Author Archives: allison cummings

On Thursday March 21st I attended a performance by the UBC Jazz Ensemble 2, an ensemble comprised of UBC students both in the school of music and students in other faculties who have a passion for jazz music. The ensemble is conducted by Dennis Esson, and is made up of 20 players, a mix of Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones, Piano, Guitar, Bass, and Percussion. The large number of players in the ensemble allowed them to capture that ‘big band’ sound, being full and rich with the variety of instruments providing a broad range of musical textures to fully round out the sound and fully capture the different types of pieces they were playing. I always enjoy an opportunity to see Jazz performed, and this had the added dimension of appreciating UBC students display their hard work and musical skills. 

The program consisted of the songs “Blues in Hoss Flat”, “Hit the Bricks”, “Perdiddle”, “Smoke gets In Your Eyes”, “Momentum”, “Horsepower”, and “Jackson County Jubilee”. The numbers were a mix of standards jazz tunes, and some more contemporarily composed numbers, with one song even being composed by the UBC professor Fred Stride. Most of the songs played were quite uptempo and joyful sounding numbers, with the first song “Blues in Hoss Flat” heavily featuring the trumpet section, which had a bright piercing sound, and the percussion section leading the ensemble in keeping the tempo driving forward. 

I also enjoyed that many of the numbers featured soloists that were able to give their own musical interpretations within the different songs. The soloists were usually featured in the mid-sections of the songs, with the large ensemble playing the beginning and ending parts of the pieces. This reminded me of the concerto grosso piece by Bach that we looked at, and how the ripieno, the large ensemble, would play the ritornello, the main opening melody of a piece that would then only be fully repeated by the ripieno at the very end of the piece. The soloists occupy a similar role to the concertino, playing interpretations, or thematic ideas from the ritornello, but never repeating it in its full form. Jazz musicians often improvise these solos, and work with the melodic and key structure of the piece to add interest to the piece as a whole. The piece smoke in your eyes mainly featured a saxophone solo by a player who was very adept at adding emotion and interest to the melody, which I thought really made the piece stand out within the program. 

Though we have not studied jazz in our class repertoire, I have an added appreciation of how music has been developed through time to lead to jazz music, even though it can seem so disconnected to what we have heard. In reflecting on this concert, I am reminded of how music changed during the 19th century and came to capture more of the emotion and identity of the composer, using unprecedented types of musical ideas. Composers such as Debussy and Stravinsky used tools such as the pentatonic and octatonic scales that had been unheard in western music to tell their musical stories, ideas of which we can hear in jazz music. The mix of using dissonance within the music to add crunchy musical textures, that add to the whole musical ideas of the pieces are what make jazz music exciting and wouldn’t have been made possible without its musical predecessors.

On March 20th I attended a performance during the Wednesday noon hours at the UBC school of music by the duo of Mark Takeshi McGregor, flute, and Adrian Verdejo, Guitar. The program was a selection of avant-garde compositions for flute and guitar. This music was very different from anything I had heard before, and took me by surprise at how unconventional it was. Most of the songs the duo played didn’t seem to have a comprehensible meter or key structure, with the flute often playing in a guttural and piercing way, with the player often creating a glottal sound with the flute with a forceful push of air. Sometimes it didn’t even seem like discernible pitches were being played, using the flute for more rhythmic effect, and without an emergent melody line. Though this was definitely far from the more structured music that we have looked at in class, as we learn more about the breaking from structural convention that happened during the 19th century, I thought it was astonishing to see the type of musical transformation that has happened since then, with these music totally throwing out any kind of musical structure. 

The first song played was “Toward the Sea”(1981) by Toru Takemitsu. The duo compared the composer to Debussy, saying that he was the Debussy of Japan because of the way he used dissonance in his pieces. Despite saying this, in listening to the piece I still thought this was far from anything that I had heard of Debussy as it did not have a melody line that I could really hold onto. However I did think that the piece did capture the imagery of being at sea and created a quite mysterious and powerful sound. The piece consisted of three movements: The Night, Moby Dick, and Cape Cod. Looking at 19th century programatic music, I thought this piece achieved the same aims that that musical movement strived for. By naming the piece and the movements with imagery that will be recognized by the audience, and where the audience will use their own ideas to build the story while hearing the music, the piece achieves the extramusical meaning of programatic music. 

The last piece played, “Histoire du Tango” (1986) by Astor Piazzolla was quite different from the other pieces played, as it had a clear key structure, and a sense of meter. I think because of this more recognizable musical structure, this was by far my favourite piece performed. Like the other pieces played, the piece tried to tell a story, in this case the historical progression of the Argentinian tango and how it changed over time. The duo gave some background on the piece and author, speaking to how the author was informed by their own experience in writing the piece through living in both Paris and Argentina, which allowed the audience to keep this in mind while they listened to the piece. The piece consisted of the movements: Bordel 1900, Cafe 1930, Nightclub 1960, and Concert d’aujourd’hui. As the composer conveyed both the history of the tango and his own life, I can now recognize that this practice in composition also grew out of the 19th century practices of composers trying to catch their interior life through their music, as music became more of a reflection of the identity of the composer. 

This music definitely challenged my expectations, but I appreciated what it tried to achieve and the skill of the musicians in trying to convey these musical ideas through their playing. Though I don’t think that I will be listening to this type of music in my daily life, I would encourage people in this class to listen to music that really steps outside the box and challenges our preconceptions of what music should sound like. 

On March 4th I watched a performance by the UBC early music chamber ensembles. This performance showcased instrumental works from the early Baroque period. As we have studied this period in our class, it was definitely interesting to see period in live performance. The music was brought to life by watching it performed live, and was made more authentic by using the instruments that would have been used in the period, such as the harpsichord. Having never heard or seen this instrument in person, the addition of it to the performance really transported me into the experience.

The program featured music by Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch, Antonio Vivaldi, and Carl Stamitz. The pieces were mainly played by small ensembles, either trios, quartets or quintets, which reminded me of the how we learned that pieces that used big ensembles, such as the concerto grosso or B Minor mass by Bach, were only played on special occasions, and used festive orchestras. It definitely imparted a more intimate version of Baroque music than some of the grand music we looked at in class. The harpsichord mainly played the accompaniment for the strings and winds instruments that played more of the melody in these pieces. In that it played the accompaniment it reminded me of the basso continuo that we looked at in some pieces in class, playing a sparse underlying melody line that supported the soloists that were playing the main melodies on top and provided the main rhythmic structure. Some pieces also had low string instruments, such as cellos, join the harpsichord in accompanying the soloists.

The pieces fit mainly in the prima practica part of Baroque music that was described by Montiverdi, with the different instruments imitating the melodic line of the instrument that came before them, using imitative polyphony, and sounding quite fugue-like. The music was quite upbeat and lively, but also sounded measured and not too intense. I think the mixture of the  instruments, with the more tempered and steady harpsichord keeping the melody grounded and solid, against the more lively and flighty solo instruments, such as the violin in the Trio Sonata in B Minor by Telemann, and the flutes in the Sonata corellisante VI by Telemann. My favourite piece performed was the Quartetto in F Major by Carl Stamitz, as it used the most instruments of the pieces performed, with an oboe, horn, violin, cello, and harpsichord, and had a more full and rich sound due to this mix of instruments. The piece had three movements: Allegro, Andante, and Presto. I appreciated how the oboe, which took the central role of the main melodic line, sounded alongside the violin and the horn with these instruments playing in both a way that supported the oboe line, but also imitated and played off of this melodic line, morphing it into different musical ideas. The violin and cello almost did a call and response with the oboe line, with the oboe introducing a musical line, and the violin responding in a way that transformed that line.

All in all, I enjoyed seeing this performance by UBC’s early music chamber ensembles. It was interesting to see this music being performed in this intimate setting and being done in a way that aimed for an authentic experience of this music. I also greatly appreciated seeing the UBC student’s interpretation of these pieces and the craft that they brought to playing these intricate pieces of music.

On March 6th I attended the Brazz jazz ensemble performance, one of the wednesday noon hour concerts at the school of music. As a lover of jazz music I was excited to watch this performance, and glad I had the opportunity to see it at UBC. The ensemble, made up of all Brass instruments, hence the name Brazz, played a selection of jazz arrangements ranging from jazz standards, to a Willie Nelson number and more contemporarily written pieces. Using a vibrant mix of trumpets, trombones, french horns, euphoniums, tuba and piano, bass and drums to accompany, Brazz’s large ensemble created a rich big band sound, immersing everyone listening in the dynamic and punchy sounds of the brass instruments.

Unlike some of the other smaller jazz ensembles that I have seen, who practice more improvising and musicians taking turns soloing, this big band ensemble played more similarly to how I would imagine an orchestral ensemble, with a very rehearsed, tight sound. Despite this, surprisingly to me the conductor Fred Stride, who was also the pianist, did little to really lead the musicians, only really giving them the initial rhythm and cue to start playing, and then making sure that they all finished together. For me this really showed how professional and in tune with each other these musicians were. They worked together like a collective organ with the rhythm section providing a steady driving beat that allowed the other musicians to keep in perfect time together. This more orchestral sound, also could be due to how the musicians playing were a mixture of professional working jazz musicians, and classical musicians who would be more familiar playing fully written orchestral scores, as opposed to the more loosely written jazz arrangements.

The program included the songs: A Sleeping Bee, Fanfare for the Common Man, Jitterbug Waltz, El Camino Real, Higher Groovin’, Nite Life, and Close Your Eyes. I thought this program really showcased the range of musical textures that can be achieved by brass instruments, with a mix of more slower tempoed ballads, swing numbers, and upbeat latin inspired numbers. I particularly enjoyed the song Higher Groovin’ written by the conductor Fred Stride, as it had many changes in meter throughout the song, giving it a highly energetic sound, which you could tell the musicians were very aware of, and imparted an energy onto the audience that kept them on the edge of their seats. I was also very appreciative to hear the solo musicians that were featured in the ensemble, as they were able to take musical motifs from each song and work within the key structure to produce improvised solos. It reminded me of the cadenza that we discussed in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, in which he left no written cadenza so soloists have to write their own. Similarly jazz solos are the opportunity for the musicians to showcase their musicality and skill and create a melody that is entirely their own to add to the piece.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this concert going experience and would recommend to anyone in this class to see Brazz if they have the opportunity!

I attended the musical revue Better Than This, which was a combination of an educational and musical experience. The show chronicled the evolution of women’s roles in musicals from the early 20th century, around the 1930s, to the present day. Considering how we are studying the development of western Art music I found it quite appropriate that this musical revue offered a perspective on the historical development of musical theatre, both from a musical perspective and social historical perspective. As we have discovered in class, the evolution of musical styles is often deeply influenced by what is happening socially and culturally, and learning this provides insight into the intentions of composers and their works.  This musical revue definitely highlighted this, using musical numbers to demonstrate the sense of time and place that they were written in.

Starting in the 1930s, the songs written were largely interchangeable songs, or standards, that were used for multiple stage productions, not always being originally written for specific musicals. The songs written for women in these musicals painted them into very specific, stock roles, that were easily recognizable to audiences. The musical demonstrated that these roles such as the ingenue, or femme fatale, were often one dimensional and that the subject matter of these songs were often written about men, not offering much insight into the complex interior of a female character. Moving forward in time, the musical tracked how women’s roles in musicals became increasingly complex and diverse, with a greater variety of female roles being portrayed, with stories written about women of varying ages and backgrounds.

Seeing this musical made me think back on the operas that we have studied in class, and how the female characters often fit into certain roles, such as the furies or witches in Orpheus, Dido and Aeneas, and The Magic Flute, and the role of Queen Dido who resigns herself to death after Aeneas leaves her. Seeing this musical in the context of this class, I realized that this was not just a musical theatre phenomenon, but one that goes much further back. Female roles are especially categorized in Opera as there are different types of singers, such as the coloratura soprano that we listened to in the Queen of the Night, or the more mezzo-soprano role of Queen Dido, audiences recognize these women in their roles and have expectations about who they are.

As this was a very low budget production, it was performed with minimal sets and costumes in a very small intimate venue. This reminded me of our discussions of Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s oratorios, where the set dressing was done with the music because they were unable to put on elaborate productions. These productions used recognizable musical genres, such as the French overture to signal the regality of the French court in Dido and Aeneas, and the sacred style imitative polyphony in “With drooping wings” that was used after Queen Dido’s death. The use of these musical genres helped to paint the visual picture by counting on the audience being able to recognize these musical genres and were they would have been used, signalling time and place. In a similar way, the musical revue relied on our recognition of musical theater tropes and different styles of musical theatre tunes, such as the jazz influenced style of the 1930s musical numbers, to paint the picture for the audience and create the characters without the use of elaborate costumes or sets.

Watching this musical revue in the context of this class shed new light for me on musicals, and allowed for even further understanding of the historical narrative that I was watching. I will definitely be paying more attention to the musicals I see in the future and how they work into this history and play with my expectations.