Expanding Musical Horizons: St Francis College Hurricane Relief Concert

On September 29, 2017, I attended St. Francis College Hurricane Relief Concert. There I was introduced to many different compositions. The piece that I chose was, Tim Desere’s Double Guitar Medley. This medley consisted of: I want you back by Jackson 5, Hey Soul Sister by Train, and Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. The first song was within the genre of Classical soul, the second song was within the genre of Pop music, and the last song was within the Folk-rock genre. The musical instrument that was being played was within one of the four main divisions of instruments.

It is classified as a chordophone.

Also, on November 5, 2017, I encountered an informal concert in the 14th Street station. This performance consisted of only men using the Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, and another guy playing a beat on a bucket. This composition didn’t have a specific name but I strongly believe that the piece that was being played was, Your Lips are Moving by Meghan Trainor.

The genre of the piece had to be Pop. The reason why I made this conclusion is because the way the song was being played and the song itself is also pop. The audience at both shows were rather big. Especially during the informal performance in the train station.

I believe the reason for this would be the formal performance wasn’t open to the public, whereas the informal was. If the second performance weren’t in a train station, not many would be able to view the performance.

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Though, the first performance was handled where individuals paid $5-$10 dollars to get in. Both performance had a decent amount of people within the audience. In the first piece a Guitar was being used. Guitars are labeled as chordophones because they are string instruments. The rhythm of the first piece was strongly European culture.

The piece had many overlapping lines within the performance which made it polyphonic. The precise pitch, harmonization, and consistent rhythm also reminded me of European culture. Not only did I consider this to be of European culture, I also recognized its definite pitch since I was able to indicate what instrument was being played. Melody instruments are considered definite pitch instruments. It also had a mixed melodic contour with both a descending and ascending melodies. The composition was considered a Heterophony due to multiple parts within the piece used the same melody at different times. After an intermission, this same group was called to perform their piece one last time.

Prior to hearing the piece for the first time, I was a bit skeptical because no one, well from what I’ve heard, no one has ever really made a guitar medley to these songs. The songs are also different genres and when the songs are played out load in in its original form, they sound nothing like each other. I also realized that I wasn’t the only one with this reaction. If I were to do this same exact show, I would consider including brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments.

Once I heard it a second time, it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it was during the first performance. That might’ve also been because whenever you listen to something for the first time, you may miss certain characteristics, but when you listen to it a second and third time, you pick up things that were impossible to distinguish the first time around.

Whereas, the second piece opened with a flowing melody. It was also more of European culture. This composition had much more of an indefinite tone because of the instruments being played. It was harder to determine which instrument was being played once all of them were being played at once. There was a Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, and a drummer who made beats using all parts of a bucket. The piece also had a mixed melodic contour because once another instrument was introduced into the piece, the instrument prior to the one being played, it’s pitch would descend. This would also be considered a Heterophony because each instrument was played at different times to a certain extent.

All the notes were complex waves containing more than one frequency. The drum held much more of a complex wave frequency. This piece left a wonderful impression on me because it was just so different. When someone hears the actual song, it would be hard for them to picture just the wind instruments being played. Something as difficult as this, they put their techniques to use and gave a wonderful performance. The simultaneous sounds of the trumpet, saxophone, trombone, and drum spoke directly to me as well as the other in the audience. If I were not in such a rush, I would have stayed for the rest of the performances.

Thanks to the Sachs-Hornbostel system, I was able to classify the acoustic musical instruments in both pieces. Both of these pieces were very much alike but different in various ways. The pieces weren’t something I would hear on a daily basis. It was pretty astonishing given what these amazing artists can do when they’re given an opportunity to be different. Through the experience of encountering two different works, I was able to consider listening to more genres of music. new to me as I listen to; Pop, Soca, Reggae, Kompa, Calypso, Bachata, and much more.

Although the two genres were pretty new to me, I was able to pick up a lot from the melody. Classical soul and Folk-rock is something that I would be able to consider listening to because it is very different from what I already know. Being open to a wide range of musical genres makes me intrigued and makes me want to be more open- minded for what I haven’t learned yet. It’s always an amazing experience to witness new things. In fact, one of my goals would be to visit many places and view how different every culture is. Being in the music class that I’m in, it’s allowed me to consider focusing on genres that are outside of my comfort zone.