http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZhE7A3BMU
Okay this will have to do with some explaining. First off we talked about how when playing music with others sometimes you can just feel connected with others at certain moments, and how that connection can make you want to do music later on so you can have that feeling again. This is the piece that made me become a music major. The ballad section, when the trumpets first enter (4:16), and to the end (5:24), I felt like my band was all connected, that there we were just one as a group and just producing the most beautiful music possible. This was one of the best feelings I've ever experienced and I wanted to experience it again. That's a lot of why I became a music major.
Secondly, and more relevant to the everyone else, the ending section, starting at 7:07. We talked about how we bring all our different rhythms together to make music. They are all different, but the still work. At the end of this piece everyone is playing something different. Trumpets have a melody, horns saxes and baritones have a different melody, high woodwinds are doing things on top of it all and low brass and woodwinds have running 8th notes to keep a nice steady pulse going. None of those are really related to each other, but somehow that doesn't matter. The two melodies happen to fit perfect with each other, which sounds perfect with the high woodwinds on top, which sounds perfect with the low instruments on bottom. We each bring out own little melody, motif if you will, to our circle. Some are simple, like just running quarter notes. Some more complex, but all different none the less. They all fit together to form nice beautiful music, just like at the end of this piece when all the different motifs and one new one come together just to make some beautiful music.
Wow, what a powerful piece this is! I totally agree with you in the sense that that this is a very emotional piece. I like the passion. I can feel it moving something inside of me. The anxiety and just general feelings of angst that I get from this are extremely powerful.
ReplyDeleteThe oboe solo also invokes a very strong reaction in me,as most do. I absolutely love the way it climbs to the top note making one feel extremely hopeful, but doesn't really have a resolve. The dissonance with the flute that comes gives me chills. This is a very good example of the ties between music and emotion.
My favorite part was the end and that is not supposed to be a mean "I was glad it was over". It was more so I love in the end how you think they are going to hit one more not but they don't and you think oh its over but only feel mildly incomplete. But then they hit their last few notes. I thought that was awesome. It just sort of plays on your mind almost. I love when pieces can do that musically. Make you start to think one thing and then do something else. In my opinion it is those moments that make people look at things differently. Those are the musical moments that change lives because by giving someone something other than what they expect you are changing their outlook and how they view something. This is awesome John. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThe way the ebb and flow of the dynamics, what instruments come in, etc. is asymmetrical makes it seem a lot more human to me, and the way the performers interpret it makes me really happy that they are actually playing music, instead of just reading it. The incorporation of Spanish and Arabic (I think?) modes demonstrates how much more you can do as a composer when you are open to all musical traditions, not just western. I agree with Catherine about the ending too.
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