Orchestra Concert

Last night The University Orchestra (of which I am a member) had its' concert. And it was AWESOME!!! This is probably my last sememster in orchestra and I tell you we went out with a bang. I'll tell you about the pieces and which ones were my favorite.

We started out on the right Foote... Ha ha ha! Just a little joke. Okay, I'll explain it. Our first piece was Air and Gavotte by Arthur Foote. (hence the pun...it's lame I know).
Air--very pretty and slow.
Gavotte--passionate, fun, angry, with a bouncy middle part.

Next piece Little Suite by Carl Nielsen (He's Danish--can you tell by the Picture?) (two student conductors for this piece)
At one point while we were practicing this piece I said to my stand partner (and very good friend Anna) "the composer must have been a cellist" "or really liked cellos" she added. Because this whole piece had many parts featuring the cello. We had a solo in each movement, which was fun. They were fun to play, but not my favorite of the pieces, but still fun.

Merrill Jenson is the composer of the next piece (he is a famous LDS composer). It was a composition that used 3 melodies of hymns to form the basis of this (kinda crazy/sonata form) piece. He even came and conducted it for us! It was a difficult song but we pulled it off. This also I didn't care much for. It seemed...a little frantic and went through too many keys in too short a time. But there were some really cool parts and it was satisfying to conquer such a challenging piece.

Forth piece is my favorite. (He's pretty handsome...) Ralph (pronounced Rayfe) Vaughn Williams' Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra. AMAZING. A Concerto Grosso is basically an Orchestra accompanying a smaller orchestra who has the solo part or "concertino." I was lucky enough to play the concertino along with 3 other cellists. So only four cellists playing the hard part (and often we split into 2 parts so there were only 2 of us playing one part! so exhilirating!) I'll have to do a play by play on all the movements.

Intrada-- My favorite. So powerful. Polyphonic (many voices), complex, and deep. I actually cried one day playing it.

Burlesca Ostinata-- Really fun. fast and challenging. a lot of tempo changes, which are always difficult.

Sarabande-- So heart wrenching and powerful. I felt I was ripping part of my heart out everytime I played it(sorry for the drama).

Scherzo-- literally means "joke" and it was very... almost schizophrenic (hmm..scherzo..schizo...) But I really loved it. It was really cool for its' weird ness. especially the last chord. because it seems like we're building up for a huge minor bang ending, but the song just breaks and then we come in with a soft major chord. kinda like saying "haha! Just kidding!" It was awesome.

March and Reprise-- the march was interesting, I liked it least (but that's definitely not saying that I disliked it because I still loved it). It was cool. but the best part about it was that it went back into the first piece. And the whole Concerto ended with the first piece.
It was one of the best pieces I've ever played... amazing.

BUT THEN! The band came onto the stage and for our finale we played higlights from the Carmen Suite by Georges Bizet.
(you know, Carmen, the Opera about a Spanish seductress, an officer who she seduces then dumps (he kills her because of it (it's opera--it has to be dramatic)) there is also Toreador (bullfighter) in there somewhere) It was awesome!!! It was so fun to be with the band. It just added another element that made the whole piece really powerful and so fun. It was a great piece to end with. We went out with a bang!


This concert was WONDERFUL! I wish everyone could have come. But I am so grateful that Mom, Dad, Steve, Andrea came. I also invited two friends from my ward, who came. The Littles (Ben's mom and dad) came. And surprise, I totally, jokingly invited Ben to come up for the day (he had the day off from work, but he lives in Utah, so I was joking), but he came! So that was a cool surprise too!



I know most of you know this, but I LOVE MUSIC so much. This concert was so fulfilling and so satisfying. I was just beaming and glowing afterwards! It was the best feeling ever. I pretty nervous beforehand, but afterwards the feeling makes up for it and more. It was awesome. Spectacular. Amazing. FANTASTIC!!!