Concert Report One Essay

Submitted By nicksmom091482
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Concert Report One-Greenville Concert Band On October 26. 2014, my family and I attended the Greenville Concert Bands Fall concert, titled Fall Pops Concert. The concert was performed at the Younts Center for the Performing Arts in Fountain Inn, SC. The band was under the direction of Dr. Darryl Jachens. The band performed seven different pieces that were played amazingly. The music variety included march, classical, jazz, country, novelty, folk, and broadway. The band consisted of nine clarinets, two bass clarinets, five saxophones, eight trumpets, a mellophone, four French horns, five trombones, three euphoniums, three tubas, a timpani, snare drum, bass drum, wood block, triangle, and cymbals. The first piece the band performed was entitled Noble Men, written by Henry Fillmore. This piece of music was a real attention getter with it vivace tempo. It also started out very fortissimo. In parts of the song, the dynamics would change, but the change was so smooth that you hardly noticed. Choosing this piece as an opener was a great idea because it really caught the attention in the audience. The first part of the piece contained a cheerful trumpet fanfare that really emphasized the song. Followed by the trumpets was the cheerful high woodwind section who took the dynamics down to mezzo piano. I really enjoyed the cymbal part because they were right on point and made sure you did not take your attention off of the band. Even though the ending was a little abrupt, it was just right. The second piece was an English Folk Song Suite that included parts of the following songs, Seventeen Come Sunday, My Bonny Boy, and Folk Songs from Somerset. Seventeen Come Sunday was a very smooth sounding song. In the beginning it was full of energy and then it tapered off to a lighter sound. The dynamics in this piece were constantly changing from forte, pianissimo, mezzo forte, piano, and fortissimo at the end. Throughout the song the low brass and low woodwinds kept the melody and they sounded wonderful. The crescendo at the end of the song made you anxious to hear the next piece. The next song featured in the English Folk Song Suite was My Bonny Boy. This song was played mostly piano. It was soft with a mysterious tone to it. This song featured solos by an oboe and then by a clarinet. The melody in this song was played by the low clarinet, bassoon, and euphoruim. This piece ended with all the instruments playing lightly. The last song in this suite was Folk Songs from Somerset. This piece features a trumpet sole that is played very lightly and smooth. The mood of this song was strong with a majestic tone. It was mostly played fortissimo with the exception of a few measures played piano. Hello Dolly, written by Jerry Harman and arranged by John Cacavas was the third piece performed. This piece featured bits and pieces of songs from the Broadway play “Hello Dolly”. The dynamics in this piece really kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt like I was sitting in New York City. This song just made me feel happy and made me want to dance. All of the instruments came together and really made this piece sound awesome. The next piece was Fugue on Yankee Doodle by John Philip Sousa. This was a variety of versions of Yankee Doodle. When changing versions of the song, the band transitioned so smoothly that you did not even realize that they were moving on. Yankee Doodle is a very patriotic song in my eyes and when the Greenville Concert Band performed this it made me feel great to be an American. The fifth song was Victory at Sea by Richard Rogers. It was the perfect song to follow Fugue on Yankee Doodle. This