The moment arrived.
The
The Contemporary Music Festival in Winnipeg is one of the most important festival of modern music on the American Continent. This year’s edition will take place from January 22nd to January 29th , and its culmination will be the first ever Canadian premiere of Gorecki’s Fourth Symphony.…
Ludvig van Beethoven no doubt is one of the greatest pianist and composers to date. His earlier works are usually compared to Mozart due to the similarity of the structure but one major different was Beethoven’s ability to incorporate his own imagination into each composition. Although most of his work had been recognized by the music industry, it was his first symphony of the starting point in his career. The Symphony number one, opus 21 was written in C major contain four movements, and although its structure contain some similarity to Mozart’s work, it was the one that put Beethoven onto the musical scene in Vienna.…
What terror has been brought upon you, my family? My most precious musical scores. Within those bars and staffs lay further profound melodies and blissful stories, with crescendos and rising chromatics presenting the climaxes and memorable flashbacks. How careless could I be? But of course, who would harm Keller’s wife and child? I pace my elderly, punctured body and soul towards the Swan. Tears streamline down the saturated face of a person so famous masked by someone so blind and ignorant. And now my consequences have rightfully found their place, forcing me to become invisible to the world. I am like a continuous, endless rest in a piece, after a contrast from mezzo forte to sforzando arpeggiated chords climbing up the piano. I was a maestro, known by all, forced to disappear within the thin air of Vienna and to reappear in the humid, alien land of booze and blow.…
Reaching the top, hidden around the corner of the curtain I watch the performer. The clarinets slow symphony spreads a tired, gloomy mood throughout the room. A soft finishing note seems to carry out for minutes. A pause of silence. Faint black figures all aligned in perfect rows is all that can be seen, and a loud applause burst all at once. The performer bows and waits for their judging. A big cringy looking man stands. He wears oversized khakis, a button up, and a face of complete confusion. Finding his way up the stage, he confronts the performer. In a booming voice he critiques even the slightest imperfections played in the piece. The performer's face flushes fast turning as pale as winter. A shake of the hand between the two and it is all over. The pressure I already felt rises higher than…
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…
At the age of 39, Beethoven’s hearing condition worsened. He lead a series of disastrous recitals. People weren't pleased wight he different type of music he was playing and his “family” of noblemen advised him to go back to the traditional way of playing music.…
Music rings out from the center stage and bounces around the auditorium elegantly as if it were a metaphysical dancer. The symphonic grace entices all of those who are in range to hear it which is why Rod Hoffman sits in the second row of the middle aisle three seats deep from the left side of the orchestra. Completely submerged in the melody he is enveloped by a sort of transcending feeling. Words are rarely able to describe the joy that he feels by attending the concerts of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. It takes him many weeks to find a means to culminate all of his emotions that he felt from the performance into a review that can properly display not only his reaction but still give an oversight that convinces others to give the orchestra…
In “Rebel Music”, Daniel Felsenfeld delves into the inspirations he has drawn from music in his childhood. He tells of the struggles he experienced and the lack of inspiration from mandatory piano lessons from Ms. Shimizu. Although he dazzled her every time, he never felt connected to the music. Felsenfeld reminisced, “I was experiencing a personal drought, an acrid lack of culture of all kinds, especially music” (Felsenfeld 624). After he heard Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony while with a friend, he had an epiphany. He felt that in this moment, he heard music for the first time. From then on, he became obsessed and revolved his entire life around it. He then went on to become a composer despite his non-musical family background. Felsenfeld’s passion for music as a child encouraged him to be the person he is today, which is similar to the way gymnastics influenced my life. Gymnastics was a huge part of my life growing up, and I realize now that the sport allowed me to learn the valuable traits I use today. Being a gymnast taught me many things but especially how to be dedicated, how to be a team player and how to never give up.…
I feel like, as a musician and a composer, I can relate to Tchaikovsky whenever he composes. In chapter four, Tchaikovsky is living out his first ventures as a music composer in the public eye. After a couple of relatively minor works, he finally begins work on his First Symphony, “Symphony no. 1 in G minor (Winter Daydreams)”. When it is first composed, his colleagues “condemned it [the symphony] roundly” (page 30). His one year break and subsequent revision of the symphony proved to be a good thing to do. Tchaikovsky reported to Anatoly that the symphony “‘scored a great success, particularly the Adagio.’” However, Tchaikovsky performed “Symphony no. 1”, revisions were made to it, especially the first movement.…
Ever since I stopped playing the piano, I yearned to learn a new instrument. After testing out a wide range of instruments from the trombone to the guitar, I finally found one that fit my personality: the clarinet. Then over the years, I started to learn the different techniques to better my playing, all while performing with the Kansas City Youth Symphony, school band programs, and the spring musicals. But as the curtain fell for the last time on the musical my freshman year, the District Music Festival was looming just around the corner. Through my preparation for Districts, I learned that everybody can have a different…
Walking into the band room for the first time, the sound of every instrument being poorly played by fourth graders suffocated the room. The squeal of saxophones and blaring bass of tubas made it impossible to hear the instructions being given by the band director. However, none of that mattered to me. All I could do was to stare at the only thing in the room that was able to grasp my attention: a shiny, red drum set. I migrated to the back corner of the room where it sat unoccupied, took my place on the stool, picked up some sticks, and immediately felt at home. At that moment, it was clear to me that playing music was what I was meant to do.…
Handel, Bach, Mozart, Saint Saëns, Beethoven and many more composers wrote countless music for full, grand orchestras and their pieces of music have been played regularly and imitated to this day. In almost each work, they chose to exhibit one instrument in particular: the oboe. Why the oboe? What does it have that other instruments are lacking? If many world-renowned composers chose to highlight the oboe, there must be a quality that makes this instrument superior. The oboe is unique, essential and challenging because it can create such a range of emotion – from high elation to the deepest sorrow. Through these dynamics, the oboe plays a key role in orchestral history. Classical music would not be as emotionally stirring if not for the oboe.…
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed this symphonic poem in a mere 3 weeks. Under the suggestion of the music critic, Henry Laroche, Tchaikovsky created this symphonic work on the most famous incident in Dante’s Divine Comedy – the tragedy of Francesca and Paolo. Tchaikovsky dubbed this piece as a “symphonic fantasy.” On a letter to his brother, he wrote, “I have worked on it con amore, and I believe my love has been successful.” It was indeed an instant sensation. The symphonic fantasy premiered in Moscow on March 9, 1877. The first performance was received with much enthusiasm despite the fact that it was just five days after the premiere of Swan Lake. On YouTube, I enjoyed the vibrant air with which Gustavo Dudamel conducted to his Symphonic…
The symphony orchestra consisted of three pieces, Last Round, Fire and Ice, and Serenade for Strings. Every performance was interesting in their own specific manners. It contained pieces that were exciting, suspenseful, delicate, smooth and an assortment of different feelings. In the piece "Last Round" I felt a couple of various sentiments. The principal development of the piece was quick and energetic. Listening to the exciting sounds made me feel as though I was viewing the 1960's slasher, 'Psycho'. It made me feel as though I was viewing the anticipation up until the shower scene where Marion Crane is killed. It helped me a lot to remember the music utilized as a part of that scene, and even that film. The second movement made me feel…
Banging the piano as fast as I could was how I began my music journey as an eight-year-old, and just eight years later, I found myself preparing for a recital to receive my Diploma in Music Performance from the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music. The pressure of playing the most technical pieces at blistering tempos, with the inherent risk of a single wrong note ruining the performance, gave me joy like no other. Not knowing whether or not a mistake is imminent, my hours of practice would lead my fingers to the perfect performance: the performance of my life which led to certification as one of only forty-two musicians to receive the Diploma of Music Performance in the United States that year.…