I went to see a concert with David Brown performing on bass and Jeremy Berkman on trombone called Friends in low places on the 27th of March 2019 at UBC. The concert was held during the noon hours in the Barnett Hall of the music building. All the pieces performed were relatively contemporary showcasing the creators of our time. Between pieces the artist acted as MC’s giving a brief description of each piece of upcoming music, which was helpful in distinguishing the tunes and further analyzing them.
Before the concert began the two artists played a short melody with a brief exchange between the two artists, imitating a conversation. Two different pitches were reached with one instrument attaining a high pitch and the other instrument reaching a low pitch. This contrast in sound created by opposing melodies is similar to what we have studied was incorporated in Mozart’s sonatas and later used as a basis to advance the musical genre by Beethoven.
The first song performed was a selection from Arie Musicali, Book 1 (1630). It integrated a guest artist on harpsichord named Christina Hutten. The piece maintained a relatively slow pace through its entirety with a mixture of instrumental homophony and polyphony. Three movements were performed with a break of ten seconds between each movement. This music best reflects the baroque era studied in the course as the harpsichord added precision to the lines of melody.
Another inspired part of this concert was its inclusion of student talent. Three pieces by UBC music student were performed by this duo, namely “The Encounter” by Carmyn Slater (1999), “The Ground Beneath Us” by Robert Humber (1995), as well as “The Night Tides” by Taylor Hall (1997).
“The Encounter” by Carmyn Slater is about a sinister encounter expressed through a trombone based on being alone when your not. It invokes a feeling of dreariness through an extremely low pitch and slow pace. Furthermore the piece as a whole has a monophonic structure through most of it as each instrument plays different parts. There seems to be two separate themes and two keys similar to that of the 18th century music we have covered. Towards the latter half of the piece the instruments pick up the pace until it comes to a screeching halt.
On the other hand another tune performed of a completely different nature was “Lawns” by Carla Bley who is a leading women in Jazz. This piece had a lighter rhythm and tempo which induced a calm almost nigh time feeling amongst the audience. The piece had amazing clarity and was easy to follow however from the knowledge I have of jazz I found it difficult to categorize it in that genre.
Overall I quite liked the concert as it portrayed a broad selection of music from a variety of artists of varied ages, which instilled in me knowledge of the different genres. Also the music was easy to understand and interpret which made it an enjoyable experience for an audience consisting of people with different levels of musical knowledge.