Personal Narrative: My Special Music Concert

For my second concert, I attended a percussion ensemble. There was really no proper title to the concert. It was directed by Daniel Smithiger. The percussionists were SIUE students and a guest conductor/ performer, Professor Megan Arns, from the University of Missouri. Professor Arns has performed in many countries. She is a percussionist and educator. She also has experience with marching band. There was a total of eight songs performed during the concert I attended. The first song performed by the group was, “Equal Fire” by Paul Bissell. Written in 1990, the song featured a wood block, snare, symbols, bass, and bongos. With the inclusion of instruments native to Africa, it had a tribal feel. “Equal Fire” made me feel like I was a part of

It created an eerie, ominous sound, almost like something was creeping through the woods. The next song to performed was called, “Mudra” written by Bob Becker in 2002. Professor Megan Arns was a guest drummer; she played the Prepared Drum. The song also featured xylophones, glockenspiels, a snare drum, and one bass. Like the first song, “Mudra” also had a creepy feeling to it. It started out soft and built up anticipation. I found the next song to be very interesting. The song called “Sharing” was written by an SIUE student, Jeffery Gentry, in 2017. The song was a marimba duet. One thing I genuinely learned during this performance was that not all the “big xylophone things” are xylophones… Who knew? “Trio Per Uno” was the next song performed. It was written by Nebojsa Zivkovic in 1998/1999. Originally, the song was written for one trio, but the conductor utilized all his performers and turned one trio, into three. The song begins by everyone hitting the side of the drum and then turns into the sound of a bass drum. The next song performed by the group was, “Happy Hammers” written by Harry Breuer. The song was written in 1940. “Happy Hammers”