Pit orchestra

On February 11 at 10:30am, I attended Aggieland Saturday, an open house for prospective students, and observed the Aggie band play. The band played a total of 4 songs and the last song being the Aggie War Hymn. Unfortunately, the performance didn’t contain the entire aggie band as I expected, but rather members from all the necessary subgroups were present. The key instruments were aerophones, membranophones, and idiophone. The major aerophones consisted of: clarinets, piccolos, trumpets,…

At this concert, the best music that I like is the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz which is the Op. 14, Reveries, Passions: Largo; Allegro agitato e appassionato assai (lively, agitated, and impassioned) which is movement no. 1. And also on this concert they played movement no. 2, A Ball:Valse, Allegro non troppo. It is Program symphony with five movements. Each movement has a story of it, such as Beethoven with his symphonies and movements. This music tells a story of an artist’s…

History, musical theatre, and rap sounds like a horrible combination. A combination that a history teacher might use to make their students more enthusiastic about their class. This is what came to mind when I heard of Hamilton for the first time. After hearing the music and later watching the show, however, it became apparent that Hamilton was successful in blending these elements into the wildy popular musical that it is now. It started when Lin-Manuel Miranda decided to read Ron Chernow’s…

When I first started watching the performance, I noticed that the performers were not dressed like normal musicians that I have watched before. They were wearing boots with spikes, sun glasses, and some even had colored streaks in their hair. They are performing very fast paced classical music. The Main musician in this performance is Nigel Kennedy. Nigel is a British Violinist, who is known for being on the the best violinist in the world. He also does not look like the normal classical violin…

As we learned from the previous assignment, Alvin Lucier is a composer of experimental music. This work August Moon is consisted of three instruments, which are horn, piano, and a string instrument that might be a cello. Entire music is composed of the similar patterns of playing. Piano, horn, and cello are playing as a trio every seven seconds. During the duration of the music, which is about fifteen minutes, the similar playing is repeated and each instruments paly their own role. The piano is…

Introduction The William Tell Overture is an overture to the opera, William Tell, which premiered in Paris on August 3, 1829, and was described by Hector Berlioz as a “symphony in four parts”. However, unlike traditional symphonies with distinct movements, the transitions in this overture were without breaks. This piece was composed by Gioachino Antonio Rossini and was the last opera he composed. Rossini was a transitionary figure of the Classical and Romantic period, well known for his operas…

Jeanie with the light brown hair (published in 1854) by Stephen Foster is performed by a tenor with piano accompaniment. The piano introduces the work with a short prelude starting on a high note then descending in conjunct intervals, briefly ascends from a low note to a note close to F. The piano then varies the prior phrase by descending from a high note with eighth notes then sustaining a note close to A. Following the prelude, the tenor begins the first section on with “I” on the high note…

The native American flute, a wooden instrument of the Native American indigenous tribes has been around for hundreds of years. No one knows the exact time reference to when they were first made or began. Certain native tribes believed the woodpecker was the first to make a flute, they would drill holes in a hollow tree branch looking for insects, and when a wind blew over the branch, sound was made. The Lakota people made what is known as the “Love Flute.” Young men would stand by the river with…

“No Place Like London,” Act 1, scene 1 from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim The orchestra enters with a full and resonant timbre, sounding the melodic theme “No place like London,” twice. The second echo ends on a peculiar chord, unresolved. The first soloist’s timbre is bright, energetic and full of hope, in contrast to the second soloist’s timbre that is dark. As the second soloist enters the music changes, the key shifting from major to minor. The second soloist sings in a lower register…

bridge, and body. The cello has four strings: A,D,G,and C. The strings are held by the bridge and when a string is plucked or bowed it sends vibration waves through the cello producing the sound. One of the most common uses for the cello is at an orchestra or quartet. The trumpet is part of the brass family and consists of valves, mouthpiece, lead pipe, tuning slide, and bell. Playing the trumpet requires a technique called “fingering”, which is a term for the fingers you need and valves to…