Wind Ensemble Concert Analysis

On Friday, October 9, 2015, the Moore’s Opera House presented a performance by the Wind Ensemble. The Wind Ensemble consisted of many wind instruments as well as six percussion players. The program offered six different pieces. All musical compositions included different dynamics and tempos; as well as each piece having its own genre to create an entertaining orchestra concert. The first piece that was performed was the “Rocky Point Holiday” (1996) by Ron Nelson. In the introduction, the piece can quickly be identified as fortissimo, (ff) but as the composition progresses the ensemble would play as soft as pianissimo (pp). Overall, there is a huge contrast in dynamics that creates intensity throughout the work which leads to the climax. The …show more content…
2” ““Symphony of the Winds”” (1970). The piece was more bizarre than the others as it had more of a spooky theme that related to a Halloween theme. The piece consists of three movements: “Moderato comodo: The Torrid Winds of Veiled Portents.” “Aria: Dark Winds of Lonely Contemplation,” is the second movement and the last movement in the work is “Fuga: The Winds of Re-birth and Vitality.” All movements differed in many ways, the first movement was mostly polyphonic and ranged from soft to loud, which was created by a crescendo. The second movement, compared to the first, was much softer and slower in tempo. The movement begins as monophonic and then becomes homophonic as more instruments become involved. The changes in dynamics were a lot sudden in the second movement, there would be a crescendo and rapidly go down to a diminuendo. The final movement was faster in tempo, compared to the two beginning movements. The last movement mostly involved a lot of repetition, while the other movements had more of a variation. Overall, this was most likely my least favorite piece of the night. I have never been a fan of long musical compositions as my mind tends to wander off during the performance. I would have preferred if the director would have decided to only use one movement of the symphony, but on the other hand, I was really impressed with the performers ability to …show more content…
Just like the march performed right before the George Washington Bicentennial March, the piece was mostly forte (f) and fortissimo (ff), I honestly wouldn’t even doubt the composer used fff. The piece was slightly faster in tempo and began as homophonic. By the end, the texture was polyphonic. The title of the piece was very interesting to me as it included the name of the first president of the United States. According to a Wind Band, the march was composed to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of America’s first president. In conclusion, I felt like this was the best work to end the whole orchestra concert with as it was very energetic, every instrument was greatly involved, and overall grabbed the audiences’