For my second performance report I attended a performance by Alpenfest, a group which performs traditional music of the Alps. This particular showing of Alpenfest was at the 2010 German Fest in Munster Texas. The stage, known as the German Stage was inside a large tent and was filled with people with an overflow all around. I arrived a little after the performance had started, the location was not well marked and it was a little hard to find the right area. There were multiple shows and events going on simultaneously. On one certain occasion, when the volume of the Alpenfest music was a little low, a band called Alley Kat could be heard playing Freebird in the distance. People were coming and going, staying long enough to eat their food and drinks before moving on to some of the other events and activities available at German fest. People were very relaxed, wearing blue jeans and T-shirts, or whatever they found comfortable. There were a few people dressed up for the occasion. There were a few wearing some Lederhosen or some variety of older traditional German clothing.
The musicians of Alpenfest were among those wearing the traditional German attire and their instruments were traditional German instruments as well. They used an accordion and eight tuned bells and played a small variety of traditional German folk songs. These songs were sung in the original German. While the live music was the main attraction, a few of the performances had the musicians joining in the dancing and the music was played from a CD that was pre-recorded by Alpenfest. This music featured the accordion, guitar, bells, and several areophones that I could not absolutely identify. The songs were more well known traditional German songs such as Idle Wice, and the up tempo beat made them very easy to dance to, and in fact several of the songs were danced to by performers and audience volunteers.
The line between audience and performers was blurred as the performance was meant to involve the audience. Several of the performers were only involved for a song or two, after which they joined the audience, so it was not always clear who was a performer and who was just an audience member. The Performance shifted between songs that involved the audience to songs that needed the audience to directly participate in either dancing or even playing an instrument. The audience ranged widely in age, many people simply stopped for a few minutes to view the music of Alpenfest before moving on to other events.
The performance involved a few performers dressed in traditional German Lederhosen and Dresses. The instruments used were tuned bells and an accordion. There were a variety of songs played; most were meant to be danced to. The lead singer, an early 30’s, Arian looking woman announced that this was more a variety show and that audience participation was required. There were quite a few activities in the songs. The first involved a game were once a flute was played, during the song, the audience was supposed to jump up and sit back down quickly. Later seven volunteers came from the audience, each one was given a bell and each played their bell when touched on the back by the lead performer. The audience was given several opportunities to dance, both free dance and some traditional German dances that were taught by the lead performer.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
A somewhat recent development in Rock is the advent of Christian Rock, or Rock music with Christian themes. In the early days of Rock and Roll, Rock was looked down on by many in the Christian community and was often referred to as the devils music, many Churches urged parents to sign pledges to keep their children from listening to Rock. Later, in the 70’s and 80’s, there was an emergence of bands like the 2nd Chapter of Acts and Petra, which combined Christian themes, ideas, and worship into Rock songs. Today, there are many different Christian Rock bands playing a variety of styles of subgenres of Rock. Contemporary Christian Rock describes a somewhat wide variety of musical style. This subgenre is often more associated with heavy Rock and metal, but is also often reflective of worship styles of slightly more traditional Christian music. There are several characteristics that help define this genre:
The primary instruments are a drums(trap set), guitar, and base. These three instruments are used in almost every Contemporary Christian Rock song, and while there are occasional exceptions to having all three at once, all bands have a guitarist, bassist and a drummer.
Small ensembles. Like traditional Rock, bluegrass, and country, Christian Contemporary Rock is primarily made of small bands of sizes between 3 and 6 members. The bands usually start as non-professionals who might or might not be associated with a church and involved with worship.
Emphasis on singing. Contemporary Christian Rock is defined by singing, the instrumentals themselves are not different from many other genres of rock, the words are often the biggest difference, and is what defines this subgenre.
Use of technology. Like other rock subgenres, most Contemporary Christian Rock musicians take advantage of recording studio technology and use electronic instruments to manipulate notes and sounds in ways that otherwise would be impossible.
Emotional Emphasis. The songs of Contemporary Christian Rock draw heavily on emotion. The sounds of the song and the vocals are keyed to create certain emotions in the listener, for entertainment purposes and as a better way of communicating the purpose of the song.
Purposeful lyrics. The words of the songs are the most important part of this subgenre and, as stated earlier, is what really separates this subgenre from others. While other rock subgenres songs have meaning behind their words, the words are often used as just another instrument and are not the point to the songs. In Contemporary Christian Rock, the words are always important.
Listening guide for Red’s “Fight Inside”
0:00 Instrumental introduction, drums and several synthesizers start the song slowly.
0:16 the first use of the instrumental which is used as a cadence between verses. This is a heavier, deeper portion of the songs that will indicate the change between verses.
0:35 the vocal starts despite the very heavy instruments that would normally drown the voice of the lead singer, the voice is clearly the lead, marking the prominence of vocals and lyrics in the song
0:50 the theme fight inside is first introduced.
1:07 first use of the repeated melody of the song .This melody is repeated several times in the song and even contains the words for which the song is named.
1:23 Heavy guitar cadence.
1:32 vocals start again.
1:48 main melody is repeated again.
2:20 new instrumental starts, a different sound is used here to mark a change in the song, and that the songs is begging to near conclusion.
2:31 new vocals are introduced, only a few words are sung here, repeated several times.
3:02 Main melody starts a final time.
3:34 change in instrumentals and vocals mark the beginning of the ending of the song.
The primary instruments are a drums(trap set), guitar, and base. These three instruments are used in almost every Contemporary Christian Rock song, and while there are occasional exceptions to having all three at once, all bands have a guitarist, bassist and a drummer.
Small ensembles. Like traditional Rock, bluegrass, and country, Christian Contemporary Rock is primarily made of small bands of sizes between 3 and 6 members. The bands usually start as non-professionals who might or might not be associated with a church and involved with worship.
Emphasis on singing. Contemporary Christian Rock is defined by singing, the instrumentals themselves are not different from many other genres of rock, the words are often the biggest difference, and is what defines this subgenre.
Use of technology. Like other rock subgenres, most Contemporary Christian Rock musicians take advantage of recording studio technology and use electronic instruments to manipulate notes and sounds in ways that otherwise would be impossible.
Emotional Emphasis. The songs of Contemporary Christian Rock draw heavily on emotion. The sounds of the song and the vocals are keyed to create certain emotions in the listener, for entertainment purposes and as a better way of communicating the purpose of the song.
Purposeful lyrics. The words of the songs are the most important part of this subgenre and, as stated earlier, is what really separates this subgenre from others. While other rock subgenres songs have meaning behind their words, the words are often used as just another instrument and are not the point to the songs. In Contemporary Christian Rock, the words are always important.
Listening guide for Red’s “Fight Inside”
0:00 Instrumental introduction, drums and several synthesizers start the song slowly.
0:16 the first use of the instrumental which is used as a cadence between verses. This is a heavier, deeper portion of the songs that will indicate the change between verses.
0:35 the vocal starts despite the very heavy instruments that would normally drown the voice of the lead singer, the voice is clearly the lead, marking the prominence of vocals and lyrics in the song
0:50 the theme fight inside is first introduced.
1:07 first use of the repeated melody of the song .This melody is repeated several times in the song and even contains the words for which the song is named.
1:23 Heavy guitar cadence.
1:32 vocals start again.
1:48 main melody is repeated again.
2:20 new instrumental starts, a different sound is used here to mark a change in the song, and that the songs is begging to near conclusion.
2:31 new vocals are introduced, only a few words are sung here, repeated several times.
3:02 Main melody starts a final time.
3:34 change in instrumentals and vocals mark the beginning of the ending of the song.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Gullah
The Gullah people are decedents of slaves brought to America from a variety of African regions. The largest groups were from Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, Baga, Susa, Limba, Temne, Mende, Vai, but the current culture most reflects the culture in Sierra Leone. This background has been uniquely preserved by the Gullah people due to extreme isolation from the days of slavery till post World War Two, and really only recently have been less isolated. The Gullah still use many words from their African roots, these words are often mixed with English to create a unique dialect that can be traced back to its roots in Mende, Vai , Fula or other dialogues from the Guinea/Sierra Leone region.
The Gullah people still have songs that are very distinctly African, using polyrhythmic beats with membraneophones and idiophones providing the only instrumentation aside from vocal elements, although on some occasions more modern electrophones are used as well. These songs are pervasive throughout the culture being used in celebrations, in worship songs or even in communications, such as when someone in the community has died. Despite many Gullah’s moving away to the rest of the United States for jobs, this music has been preserved as a way of keeping contact with the Gullah past and heritage. Keeping in touch with their past and remembering where their people come from is very important to the Gullah, and this music is one of the ways in which they do this.
The Gullah audience is often other Gullah, preserving the Gullah tradition and passing it along. Their audience also includes many non Gullah for whom they perform, again, to preserve and pass along their unique culture. These songs are performed by many in the community and there are few, if any professionals in their particular dances and songs.
The Gullah people still have songs that are very distinctly African, using polyrhythmic beats with membraneophones and idiophones providing the only instrumentation aside from vocal elements, although on some occasions more modern electrophones are used as well. These songs are pervasive throughout the culture being used in celebrations, in worship songs or even in communications, such as when someone in the community has died. Despite many Gullah’s moving away to the rest of the United States for jobs, this music has been preserved as a way of keeping contact with the Gullah past and heritage. Keeping in touch with their past and remembering where their people come from is very important to the Gullah, and this music is one of the ways in which they do this.
The Gullah audience is often other Gullah, preserving the Gullah tradition and passing it along. Their audience also includes many non Gullah for whom they perform, again, to preserve and pass along their unique culture. These songs are performed by many in the community and there are few, if any professionals in their particular dances and songs.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Shakespeare in song, it was
Shakespeare has been sung for almost as long as Shakespeare has been played. While singers were not the focus of Shakespearian plays, many of his plays featured songs in some form, and many songs have since been made from some famous scenes in Shakespeare. (performance pamphlet)
I attended the march 27th 2010 Shakespeare in song event for this performance report. This event was held in the Jonsson Performance Hall. For those of you unfamiliar with Jonsson, it reportedly seats 199 people in the audience in a half amphitheater styled seating arrangement with a fairly small stage at the base. The room is decorated in green with wood paneling. The room does have a small sound system, but this was unused in this performance, with the relatively small room size, and the power behind the singer’s voice, there was no need for it. The room projector was used however to display for the audience what song was being sung, some basic information about the song and to indicate the beginning intermission and end.
The majority of the audience arrived well before the start of the performance, and no one, that I noticed, came in late. The audience was not quite large enough to fill half of the theater which, as stated earlier, seats 199 at most. Many in the audience, most of those who arrived 10 or more minutes before the start of the show appeared to be family members, families with younger children and Grandparents. Later, closer to the start of the show, students came in and doubled the size of the audience. There was quite a bit of talking before the performance but little, if any, during the performance. The group continued talking again during intermission and after the performance, including talking quite a bit with the performers themselves; which many seemed to know.
The Performers came in just a minute or two after 8:00 PM, the group appeared to be nearly 1:1 male to female, were fairly young in age, early 20‘s, with the exception of two of the students who appeared to be in their late 30‘s. The Choir director was obviously a teacher, their teacher of course, but a professor at the University and the accompanying pianist appeared to be a professor as well. The performers were wearing costumes that were similar to period costumes from Shakespeare lifetime. The entire choir and the director and even the pianist had a costume. All together there were 8 Sopranos, 6 Altos, 6 Tenors and 8 Baritones in the choir, for a total of 32 performers including the pianist and Director.
There were a total of 16 songs by these performers, 8 before intermission and 8 after. These came from many of Shakespeare’s plays, comedies and tragedies. Each individual performance taken from Shakespeare’s plays had dialogue that introduced the song as part of the play and set the stage for the song itself. There were often several from the troupe that came to the side of the stage and spoke lines from the play as if they were in the play. Sometimes these actors were the main singers or even soloists in the songs. On two occasions, singers who had been sitting on the front row, and not singing with the rest of the choir came and sang solos. This occurred during Cymbeline and a female in Twelfth night. Much of the focus in most songs was the harmony sung by the entire choir, however, many songs such as The Tempest Act1 Scene 2 and Act 2 Scene 2, along with Hamlet, Cymbeline Othello, the Twelfth night, along with many others were sung by a set of the performers who had come to the front of the stage to act and sing. The wide range of voices in the choir, along with the individual soloists gave each song a very unique texture. A song could start out very quiet, and then get much louder, warmer, and richer. The “Willow Song”, song stands out as a great example of the versatility and range of the choir. The song starts off with exclusively the women only, altos and sopranos, who sing a somewhat melancholy song, the men latter join in both tenors and bass singing different words at the same time to make the song polyphonic. This added a very warm texture to the song that complimented the earlier melancholy mood.
The music sung by the Shakespearean choir incorporated many unique elements of music to play on emotions and communicate a wide range of subjects. The choir’s range and number allowed for a different texture in each individual song. Heterophony, polyphony and monophony were all incorporated at some point in the performance. Disjunct and conjunct motion allowed for the manipulation of mood, both the characters on stage, and the audience. All in all, the entire choir had a large repertoire of tools at their disposal, and were able to create very complex and very simple textures.
References:
Performance pamphlet "Shakespeare in Song." School of Arts and Humanities March, 26-27th, 2010
"Shakespeare in Song." School of Arts and Humanities March,27th, 2010 8:00 PM
I attended the march 27th 2010 Shakespeare in song event for this performance report. This event was held in the Jonsson Performance Hall. For those of you unfamiliar with Jonsson, it reportedly seats 199 people in the audience in a half amphitheater styled seating arrangement with a fairly small stage at the base. The room is decorated in green with wood paneling. The room does have a small sound system, but this was unused in this performance, with the relatively small room size, and the power behind the singer’s voice, there was no need for it. The room projector was used however to display for the audience what song was being sung, some basic information about the song and to indicate the beginning intermission and end.
The majority of the audience arrived well before the start of the performance, and no one, that I noticed, came in late. The audience was not quite large enough to fill half of the theater which, as stated earlier, seats 199 at most. Many in the audience, most of those who arrived 10 or more minutes before the start of the show appeared to be family members, families with younger children and Grandparents. Later, closer to the start of the show, students came in and doubled the size of the audience. There was quite a bit of talking before the performance but little, if any, during the performance. The group continued talking again during intermission and after the performance, including talking quite a bit with the performers themselves; which many seemed to know.
The Performers came in just a minute or two after 8:00 PM, the group appeared to be nearly 1:1 male to female, were fairly young in age, early 20‘s, with the exception of two of the students who appeared to be in their late 30‘s. The Choir director was obviously a teacher, their teacher of course, but a professor at the University and the accompanying pianist appeared to be a professor as well. The performers were wearing costumes that were similar to period costumes from Shakespeare lifetime. The entire choir and the director and even the pianist had a costume. All together there were 8 Sopranos, 6 Altos, 6 Tenors and 8 Baritones in the choir, for a total of 32 performers including the pianist and Director.
There were a total of 16 songs by these performers, 8 before intermission and 8 after. These came from many of Shakespeare’s plays, comedies and tragedies. Each individual performance taken from Shakespeare’s plays had dialogue that introduced the song as part of the play and set the stage for the song itself. There were often several from the troupe that came to the side of the stage and spoke lines from the play as if they were in the play. Sometimes these actors were the main singers or even soloists in the songs. On two occasions, singers who had been sitting on the front row, and not singing with the rest of the choir came and sang solos. This occurred during Cymbeline and a female in Twelfth night. Much of the focus in most songs was the harmony sung by the entire choir, however, many songs such as The Tempest Act1 Scene 2 and Act 2 Scene 2, along with Hamlet, Cymbeline Othello, the Twelfth night, along with many others were sung by a set of the performers who had come to the front of the stage to act and sing. The wide range of voices in the choir, along with the individual soloists gave each song a very unique texture. A song could start out very quiet, and then get much louder, warmer, and richer. The “Willow Song”, song stands out as a great example of the versatility and range of the choir. The song starts off with exclusively the women only, altos and sopranos, who sing a somewhat melancholy song, the men latter join in both tenors and bass singing different words at the same time to make the song polyphonic. This added a very warm texture to the song that complimented the earlier melancholy mood.
The music sung by the Shakespearean choir incorporated many unique elements of music to play on emotions and communicate a wide range of subjects. The choir’s range and number allowed for a different texture in each individual song. Heterophony, polyphony and monophony were all incorporated at some point in the performance. Disjunct and conjunct motion allowed for the manipulation of mood, both the characters on stage, and the audience. All in all, the entire choir had a large repertoire of tools at their disposal, and were able to create very complex and very simple textures.
References:
Performance pamphlet "Shakespeare in Song." School of Arts and Humanities March, 26-27th, 2010
"Shakespeare in Song." School of Arts and Humanities March,27th, 2010 8:00 PM
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