Concert Report

Exploring Music: Bach to Rock                                                                

Concert Report 1

Event attended:                Brite Winter Festival 2016 (particularly the group “Seafair”)

Date:                                February 20, 2016

Time:                                from 3:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m.

Location:                        on the West Bank of the Flats in Cleveland

Estimated Attendance:                1,000+

I attended the festival from around 8-10pm and focused most of my time watching the group “Seafair” who went on stage at 8:35pm and performed until about 10.

1. What was your favorite musical moment of the event (and why)?

My favorite musical moment was when the band emphasized the use of their cello and violin. When they took a break from the harsh guitar sounds, the cello and violin made the song much more interesting and brought a whole new side of the song out which made it that much more appealing to me. The change in style and rhythm brought a different aspect to their music, which started mostly with loud electric guitar in a rock like fashion. They did this a few times throughout their performance, emphasizing their softer cello and violin numbers, and I really enjoyed each time they did.

1. What musical elements did you notice in the selection (e.g., rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, dynamics, and/or something else)?

As I mentioned before, the change in instrumental focus brought a new rhythm as well as texture to the performance. Before the change in instrument focus, the rhythm was very typical of a rock piece of music, pretty loud with a lot of repetition and angst. But when transitioning to cello and violin, the rhythm changed into a non-repetitive sequence which changed the tempo and effect of the musical piece. The change in rhythm also brought a change in the texture. By adding the layers of cello and violin to the piece, the texture changed into more of a heterophony texture with the cello and violin acting as their own interpretation of the melody overtop of the guitar and vocal singing. This change in overall quality of the sound piece was what I enjoyed the most with this bands musical style.

1. Anything you disliked (and why)?

What I disliked the most was the loudness of the speakers and instruments that, at times, seemed to overpower the quality of the musical pieces and blend everything together. At times I felt like I couldn’t even hear what the singer was saying or what instruments were playing what. This tends to always be an issue when I attend musical events though. I suppose you need to speakers turned up very loud to insure everyone can hear the music (especially at a large event like it was) but it really diminishes the quality of the performance and that is what I dislike the most.