I attended a traditional concert last week. This type of show was an orchestral performance at the University of Illinois’s Student Center East Theater. The stage had gold and brown lighting illuminating the instrumentalists. The rest of the theatre had a low ember glow lighting, blue that created a sense of ease and relaxation. Towards the center of the center of the show, the floor seating arrangement was a stair-like stacking of seats from the fore to the rear.
The classical music played by the orchestra band was slow, meticulous and riddled with relatively fast and dramatic instances of loud provoking musical sounds. The whole spectacle created a sense of tranquility followed by a slight rush, all in different amplitudes. It reminded me of the reality of life itself, the highs and the lows. Besides, the seats were spaced from each other by almost two feet which made it quite comfortable to move about and with the stair-like arrangement, cases of obstruction from persons walking across the floor area were at a minimum. Overall, the theatre proved to be very comfortable and captivating. Just before the performance began, the lights were dimmed to a soft gold the whole audience fell to a buzzing hush. This ambiance created a relaxed scene which made the performers look like they were preparing to perform at the setting of the sun.
My favorite works have to be the breathtaking performances by the violinist. His movement and sound variations between the high pitch and fast sound are perfections. The works performed by Jazz Ensemble as well as Jon Faddis were terrific and quite exquisite. It was a deviation to our millennial favorite culture music and required an ear attentive to detail. I learned a lot concerning instruments, unity, variety importance, tempo, rhythm, as well as melody. Moreover, I learned so much regarding aspects of music, and the history of the music played. The combined performance of the artists was a collaboration of sounds, like that of an entire choir entangling and disentangling from each other in movements that are swift. In general, I quite enjoyed the performances for the day.
I did not enjoy the work of the pianist. He did not stop for some attendees to clap in between the piece sections. Additionally, the performers did not use body languages to interact with each other. For example, shake the heads or signal using the hands when wanting the pianist to start or stop. I did not like the way it was played since the performers were supposed to pause in some instances to let individuals clap (Deutsch 7). Also, they were supposed to show their satisfaction of the audience, in several times, allow the beats to pause to let the audience participate in the singing.
The piece of “The Pearl Fishers” can be considered to be an intense, as well as dramatic use of fluctuating dynamics. A sudden change of the piano absorbed the crescendo. While playing the piece, Jon Faddis was very emotional. The effective use of rests made the piece unique. The music flowed with a great rhythm. In the piece of “Orphee et Eurydice,” the harmony was much obscured. In this piece of work, the theme trying to be presented was as if fireworks were going off. All keys of the piano were efficiently used since they were ever changing. On the other hand, the last piece started slowly and eventually started building up.
Work Cited
Deutsch, Diana, ed. Psychology of music. Elsevier, 2013.
