High School Concert Review Essay

The Lovell High School Concert Band had an amazing concert on the 30th of November. The songs included Celebration and Tribute, Sleigh Ride, Spirit of the Highlands, with a bonus of the combined band on Jinge, Jinge, Jingle. While all the songs were good, they were not spectacular. One that stands out to me is Celebration and Tribute.

While Celebration and Tribute is not an extremely a technical piece, it still has its moments of fast notes and rhythms. In measure 13, when the trumpets have the melody, there were a few wrong notes coming from the second trumpets. That happened again but with the saxophones at measure 74 where it sounded like someone played an E natural instead of E flat. From measure 13 all the way to measure 31 the entire melody and harmony lines were mushy with a slurred sound instead of staccato as indicated. In spite of fast notes the rhythms in measure 26, the soli at 54, and measures 114-116, were correct and beautifully played. No one played in the rests and everyone came in on time.

And again at measure 72 with the decrescendo into measure 73. However the beginning of the song was loud with no attempt at dynamics. The style was joyous and happy like a celebration in measure 13 with the slurred notes of the saxophones or measure 41 with the staccato notes from the band. The tribute section of the song (measure 54) was played very nicely accenting the sad mood of the literature. The tempo got rough at measure 91 with the change as the drummers, the director, and the band were not entirely together for a few measures. The phrasing was impeccable at measure 31 because the saxophones did not take a breath between measure 32 and 33. The low brass also had incredible phrasing at measure 79 because not a single instrumentalist took a breath when changing notes in the