller)

El Camino Real (Johnson)

Higher Groovin’ (Stride)

Nite Life (Nelson)

Close Your Eyes (Petkere)

First of all, I noticed that all the instruments had similar sound qualities and that reminded me of the concept “consort”.  Further, I noticed in all of the songs, the concept of “concerto solo”.  In each of the pieces, there were at least two solos by two different instruments.  During the solos, the instrument stood out on its’ own and sounded different while the rest of the band was like accompaniment such as the role of an orchestra while soloists perform.  There were also hints of “concerto grosso” as well, the ripieno being the majority of the instruments playing together, while the concertino presented itself as specific groups of instruments playing a special part together.  Further, in “Jitterbug Waltz”, there was use of ostinato.  There was a melody that was repeated multiple times on the xylophone (escalating up and descending down) and it was clear and repeated throughout the entire piece.  It seemed almost a passacaglia was built upon this ascending and descending ostinato so perhaps this piece was meant to be one.

The concepts of consort, concerto solo, concerto grosso, ripieno, concertino, ostinato and passacaglia were present during this performance and definitely not aspects of music that I would ever pay attention to if it hadn’t been for my education in this class.  The material I am learning in class is enhancing my ability to appreciate and observe music in a new way.  Attending these live performances are really helping me to engage with the content.  If you ever have the chance to see Brazz live, I would highly recommend you go see them!