A Review of an Essay on Understanding Music

On Thursday, Mar 31, 2016 at around 7:30PM, I made my way to the New Haven Symphony Orchestra to view and listen to their magnificent concert. Before attending this concert, I had not seen a live orchestral concert in a very long time. I was very excited to be able to View a live orchestra again as I myself used to play the violin and viola for 8 years. I had gone to see The New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven concert.

This concert was lead by a very accomplished conductor by the name of William Boughtoni As well the concert featured Tessa Lark on violin who is also a New Haven Symphony Orchestra New Generation Artisti This concert was a well played tribute to some of history‘s most famous artists. The concert consisted of Mozart’s “Overture to the Marriage of Figaro,” Haydn’s “Symphony no. 104, “London” and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major.

As everyone began to move towards their seats, I was excited for the show to start.

The first movement was Mozart’s “Overture to the Marriage of Figaro.“ This song begins with busy pianissimo and tremors that begin to develop into a combination of instruments. Out of almost nowhere a loud bang occurs with a tutti of trumpets and drums. A series of successions with violins, violas, flutes, oboes, clarinets, and a plethora of other instruments quickly follow this. Throughout the song there were various areas of Pianissimo and Forte where the orchestra almost seemed to be at first whispering and then yelling abruptly to the audience.

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Throughout much of the movement, I could see the conductor flailing his baton with such velocity I thought it might fly out of his hand.

This song was bursting with personality and was thoroughly enjoyable to hear. Throughout parts of the song, it often felt like the strings and the wind sections were having a sort of competition It seemed there would be a call by the strings and then a very loud answer by the horns and woodwinds. There are also parts of the song where it seems the wind instruments are calling back to a loud reply by the strings. I can only imagine how it must have felt to view the entire play of “The Marriage of Figaro” after being hooked by this overture. This song successfully kept the audience’s attention throughout the entire movement and left me wanting to hear more of Mozart. The second piece played in the concerto was Haydn’s Symphony No. 104, “London.” This song was very interesting and entertaining to listen and view live as well, The New Haven Symphony Orchestra played various movements of Haydn’s London Symphony.

The piece in general was compromised of various tones, tempos, and volume levels. The beginning of the piece began with a slow and very dramatic introduction, There also seems to be a harmony that is established as the orchestra continues to play through. As well, areas of pianissimo, piano, mezzo forte, and forte are all heard throughout the progression. I was entertained and fascinated by the orchestra’s ability to play such a challenging piece for such a long period of time. Furthermore, there was much syncopation throughout the piece as well as interesting chord progressions made by harmonizing with various different instruments in the orchestra, Despite the length of this piece, it was still very entertaining and interesting to hear and experience.

The final piece of the concert was Beethoven’s violin concerto in D Major, In my opinion, this was the most interesting piece of the entire concert. There begins with the poundings of drums or timpanies and then a long introduction by the entire orchestra. The violins and other stringed instruments began to again seem to have a sort of call and answer with each other. The violins began playing lively and with much energy, while the lower strings held the melody. At some points, I had also noticed that some of the artists were muting their strings as they played. The string muting was also very interesting to me, as no other movements had done this, As well, vibrato could be heard all throughout the movement especially by the soloists.

After the introduction, the audience is right away introduced to the solos of the violin The Violin soloists were very talented in my opinion playing very fast while still harmonizing with the rest of the orchestra. As well, they played the double stops with ease, The soloists played with a level of virtuosity that l have not really seen in my Lime of playing music. There were rapid changes in a lot of the dynamics of the song and solos throughout This must have required a lot of talent to be able to successfully play the song with no errors. Much of the song sounded like dance music to me which was also very entertaining I could picture those in the past enjoying dancing in halls together to this type of music.

I was very excited when I came to see the New Haven Symphony Orchestra perform I had dressed up in a nice buttoned down shirt and tie not knowing that some people would be in suits and classy sport jacketsl Many people had come to see the Orchestra perform and the venue was very nice I had sat on the left hand side and had a very good view of the orchestra The concert started right away and from the moment it began, I was captivated I had enjoyed my night out at the symphony and enjoyed hearing live orchestral music I was reminded of when I used to play live for people in high school. Watching the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s performance was truly an unforgettable experience.