High School Music Concert Review

Concert Review 2 Not thrilled to go to this concert, I brought it to myself to go anyways. There were a few reasons I decided to go. One, the date worked out well for me and I needed to get this done. Two, my professor Dr. Mapp, yourself, was one of the conductors so I felt like I could relate better possibly. Lastly, a fraternity brother of mine in Sigma Phi Epsilon, Russell Budden, was playing the horn and I took this as an opportunity to listen to him play, especially after hearing what Russell can do on the piano that is in our house. So, on the night of October 1st I walked across campus from my fraternity to White Concert Hall. Upon entering I made sure to grab the program, knowing that I needed one for this review, and I made way towards the back of the auditorium. This program consisted of Washburn’s orchestra and wind ensemble. Music that I personally am not a fan of, given I have listened to it in high school and a few Washburn concerts for WU 101. Now before I go any further, I did give this music a chance once. When I was younger I was a violinist for a small orchestra
group but I never quite was into it. The stage was set up similar to all other music programs I have seen. There was the usual semi-circle of chairs surrounding the conductor’s podium and music stands in front of the chairs. Recently coming to realize, I found out that the round things suspended from the ceiling in White Concert Hall, are used to bounce sounds back towards the audience. Everything was set up and ready for the concert to begin. As the first piece of music, Overture to Egmont Op.
84, started to play, I quickly found myself becoming a passive listener. Of course this was not on purpose but I remember paying attention to the duration of the sound, hearing the notes go on as they echoed throughout the auditorium. Knowing I needed to pay attention in order to get the information I need, I focused more on the members of the orchestra, which helped. Pulling out my list of musical elements we went over in class, I started to just check off things I heard in all the pieces. For example, I heard different dynamic levels and pitches as well as elements of rhythm. What stuck out most for me during this whole concert was the fact that I was trying to see if the musical pieces were homophonic or polyphonic. We were just going over these terms in class at the time, giving me just enough information to help with this
review. As I come to critique what I listened to and watched, I find it hard to do so. This is because of the fact that I do not care for this type of music yet I was able to break the music down and actually do what these concert reviews were set out to do, take something away from music.