Ethnography of Performance During a musical performance many elements to be looked are not easily recognized by the average critic. A musical performance has multiple interactions taking place between the music, text, performers, audience, and space that all can contribute to a great performance. Overwhelming majority of the audience does not realize so much can be looked at during a single performance. At a performance by the University of Maryland Marching Band I was able to analyze the Musical Sound, Contexts of the Performance, and Interpretation of the Performance. When analyzing musical sound there are many factors to pay attention to during the performance. Important things to listen for are the pitch, scale, timbre, tone quality, rhythm, melody, and form. While listening to the Marching Band the pitch of the performance varied. At some moments during the performance the pitch would sound low and that is when the bass instruments are heard. The pitch sounded high when the other instruments joined. Using a standard pitch enables a large number of instruments to be played together with out sounding out of tune. In many musical traditions people are not concerned with a standard pitch, and they tune instruments to sound well with other instruments for a specific occasion or even to suit the convenient level for a singer (Kaemmer:58). A pitch also contains intervals, which refers to the difference between tones of two different pitches. An example would be the octave, it represents two tones the bands performance had an octave. The marching band used a chromatic scale because of all the instruments and in a chromatic scale there are twelve notes within an octave. This allows the other members of the band to join in the... ... middle of paper ... ... says something about the American culture towards marching bands. The overall interpretation of the performance has a lot to do with examining the uses and functions music in the performance. During halftime the band is trying the lift the spirits of the crowd and team playing, but the result is at halftime everyone leaves. Whether or not the performance was great much of the audience will never know because they leave. For those who stayed and listened to the performance it was delightful and intriguing but others did not give the band a chance. The musical sound was there. The performance involvement was present for those who stayed and listened and the music was very easy to interpret. The job of the marching band is to entertain the audience and they work hard to do so. The least the audience could do is stay and listen to their hard work during halftime.
Wind and rain are environmental factor that mother nature never forgotten during the marching band season. However, when it comes to these weather problems the band has it easy. When it rains everyone is miserable, but there is a difference between being unhappy with the rain and being effected by it. When it rains the band members get wet, and so do their instruments, but that does not affect the way they play. The rain can not damage any of the instruments because they are all metal. They other unfavored weather is the wind. Just like the rain, the wind does not affect the band
Marching band is not like many other communities where people come together because they are
The roar of extreme sound emanates from a football field. It is clear that this is not an ordinary high school marching band playing at a football game. These are Drum and Bugle Corps, boasting an instrumentation of all brass and percussion instruments. This arrangement of instruments can create an enormous amount of sound, sometimes louder than a rock music concert. Due to their thorough auditioning processes, they have a group of musicians, who can play extremely well, all of whom are brought together to entertain the crowds on their three month tour in the summer. Their goal is not just entertainment, but to end up on the top of the order when all is said and done at the championships.
Music is an interesting thing. When musicians perform there are plenty of elements to be observed that are not recognized easily to an untrained person. Musical performances contain interactions going on between the performers, audience, music, and space. These come together to create a great performance. The vast majority of people in the audience do not even realize how much there is to be observed during a musical performance. While attending a concert by the Wentzville Holt High School Symphonic Band I was able to evaluate the musical sound, contexts of the performance, and interpretation of the performance.
In this concert, the audience got to see some of Jim Morrison's antics. In the song, “When the Musics Over,” you can see this . The song, “When the Musics Over,” is a serious song that has a very still moving ending where all the instruments get quiet except the keyboard. Which is playing the same low sounding pattern over and over again. This is right before Jim Morrison screams while climax of the song comes also, Jim did something really unexpected during the song when it was quite. He seemed to be observing the audience and listening to what the were screaming. Then all of the sudden, he burped in the microphone and the audience burst into laughter at what Jim had just done on stage. Another antic that Jim Morrison did on stage that amused the crowd a lot was in the song “Unknown Soldier”. This song is about soldiers that passed away in the Vietnam War and were brought back identified as an unknown soldier, this was clearly a protest song from that time. In the climax of the song, the drummer starts to a drum roll on the snare. He started off slowly and then get faster and faster until he hits them really hard mimicking the sound of a gun shooting. When the drummer made that gun noise, Jim Morrison fell to the ground as if someone had shot him. He completely let go off his body and was just laying on the ground, continuing to sing the song while the crowd cheered in amusement. These small things that Jim Morrison did on stage, or antics, show a lot of his personality, allows the people who are attending the show get to see what type of person he
It is evident that a college marching band, as a group, has a set of common goals that they want to reach. As a team, they want to provide entertainment for those going to the games by playing their music. Their aim is to set an encouraging tone throughout the duration of the game. The group has a way of communicating to each other and participatory mechanisms that truly make them active members. Even more specific to their team, they have their specific lexis, or vocabulary, and genre that they possess a level of understanding far above that of an outsider.As for differences in ranks of members, there are many for this specific discourse community. The team contains members of all different diversities in majors, race, age, and experience. The highest rank can be seen with their director, professor, and head coach, Professor Reese. From there we have the assistant athletic director, the TA’s, the section and student leaders, the band members themselves, as well as the Hurricanettes and the Color
It had a more artist approach to it. It was also fun to see that they used some of the same visuals as us in their show. I feel like they lost some visual effect by the fact that they did not wear their jackets and shakos because it very warm that night. Their arms look a little funny out to the sides without the jacket. The performers did engage me however I got distract by other audience members a few different times during the performance. During the performance people were talking really loud and a few people kept getting up and walking in front of me during the performance. Which I found very disrespectful. So this gave me an insight of how people probably act during our halftime shows because it hard to tell from the field. Overall I really enjoyed the show and was glad that I got to go see
To fully understand any musical style, one must be able to analyze the various elements of music as they exist in that particular style. In this first musical close-up, we shall briefly describe these elements of music. In subsequent musical close-ups, we shall examine one or another of these elements in greater detail as it pertains to a given style or topic.
Music: the art of organized noise. The blend of pitch and rhythm combined in different mediums and enjoyed by our ears. A very interpretive art, music isn’t very clearly constricted or defined by one definition. With so many varieties of music, it’s difficult to say what aspect is really the most important. Some people think music’s history and the appreciation of music are the most important aspects to take into consideration. Some think complex in rhythms and melodies make the best music. Some people devote their whole lives to studying one genre of music in order to fully understand how that genre works. While all of these aspects of music are important, none of them can truly be compared with each other on a fair playing field. Music of different genres, eras, and geographic backgrounds were written for different purposes, different people, and different settings. Still, there is still one overarching theme that applies to all forms of music new or old: the way the composer presents his or her creation. The performance and presentation of a work of music is like the icing on the top of a cake. The cake may be the best you’ve ever tasted, but if the icing on the outside doesn’t look appealing or doesn’t taste good, chances are you’ll take a different piece of cake with better looking frosting next time. The performance of music is what appeals most to people. With live performance, an artist must “sell” his or her creation. They must put smile on their face and convey to the audience that this is their music and through the music explain why it’s awesome. They must persevere through whatever the stage, the audience, and their surroundings give them and put on a good show. In today’s popular music though, this aspect of showma...
The visual effects dramatically contributed to the event which made it second most important performance criteria is. The visual effect is made of lighting, the temperature set, the sound surround system, and the resonance. Great performances are accompanied by good lighting. The event had a good lighting. There was a great distribution between the darkness verses light. The color is also important. It was an amazing cold golden color surrounded by dark. It was lovely and relaxing to the eyes. I did not have to blink hundreds of times protecting my eyes due to bad lighting. My eyes were gorgeously and slowly winking. That rapturous lighting was facilitated by great sound .Surround system is a must in all events that sustains good resonance
The concert is reviewed to be very much impressive and makes good use of these musical instruments. All these are quite helpful and important in giving better flow to the music concert. The coordination and synchronization amongst the musical players is said to be very much perfect. This appears to be very much important just to make sure that the listeners are made properly convinced and satisfied. It would turn out to be very much important going for developing knowledge pertaining to the same.
Music cannot be felt or understood unless you experience it in person. You wouldn’t hear the same song through headphones as you would in a live concert. For this reason, I attended a live music concert to better understand the importance of music and apply what I learned in my introductory music course to the performance. I attended a recital of original compositions by Taiwanese composers that had arrangements of Taiwanese folk songs. It took place on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, in the Art Gallery of Marlboro Hall. The three Taiwanese performers were Shu-Ting Yao, Huai-En Tsai, and Yufen Chou. The music they performed was The Temple and Religious Procession by Ma Shui-Long, Formosan Dance by Jiang Wen-Ye, Mong by Wei-Ling Chen, and an arrangement
Performance art can simply be described as the type of art presented to live audience (Irvin, 2016). The performance can either be carefully orchestrated or random; scripted or unscripted; carefully planned sometimes with or without audience participation or otherwise spontaneous. In addition, the performance can either be via the media or live; sometimes the performer is present while other times the performer may be absent. In general, performance art encompasses four basic elements: the body of the performer, time, space, and the performer-audience relationship. Performance art can take place anywhere and in any type of settings and venue for any time duration. For the sake of this assignment, I decided to attend a live art performance,
In a play people act as their characters, pretending to feel an emotion, and be another person altogether trying to tell a story. In band, through our music, we are trying to express not only our skills, but what the music makes us feel and think. In band when we practiced the songs assigned to us, we practicd it for months trying to make it sound perfect. Sometimes, when we had intense, emotional songs the band as a whole would perform with so much emotion and intensity we were all feeling the same exact way. After we would go back to being students, and teachers, following our daily script.
How have performance artists sought to utilise and reference the body within their work? Why have so many performance artists sought to specifically focus on the body as the subject of their work?