Performance Report II
Introduction:
I attended Side Show the musical April 16, Friday night at eight p.m. in UTD's Johnson Performance Hall. The performace Hall was almost, if not entirely full. The director of the performance
began with an introductory speech and spoke of the great efforts to put on the show, the music culture that surrounds this performance is unique.
Although not know to be a liberal arts college, UTD has talented students in the arts program. UTD has been criticized as a "engineering and science" university,
this music strives to break the mold on that stereotype.
Music:
The music of the entire performance was a musical, even broadway type performanc. There were lead vocalists singing melody or a solo with the accompaning chorus
behind them. The chorus consisted of approximately twenty or so performers, male and female, who gave a very full texture to the overall sound of the song. There
was an accompaning instrumental ensemble at the back of the set consisting of a few alto saxes, oboes, trumpets, a tuba, a rhythm section, and flutes. Most of the
dialogue between the actors was even sung instead of spoken with no accompinament. The twins often sung harmonized duets, with one singing melody and the other
harmony, sometimes switching parts. The instruments, since there werent very many in the ensemble, often had solo type parts, were maybe the trumpet would sound, so the instruments played a vital role in the overall performance, they weren't just background noise. The conductor of the ensemble had a television screen of the front of the stage in front of him, in order that he remained in time with the dancing and singing of the entire performance.
Performers:
The performers were dressed in various costumes. The twins wore dresses and matching attire, with wigs to help create the 1930's mood. There was the ring leader of the side show dressed up in his circus garb, and each freak dressed in a costume according to his "abnormality." The lizard man was covered in green paint and slivered around. he cannibal was is loins and pranced around like a ravenous beast. There was the snake lady with her snake costume on her, the womanizer with his two gypsies. there was also an assortment of "regular"people dressed in 1930's clothing to represent the crowd that came to see the "freak show." I was also intrigued by the microphone location. The performers seemed to have their microphones on their foreheads, the cannibal man had it taped to the side of his face, but the black dot on all of the performers foreheads was distracting. The performers also interacted heavily with each other on the stage, they danced together, moved around the stage, spoke and sang to each other to create the performance.
Audience:
Most of the audience were students, with some friends and families of the performers, anyone is welcome, the play was a very inclusive event, the audience stood in standing ovation at the end of the performance. The canninbal man actually jumped into the audience at one point during the performance right in front of me! Many of the friends of the performers also were quite exuberant during the performance, the girl beside me was laughing hysterically everytime her friend would sing.
Time and Space:
The Friday performance being the second performance seemed to bring some energy to the performance, yet I would argue that the final performance on Saturday was much more energetic.
Conclusion:
Side Show the musical was a performance that involved theatrics, choral performance, and instrumental accompaniament. The actors's sang, danced, and engaged with the audience. There were many visually appealing props and costumes to engange and intrigue the audience, and the large chorus of singers created a very rich texture for the musical performance.
Works Cited:
Performance:
Side Show. By Russell, Bill. Music By Henry Krieger Perf. Robin Clayton, Emily McCoy, Ruben Rosales, Bryan Thompson, Davis Rogers, Lakshman Kashyap Manjunath,. Cond. Winston Stone. University Theatre, Richardson. April 16 .
(Side Show).
Program Notes:
Russell, Bill. Program notes. Side Show. 4/19/10. Richardson: University Theatre.
(Russell).
Monday, April 26, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
extra blog posts
hopefully this doesnt take away from my blog grade!
me and my friend about a year ago maybe longer!
parody of the crossroads film...my friend is ralph macchio im steve vai...its supposed to be a joke guys...i can really do the bend at the end!
me and my friend about a year ago maybe longer!
parody of the crossroads film...my friend is ralph macchio im steve vai...its supposed to be a joke guys...i can really do the bend at the end!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Blog post 12 : Alternative Rock
Although any attempt to try to draw a line at what any genre, sub-genre will have its critics I will attempt to at least give an example of a few bands that could be considered to fit within the "alternative" rock genre and I will explain why I have made these characterizations.
Some components of alternative rock would be majority of the time one or two guitars usually distorted. although not as much a a metal band. The distortion is either fairly light compared to metal, or more specifically an overdriven tone. This type of distortion is usually given by pushing a tube amp past its comfortable range an breaking up the tone, or distorting it with a mass amount of signal to create a very thick, warm tone to the distortion, differing much from a metal guitar tone that usually has extremely high gain, and drops the middle frequencies to help emphasize the low end, that gives the gut punching tone. Now of course this just a generalization, many alternative bands will really crank the distortion.
Another feature of alternative rock would be the emphasis on very lyrical and melodic type of vocals. Unlike metal for instance, the lyrics are very clearly articulated, and the lead vocalist sings very melodically. There is an emphasis on the chorus for the most part, this is where the line gets hazy between alternative rock and pop rock, the chorus is usually pretty catchy and easy for the crowd to remember and sing along too.
The musical aspects of the alternative music would include a rather simple rhythmic pattern, not to say its limited to that, but a solid 4/4 time signature with a subdivided snare hit every two beats with a sixteenth subdivided symbol can fit thousands of rock songs, of course so many variations occur here depending on the mood of the song, solo's in alternative music are rather limited. Unlike classic rock, metal, and glam metal from the eighties, there is a less emphasis on musical virtuosity. Not to say that alternative rock is not difficult to play, the standard type of rock, with a screaming guitar solo after the bridge that demonstrates the lead guitarists amazing speed at running scales, arpeggios, sweeping, tapping(Mr> Van Halen) these techniques are just generally not there. There might be a lead guitar solo, but generally it is a more simplistic powerfull melodic solo, the phrase less is more might fit here, the emphasis is less on technicality, and more on musical expression and dynamics.
here is a song by the almost that almost that incorperates many of the aspects of alternative rock I was speaking about, a catchy anthem like chorus, a simple drum pattern, mostly overdriven chords played by the guitars, and the lead guitar playing more expressive arpeggios with a very expressive, spacey type tone created by alot of reverb and delay
another example here is flyleaf-chasm
this song is a little "heavier" than the first, by that I mean the distortion and gain on the guitars are pushed up higher, the rhythm and lyrics are more agressive, yet it still retains that relatively catchy chorus and lyrical component.
lastly is thrice - in exile
here we see many of the same similarities, an overdriven guitar playing a repeated arpeggio, a catchy chorus, rather simple drum pattern
Some components of alternative rock would be majority of the time one or two guitars usually distorted. although not as much a a metal band. The distortion is either fairly light compared to metal, or more specifically an overdriven tone. This type of distortion is usually given by pushing a tube amp past its comfortable range an breaking up the tone, or distorting it with a mass amount of signal to create a very thick, warm tone to the distortion, differing much from a metal guitar tone that usually has extremely high gain, and drops the middle frequencies to help emphasize the low end, that gives the gut punching tone. Now of course this just a generalization, many alternative bands will really crank the distortion.
Another feature of alternative rock would be the emphasis on very lyrical and melodic type of vocals. Unlike metal for instance, the lyrics are very clearly articulated, and the lead vocalist sings very melodically. There is an emphasis on the chorus for the most part, this is where the line gets hazy between alternative rock and pop rock, the chorus is usually pretty catchy and easy for the crowd to remember and sing along too.
The musical aspects of the alternative music would include a rather simple rhythmic pattern, not to say its limited to that, but a solid 4/4 time signature with a subdivided snare hit every two beats with a sixteenth subdivided symbol can fit thousands of rock songs, of course so many variations occur here depending on the mood of the song, solo's in alternative music are rather limited. Unlike classic rock, metal, and glam metal from the eighties, there is a less emphasis on musical virtuosity. Not to say that alternative rock is not difficult to play, the standard type of rock, with a screaming guitar solo after the bridge that demonstrates the lead guitarists amazing speed at running scales, arpeggios, sweeping, tapping(Mr> Van Halen) these techniques are just generally not there. There might be a lead guitar solo, but generally it is a more simplistic powerfull melodic solo, the phrase less is more might fit here, the emphasis is less on technicality, and more on musical expression and dynamics.
here is a song by the almost that almost that incorperates many of the aspects of alternative rock I was speaking about, a catchy anthem like chorus, a simple drum pattern, mostly overdriven chords played by the guitars, and the lead guitar playing more expressive arpeggios with a very expressive, spacey type tone created by alot of reverb and delay
another example here is flyleaf-chasm
this song is a little "heavier" than the first, by that I mean the distortion and gain on the guitars are pushed up higher, the rhythm and lyrics are more agressive, yet it still retains that relatively catchy chorus and lyrical component.
lastly is thrice - in exile
here we see many of the same similarities, an overdriven guitar playing a repeated arpeggio, a catchy chorus, rather simple drum pattern
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Robert Johnson: The crossroads: Delta blues
A little robert johnson
cool cigar box similar to delta blues slide
I actually have this amp at home!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Blog post 11: Music Culture of the Gullah People
The Gullah people are a culture of black Americans from South Carolina and Georgia. They were able to maintain there heritage from colonial times, where they were former slaves and rice cultivators. The Gullah tell African folk tales, weave African baskets and make walking sticks. Some aspects of the culture also include drum beats during burial services in order to call people in. The Gullah believe in spirits and many of their beliefs are from their African ancestors. They believe in witches and possession which is reflected in there ceremonial type of music.
The music is participatory in nature, where performers and audience are almost one in the same. There are multiple drums in the performance, with polyrhythmic beats going on. there is dancing and screaming from some women. All of the people are clapping and taking turns in the dancing circle. The Gullah are very charismatic and one can see the assimilation of cultures once the Gullah slaves embraced Christianity, yet maintained there worship style that can still be seen in the charismatic movements today.
The music is participatory in nature, where performers and audience are almost one in the same. There are multiple drums in the performance, with polyrhythmic beats going on. there is dancing and screaming from some women. All of the people are clapping and taking turns in the dancing circle. The Gullah are very charismatic and one can see the assimilation of cultures once the Gullah slaves embraced Christianity, yet maintained there worship style that can still be seen in the charismatic movements today.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Performance Report 1
Introduction:
The performance event that I attended was at my local church. While I am usually the one performing, I had the privilege to take the week off and analyze my friend Kyle for this report. I will discuss the various musical aspects of this essay and also address the fact that this was the first time our church did a bilingual service. Our church ministers to a government subsidized apartment complex that is predominantly Hispanic. So in their honor we held a service in their native tongue, which for many members of the church this was way out of their comfort zone, which added an interesting element to my report. The performance took place took place on Easter Sunday at ten in the morning in our church building. Although Kyle was the worship leader on acoustic guitar in front of the group, this performance is very participatory in nature. The style of worship in our church is much less watching say a rock concert, than it is to the leader directing his orchestra, in which you are a part of. Without people participating the performance is rather hollow. Many of the members were apprehensive about singing in a language they could neither understand or sing, and that anxiety somewhat permeated the atmosphere of the performance.
Music:
The performance repertoire consisted of many of our standard worship songs. Even the songs that were sung in Spanish were popular contemporary worship songs.(Performance notes) The contemporary worship genre is very broad but it generally means Christian artists performing songs of adoration or relation to God that are sung within a community of people, most of the songs are songs that have been written within the last 20 or so years, most of the songs can be heard on Christian radio today, and what is "contemporary" today will be "old school" tomorrow, so contemporary is relative, but there are some standard features of this music. Very common to this style of music is a strong, pulsatile, and repeating rhythm. The beat is generally designed so the group can "feel" the music, making it easy for clapping and dancing to. The chord progressions are generally in a I-IV-V progression, of course there are exceptions, and variations, but generally progressions are kept relatively basic so the audience, who may not be musically trained doesn't panic during a key change or and augmented chord or such, because harmonizing that with large numbers of people is difficult. The instruments that are generally used, and there are always exceptions are acoustic guitars (chordophones, with six strings) , electric guitars (electrophones, with six strings) a piano or keyboard, some form of rhythm such as a drum kit, a lead vocalist and potentially backup vocalists. The amount of instruments just depends on where you go, some church bands may be quite large, (Ive been in one that had four guitars) to one like the performance at my church that has only one acoustic guitar, each of which has its pros and cons and sets the mood for performance.
Audience:
By physical arrangement it appears that the guitarist is the performer (either sitting or standing facing the the group of people), and the church group audience,(Performance notes) which is true in a sense, but the mood of the performance is not focused on the performer or audience, it is sung to what Christians say " an audience of One" where the worship and singing is really a corporate praise and thank you to God. So it is entirely acceptable to never really even look at the performer because it is not so much about the individual but as the group as a whole coming together to sing one song, composed of many voices, to one Person.
Time and Space:
The time of the performance was ten in the morning on Easter Sunday in our church building which is a rented out space in a shopping center(Performance notes). Since it was Easter Sunday, the cornerstone of the Christian Faith, this performance was a particular one in general. The performance was also significant in that it was our first time to sing songs in Spanish and English. The crowd was apprehensive at first, but as the performance carried on, the mood lightened (especially during the English songs!)
Conclusion:
The bilingual service performance consisted of the typical contemporary worship style service, that added an element of variation to the culture, that demonstrates the cultures ability to adapt and change to accommodate to the people surrounding this culture in order to be as inclusive as possible without watering down why the culture gathers in the first place.
Works Cited:
Performance Notes taken from observation and past knowledge of music culture.
The performance event that I attended was at my local church. While I am usually the one performing, I had the privilege to take the week off and analyze my friend Kyle for this report. I will discuss the various musical aspects of this essay and also address the fact that this was the first time our church did a bilingual service. Our church ministers to a government subsidized apartment complex that is predominantly Hispanic. So in their honor we held a service in their native tongue, which for many members of the church this was way out of their comfort zone, which added an interesting element to my report. The performance took place took place on Easter Sunday at ten in the morning in our church building. Although Kyle was the worship leader on acoustic guitar in front of the group, this performance is very participatory in nature. The style of worship in our church is much less watching say a rock concert, than it is to the leader directing his orchestra, in which you are a part of. Without people participating the performance is rather hollow. Many of the members were apprehensive about singing in a language they could neither understand or sing, and that anxiety somewhat permeated the atmosphere of the performance.
Music:
The performance repertoire consisted of many of our standard worship songs. Even the songs that were sung in Spanish were popular contemporary worship songs.(Performance notes) The contemporary worship genre is very broad but it generally means Christian artists performing songs of adoration or relation to God that are sung within a community of people, most of the songs are songs that have been written within the last 20 or so years, most of the songs can be heard on Christian radio today, and what is "contemporary" today will be "old school" tomorrow, so contemporary is relative, but there are some standard features of this music. Very common to this style of music is a strong, pulsatile, and repeating rhythm. The beat is generally designed so the group can "feel" the music, making it easy for clapping and dancing to. The chord progressions are generally in a I-IV-V progression, of course there are exceptions, and variations, but generally progressions are kept relatively basic so the audience, who may not be musically trained doesn't panic during a key change or and augmented chord or such, because harmonizing that with large numbers of people is difficult. The instruments that are generally used, and there are always exceptions are acoustic guitars (chordophones, with six strings) , electric guitars (electrophones, with six strings) a piano or keyboard, some form of rhythm such as a drum kit, a lead vocalist and potentially backup vocalists. The amount of instruments just depends on where you go, some church bands may be quite large, (Ive been in one that had four guitars) to one like the performance at my church that has only one acoustic guitar, each of which has its pros and cons and sets the mood for performance.
Audience:
By physical arrangement it appears that the guitarist is the performer (either sitting or standing facing the the group of people), and the church group audience,(Performance notes) which is true in a sense, but the mood of the performance is not focused on the performer or audience, it is sung to what Christians say " an audience of One" where the worship and singing is really a corporate praise and thank you to God. So it is entirely acceptable to never really even look at the performer because it is not so much about the individual but as the group as a whole coming together to sing one song, composed of many voices, to one Person.
Time and Space:
The time of the performance was ten in the morning on Easter Sunday in our church building which is a rented out space in a shopping center(Performance notes). Since it was Easter Sunday, the cornerstone of the Christian Faith, this performance was a particular one in general. The performance was also significant in that it was our first time to sing songs in Spanish and English. The crowd was apprehensive at first, but as the performance carried on, the mood lightened (especially during the English songs!)
Conclusion:
The bilingual service performance consisted of the typical contemporary worship style service, that added an element of variation to the culture, that demonstrates the cultures ability to adapt and change to accommodate to the people surrounding this culture in order to be as inclusive as possible without watering down why the culture gathers in the first place.
Works Cited:
Performance Notes taken from observation and past knowledge of music culture.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Blog Post 10: Rossini: The Barber of Seville
Rossini in his Barber of Seville uses the symphony and voice to write a story. Rossini's overture is crisp and clear, and gradually increases in intensity as the piece seems to be ushering "out of control" The timbre of opera is warm, sometimes dark to create an intense tone, but along with the strong brass, the complimentary winds create a "airy" timbre quality. The rhythm is strong and pulsatile, the phrases often repeat, and build up gradually in intensity. The "harmonies aren't complex" but are simply composed to create a strong and succinct tone. There also seems to be a quality of call and response going on within the piece to help create it dialogue effect for the story. The different timberal colors of the different instruments go back and forth with each other and respond in similar, yet slightly varied forms of the main melody. The higher winds might take the melody up an octave, or add a slight ornamentation to the melody, or extend the melodic phrase in response to the first simple phrase often initiated by the brass, low-winds, and percussion. There is a main melody or phrase that is repeated over and over that will have slight variations and might change its location from the tonal, say raised to a minor third for added tension, or a fifth for added color, but the melody is simple, and can be recognized by humming that one part to some one and they will instantly recognize it.
I could not get the embedded code to come up on Youtube, they changed their formatting and the code is taking until eternity to pull up so I'll just give the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OloXRhesab0
I could not get the embedded code to come up on Youtube, they changed their formatting and the code is taking until eternity to pull up so I'll just give the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OloXRhesab0
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