Throughout choir this school year, huge advancements have been made within many of the students, leading to tremendous growth. Coming into the first few weeks of choir class, the confidence of the students were low and it was a lengthy process to get through warm-ups, solfege, and ta-ka-di-mis correctly and on pitch. Walking into class currently, more students can be heard singing out and scales being sung in tune with ease. As voices have matured over this school year, many positive growths can be seen. For most students, this being their first year of high school choir, have more room to improve and achieve the level of talent as the members of concert choir. As the final concert of the year comes to a close, progress and direction for future years can be heard and seen through the music.
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weeks went by in the school year, each member of the choir continued to grow in a variety of areas. One simple thing that was improved immensely, was strong entrances and overall confidence. Looking back on several pieces at past concerts, entrances were often not together and timid. When taking a look at the last concert, songs like “The Falcon” and “Sing to the Lord” held entrances that were attacked correctly. By looking at something as simple as volume and overall participation, the increased confidence can easily be found. One major thing that was a focus throughout the whole school year, was keeping an open sound and quality tone. Looking at pieces sung in the beginning of the year, for example, “Sally Gardens”, the overall tone was more pinched and strained, especially going into the higher notes. After much practice and work, our final pieces, “Sing to the Lord” and “I Dream a World”, held a much more open and free tone. A major spot this improvement could be seen was in the choir’s transition into the higher notes, as proper mouth shapes were maintained to keep a pure tone. The overall intonation and independence have also improved over the past three trimesters. In the beginning, the choir couldn’t finish solfege charts without having to get back in tune. Now they can be sung more consistently which has led to harder songs with independent parts like “The Falcon”. These three things only hit a small portion of all the improvement that hard work was needed to achieve. As is normal in every area of life, there are also areas for improvement for the upcoming year of choir.
Although a more open sound has been developed, a soft pallet still needs to be present throughout all pieces and an open sound in the high range, as our songs got more difficult as the year progressed. Some of these songs that helped work on this area were “Alleluia, Praise!” and “Sing to the Lord”. After many hours of practice, immense improvement was made but the overall sound could still be brought to that desired point. Another area that the choir as a whole needs improvement on is intonation. In songs like “The Falcon”, intonation issues came from more simple fixes like knowing the individual parts and overall piece better, as well as having confidence so notes aren’t unsteady or unsure. Intonation issues also stem from the last area that lots of focus was placed on towards the end of the year. This particular skill is called unified vowels. In songs, “Sing to the Lord” and “I Dream a World”, poor vowels led to under pitch sounds and other issues. Unified vowels also help to bring the piece together and improve the overall sound quality and unity of the
choir. To be able to excel in these areas of improvement and grow where there are weaknesses, things must be practiced and done. As is commonly known, one of the most crucial things we did before performances was practice. Skills and proper technique can be talked about, but without practice and putting it into action, improvement couldn’t be made. Lots of practices were endured to get to success and many more practices will need to happen to reach the next level as a choir. To achieve open sound, buzzing exercises are done at the beginning of each day to create good sound production and regulate breath. There are also moments where notes are held to modify vowel sounds and mouth shapes. These are practiced countless times in many different methods until the agreed sound sticks and becomes second nature. Towards the end of the year, the choir also learned the importance of listening to one another, as it helps with many small issues. Put these things, hard work, constant repetition, and exercises together and improvements will be and have been made. Though classes some days can be harder than others, choir teaches hard work, endurance, and putting time into achieving great things. As the year draws to an end, classmates are able to look back together on all of the things they have achieved and grown in. As more years of high school choir approach on the horizon, improvements are yet to be made through many hours of practice. Looking back at all of the exercises that seemed meaningless at the time proved to be crucial for our growth. This further proves Mr. Henderson’s point, there really is a method to all the madness.
The choir immediately captured my attention and seemed to do the same for everyone else in the audience. I was very impressed by the fact that the choir was made up entirely of college students. It was also stated that some of them sing in the choir just for fun as they are not music majors. There seemed to be an appeal in the fact that the singers were mostly very young. The piece as a whole was also very enjoyable.
Elana Sanguigni April 18, 2016 Honors Music Term Paper. The Wind Ensemble and Concert Band reflect a rich history. The formation of the Concert and Wind Ensemble bands dates back to the Middle Ages and Medieval Times. The Concert Band and Wind Ensemble have evolved over the years, due in part to significant historical events, music combinations, individuals, and progress.
On March 13th the Rochester Oratorio Society and Houghton College Choir performed at the Hochstein Performance Hall in the city of Rochester. It was a predominately vocal concert with an accompanying pianist. The main performance of the evening was the Rochester Oratorio Society’s rendition of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem,” in which vocal soloists Elena O’Connor and Benjamin Bloomfield took the front stage, and Linda Boianova joined Kevin Nitsch as a second pair of hands behind the piano.
Ever experienced cheer camp a famous college? Surround by its famous color orange and blue? Well, I did! A tremendous amount of people have their different ideas an exciting experience in their life. Although out of all of the exciting experiences I’ve ever experienced , I would have to say my favorite is when I visited The University of Florida for cheer camp my sophomore year. I was overly excited about spending four days at The University of Florida; I stayed up all night the night before packing and getting ready to finally stay at a college for four days with my fellow cheer sisters. From that experience I learned a lot about sticking together as a team, and friendship! But, most importantly, I learned that bonding together as a team is what got us to finish strong at the end. Those four days really opened my eyes to a lot of different things and I’m glad I can say that I really enjoyed myself.
Palmer, the choir did a wonderful job at singing freely and with resonance. This helped the emotions created by the text to easily be portrayed. They also did a wonderful job at following their conductors gestures for changes in dynamics. This helped to intensify their crescendos and diminuendos. However, their consonants would occasionally be harsh, which interrupted the beauty of the piece as a whole.
may be a dark musical, but its construction lends well to light voices and an equally
Lefebvre, Eliza. "Choir gives voice to kids’ confidence." Buffalo News 14 March 2013, n. pag.
People have dreams of what they want to do or accomplish in life, but usually musical theatre is just pushed into the non-realistic void. It isn’t a dream for me. In the past four years, musical theatre has been clarified as my reality. Musical theatre has been the only thing I have seen myself wanting to do. My first love was The Phantom of the Opera, seeing how I watched it almost every day and it was one of the first shows I saw. Of course, I started doing all of those cute shows in middle school and making a huge deal about it to my family and friends, but I have never felt so passionate about something. The minute I get up on that stage I throw away Riley for two and a half hours and it’s the most amazing feeling! Being able to tell a story
The begging of middle school our choir consisted of Sopranos, Altos. This was mainly due to the fact that we didn’t hit puberty yet. That year I found my niche. This was exciting for me because I wasn’t like my brothers who are athletic. My 7th and 8th grade year were the years I made a difference. To add on to the Sopranos and Altos the guys were now baritones and that was a big deal. During my 7th grade year we sang Phantom of The Opera. My friend Jon and I sang a duet and received a standing ovation. The following year was just as good due to the fact we sang Broadway medley. I sang Part in the South Pacific song aint nothing like a dame. Later in that piece I had a whistling solo for the king and I. this was so cool to do because people thought I was going to sing and I shocked the by whistling. High school was a big change because we now had 4 parts: Soprano, Alto, Bass, and Tenor. Our choir consisted of 50-60 students and 40 of them were girls. I was very intimidated by this but didn’t let this stop me. I sang tenor and our section was about five people but we were the strongest section. We hosted State Large group which is where judges rate your choir you can receive division 1, 2,3,4,5. One would be the best that you could receive. We also had honor choirs you could go to. I went to one in Waverly, Iowa at Wartburg College called the Meistersingers Honor choir. While I was there I sang tenor 2. This Honor choir was about 600 high school students plus the Wartburg choir. This particular honor choir was special because we sang with Simone Estes, the famous opera
The Black Voices, Gospel Choir, had a huge impact on the lives of students in the study. It helped African American students to create a sense of belonging on predominantly White Institution. By establishing a sense of belonging on campus, while reducing feelings of marginalization, gospel choir participation enabled African American students at a PWI to persist in college. The Black Voices afforded participants opportunities to develop ethnic pride and understanding. Despite differences in the impetus for their involvement in the gospel choir, participants identified advancing knowledge about Black culture and the Black community on campus, representing the Black race to White peers and faculty members, and learning about one’s own culture.
On Wednesday, May 23rd, I attended the College Choir concert in the Reamer Campus Center. The choir performed a variety of songs, ranging from pieces in Latin to traditional American folksongs. Two of the pieces featured solos, and one even featured percussion instruments. Mrs. Elinore Farnum provided piano accompaniment for each of the songs, and performed beautifully. I was extremely impressed by the talented choir members and their ability to sing such a varied range of songs.
Theatre has heavily evolved over the past 100 years, particularly Musical Theatre- a subgenre of theatre in which the storyline is conveyed relying on songs and lyrics rather than dialogue. From its origination in Athens, musical theatre has spread across the world and is a popular form of entertainment today. This essay will discuss the evolution and change of musical theatre from 1980-2016, primarily focusing on Broadway (New York) and the West End (London). It will consider in depth, the time periods of: The 1980s: “Brit Hits”- the influence of European mega musicals, the 1990s: “The downfall of musicals”- what failed and what redeemed, and the 2000s/2010s: “The Resurgence of musicals”- including the rise of pop and movie musicals. Concluding
"Chorus in Greek Theater." Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature, Second Edition. Facts On File, 2014. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. A typical chorus is a group of singers usually performing with an orchestra, and is refer to by most people in modern day time as a choir. In Ancient Greek a chorus is usually consist of a group of men who would sang and danced. According to Facts On File “s Greek theater had its origins in religious liturgy, the chorus also sprang from associated ritual occasions and participated in both tragic and comic performances.” Greek theater can be compared the most to opera because of the characteristic that it holds. The choral parts were chanted then followed by danced with either half or the
It was more like an upgrade of music techniques and styles. I was able to sing and perform with different people, it was a different environment and good experience. So my experience in this particular group, every morning before singing, we always have to do the warm up technique. Which there are six steps, and every step has a warm that helps you prepare to sing and clears out your throat especially your facial movements. These six steps at first, it was kind of funny but then, at the end it really helped me as an alto singer. In our swing choir room, we have mirrors that surrounds the room. The mirrors helps us see how we sing, and gets that nervous feeling away. We sing in front of the mirrors, to help us be confident in ourselves. Everything I learned about singing all came from experience, and I am glad that I learned singing as a child till today. I don’t expect much from this class, but enjoying this class and getting my vocals back. Music is all about having fun and be the
For me personally, music appreciation is defined as looking at different pieces of music and musical forms, and learning to find appreciation for them. This appreciation is formed not only by listening to several pieces of music, but by learning to understand what you may be listening too. This involves introducing yourself to many pieces of music and learning to interpret, what makes each piece different and unique. Understanding the historical background and societal changes that have taken place during the creation of the musical piece, is also an important factor to consider. Music is not only creative, but it also makes up part of a societies history. Music is an art form that connects different societies and cultures together, it possess the amazing ability to make us into one.