Concert Attendance Observation Critique

Concert Attendance Observation and Critique

Descriptive:
Date and Time: May 16, 2010, 3:00p.m.
Location: Spivey Hall
Performers: Spivey Hall Children’s Choir & Spivey Hall Tour Choir

There were 114 children in the Children’s Choir and 51 in the Tour choir. The kids who performed in the Tour choir also sang with the Children’s Choir. The Tour choir is the elite choir that performs at other venues and has higher performing students. All of the performers were in middle or high school from 17 Atlanta counties. The choir used full four step chorus risers situated along the middle of the stage. In front of the risers there was a grand piano and in front of that was a conducting podium. The full choir came out and performed three songs. The choir then exited the stage: the children’s choir members who were not in the tour choir sat in the audience.

Analytic:

1. O, Praise God in His Holiness, C. Armstrong Gibbs
This song followed a simple ABA form. This piece was rather short in performance. It was a sacred genre, two part harmony, high melody, and mostly unison.
Let Beauty Awake, Ralph Vaughn Williams
This song was also rather short. This song also used simple melodies and harmonies. This song was very light in texture and was of course in English.
Selections from Misa Pequena, Francisco J. Nunez
This song was very different than the first two. The song had a lot of call and response. As the song went on, it intensified in volume and strength. This song had three part harmony, high soprano parts. The conductor chose to have no applause in between movements, thus almost combining them with a small pause. I did notice in the program that they used several different soloists depending on the day of the performance. There were intermittent soprano solos mixed throughout this piece. This song was very lamenting and was sung in Latin.
Cantate Domino, Ruth Watson Henderson
This piece used a trumpet soloist. Again sacred text, ABA form, the exposition was louder and much faster. The conductor had a small group of sopranos stand in front of the risers in front of the rest of the choir. The piece had several interludes where there were soprano solos almost in rounds.
Gate Gate, Brian Tate
This piece had multiple meter. There seemed to be a two part harmony. In the middle of the piece there was a distinct key change. The use of clapping as part of the song was also incorporated.
Over the Rainbow, Harold Arlan
This song sounded almost exactly as written. Mr. Arlan apparently changed something to the piece. The only thing that I heard that was changed was that he slapped a big sax solo in the middle of the song. This particular solo was very out of character for the song and I didn’t understand where the saxophone came into play. The tempo was very medium, nice mix of voices and timbres. Again, simple harmony and meter.
2. The performance style of this group is vastly different than the performance style of the groups I teach. The main difference of course is that this group is comprised of middle and high school kids and mine is comprised of elementary kids. Another major difference is that this was a choir and my kids are in band. I know that people say there should not be a difference, that musicians are musicians…but there is a difference. There is a reason why I chose to concentrate on band and not middle/high school choir. I thought all of the pieces sounded great, but I couldn’t imagine myself teaching that genre of music. This was a very well rehearsed and very put together group. They were professionally behaved and performed to very high standards. In the schools that I teach, I am lucky to even get a rehearsal on the day of a performance, much less time to really put together a nice performance.
3.
Design: The design of this concert was very well thought out. The students had been designed and taught where they would go and when. The conductor had an escort on and off the stage as a professional would. The design of the clothing even marked what group the child was in. The design of the stage suggested a very professional environment, with a grand piano and full conductor’s podium.

Story: The story of each song was evident in the way the group was set up. For the full choir, the group used all four risers. For the tour choir only the group was set up more intimately. This suggested that the conductor wanted you to get more from the music. The more intimate setting proved to the listener that this was more highly developed performers/music. This was evident in the story of each song, the intensity of the music, and the way the performers arranged themselves on the stage.

Symphony: The groups displayed symphony techniques of Pink simply through the music they chose. There was definite symphony to the pieces and how they interrelated to one another. Most of them were sacred texts, or texts that seemed to have a sacred feeling. Throughout the concert, the listener could tell that there was a theme of lament and reflection from each song.

Empathy: One of the things that impressed me was how the conductor showed empathy to the listeners. The audience members rarely get the respect they deserve. The conductor made it a point to acknowledge the applause of the audience before continuing. She also gave a gracious pause to the choir members on stage so that they could receive their just applause as well.

Play: Even though there were many serious songs included on the program, the choir looked like they were having the time of their lives. They smiled as they performed and seemed to take real pride and joy in their performance. There were several songs that were more relaxed and seemed very playful, but also in keeping with the theme of the concert.

Meaning: Besides the obvious of having meaning within the sacred texts that were used for this concert, the performers and conductor gave meaning to music in general. They obviously have put a lot of work into their concert. There have been multiple rehearsals and plenty of time and effort that has gone into making this event what it was. There have been parents, etc involved in the making of this concert. This in itself gives meaning to the concert. The fact that so many parents, teachers, and staff have been involved in this one music endeavor means a lot for music and its future.

Reflective:
1. Listening can make us better performers because it does a multitude of things. Listening trains our ears on how to listen for melody and harmony, where the important parts are, where the moving parts in the music are located. Listening trains us to hear the different parts of the music and how it interrelates to the other parts going on around it. Listening makes us better prepared to play our instruments. Whether we sing or play an instrument, listening gives us the tools necessary to perform better either by ourselves or with a group. Listening makes us tune it to what is going on around us, either within the audience or as part of a performing group. As with many music performers, listening to other groups also gives us a sense of our own hierarchy. We always like to know where we stand as compared to other players.
2. We can become better teachers by listeners. We teach it every day in our classes, but why? Because we know that when you listen you hear. When you listen you show different routines and aspects of music that you normally may not have paid attention to. Listening exposes you to new music, it might give you ideas on new music for your groups, new music you should make your groups listen to, or music your groups might like to hear and then sing/play. Listening to music can also expose you to different versions of the same old tune. When you listen to music you become reflective and thoughtful. It may be that you hear a piece you already know but done in a different way. Music is meant to played with, to be changed and molded as necessary…listening can help you to make that change. It can help you to engage in different methods that you might shy away from. Listening also gives, as teachers, stepping stones. It gives us/inspires us to do different performances with our groups. It might even inspire us to take our groups places we normally never would have thought of.
3. It altered my perspective in that I realize how encapsulated I am sometimes. I try to keep my kids on a certain area of the band methods book at certain times of the year. I become almost too much of a robot in thinking that I must get them to so and so page or they will never learn what they need to. Listening to this performance made me remember of what is like to be young and enjoy a performance just for the sake of performing. Little kids that I teach are still in that phase and I think I need to keep that more in mind. In the end, its not about what the principal, teachers, or parents think…its about what I think…what the kids think of themselves and the pride they feel in their accomplishment of the performance.
4. I think that in the short run, music teachers have always had a fear of being cut from school budgets. We live with that fear every year. However, what I saw at this performance was exactly what Pink had described in his book. Yes, we may be a technological country, etc…but we are still people who need interaction to survive. Music gives us that way to interact. We can listen and enjoy music and continue to feel that we are all interconnected with each other, through the audience and as performers on stage. It is a way of sharing thoughts and ideas that no one else can. After all, not everyone can perform music, can they? As music teachers we must understand that there are still people out there who enjoy what we do and do not want us to go away. There are still parents that will fight for our existence in their children’s lives. Because they know that we exist to make help make their children’s lives better. They might not be able to identify why we make it better, but Pink makes it clear in his book. We exist because there is still a need for our brain to interconnect with itself. We are there to help make that connection stronger, so that in the future we can grow not only as people but as a society. Politicians and school board members may not see it now, but if society goes in the direction Pink says it is, music teachers will be there waiting.
5. Listening Guide: for 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders::::

1. Describe the sound in the recital hall.
2. Can you hear the male versus female voices?
3. Are there any other instruments playing with the choir? If so, what?
4. Are they singing in English?
5. If not, can you identify the language that it being sung?
6. How do the chorus risers affect what you hear?
7. Are all of the singers singing at the same time?
8. Describe how one of the songs makes you feel.
9. Do you think that a song’s tempo makes you feel a certain way?
10. What instrument was used as a jazz instrument?
11. Do all of the performers start and stop at the same time?
12. How are the audience members around you behaving? Are they clapping at appropriate times? Are they talking?
13. Describe what the choir does in between songs.
14. What does the choir do when it is finished or about to start a song?
15. How does the choir know when to speed up or slow down? Do they do it when they are supposed to?
16. Is the conductor saying anything to the group? To the audience?
17. How does this group compare to the group you belong to?
18. Do you think that you sing this well? Or play an instrument this well?
19. How many hours do you think they practice at home? With the group?
20. If you had to describe this performance with one word, what would it be?