My friend Peter invited me to the show as he was playing the flute in the concert. I was a member of UBC Women’s choir last year, and I remember the rehearsals we had every week and how excited we were when seeing family and friends come to our show and celebrate our hard work together. No doubt that I would go to every show of my friend and show my support, not to mention live music always excites me.
The first piece was Scenes from the Louvre by Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008). It was actually from a television documentary which tells the history behind the Louvre and its collection of Art. Dello Joio used Renaissance-era composers in this piece to match the historical nature of the film.
While enjoying this piece, I recalled my travel experience in the Louvre. It was grand, beautiful, the attention to detail was reflected everywhere. Just like this piece, the reflection of the past history and music were shown in the music, and different movement introduces different parts of the museum. My favorite movement was the fourth movement, The Nativity Paintings. It used the medieval theme to describe nativity paintings that hang in the Louvre.
The next piece is by Michael Markowski, a film score composer, city trees. According to himself, “City Trees is a reflection of the bravery that it often takes to venture into new worlds, embrace other cultures, and lovingly encourage new ideas”. The use of brass and percussion in this piece depicted an image of something growing underneath and finally break whatever obstacles. To me, listening to this piece feels like watching a movie that has lots of plot twists.
It was a busy concert, and seven different pieces were performed. There were two different bands involved as well, and two different conductors from UBC. I found that I was more concentrated at a concert that has fewer pieces played, whereas, in this one, I only kept highlight memories for pieces that I enjoy the most.
The concert ended with La Fiesta Mexicana, a three-movement piece by H.Owen Reed after he spent six months studying the music of Mexico’s cultural heritage. I enjoyed this piece the most because it felt like being at the festival ourselves. The first movement, Prelude and Aztec Dance, depicting the opening of the fiesta with church bells and noise of fireworks at midnight. There were two small groups of performances offstage in the crowd, depicting the fiesta vibes from near and far crowds. The second movement, Mass, is more serious because it reminds people that after all, the Fiesta is a religious celebration. The last movement, Carnival, was the highlight of the piece indicating the fiesta at its peak. You can hear circus-like music, and people celebrating with great joy.
The last piece was so lively that made me want to go and see what the fiesta really feels like! This concert showed such a diverse collection of contemporary music and how music can create frames of images in your mind and link your own memories!