Introduction:
I, the author, am Michael Heise. In this article I shall attempt to describe a performance I attended on the campus of the University of Texas at Dallas. I hope to explain various foundational concepts of musical performances and how they relate to the event "Side Show: The Musical". Let me first admit that I am not an avid follower of musicals and the music culture surrounding them. Even though I am not an expert regarding the event's music culture, I am still capable of noting various aspects of this musical performance as well as the various aspects that genuinely surprised me. Now that I have established my background with this music culture I would like to give more specific information regarding exactly what performance I saw. It was a Friday evening of April 9, 2010 that I saw the performance. The performance was held in the university's theater. The performance was scheduled for eight o'clock; however, the performance started approximately three minutes late according to my watch. This was not a large delay and could have been caused by late arriving patrons and attendees. Hopefully this brief introduction shall be enough background information to help the reader understand the performance I saw as I explain the aspects of the performance.
Music:
The music consisted of a relatively small group of people playing the accompaniment as the actors sang the script as lyrics to the songs being played. Quite a few of the songs were light hearted and had relatively fast tempos to demonstrate feelings of happiness or joy. Some of the songs were slower in their tempo and expressed somber feelings such as loneliness or rejection, which were recurring themes in this particular musical. The direction of the various vocal talents changed from song to song, for instance one song had men singing one part and the women the other while other songs had groups of men and women singing together. Some songs would have only one singer while others would have many singers. The lead singers were primarily sopranos or tenors depending one which roles they played in the musical.
Performers:
The performers’ interaction with the crowd was astonishing. Normally when I attend an event that has a stage with side entrances to the stage I am accustomed to the performers entering from the stage's entrances; however, the performers entered the stage from the rear entrance where the audience is enters and exits. They had even sung their first song while still standing on the various elevated ledges next to the end seats. Since I was sitting in the fourth seat from the end I was very close to the performers as they began the show. The performance continued throughout the night without any noticeable mistakes. The performers must have practiced quite a bit to perform without any noticeable flaws. Furthermore, this was particularly astonishing to me since one of the performers was wearing elevated heal shoes throughout the performance and danced doing high kicks in close proximity and parallel with another performer in those shoes.
Audience:
Prior to the performances start the audience was rather restless. It seemed primarily filled with students of the university; however, there also seemed to be non-student and non-faculty attendees during the performance. The audience seemed to nearly fill the seats. I approximated about seventy five percent of the potential seats were filled. Once the musical began the audience watched tentatively and applauded the performance.
Time and Space:
This performance was held the Friday following the Thursday premier. The Thursday premier was free to all attendees while the performance I attended only to UTD faculty and students. Thus, I was impressed that there were what appeared to be several non-faculty and non-student attendees. Perhaps the large turn out was due in part to it being Friday and thus a day that most people have the evening free to do as they please.
Conclusion:
In summary, the performance was a little non-traditional in the way the performers entered the stage, but had some traditional elements in roles and they range of pitch that they sang and traditional in that the music is primarily used to support the plot.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
BTO Rock
So when doing a rock blog I thought I would use the following song since it will be familiar to a lot of people. It is Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Taking Care of Business". This song was released by Bachman Turner Overdrive in the mid seventies. The song is classic hard rock and since it is a rock song you can clearly hear the guitar. It was probably performed by a band slightly larger than your average rock band but still within the average number of players. The song's lyrics are humorous since they seem to me slightly contradictory, but that is probably part of the draw to this song. The song is about how a professional musician has a leisurely life style and taking care of business is fun for him. If you know how to count beats in music, then you will notice how this song like most rock music has a four beat cycle. Personally I have enjoyed music like this since I was a kid. My dad was a fav of a lot of different classic rock bands so I have heard music like this and many others as well. You might remember the add campaign by I think it was Home Depot had this as their song too. They were probably trying to pull from the nestalgia of the consumers.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Gullah
In the first video she was teaching the children about the music culture. She was attempting to continue the traditions of the music culture. In some respects you could say the the preservation of the music culture itself is a portion of the culture. Furthermore she focused on the importance of rhythm in the music culture. She also stated that another important aspect was the celebration within the culture. So self preservation, rhythm, and celebration are major aspects of the culture. They used drums heavily which makes sense in a rhythm heavy culture. There seems also a focus on freedom from slavery intrinsic within the music culture. Both videos contained speeches on the impact slavery had on the culture and how freedom is essential in this music culture.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
PerformanceReport1
Introduction:
In this paper I, Michael Heise, shall attempt to convey the fundamental music principles regarding the performance “Shakespeare in Song” as well as I understand them. Keep in mind that as I write this report that I am not attempting to criticize the performance or the performers; but, I am attempting to most accurately convey to the reader what was perceived in regards to my limited knowledge of this type of performance. This event occurred on the Friday of March twenty-sixth year two-thousand and ten. Its location was the on the main campus of the University of Texas at Dallas in the Erik Jonsson Academic Center in room number 2.604 known as the Jonsson Performance Hall. As one can probably guess due to the location of the performance, the performance was not performed by a professional troupe of art music performer, but was performed by our universities own local talent primarily if not exclusively. The performance was sung and acted by the UT Dallas Chamber Singers, Directed by UTD's Associate Dean for the Arts Kathryn Evans, piano accompaniment performed by Michael McVay whom also has affiliation with UTD, and costumes were due to the help of Karen Mitchell. There were slides shown on a screen during the performance; however, I do not know whom all to credit as provider for them. As per usual, this style of music is a lyrical form of poetry sung with music accompanying it. To my knowledge, in this Art Music style there are commonly two performers. A pianist would normally be accompanying a single vocal soloist; however, as stated above there were multiple singers since it was done by a UTD choir. This makes it somewhat nontraditional, but gave more variety and made the music seem closer to the Shakespearian plays it had been based upon.
Music:
The music varied quite a bit from piece to piece. Some pieces would have the performers singing in sub groupings, such as males or females, at different points in the song and others would be sung with solos, and several were sung with the full participation of the choir. Obviously such variations would change the vocal timbre of the songs depending upon the participation or lack there of by members of the choir. The texture of the music changed dependant on who is supposed to be the dominant musician during a given piece. Some songs were happy and had a fast tempo while others were more sullen in theme and had slow tempos.
Performers:
The performers were primarily college students that perform for the UT Dallas Chamber Singers; however, as stated above some of the performers, such as conductor, were staff and thus the age of the performers was ranged. All of the musical performers including the conductor had been dressed in costumes one would expect to see at a Shakespearian theater performance or at a renaissance fair. The performer’s initial positions were such that the pianist was seated at the piano on the left side of the stage from the audience’s point of view, the choir was standing in four progressively elevated rows near center stage facing the crowd, and the conductor was center stage in front of the choir facing the choir members so as to give them direction during the performance. The choir members would move as needed to allow soloists to move to the front of the stage as arranged. Up to four soloists were standing on the right side of the conductor at any point and one soloist might stand to the left side of the conductor.
Audience:
The night that I attended the seats were approximately half full. This estimation along with the estimation on the total number of seats suggests that around one hundred members were seated in the audience. Due to the stage and performer setup, if one followed the Opera’s standard of appropriate times to applaud, the most appropriate time to clap would be after a solo had been performed; however, the audience, as one might expect, was not fully aware of when to clap and thus the timing of applause was somewhat awkward. The conductor did attempt to a lot certain times for applause such as to instruct the audience on when to clap; but, not all members of the audience were necessarily aware of this attempt. Some comedic elements from the plays were used and the audience, in large, understood the humor and laughed during these moments as should be expected.
Time and Space:
Since this was the first live showing of this performance to a crowd, perhaps some elements could have been better polished such as a few minor slips during solos; however, on average this was a very well done performance.
Conclusion:
To best summarize this performance, I would state that it was a night filled with well known Shakespearian themed Art Music performances. It contained well versed songs and enjoyable humor that entertained the crowd as the evening progressed.
*UPDATE*
I had used the Program notes from the concert to list some of the participants names. Unfortunately I cannot find the program guide anymore, but information regarding the performance can be found here.
In this paper I, Michael Heise, shall attempt to convey the fundamental music principles regarding the performance “Shakespeare in Song” as well as I understand them. Keep in mind that as I write this report that I am not attempting to criticize the performance or the performers; but, I am attempting to most accurately convey to the reader what was perceived in regards to my limited knowledge of this type of performance. This event occurred on the Friday of March twenty-sixth year two-thousand and ten. Its location was the on the main campus of the University of Texas at Dallas in the Erik Jonsson Academic Center in room number 2.604 known as the Jonsson Performance Hall. As one can probably guess due to the location of the performance, the performance was not performed by a professional troupe of art music performer, but was performed by our universities own local talent primarily if not exclusively. The performance was sung and acted by the UT Dallas Chamber Singers, Directed by UTD's Associate Dean for the Arts Kathryn Evans, piano accompaniment performed by Michael McVay whom also has affiliation with UTD, and costumes were due to the help of Karen Mitchell. There were slides shown on a screen during the performance; however, I do not know whom all to credit as provider for them. As per usual, this style of music is a lyrical form of poetry sung with music accompanying it. To my knowledge, in this Art Music style there are commonly two performers. A pianist would normally be accompanying a single vocal soloist; however, as stated above there were multiple singers since it was done by a UTD choir. This makes it somewhat nontraditional, but gave more variety and made the music seem closer to the Shakespearian plays it had been based upon.
Music:
The music varied quite a bit from piece to piece. Some pieces would have the performers singing in sub groupings, such as males or females, at different points in the song and others would be sung with solos, and several were sung with the full participation of the choir. Obviously such variations would change the vocal timbre of the songs depending upon the participation or lack there of by members of the choir. The texture of the music changed dependant on who is supposed to be the dominant musician during a given piece. Some songs were happy and had a fast tempo while others were more sullen in theme and had slow tempos.
Performers:
The performers were primarily college students that perform for the UT Dallas Chamber Singers; however, as stated above some of the performers, such as conductor, were staff and thus the age of the performers was ranged. All of the musical performers including the conductor had been dressed in costumes one would expect to see at a Shakespearian theater performance or at a renaissance fair. The performer’s initial positions were such that the pianist was seated at the piano on the left side of the stage from the audience’s point of view, the choir was standing in four progressively elevated rows near center stage facing the crowd, and the conductor was center stage in front of the choir facing the choir members so as to give them direction during the performance. The choir members would move as needed to allow soloists to move to the front of the stage as arranged. Up to four soloists were standing on the right side of the conductor at any point and one soloist might stand to the left side of the conductor.
Audience:
The night that I attended the seats were approximately half full. This estimation along with the estimation on the total number of seats suggests that around one hundred members were seated in the audience. Due to the stage and performer setup, if one followed the Opera’s standard of appropriate times to applaud, the most appropriate time to clap would be after a solo had been performed; however, the audience, as one might expect, was not fully aware of when to clap and thus the timing of applause was somewhat awkward. The conductor did attempt to a lot certain times for applause such as to instruct the audience on when to clap; but, not all members of the audience were necessarily aware of this attempt. Some comedic elements from the plays were used and the audience, in large, understood the humor and laughed during these moments as should be expected.
Time and Space:
Since this was the first live showing of this performance to a crowd, perhaps some elements could have been better polished such as a few minor slips during solos; however, on average this was a very well done performance.
Conclusion:
To best summarize this performance, I would state that it was a night filled with well known Shakespearian themed Art Music performances. It contained well versed songs and enjoyable humor that entertained the crowd as the evening progressed.
*UPDATE*
I had used the Program notes from the concert to list some of the participants names. Unfortunately I cannot find the program guide anymore, but information regarding the performance can be found here.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Opera
While I was reading the assigned reading for Tuesday I was reminded of a certain opera. Upon searching Youtube I found that the following video.
Since this is my first time directly embedding a video in a blog and the code does not look right, I made the word video hyperlink to the video as well. The video is from the opera "The Barber of Seville" and is the song "Largo al factotum (della città )!". During the performance you can clearly hear a wide variety of different timbres created by the different chordophones and aerophones. This has a Heterophony of the actor singing the with the orchestra providing support for his singing. The tempo is somewhat hastened for the majority of the performance. There is one portion during which the speed of the song slows down considerably. The performer singing uses some amount of vibrato throughout the performance to further ornament the singing. It is quite impressive how the vocalist continues to sing with such volume through the duration of the piece even though he continually moves across the stage. If any find this piece somewhat nostalgic but can not imagine why, such as having never attended an opera before, perhaps this link will remind them of their childhood.
Since this is my first time directly embedding a video in a blog and the code does not look right, I made the word video hyperlink to the video as well. The video is from the opera "The Barber of Seville" and is the song "Largo al factotum (della città )!". During the performance you can clearly hear a wide variety of different timbres created by the different chordophones and aerophones. This has a Heterophony of the actor singing the with the orchestra providing support for his singing. The tempo is somewhat hastened for the majority of the performance. There is one portion during which the speed of the song slows down considerably. The performer singing uses some amount of vibrato throughout the performance to further ornament the singing. It is quite impressive how the vocalist continues to sing with such volume through the duration of the piece even though he continually moves across the stage. If any find this piece somewhat nostalgic but can not imagine why, such as having never attended an opera before, perhaps this link will remind them of their childhood.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Avatar
Unless I am mistaken, it seemed to me that the music consisted of western influence in some the of the background with use of various chordophone and aerophone instruments while the drumming seemed more African in nature. The style and rhythm patterns of the drums made me think of African indigenous groups and some of the chanting had a tribal feel. And the western feel to some of the backdrop music should not come as a surprise seeing as this is a film released to a primarily western audience. This is what I noticed about the music composition of the film.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Ethnography
Introduction
This article is being written to describe the Dallas Museum of Art's Thursday night live jazz performances. In this paper I intend to provide the reader with a basic knowledge of what jazz is. I want to further develop the reader's understanding pertaining to the principles of jazz. I also intend to convey how those principles are applied by the performers at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Methodology
First let me explain my relation to the event I wish to describe to the reader. I was a part of the audience during a recent concert of theirs. This was neither the first time I had listened to music at the Dallas Museum of Art, nor do I foresee it as my last time. While I was at the concert, I had asked a few people their opinions during the event. All of them during the interviews mentioned the skill of Tom Braxton. I further supplemented my research of this music culture by reading our text book and using databases and search engines to further grasp the fundamental concepts regarding the aspects of this music culture that I did not prior fully understand.
Aspects of this Music Culture
In these following sections I am going to explain the fundamental concepts of the base music culture of jazz to the reader and how it is seen in a local context with this particular music culture. I will also present some of the aspects of this music culture that are not related in large to jazz but only to this instance.
Ideas
Jazz music is at its core a deviation from traditional music. The text book describes jazz as a seemingly unruly improvised polyphony of syncopation(Alves 342). But what does this mean? Polyphony is multiple melodies of about the same importance at the same time(Alves 342). Syncopation in music is most simply described as "by accenting normally weak beats in a measure, by resting on a normal accented beat, or by tying over a note to the next measure" (Britannica). This makes jazz unpredictable. Jazz uses solos by the lead instruments to give it an individualistic fee. Stan Getz once said "There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music"(World Jazz Scene). This fairly well defines the underlying ideas of jazz, and Tom Braxton, a local Dallas jazz performer who played at the Dallas Museum of Art, reflects these in his skill filled solos.
Activities
As a member of the audience, it is appropriate to clap after a solo that you enjoyed during jazz concerts. Clapping was highly encouraged at the performance I attended since it is appropriate for this genre of music. The performance was in the Atrium of the Dallas Museum of Art. The musicians perform just feet away from the audience providing a personal feel to the music. Also, since the music is performed at night at the Atrium, you can reserve a table and have food delivered to you to enjoy as you listen to the performance. There is also drink counter from which you can purchase a beverage to further enjoy your evening in the Dallas Museum of Art's live jazz performance.
Repertoires
The jazz performers play various pieces that they have preplanned, but since it is jazz they must also perform impromptu solo as they perform based off of the pieces they are playing. This gives the music a general sense of direction while allowing the jazz performers to express their emotion and skill through the use of melodic embellishments during the solos.
Material Culture
The night I attended the event they had a jazz harpist, a bassist, a drummer, and clarinet. Tom Braxton played the clarinet and the saxophone as a lead instrument as he played various solos to please the crowd. As prior mentioned, you can order food or get a drink as you listen to the performance so this would qualify a part of the materials used in this music culture.
Conclusion
Simply put, the Dallas Museum of Art houses various local and national jazz talents to entertain the patrons of the Dallas Museum of Art. The jazz music can be heard throughout most of the museum due to the tile floors and open nature of the museum. It provides entertainment to a broad spectrum of people who may visit the museum for the art, music, and those who came to enjoy fine music as they dine at the Dallas Museum of Art.
References
William Alves. Music of the Peoples of the World. Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
"Arts & Entertainment:: syncopation." Britannica. 2010.
"World Jazz Scene: Great quotes about musicians." 2010.
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