Anna-Maria
Nowak
Critical Listening Essay
For centuries music has played a dynamic part in influencing people around the world from various places and backgrounds; music has and will continue to be at the core of human life. The King’s College Choir directed by Maestro Stephen Cleobury used musical elements to create an intriguing performance. The choir’s performance of Messiah written by G.F. Handel featured soloist Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Allan Clayton and Matthew Rose. The combination of the orchestra, choir and soloists stirred an abundance of emotions throughout the entire audience. The well attributed song Messiah, was performed to a high standard from both The King’s College Choir, the orchestra, and the soloist. The performance …show more content…
To begin with, the Kings College Choir shows a variety of dynamics throughout the performance. These dynamics help create a riveting performance. Throughout the performance elements of terraced dynamics, contrast, crescendos, diminuendos, and variations of forte and piano are used. Through the use of these elements the choir was able to to portray emotion to the audience which made the performance more entertaining. One movement that used crescendos and diminuendos to portray a captivating performance was “Comfort ye, My People.” The recitative for the tenor solo features soloist Allen Clayton who performs the solo with both crescendos and diminuendos. Crescendos are a increase in volume and diminuendos are a decrease in volume; both diminuendos and crescendos add musical contrast to the performance. Adding musical contrast can produce a more interesting and emotional performance. The soloist shows dynamic contrast in the beginning of the recitative when he adds a grand crescendo to the words “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your god; speak ye comfortably Jerusalem.” He continues with a few small crescendos and diminuendos throughout the rest of the recitative; these elements continue to help portray a deep sense of emotion. The text of “Comfort ye, My People” speaks of asking God to comfort …show more content…
Throughout the performance the performers use elements of diction such as clarity of text, mouth shape, word stress, vowel height and length. Through these musical elements they are able to create a captivating performance. In the movement “O thou Tellest Good Tidings to Zion” the clarity of the text helps create a riveting performance. Clarity of text allows the audience to understand and comprehend the lyrics better. The soloist ,Alice Coote, uses clear text throughout this aria to help share the joyous lyrics within the movement. The soloist’s voice sounds exciting and joyful as she sings, “O thou that tellest good tidings to zion, get thee up into the high mountain.” Her voice sounds exciting and joyful through the sharp use of diction in order to create clear text. The clarity of text allows the audience to experience the “good tidings” to both “Zion” and “Jerusalem” as stated in the text of the movement. Another element of diction that created a more fascinating performance was word stress. Word stress is when the performers put emphasis on certain words or lines. When the chorus sung the movement “And the Glory of the Lord” the word “glory” is stressed throughout the entire performance. When word stress is displayed in a song the performers most likely feels that word is important in creating an engaging performance, therefore the word is stressed. The
Nowak
Critical Listening Essay
For centuries music has played a dynamic part in influencing people around the world from various places and backgrounds; music has and will continue to be at the core of human life. The King’s College Choir directed by Maestro Stephen Cleobury used musical elements to create an intriguing performance. The choir’s performance of Messiah written by G.F. Handel featured soloist Ailish Tynan, Alice Coote, Allan Clayton and Matthew Rose. The combination of the orchestra, choir and soloists stirred an abundance of emotions throughout the entire audience. The well attributed song Messiah, was performed to a high standard from both The King’s College Choir, the orchestra, and the soloist. The performance …show more content…
To begin with, the Kings College Choir shows a variety of dynamics throughout the performance. These dynamics help create a riveting performance. Throughout the performance elements of terraced dynamics, contrast, crescendos, diminuendos, and variations of forte and piano are used. Through the use of these elements the choir was able to to portray emotion to the audience which made the performance more entertaining. One movement that used crescendos and diminuendos to portray a captivating performance was “Comfort ye, My People.” The recitative for the tenor solo features soloist Allen Clayton who performs the solo with both crescendos and diminuendos. Crescendos are a increase in volume and diminuendos are a decrease in volume; both diminuendos and crescendos add musical contrast to the performance. Adding musical contrast can produce a more interesting and emotional performance. The soloist shows dynamic contrast in the beginning of the recitative when he adds a grand crescendo to the words “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your god; speak ye comfortably Jerusalem.” He continues with a few small crescendos and diminuendos throughout the rest of the recitative; these elements continue to help portray a deep sense of emotion. The text of “Comfort ye, My People” speaks of asking God to comfort …show more content…
Throughout the performance the performers use elements of diction such as clarity of text, mouth shape, word stress, vowel height and length. Through these musical elements they are able to create a captivating performance. In the movement “O thou Tellest Good Tidings to Zion” the clarity of the text helps create a riveting performance. Clarity of text allows the audience to understand and comprehend the lyrics better. The soloist ,Alice Coote, uses clear text throughout this aria to help share the joyous lyrics within the movement. The soloist’s voice sounds exciting and joyful as she sings, “O thou that tellest good tidings to zion, get thee up into the high mountain.” Her voice sounds exciting and joyful through the sharp use of diction in order to create clear text. The clarity of text allows the audience to experience the “good tidings” to both “Zion” and “Jerusalem” as stated in the text of the movement. Another element of diction that created a more fascinating performance was word stress. Word stress is when the performers put emphasis on certain words or lines. When the chorus sung the movement “And the Glory of the Lord” the word “glory” is stressed throughout the entire performance. When word stress is displayed in a song the performers most likely feels that word is important in creating an engaging performance, therefore the word is stressed. The