Negotiable instrument

was the best played instrument of the night. The güiro was being played by one of the females. She was incredibly good at it. Small instruments like the güiro, the claves tambouring or maracas don’t really stand out much, but this lady made it happen. In-between songs, she was switching back and forth from the metallic güiro to the traditional and one. She was really good with both, but she was better with the metallic güiro. I was really impressed by it. The bigger instrument were played by the…

I mentally groan when I realize that my neon yellow sports bra was visible underneath my black orchestra dress. There had been little time for me to change after I finished winning both my singles and doubles matches before rushing to the auditorium. Not to mention that I still had to help friends study for the physics and chemistry tests after this. But as the orchestra strikes the first note, I smile softly - I would not trade this for anything else. At Northwestern, I would not have to. With…

Some people believe that walking around a field while playing notes through an instrument doesn’t use prowess or energy. Some simply believe it’s just not “sport like.” Jerod Smith, (2015) band director at Granville High School said in an interview “I believe that it is as athletic as many sports but that it is not actually a sport”(Smith)…

When I was first presented this task I questioned my ability to describe, and fully understand music. I have had a love for music since I was born, and have been playing it consistently since the age of five. I played alto/soprano saxophone in band for over eight years, and was drum major my senior year of high school. Not once in any of my experiences of living through music have I ever questioned my understanding of it, until that is, I was asked to describe and analyze pieces in the form of a…

When I was in the fifth grade they asked us what instrument we wanted to play I said clarinet my mom said viola; and ever since I've played the viola. From the day I picked up my instrument I knew that music was going to have a huge impact on my life, and it has. Music is there one thing that I can count on to turn my bad day to a good day. Music is the one thing that I know can stay constant in my life. It's the one way I know I can express myself and not be judged for it and be okay Music…

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov begins Scheherazade with “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship.” To further demonstrate how Rimsky-Korsakov tells a story, the YouTube video will be added to aid in aural understanding, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQNymNaTr-Y; time markings will refer to the listed video. At 0:18, the video begins with the strings in unison marked pesante, along with a deep, bellowing brass section. This marks the introduction of the sultan’s theme. This is followed by woodwinds holding a…

On the evening of February 21, 2018, I attended a Jamey Aebersold live jazz concert featuring Howard Levy and Chris Siebol at the music building at UIC. Since, I had never been to a jazz concert prior to this one, I did not know what to expect, but since it was my first time, I was excited. In my opinion, the evening’s program was nicely presented. The musicians started by introducing themselves, Howard Levy, an American multi-instrumentalist who switched off with playing the harmonica and the…

When looking at musical piece from a deeper perspective than just how it sounds, it is easy to observe that the piece is telling a story most of the time. Other times, it is much more difficult to analyze the piece from a storytelling perspective. For example, the messages of songs without lyrics are understandably harder to interpret. Looking at music from that perspective shows how music can be identified as a narrative. A theory developed by Walter Fisher called narrative paradigm explains…

The string quartet has been one of the predominant genres of chamber music since the year of 1759. The string quartet consists of four string instruments, usually with two violins, a viola and a cello which performed structured symphonies in the form of four movements. The first movement in Sonata form, Allegro, in the tonic key; the second movement is a slow movement, in a related key; the third movement is a Minuet and Trio, in the tonic key; and the fourth movement is often in Rondo form or…

without breaking the rhythm they had and even occasionally transform their instrument to produce the sound of guitar and piano. The thing I noticed during the performance was that the musicians were trying to voice out the sounds of nature by their music. Some of the sounds I listened were the sound of waterfall, wind, and a mixed sound of an airplane, and a fly. They even sometimes used the unusable parts of their instrument to produce naturally occurring sounds. Overall what I understood from…