Fall Concert Review: Imaginarium

Overall I actually enjoyed the piece more than I thought I would. It had a nice tempo that allowed listeners to be engaged and even when the volume dropped the violins played a softer texture as if they were inviting you to listen closer and pay more attention. Generally, the theme was also joyful which I took notice of and enjoyed. Lastly, I didn’t notice any musical mistakes, and thought the piece was well played.

While in the head, the winds played a harmonization of one theme, the rest of the band just accompanied behind them, creating a rather homophonic texture. The form of the piece seemed rather simple, AAI, with larger structure of: intro-head-solos-head-tag. At the beginning of the piece, the drumset player was given room to improvise an intro, and it was nice to hear what he did especially after not having played many solos in the previous tunes. Right after the drumset player’s intro, the group jumped right into the head. This specific arrangement seemed to have written out snippets of Coltrane’s solo, because right after both iterations of the head, instead of jumping into the solo section there was a densely-harmonized saxophone soli that sounded like quotations. It was after this showcase and a few more embellishments from the rest of the group that the actual solos began. Most of the soloing was grounded on staying right on top of the changes and echoing the angular phrases in the head, not venturing out too far with the rhythms. I think the soloists did a good job of that, but could have taken more risks with playing around with the rhythms. However, being in the hot seat is already stressful enough on this piece that playing it safe is not a bad thing, it’s just about surviving at that

    On Friday, October twenty-second, Simi Valley High School had their fall concert, however, they only had two bands so there was not much to write about. The concert band opened up with, Apparitions, by Brian Balmages, which was a song with a very mysterious intro with the percussion. The song is later developed into a soprano winds melody which was very well balanced with its counter and support. Unfortunately before a very beautiful, yet eerie flute solo they were somewhat out of tune, and during it, the flutes were talking to each other. Later, the soprano melody turns into a brass dominated scene, with the trumpets being slightly too loud and overtaking the rest of the band. Overall, the piece was very well executed with great attacks, releases, and flow. However there was little to no vibrato in the song. After that song, The Magician's Secret, by Joseph Eidson was stated by a flute squeak, but evens out into a nice jumpy beginning. Throughout the many brass and high winds chords, they were mostly out of tune, but the pulsing and tempo was very well done and controlled which gave the theme of smoothness and elegance. While the band was going great with strong and obvious dynamics, one of the trumpets messed up and showed it. Luckily, a great story of adventure and curiosity manage to cover him up and retain the moving melody. As the song ended, I personally felt the end was a bit too staccato and the overall song had no

The trumpet shown across the poster represents the bright, happy tone of the band. These emotions, happiness and excitement, are what I attempted to convey to the audience. My main goal as an artist was to create a piece that would make people smile and I’ve succeeded. My final piece was not exactly what I was looking for, but more that I could have asked for. When it looked like it was falling apart, all the pieces were really falling

This piece features a very powerful solo in the beginning of the song that definitely makes you excited to hear the rest of the song. Following the introduction, Armstrong continues his powerful playing on the trumpet in the melody. His instrument is heard very loudly over the improvisation of the rest of the instruments in the background. This is the same for every solo in the rest of the song. The soloist is the dominant sound throughout each of the four solos following the melody. The solo directly following Armstrong’s is Fred Robinson on the trombone. His style of play involves dragging out certain notes to give a bluesy feel to the piece. The next solo includes two elements, Jimmy Strong on the clarinet and Louis Armstrong utilizing his

I feel that the fourteen members of chamber orchestra and the two vocalists did an outstanding job. This piece was well put together. I loved the harmony that was brought forth between the orchestra and the vocalists. The two vocalists a tenor known as Paul Groves and a soprano known as Anna Larson, did a beautiful job staying in tune. The way that their voices went back and forth in harmony was just beautiful.

Then, he started playing songs originally on his set list and I thought it started to get a little boring,” Bernard said. “Then, he stood at the front of stage with a guitar and started playing ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ and continued with more of his iconic songs. It was a great experience for a first concert.”

There were a lot of instruments you could hear when you first listened to this piece. The first instruments that I heard right away were the violins, flutes, and oboes. As I kept listening I noticed the clarinets, bassoons, cello, viola, and the French horn. The instruments that seemed like they were the most important in this piece were the violins, because they started the piece and through-out the rest of the piece they were always there being the main part of this piece.

Whilst listening to the 7 takes I noticed several issues, Two takes were cut short, take 7 had missing percussion and other sections was not solid. choosing take 6 as the main backbone take as it had the least problems. However, I did encounter issues such as the section when the drums drop out for a couple crochets after the 4X4 rhythm when the cymbals come in for second time, had to be comped from take 5 as there was timing problems and sound like the tempo slowed down (clanging). The section after which is the trombone solo, I had comped from take 7 due to timing issues and was not keen on tone, groove and character the trombone was playing. Take 6 DJ scratching intro was replaced by take 1 as I felt it was more complete and fitted well. I had decided not to use, Drum Room L+R as the drums were recorded in a booth and the booth ambience was not that great to my ear. Sousaphone Room L was pushing the presence of the sousaphone to far to the left, unbalancing the stereo image. Also the sousaphones role in this track is the bass in which I feel should be more central as it is the weighted anchor of the mix (most emphasis). The reverb plate had too much circuitry noise in which cluttered the mix, I could have noise gated the plate although I did not like the character and the sound it was producing. Percussion Close, Bongo R & Conga L I had removed due too much energy to the percussion and I had favoured the overhead capturing of the percussion. Using Bongo L and Conga R had helped me to create more separation within the stereo field. I prefered the compressed vocal take which Kris Burton had

This tune should have a straight eighth-note feel throughout. Make the introduction very strong, as it sets up the piano groove to follow. The piano player should be careful not to clip the syncopated eighth notes short while playing the groove, as it’s the soul of the tune. Be sure to watch intonation on the trumpet/alto saxophone melody. With the saxophone counter lines, be very subtle. When trombones enter at measure 28, play the comping figures crisply, but not rushed. We restate the introduction at measure 45 - 48, and then we’re off to the first solo section.

The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra played it extremely well. They started out soft, and suddenly got louder, making mini-climaxes. This happened throughout the entire piece, until they reached the second theme-it

In my opinion, that is the reason why we listened to this piece of music. To try and be exposed to a work that has a large supply of instruments and a choir at the same time. From listening to it, they did a very good job of incorporating the choir with the music. The choir was also very synchronized as well. They did not get too high or too low as a group. One of the differences with this piece of music is they incorporate different types of music and the choir sings from the very beginning. One thing that was very enjoyable was how strong and powerful the choir sang at the end of the piece. Once, again, the most difficult thing about listening to this piece was the lack of understanding any of the

The band Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985. The members met while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Their music focuses on three core elements: metal, progressive roots and melody. Dream Theater has been known to make use of elements of other musical styles to include classical music. The piece I selected, “Instrumedely”, is a mash up of instrumental sections from

This is truly a masterpiece in my eyes because of the rigorous and exhausting journey that we experience. From the beginning of feeling safe, warning our foes of the danger they are in if they do not concede. We continue with the feelings of a roller coaster with the joys of wins and the despair of the losses. We experience the feelings of loneliness and despair, but then rejuvenated by the accompaniment of the orchestra, which gives us much needed strength and support. We end with the victorious conquest and celebrate with fireworks of notes that leave us exhilarated and then weariness of the successful

Herbert von Karajan conducted the orchestra I posted on EDpuzzle. In general, music instruments which an orchestra use for this music are two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings. In the early stage of the movement, loud minor sounds of string and woodwind instruments created feelings of magnificence and anxiety at the same time. In the midway of the movement, the orchestra played the combination or alternate of minor and some gentle major melodies. Therefore, the mood of this music frequently changes: powerful and impressive minor sounds and warm major sound.