Sebastian Junger

Imagine your sitting in the class room reading a boring book that was picked out by some not so fun adult,you sit there and try and read itbut end up quittingthe bookand never picking it up again have you ever had this problem? Well you wouldn’thave this problem if that boring adult had picked the book HuckleberryFinn like are great teacher Ms, Amato did, but after reading this great book I had to ask myself onequestionshouldthis book be read in classrooms today?If so what could be the downfall…

As with any other event, Western sporting events constantly face competition from around the City of London, whether it be direct or indirect. Probably the biggest competitors that Western Athletics has are the London Knights and London Lightning, which are the city’s hockey and basketball teams, respectively. However, Western has many advantages over these competitors. The first of these is that Western Athletics games are free for students to attend, while attending a professional team’s game…

Peri’s Dafne and Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Although a little faded, opera is still used and well loved today like the hits by Andrew Lloyd Webber ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Cats’. One composer, whose music shaped an era and today, is Johann Sebastian Bach. Heavily inspired by the church in earlier life, Bach created a movement of powerful organ centred compositions. One magnificent chorale of Bach’s from his ‘St Matthew Passion’ later had its melody reworked by the famous Paul Simon under…

The period from the middle of the 18th century to the early 19th century was the time that contained great historical changes over the world. In the 18th century, a new idea of the economic system was claimed by Adam Smith and people started to be concerned about broader educations. Because of this reason, a humanitarian movement was led by French philosophers, such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, which is known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment aimed that individuals had rights,…

Juxtaposition is where the music is placed together to give a contrast effect. There are two main instances of juxtaposition, which Bach used in his composition. First one is simultaneous juxtaposition is where the two voices play at the same time and can be heard as two contrasting sound. Bach registered this mostly on his organ pieces, which many of the other composers did not do that much. He also used the simultaneous juxtaposition for an instrumental ensemble. Doubling the instruments…

On November 3, 2015 I sat in the red velvet stadium seating of the west campus performance hall for the performance of Isaac Bustos and Mariana Gariazzo. Both performers are faculty of the Texas A&M Performance Studies department. The pieces performed varied from solo pieces and duet performances. The theme of the presentation was titled “the influence of folk music in classical repertoire”. The pieces performed included: Prelude 1 and 2 of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasilerias #5 by…

Last week I had the privilege of witnessing an hour performance of “Cello Suites: Bach and Britten” at hosted by the Canadian Opera Company at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitehere at the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts. The performance consisted of Joesph Johnson, the principle cellist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The program that afternoon, Johnson produced intense sounds for an hour by performing two pieces cello solo works of inspired from the Baroque period and the 20th century.…

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere,” is a quote from Frank A. Clark that Ludwig van Beethoven can most likely agree to. Throughout his life, Beethoven wasn’t dealt the easiest hand and he was able to overcome this in order to become the success he is known as today. In turn, some may claim that Beethoven would have made it “farther” in life if it wasn’t for these “distractions”; however, without these “distractions, or obstacles, Beethoven wouldn’t have…

Antonio Vivaldi, writer of several unique musical pieces throughout his career, was a composer most commonly associated with the Baroque period (ca 1600-1750). He is seen as one of the many artists that helped contribute to this specific era of music. Throughout his career as a composer, Vivaldi did not fail at attempting to incorporate the Ritornello form, seen throughout the majority of the Baroque period, into many of his works. Vivaldi is most commonly known for his violin concerto “Spring”,…

Myriads of characteristics defined the art and music of the Renaissance. It was a time of exploration in both canvas and composition. First and Foremost, the Renaissance was a time where thinkers began to question the church, as well as rediscovering the roman idals. The art of the time period is the best physical example of this change. Looking from Medieval art to the art produced in the Renaissance, there are definitely extreme visual differences that set the Renaissance artists apart from…