Author Archives: hui jeong jeong

I attended my friend’s Church Anniversary Concert on March 31. Although I had lots of previous exposure to hymns, I think learning more about the musical and historical aspects of them in class has given me more appreciation for the genre. The ensembles consisted of strings and vocals, and the songlist was 15 songs, ranging from church hymns to popular songs with lyrics that matched the theme of the concert.

The concert kicked off with the song Amazing Grace which had been arranged for a strings quartet (2 violins, 1 cello, and 1 viola). It is a song that is very well known, and I think the musical timbre and tone of the strings ensemble aided to portray the soft characteristic of the song. The song has a very simple and repetitive melody which may not justify it’s immense popularity worldwide, however, I think, from being there listening to the performance, it is its simplistic characteristic that makes the melody so much more familiar to the listeners. Similarly, I find that another song that was performed, You Raise Me Up, is also very simplistic and repetitive in its melody, but it is the simpleness that attracts its listeners. The strings ensemble were very good at portraying the mood of the song at its softer moments, while also providing a dramatic effect during the climaxes.

Towards the end of the concert, one of the final songs was Time to Say Goodbye, performed by the vocals. The vocals performed with a very operatic tone which helped set the tone and texture for the song to be very round. This is also a very popular and well-known song worldwide, and I personally find that this song also is very simple and repetitive in nature. However, it is also quite distinctive in its melody progressions which make the song easily identifiable. I think it was a good way to end off the night, both in terms of the musical components of the song, but also the nature of the lyrics.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concert, and was surprised at the mixture of church hymns, popular songs, and also classical music song choices used. I would recommend to other students to attend a church concert, regardless of religion, as it can give the opportunity for a different kind of musical appreciation that we may not find in other genres.

I attended the Oral Composition Ensemble on April 1, which kicked off the start of World Music Week at UBC. This was a very interesting concert for me as I was unfamiliar with all of the instruments that were used in the concert. The instruments all kind of looked like metal food plate covers, but made out of drum symbol material(?). From the introduction to the performance, the audience learned that this was the term-end performance for the class MUSC 530C and the pieces to be performed were all student-composed and were taught orally without any musical notation. I thought that was a very interesting concept as it required students to really understand the music, how rhythms interrelate, and the intent of the composer as they had to match the rhythm and pace of the work as a class. I thought this was similar to how our class is, as we also learn about how to appreciate music and the intent of the original composer. Especially in this class, some of the songs involved improv so it was very necessary for all the players to understand the motives of the composer in order to relay the same meanings.

The songs were composed by Andrea Ciona, Gina Choi, Putu Gede Sukaryana, Roan Shankaruk, Jon Bogert, Johnathan Chan, Ramsey Sadaka, Ivan Salazar Gonzalez, Emily Leung, and Taylor Hall. Most of the songs were untitled so I feel it’s better to list the composers instead of the song titles. The songs involved rhythm techniques from world traditions, such as the basics of solkattu and mora, as well as interlocking, interweaving, and phasing. I noticed that, because the songs were all learned, memorized, and practiced without notation, there was usage of comfortable grooves and rhythm processes that likely aided their memorization of the piece.

The first piece performed was composed by Andrea Ciona, and it explored a metric modulation using 4:30 polyrhythms. The song “Pass the Farm Fresh Butter” was appropriately titled as it reflected the vernacular catchphrase used to internalize the 4:3 polyrhythm. The song showcased a lot of repetition and return to the main idea, most likely to aid in memorization. This allowed for the piece to become familiar after the first few repeats, and set a good start to the performance as it familiarized the audience with how the class may have been run. We all were able to follow along after a few repeats which means it was successful in using appropriate rhythm calculation processes that aid memorization. It was also a fun twist to have Roan Shankaruk, a soprano, sing a solo mid-song as it added another flavour to the song. However, my favourite piece was likely Ulangin Ulangun composed by Putu Gede Sukaryana. The song showcased a texture resembling imitative polyphony, and also had sections in which the melodies would separate and there would be a main melody and one to accompany the main. The main melody in this song’s case was more along the lines of chord progression. There were also interesting moments in which it seemed the bpm had changed so it was a very fun song that kept my feet on their toes.

Overall, I recommend seeing this concert, or any of the other World Music Week concerts, as they tend to be much more casual and audience/casual-onlooker friendly.

P.s. Fun facts: Roan Shankaruk was also in the Student Composers’ Concert and Gina Choi was the professor/conductor for the Korean Traditional Drums concert.

I attended the Korean Percussion Ensemble Concert on April 2. Because we had great, sunny weather, the concert took place outdoors which helped it become more casual and interactive with the audience. As someone of Korean descent, I really enjoyed the performance. I had previously learned about traditional Korean music performance in a previous course I had taken, but it was my first time actually witnessing a performance.

The concert started off with a seated performance called “pungmulnori” and, like how Korean traditional music is, it involved a lot of awareness or rhythm and beats which allowed the players to play around the beats. I was surprised to see the variety of instruments however, as I had assumed there would only be janggus, as I was informed that this was a Korean drumming course. There were a variety of percussion instruments, ranging from traditional drums to traditional symbols. The first piece started off at a slow pace and slowly built up to a much faster one, representative of traditional pungmulnori.

The concert then progressed to samulnori in which the pieces are performed standing. The performance was very interactive as we were also told how we can participate to be a part of the performance. The conductor taught us all short words or phrases such as “jota” or “ulssu” as words that we can say to follow along when the players say them. The performance was very different than the other ones I had seen this semester as there was a lot of physical movement as part of the performance that aided to set the tone of the music. The songs were all very upbeat and lively, usually starting off slow and building a big, round sound altogether. The textures were mostly monophonic as there weren’t several melodies, but rather a single melody that increases in intensity and sound.

From my understanding of the course, it is intended for beginners so many of the students had never had any prior experience with Korean traditional drums. Because of this, I was so impressed by the level of performance that they were able to display. Many of the students even had multiple instruments that they were assigned to, so I think it was fascinating to see how much talent we have at our school, both the students that were in the class, and the professor that lead those students. Something that I was even more impressed by was that the professor of the course was actually a student that was a performer in the concert I attended the day before for another grad school-level class.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concert as it was a form of traditional art that I had learned of, but only got to really experience today. I definitely recommend seeing the rest of the World Music Week at UBC, and consider even taking the class if it fits your schedule next year.

On March 18, I attended the UBC Composers’ Concert from the UBC School of Music. The concert showcased songs composed by the UBC music students, and it was my first time attending consisting only of student-composed songs. At first, I found that some of the songs seemed a bit more abstract and rough around the edges when the concert first started, but I found many of the songs endearing and to have a charm of their own, even if they’re not as ‘perfect’ as the songs we may be used to listening to. Regardless, it was undeniable the amount of talent and potential the students had, and I really do look forward to attending more or these student-composed concerts later in the future.

The repertoire consisted of five songs: “29^th Avenue Station”, “Second Beach”, “Night Piece”, “Chance Encounter”, and “Avdiutt”. These songs were mostly not performed by the composer, which I found very surprising, with the exception of “Chance Encounter”, but she also had accompaniment. I was really surprised at the amount of talent, as I noticed that some of the student composers had composed different songs performed by different instruments. I found that for their young age, they had great musical sense to be able to compose songs for various kinds of instruments.

My favourite piece probably has to be Avidutt. While the other songs had only about one to three performers, Avidutt had seven, making it the largest ensemble of the concert. There were three singers that produced very interesting sounds, some even imitating laughter. They also would repeat after each other in a manner that would remind one of imitative polyphonic texture. While, there was a short intermission as we had to wait for the string players to arrive, I think it was very worth it as the mimicking done by the singers, and the accompaniment of the strings seemed very abstract, but also representative of the creative nature of the composing student. It was a good way to end the show by displaying how talented the UBC music students really were, both the composers and the players.

I would definitely like to recommend this concert to other people and other students, as I think it’s very eye-opening to witness the amount of talent we have at our school, and it’s very inspiring to see other students be able to make contributions, such as producing new music, in their field of study from such a young age.

I attended the Brazz jazz ensemble performance on March 6. It was one of the Wednesday Noon Hours at the UBC School of Music, so it was just one hour long and during a lunch period. As someone who was not too interested in jazz, I wanted to give this performance a shot to see if it could captivate even someone like me who doesn’t usually look for jazz music to listen to. I’m glad I saw it, and in particular this one, because the concert seemed fairly informal so there was humour being thrown around and I really enjoyed how much fun it looked like the performers were having. Rather than showing a pressure to do their absolute best, it seemed more casual, which does not mean non-rehearsed, which I appreciated. It seemed like the players were very experienced in what they do, and so they were able to have more fun playing.

The ensemble consisted of various brass instruments, such as the trumpets, trombones, base trombones, french horns, euphoniums, and tubas, as well as a piano, bass, and drums to act as accompaniment. The sound was quite large for the hall size, which I believe is why many of the trumpets had trumpet mutes on, to ensure the sound would not be overwhelming. As jazz often is, the played set had very many vibrant and energetic songs, which made it fun to listen along to.

The program consisted of: “A Sleeping Bee”, “Fanfare for the Common Man”, “Jitterbug Waltz”, “El Camino Real”, “Higher Grooving’”, “Nite Life”, and “Close Your Eyes”. I appreciated that, while sticking to a fairly consistent theme throughout the concert, the chosen songs displayed different sides of jazz. Some were very upbeat, while others very a bit more laidback. Out of these, I especially enjoyed “A Sleeping Bee” because it was very upbeat and I felt that it was a really good way to start the concert and prepare the listeners to be introduced to the world of jazz. I felt that the sound seemed very diverse and rich, and from reading the program, this may be a result of the ensemble having players from various backgrounds. I noticed that some of the musicians had a jazz background, while some had a classical one. While they may seem very different, I think these varying backgrounds allowed for a richer sound and one that you wouldn’t easily find elsewhere.

I personally enjoyed this concert thoroughly, and I recommend that anyone, even someone who isn’t particularly interested in jazz, as I was, attend one of these Brazz concerts if they have the chance.