Why did you choose this concert? What did you like or dislike about this concert and its environment?
Choose one composition that you enjoyed the best and explain why (add the title, composer, instruments/timbre, form, tempo, and anything else that may have added to your musical experience).
Carefully read through the list of what to look for below and make any additional observations.
What to Look For at the Concerts
Review the items below ahead of time, perhaps even bringing them with you! While it is important to be supportive of the performers and allow yourself to continue to simply enjoy the music, some added levels of appreciation and sensitivity can make your experience richer. Here are some things to consider and comment on in your paper. They will help you be more specific about your reactions.
One way to experience a work of art or a piece of music is to be completely innocent and receptive, and be aware, in effect, of how your body, mind, emotions, and spirit are transformed. You can essentially become the work and describe your experience. Describe the effect of this performance on your body, mind, and emotions.
A live performance can be a chance for the performer (and composer) to enter into communication with the audience. To what extent do you feel the performer or performers responded to what was happening in the room during the performance? (Maybe they didn’t!) Do you feel they were intimate and giving or simply going through the motions? Did they seem to be in familiar territory or were they “going for it,” digging deep into the material and discovering something as they played?
The performer’s state of consciousness has an effect on what is communicated. Did you feel the performer and/or conductor was emotional? intellectual? expanded? contracted? transported? fluid? enjoying? at ease? What were your clues? Were your clues physical, musical, or intuitive?
What visual elements contributed to the performance?
Were you expected to participate? If so, did you participate fully?
In the playing, were there sensitivity and variety in the dynamics? Did the tempo seem satisfying? Was the performer comfortable with periods of silence or very low volume? Did you feel that the music seemed to arise out of silence or was it purely active? If it was an ensemble, were the performers listening or communicating with each other? Was it different during solos (if any)?
Was vocal music a part of the performance? If so, what qualities of voice were part of the style?
What musical forms or structures did you notice? Was there a good balance of repetition and contrast in these pieces? What aspects were inventive or surprising? Which elements were attractive?
In terms of the characteristics that contribute to making you able to identify music as being from a particular culture, what elements stood out or seemed important? What made the music clearly from this culture? What else did you notice about the following elements: melody,…
