Midterm Concert

I was incredibly impressed with the midterm concert recordings.  The quality was fantastic, and all of the performances were tight and captivating.  It was also very refreshing to have such a wide variety of genres and musical styles.  I think it was also very beneficial to have people in the class performing on songs other than their own.  It aided the songs they performed on, provided musical skills that one performer alone may not have possessed, and it provided the performers with an opportunity to engage more directly with a classmate’s work.  I think the length was also appropriate—having just two or three songs allowed songwriters to focus on perfecting those songs prior to the concert rather than spreading their energies too widely.  It was also a good length in terms of maintaining the audience’s attention without boring them.  Overall, I think the format of the midterm concert worked incredibly well and should be repeated in the final concert in terms of collaborative performances, length, and recordings.

Roman:  Rocking Chair

I really liked how this song was structured.  Different sections in the song were distinguished by different guitar rhythms and dynamics.  The parts of the song where the guitar cut out altogether were especially effective.  Dynamics in this song in general really made the song interesting and enjoyable to listen to.

 

Ben:  Small Things

I really loved Ben’s cover of All the Small Things.  This is a song I grew up with, but never really listened to carefully.  Ben’s cover, done in a completely different genre than the original, drew out some qualities of the song that would not have been noticed in the original.  Most notable were the lyrics.  Because the original song and music video were sort of silly with high energy, the lyrics didn’t seem too important.  Ben’s slower interpretation of the song as well as the emotion he put into the melody and the lyrics really brought meaning to the words.

 

Julie:  Sally

I am pretty happy with how this song came out.  I’m so glad Josh was willing to play guitar on this song, especially since the song was based on his assignment for me, which involved a certain style of guitar playing that he is very familiar with.  Rosalind’s harmonies really added something special to the song.  I really enjoyed working with this assignment, as it got me to write in a style that was outside of my comfort zone, but that I ended up really liking!

 

Josh:  New Song

I loved the interaction of the guitar part and the vocal part in this song.  The sort of minimal guitar part, which just outlines chords with individual notes, contributes to the soothing quality of the song that is characteristic of Josh’s low, soft vocals.  Switching back and forth between vocals and harmonica produced a swaying, rocking feeling that made the listener very relaxed and was very enjoyable to listen to.  This would work well as a lullaby.

 

Parker:  Valley Bridge

My favorite part of this song is the melody of the verses.  I love how it goes from “ground” to “ceiling” abruptly, and then gradually drops back down to ground.  Because this melody was so striking, I think it was very effective to repeat it throughout the verse.  The song held the listener’s attention despite it’s repetition, in part because of the interesting melody, but also because of the rhythm and timing of the melody and where strong beats and weak beats fall.  This song is very pretty, but still attention grabbing.

 

Rosalind:  My Madness (with Julie’s bridge):

I know Rosalind said she wrote this song a while ago, but I really like it and am glad she brought it back to work on more.  It was fun to write a bridge to this song, as it was challenging to write a bridge that was distinct from the rest of the song but that would still fit with Rosalind’s unique style.  I think she did very well integrating the foreign bridge into the rest of the song in this performance. I thought the harmonies in the last choruses added something nice to the song, but I wish she kept the “na na’s” that she had in the original because that was one of my favorite parts!

 

Jeremy:  Astral Companion

This is probably my favorite of Jeremy’s songs so far.  I really liked what he did with the lyrics, which had multiple constraints based on the assignment he was given by another student.  The quality of the music fit the lyrical content very well, as the background was sort of busy and ethereal.  Jonathan’s piano parts added color to the song, and it made the song sound much fuller with Jonathan playing piano in a higher register and Jeremy playing guitar in a lower register.

 

Jonathan:  Jenny and the Ghost

I love how this song starts with a very simple piano part and chords, and gradually gets more and more complex, including some atonal sections.  Jonathan’s use of contrasting vocal dynamics adds a lot of color to this song.  His accompanying piano parts also effectively illustrate the content of the story that Jonathan’s lyrics are telling, as if the music is taking us through the emotions and experiences that Jenny is going through throughout the course of this song.  This song is incredibly complex and well-done, especially considering that it uses only piano and voice.  I would love to see a music video for this song.

 

Rosalind:  Grow

This song is really pretty.  Ben’s guitar playing added a lot to the sweet quality of Rosalind’s singing and piano playing.  This is another song I would play as a lullaby, as it is both beautiful and calming.  I love how the vocal melody moves slowly over the faster rhythm of the background.

 

Ben:  Citalopram

The most striking part of this song is the contrasting rhythms of the vocals and the guitar part.  It utilizes hemiola, with the guitar rhythm sounding as if it is in 4/4 and the vocals sounding as if they are in 6/8.  The vocals periodically shift from this implied 6/8 rhythm to the song’s actual 4/4 timing, which keeps the listeners on their toes.  Despite the rhythmic complications, this song is very catchy—I think it could work really well with a full band, with bass and drums added.

 

Josh:  Dawn’s Broken Crutch

I love how Josh explains the context in which he writes his songs before he plays.  In this one, he describes his experiences on a fire escape.  His song conveyed an image of the “sunrise” that I would imagine Josh seeing from this fire escape.  I also love his use of whistling—it gives the song a very earthy and humble quality.

 

Julie:  Me and You

This song was based on one of the first assignments, and I had sort of put it away.  I thought it was fine, but kind of boring.  I think it really came alive at the concert, though, because of Ben’s bass playing and Jonathan’s drumming.  Adding a beat and bass line to this song gave it a lot more energy, which was crucial in a song with so much repetition. 

 

Jeremy:  Stays the Same

Jeremy very effectively creates a more intense or less intense sound with his guitar technique.  During the less intense parts, he plays quieter and with finger picking, delicately outlining the chords.  During the more intense parts, he plays full chords, and plays louder.  He utilizes his vocals to the same effect.  He has incredibly admirable control over his guitar, stopping it altogether during crucial parts of the song, and smoothly transitioning between contrasting sections.

 

Rosalind:  He

This is probably my favorite of Rosalind’s songs so far.  She did an incredible job with the lyrics considering all the seemingly silly prompts, such as using the word “carrot.”  I think having a constraint on the number of words (I think it was 35) actually made the song much more powerful.  In contrast to many of Rosalind’s other songs which often have coherent narratives, this song had more of an abstract narrative, which was emphasized through repetition.  The use of dorian mode contributes to the “epic” quality of the song, as does the “G” played/sung by everyone in the class.  This G, played on the offbeat, creates an image of the protagonist walking through the desert.

 

Parker:  Arizona

Parker did a fantastic job with this assignment, which was to write a song in a style he was unfamiliar with.  The style he picked, which was sort of jazz/bossa nova, was a great contrast with all of his other work.  He really captured the essence of the genre, and I am shocked that he has never played in that style because he performed it so well.  I also loved his lyrics.  This genre can come off as somewhat cheesy, but Parker's lyrics added many interesting twists.

 

Ben (with Jonathan's bridge):  Roll Back to You

This is one of my new favorite songs.  I loved Ben’s original, and Jonathan’s contributions only added to the appeal of this song.  Ben’s original had a very folkish quality, and was very catchy.  I loved the bridge that Jonathan added, as well as the piano parts.  The guitar part and piano part fit very well together.  I also thought the vocals of the song were divided up well.  Instead of just having Jonathan sing the bridge that he wrote, the two split up the song so that it flowed together well. 

 

Roman:  Tribute

This piece was very well done.  It was great to hear Roman open up to the audience about a subject that was clearly very personal to him.  The style—telling a story over a repeated musical background—can be very hard to pull off, but Roman’s passion and investment in the content of the story made it sound very “authentic” and personal.  Roman is a great story teller.

 

Josh:  Hands In Our Pockets

This song was very cute and funny.  I love that Josh sang this by himself to a group of strangers—that’s pretty gutsy.  I would have loved to see their reactions.  Once again, his explanations prior to performing really aided in the appreciation of the song.