The Santa Barbara City College Symphony - Report Example

Meeting time Report 1. The Santa Barbara College Symphony This first concert was called a Symphony Concert and it was held on November 18, 2012 at my college. The conductor of the concert was my music professor, James D. Mooy. Most of the audience were seniors and everyone dressed formally for the concert. The price of the concert was only $10 for students. I went to the concert with a few of my music classmates. The concert ended with Symphony No. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven. The program notes for the concert gave background information about each piece which gave a better understanding of what the audience would listen to during each section. There was a total of about 50 people attending the concert. The concert was done by the Santa Barbara City College Symphony and the instrumentation was largely string instruments. The Symphony has 78 members with 50 strings and 28 brass or percussion instruments. This gave a full sound to the hall that we were in and provided a rich sound for the specific pieces. There were many different styles of music. The first piece (Overture to Candide) and the third piece (The Firebird Berceuse and Finale) were both taken from operas. Beethoven’s piece was a symphony and he was considered a transitional type of composer because he wrote between the Romantic and Classical periods of music (Beethoven Website). Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain is considered a composition. This was a great piece because the audience could really see something in the music. I liked this one the best because it was so rich in sound. I read that this composition was the depiction of a Halloween night in which witches and demons were allowed to run the earth. According to the program notes, the Russians belived that this type of thing happened during St. john’s night when Mount Lisaya was a place where evil spirits lived and the mountain did not have any trees (this is why it is called bald). There was a short story by Nicolai Gogol, that some say inspired Mussorgsky to write this composition. The music was cacophonous and it seemed like something that would be played on Halloween night or at some dark event. This was more entertaining and interesting to listen to than the other pieces. This piece was also not as quiet like the Beethoven or romantic as the Candide overture. Mussorgsky and Stravinsky were Russian composers and this showed in their music. It felt somewhat dark and cold. The Night on Bald Mountain was interesting but there were many sounds that would seem to clash but they went together very well. The Firebird was not as harsh as the Mussorgsky but it felt more mysterious and made me wonder how they brought such emotions to the audience. I think that some of the high points to the concert was listening to the music and the fact that it was so different. The one thing that I would have liked to see differently is that there were more instruments. The symphony had more stringed instruments than anything else and I wondered what type of music could have been played with more instrumentation. I think that the Mussorgsky stuck out the most because it was such different music from the rest of the music. I wondered what his Pictures at an Exhibition would sound like done by this orchestra. The concert ended with Beethoven’s Symphony 7 which was a very good way to end the concert. This piece was lively and there were many surprises in sounds. As an example, in the first movement the percussion was louder than in some of the compositions. I enjoyed this concert because I like classical music and this provided a stronger opportunity for me to hear and enjoy this music. 2. Report 2 Jazz Ensemble The second concert I attended was a Jazz Ensemble that was held on December 3, 2012. For this concert, people were more casually dressed and there were three different bands who played at this concert. The concert was $10 for students. The Good Times Big Band was the first band that played. This was a 21 piece band and it was directed by Eric Heidner. All three bands had a Big Band sound. The Good Times Band played jazz in the style of the Big Bands of the 50s. The first song, Papiro, had more of a Latin or Calypso beat to it. It was very fast and fun. Then next piece, A Time for Love was very slow and mellow sounding. Their next number, Rare Moment, was by the same composer as A Time for Love (Sammy Nestico), and it was a very mellow sound and easy to listen to; I could imagine people dancing to this tune. Too Much of a Good Thing was very upbeat and it was definitely a dance tune. I was tapping my foot to the entire piece. This was the last tune of this band. The second band was The Lunch Band directed by James Mooy. This band had 21 players and it was more modern music. The song No Wonder was difficult to follow because I did not understand everything in the lyrics. It was also difficult to follow because the music was so different. It also seemed that this piece was improvised because the piano and the synthesizer seemed to follow each other in the way that they played the tune. I really liked this band a lot because it was unpredictable. As an example, the song Peacocks was my favorite because of the tenor sax player who was Jacob Scesney. I liked it because he said that he played the song for his best friend who died. This was very interesting to me and it was something that I would say was very good. I could tell that Scesney was feeling the emotion involved in his relationship with his friend. It was very moving the way that he played this tune. The final band, The Monday Madness Big Band, was directed by Ike Jenkins and there were 18 people in this band. This band played more tunes than the other two, and in some ways it was unfortunate that they had to go on last. The band was very good, and they played a mixture of music that included Christmas carols. The first tune, Carmelo’s by the Freeway, had a very mellow sound but it was the same few bars over and over it seemed. I thought it might be a tune that was reminding the composer of some place he used to visit maybe when he was younger. It seemed like it might have been a restaurant or something. I did not like this one because it seemed to be playing the same few bars over and over. Emily was a kind of funky tune and it seemed that the musicians were having fun playing it. There were many horn solos in this one and the snare drum played a soft beat as the rest of the musicians played their parts. Although I did not like this one as much as some of the other sounds, it was mellow and it was better than Carmelo’s by the Freeway because it had a more of a beat and it was more interesting. This band played Christmas songs. The first tune they played was Jingle Bells which was very interesting done to a jazz beat. It was very interesting to see how this song translated to jazz because although I knew the tune, it was more enjoyable with a jazz beat. One interesting thing that happened was that the theater started having problems with the power. For some reason, the lights were flickering from the beginning of their playing. However, by the time they started playing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, the power went out completely. All the people who worked in the theater came together and used their mobile phone lights to light the music for the players so they could continue the program. The concert ended with the song, One More Time, by Chuck Corea. People seemed to be pleased with the concert because they were talking about it as they left and some people were humming their favorite tunes. 3. Choir Concert The third concert I attended was a choir concert at my college on December 8, 2012. The price for this concert was $10 for students. The director was Nathan J. Kreitzer and there was an accompanist for piano who was Anne Weger. According to the program notes, Kreitzer has been teaching music at Santa Barbara This was an enjoyable concert because it was mostly their Christmas or holiday concert. There were about 70 people in the choir and most people were very enthusiastic about their singing. The people sang very beautifully and they seemed that they were having a very good time entertaining the audience. There are about 45 people or more in the audience. The style that was used was mostly older Christmas songs. The first number they did was the Christmas Cantata and it was basically older Christmas-like tunes, sung in Latin. They choir sang beautifully as they followed the director. People were very quiet during this performance. I did not know any of these songs except the Gloria in Excelcis Deo because I recognized the music. Other Christmas songs they sang were The Holly and the Ivy, Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming and The First Nowell. At first I thought the program was wrong in the way that it spelled the names of some of the songs wrong, but I realized that the spelling was the Old English way of spelling them. The concert started with very old and very traditional songs, but they also included Oh Holy Night. I was happy that they included one that I knew. Different people sang solos and the choir backed people up as they sung their solos. Also, there were other accompanists on trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba and organ who played on different songs. I thought this was a very formal way of singing these songs The only thing that I could think of that could have been better is that the concert seemed a bit long to me. Some of the songs were interesting but others were very slow. I know this happens at any concert, but I would have liked to hear all songs that sounded joyful. Some of the songs were slow like the parts of the Christmas Cantata and A Song of Peace. These were very pretty but I they were slow and could have put people asleep. I also noticed that some people were very enthusiastic in their singing but some people were not. I was not sure if some people just did not like singing as much as other people, or if it was just how they worked. One of my favorites songs at Christmas is The Holly and the Ivy because there are so many beautiful harmonies in it. The voices blend very well and the crescendos and decrescendos were beautiful and the song made me want to hear more from this choir. One thing I thought that was interesting was the fact that several composers that I know as classical music composers actually were the composers of some of these songs. As an example, G.F. Handel I know from classical music but he also composed the song, He Shall Feed His Flock. Maybe these were early works that he wrote for some other reason than only for Christmas. I found it very interesting that many composers are versatile in their style and in their ability to compose. Although I knew that Handel had done compositions for different types of instruments and for the piano, I did not think that he created shorter pieces that were also enjoyable. O Come, All Ye Faithful was also very different in the way that it was sung in an Old English way. It was very beautiful and more animated than I have heard this sung today. The concert ended with three songs that I did not know and had not heard before although I have heard many American Christmas songs. The choir received a standing ovation at the end of the concert and people were talking about the concert as they left the auditorium. 4. Opera Santa Barbara: A Winter Offering The last concert that I attended was held at the downtown library in one of the galleries inside the library. There were 50 seats in the room and the ticket price for the concert was only five dollars. There were many students in the audience and people who were patrons of the Opera. There were seven different pieces that had a Christmas theme. The first few tunes were taken from specific operas or from classical music. As an example, Mozart’s Alleluia was a familiar tune that I had heard in the past. This tune was noticeable as Mozart’s because it sounded like other classical music written by him. The soprano who sang this was very polished in her ability to sing this and it did not seem like an easy song to sing. I am used to hearing Strauss waltzes but I did not know that he had written any other music. The Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) was sung in German and was difficult to understand. This was a beautiful song but it was difficult to follow because it was in a different language. This was very different than other music I had heard from Strauss because it was sad and not something that one could dance to or remember. These first few songs were very old as the composers wrote them any years ago. They laid a foundation for the other songs and the operatic style allowed the listeners to hear a variety of music as the concert progressed. My favorite song was White Christmas. I have heard this song before and some of my older friends have seen the movie Holiday Inn because Frank Sinatra is in it and they like him. This song was taken from this movie and another movie according to the program. This song is a very familiar song that seems to be sung each Christmas. I liked the fact that the soprano had many different types of music that she could sing. I think this means that this shows that a person is versatile in their abilities when they are able to sing more than one style of singing. Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas was not a tune that I would think would be sung by an opera company, because we hear it every Christmas. I was again impressed that the soprano could sing so many different styles. I always associate The Christmas Song with Nat King Cole. I have heard him before and he sings this song very well. Also, this song has been sung by many different people. This could be the reason why this opera company decided to include this in their concert because it is such a popular tune. These tunes were enjoyable because they provided a large contrast between the first part of the concert and the last. I think that the opera company wanted the audience to have a well-rounded program by including both operatic music and popular music. O Holy Night was another song that was sung but it was a more traditional one than the other songs on the program. The audience was encouraged to sing along and some people did. The one thing that stood out in this concert was the versatility of the soprano. She was able to sing a variety of styles which made the concert enjoyable. The soprano also sang an extra song from the classic era that was about “a little mermaid who falls in love with a human being”. I could not remember the name of this song but I admired the fact that this was included as an extra song; she also sang this one in Italian. The last song that was sung was O Holy Night and many people seemed disappointed that the concert was over. As we left, people were quiet but I could tell that many had a good time sitting and listening to the concert. I thought the assignment to attend other concerts was very interesting because it gave me a perspective that I did not have in the past. I would not have listened to much of this music if it had not been for this assignment. I feel that the assignment helped me to move beyond my comfort zone and made me appreciate other types of music. Works Cited Beethoven. Musical Style and Innovation. Beethoven website. 2012. Web. December 12, 2012. Read More