Galop Critique

Just as the sun began to flirt with the horizon, I broke through the doors of Dunham Hall and sifted between small masses of people to claim my ticket. After the fact, my eyes bounced around the auditorium and finally tagged the perfect seat. Shortly after planting myself at an optimal distance from the stage, the theater slowly began to fill with murmurs of proud parents and blue hairs, who all waited to obnoxiously cheer for their children and grandchildren performers. I hovered the pencil above my notebook in anticipation for the first performance. Once the director struck up the band, I began to spill my thoughts onto paper in hurried fluidity to grasp the nuances between the seven movements of Little Threepenny Music. This piece was composed
It was overzealous in triplet runs and ascending chromatic scales, which proved to be distasteful despite the short length of the song. I expected an exciting piece that would take me on a journey through the life of a cowboy on a galloping horse, but instead, it was overkill. The tempo of Galop well suited the percussion-like manner of horse hooves but by the end, I felt as if Galop was beating a dead horse. It was very apparent to me that the composer of this piece was lacking creativity and seemed to have carelessly scribbled notes on
To me, the title Blue Shades is self-explanatory; the different shades of blue were confidently displayed through each facet of the piece that Ticheli meticulously crafted. Blue Shades struck the perfect balance between dramatic and provocative by using complex rhythms and legato passages. The piece began in a highly syncopated manner as if a hot potato was being thrown to each musical group. Trumpets, trombones, and flutes played in unison while the alto saxophones and clarinets established the foundation with a recurring lick of eighth notes. On occasion, the clarinets would break away by playing ascending lines which added stability to the crafted mess. Alto saxophones later adopted that behavior and lower brass quickly began to cut through the ensemble with obnoxious, descending slides. Several of them used flutter tonguing and modified embouchures with helped to embody the jazzy feel of Blue Shades. Furthermore, the marimba and other mallet instruments added to the highly stressed syncopation by occasionally playing in unison with the harmony. Towards the end of Blue Shades, Ticheli added in a smooth clarinet solo and a haunting melody; both of which molded a more relaxed edge into the overall aggressive feel. Quickly following the detour, Blue Shades went out with a bang by flaunting itself once more. This piece proved to be my