Essential To Musical Piece example essay topic

The concert I attended was a recital of Mexican baroque choral music. There were 5 main pieces played, each one having its own unique style and function. The recital was held at University of South Carolina School of Music recital hall room 201 on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 6: 00 pm. The group that sang was the graduate vocal ensemble and was conducted by Daniel S. Clark.

The group of singers did an excellent job capturing the music and it was very hard to notice any major mistakes. The concert in a whole was a very soothing to me because when I went there I was very hyper and tense, but as the pieces were being played out, I became very relaxed and sleepy. This concert was a little different because in the beginning, the conductor went through a lecture of the Mexican baroque period. After he went through all of the material, they sang 5 songs and left. It was very interesting to learn about the music as it was heard and I think this is a very effective way to teach people about music and let them learn through personal interaction. Most of the songs were sang mostly by the higher pitched singers so it made us very sleepy.

I had to wake up my friend who came with me because he was snoring! The first piece that was played was "Beatus Vir" with Brian Gloss as the cantor. A cantor is the person who leads a congregation in singing. At the end of the performance, the 2 cantors were given special recognition because of their remarkable presentation. In "Beatus Vir", it started with both guys and girls singing, and ended in jus guys singing. The melody of this tune began slow and then got faster and faster as it progressed.

There was a wide array in the dynamic of the piece. Sometimes they would be singing softly, then abruptly they would all get loud all together and that added to the variability which is essential to musical piece. Also, in the first two pieces, including this one, one person one sing (the cantor) and then everybody would sing after he did one line. The second piece they sang was "In Invention e Sance Crucis", with Ryan Matthew Headley as the cantor. Just like the first piece, the cantor would sing a few lines, then everybody would join in and sing together. All of these pieces were sung in Mexican so it was very hard to understand what meaning they were trying to get through to the audience.

They did not sing very loud throughout this piece and the melody was a little bit fast. The third piece that was played was "Page Lingua". This song reminds me of when I am in church. Everyone sings loud and there is no one person that sings first and is followed.

There is a lot of confusion in this song because everyone is singing something different and they are all very loud. I did not like this piece for that reason. I don't know if that is how it's supposed to be played, but I think it would have sounded better if only some people sang loud and other people sang soft so the attention could be focused on the people singing loud. The fourth piece played was "Nobis Dates". The third and fourth pieces, the cantus firm us was the same. Cantus firm us is the pre-existing melody taken from the chant piece.

However, the cantus firm us in the third piece was sang by the tenors and the cantus firm us in the fourth pieces was sang by the soprano part. Both of these pieces were not as soothing as the first 2, in contrast, they were very loud and abrupt. This is when my friend woke up from his short-lived nap. The fifth and last piece played was "Veni Creator Spiritus". In this song, the pitch would go up, down, down again and then back up. This one was very soothing like the first two and had no cantor.

One thing I also noticed was that one person would play a note on a harmonica before every song, and I reasoned that he did that was to make sure everyone was in tune. Overall, the conductor told us a lot about the history of this type of music. There were many composers from back then who made this music such as: Pedro Bermudez, Gaspar Fernandes, and Francisco Atienza. This type of music was important religious service in the Baroque period. These verses where homophonic, just like the pieces they sang, and they were usually chanted by men.

The chant would be the basis of the melody. This music is very old and usually when they transcribe this music, errors are made in copying. These errors in copying caused problems in harmony. I learned from this concert to not only listen to big orchestras, but also different choral groups because their talent is greatly appreciated when they can sing different languages and sing them effectively. If they were to perform again, however, I think I wouldn't go see them play only because I do not like baroque music as much as I thought I would and I rather enjoy music with a large orchestra. This was my first baroque concert and it won't be my last.

I do appreciate baroque music more than I used to by attending this concert though. Next time I go to a concert, I would really like to hear some instruments accompanied with the vocals. Other than that, this concert was a great experience for me..