Performance Report 2

This performance report is over the “Side Show the Musical” which was presented by the students and teachers of University of Texas at Dallas at the University Theatre. While there were multiple performances from April 8th to April 17th this report will focus at the performance that happened at 8 pm on Friday April 16th.

Being a musical this play was mostly delivered in the form of quick tempo songs which the actors could dance to. This was done mainly by one or more of the actors acting out their role to the song they were singing while being supported by an orchestra that was located behind the curtain. While I was unable to get a good look at the orchestra it had a good assortment of instruments ranging from horns for the more jazzy numbers such as “The Devil You Know” to drums for the introduction of the cannibal king and applied a number of crescendos and ornamentations throughout the play. These drums however did overpower the singers from time to time. Also it should be noted that the actors needed some skill at holding still since parts required part the cast to freeze so that one of the lead characters could sing out what they were thinking in the form of a musical monolog.

Now being a play the performers were dressed in accordance to their parts. These costumes ranged from the well dressed Buddy and Terry to the shirtless ‘Cannibal King’ Jake. Also it should be noted that the performers could be split into the main characters (Daisy, Violet, Buddy, Terry, and Jack) and the side characters who usually took the roles of the supporting vocalists during the play. The orchestra seemed to be wearing dark formal clothes however as stated earlier I was unable to get a good look at what the orchestra members due the curtain in front of them and my seating location. Of the remaining performers the stage crew dressed in colors similar to the backgrounds they were moving in front of so that they would draw less attention while the light director and greeters were casually dressed.

During this performance the performers made use of a number of different props which ranged from boxes to mikes to even a cage. One may even consider the actors themselves as props since at moments during the play the actors would freeze to show that one of the main characters was thinking and the lighting director was able to create interesting effects with their shadows.

As for the audience it seemed that this performance attracted a full house. Based off what I saw it seems that 30% of the audience was comprised of parents and teachers while the remaining 70% were college students. This large proportion of students is likely due to fact that as this performance happened on a Friday evening. Since most evening classes are Tuesday and Thursday this performance was more accessible than the Thursday performance. Also since most students likely already had to be on campus on Friday for afternoon classes this made this much more accessible than the Saturday performance.

Prior the beginning of the performance while the orchestra was doing a final check on their instruments the audience was engaged in soft chatting amongst themselves and a few of the students in the audience seemed to passing the time playing hand held video games. Based off the games I saw the majority of these audience members were playing games of the Pokemon series which means there might have been some wireless interaction amongst the other video game players in the audience. Unlike my report on “Shakespeare in Song” it seemed to me that the majority of the students at this performance were here for scholastic reasons and not here to support friends on stage. Also the audience began to become slightly restless prior to the beginning of the play since the play began fifteen minutes late.

Based off my past life experiences of growing up in Texas musicals while not happening everyday are something one will experience time to time. Be it in a childhood cartoon or performed by a rogue group of singers at a local mall it is quite unlikely that a local audience member would have not heard a musical prior to attending this performance. So this performance was able to expect the audience to understand this culture more than someone new to musicals and thus was able to a darker play than they would have been able to do with an audience of members outside this music community. As such while I would say someone who had never seen a musical before could attend they would have come out of it with much less than the average audience member. Also this common knowledge among the audience members likely contributed to the large number of the audience members that gave standing applauds at the end of the show.

So in summary this performance, like any other musical, relied on songs to give the majority of its story to the audience. Now while this performance was less open due to its darker story the majority of the audience were native to the region and well versed with this culture. This knowledge led to a greater understanding and an excellent reaction at the end by the audience.

Blog 12: Progressive Rock

For this assignment I was to find one subgenre of rock and introduce its elements of music along with providing a listening guide. After some debating I’ve decided to go with the subgenre of progressive rock.

Now before I list what I believe to be the elements of progressive rock are I should say that in the process of looking for songs I began to realize that progressive rock seems to need to be split even further into more subgenres. The reason for this is that according to my research songs like Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield and Last Train To London by the Electric Light Orchestra are both classified as progressive rock however it seems to me that songs like these rely on different elements. So I’ve decided to focus more on the types similar to Electric Light Orchestra’s music.

This genre relies on the use of a vocalist who is supported by electric guitars along with a drum kit. Also while it is not required many performers use unusual things to spice up their song such as recording techniques which plays back sounds a sound or unusual instruments. The lyrics tend to be focused more towards love and freedom.





Examples of this can be seen with Last Train To London.
00:00 – Song begins with electric guitar
00:06 – first example of recording technique
00:16 – Singer begins to sing
02:30 – keyboard solo (may be slightly improvised)

Blog 11: Music culture of the Gullah

The Gullah culture originated from African slaves of the “Rice Coast” region who were brought over for their knowledge of working in rice fields. Due to their African descent their music culture shares some similarities with other music cultures native to the area. However it should also be noted that their culture has adopted some of the local customs into their culture.

Examples of their African descent can be seen in the reliance of drums during their music creation. Also these drums seem similar to the talking drums seen in our previous cultures. Another thing to note is the audience participation such as the random individuals coming out to dance (which reflects the African culture we viewed earlier where a possessed one would come out and dance).

On the other hand one can see the influences of Western ideas in their music culture by looking at culture that emerges from their beliefs such as ring shouting. While ring shouting had gone out of practice it can still serve as an example on how a native African custom (the forming of a ring and dancing around to drum beats) has been combined with an Western ideal (in this case Christianity).

So while the music culture of the Gullah is heavily influenced by their African roots, as seen by their use of instruments and the amount of audience participation, it should also be noted that there has been some Western influence within their culture.

Performance Report 1

This performance report is over the “Shakespeare in Song” performance which was presented by the UT Dallas Chamber Singers at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Jonsson Performance Hall. While there were multiple performances between the 26th and 27th of March this report will focus on the performance at 8 pm on Friday March 26th.

The music culture that was being represented in this performance relies on adaptations of the works of Shakespeare put to a melody to produce their music along with other textual parts that are read to set the mood. Also the performers need to have some degree of the ability to act as well since pieces and textual parts are usually reflective of certain emotions. Finally a pianist usual acts as an accompaniment to these performers.

The repertoire of this performance mainly focused on the chamber singers performing as a group (being split up into sopranos, altos, tenors, and baritones/basses) however it should be noted that a small number of the pieces were solos. The tempo of each piece changed depending on the current mood such as the beats per second of the sorrowful Act IV Scene 5 of Hamlet was considerably slower than Act IV Scene 3 of A Winter’s Tale which represents a more humors part. Interestingly due to the nature of these songs it can be difficult to understand the lyrics of certain parts therefore the performers usually read textual parts prior to each piece. Also for the group pieces the piano seems to give the starting note to the chamber singers right before the beginning of each piece.

Now even though this performance was very casual with its dressing requirements all of the performers performed in Renaissance attire. The performers themselves could be broken into three groups: the director, the pianist, and the chamber singers. Also the chamber singers could be divided into four different groups (as stated earlier) depending on the vocal range they sang and these divisions could be noticed as there were visual gaps between where each group stood. During the text reading and the solos the individuals who were performing moved in front of the chamber singers to perform.

Finally it should be noted that there seems to have been a number of people behind the scenes and while they might not be what first comes to mind as performers they played a significant role in the performance. The roles I was able to notice were that of the greeters at the doors along with the costume coordinator. Also they had a technical consultant who worked a projector which displayed current song’s name to audience.

While I do not have the exact numbers for this performance I would guess that the audience was at the size of around 50 to 75 individuals. Students however made the majority of the audience with a population of around 69.34% of the audience. It should be noted though that the student body can be divided into two groups based on their reason for attending this performance. One group would be the students who were attending this performance to obtain data for their music class while the other group was attending so that they might support their friends.

Now even though the reasons for attendance might differ as the majority of the audience’s population was comprised of students one can surmise that this music culture is open to outsiders. This is because while students may have some introduction to the culture being a student denotes that one is learning and thus not truly a complete member of the community yet. Also as the majority of the audience were not members of the society there wasn’t much interaction between the audience and performers beyond cues for applauds by the director and laughter at the performer’s jokes.

The audience’s reaction to the performance was what I would call average. On one hand everyone (with the exception of a few people who had to answer their cell phones) stayed for the entire performance and applauded for each piece (and perhaps sometimes when they weren’t suppose to) on the other hand the majority audience refused to stand at the end during their applauds.

The reason for this reaction is best explained by a further look at the time and place of the performance. As it was on a Friday the crowd consisted mainly of students attempting to get their research school work done while they were still on campus before going home for the weekend. So while they likely enjoyed the concert the fact that they had to take notes probably was of greater concern than applauds.

So in summary this performance was based in the culture of putting melodies to the play lyrics of Shakespeare. Due to the open nature of this performance and the fact that this performance was the most accessible to students the majority of the audience was comprised of students using it as class material. This resulted in an average audience reaction at the end since these students were not experts in this culture and needed to collect data.

Works Cited
Shakespeare In Song. By Author/Composer First then Last Name. Dir. Kathryn Evans. Perf. UT Dallas Chamber Singers, Michael McVay. Jonsson Performance Hall, Richardson. March 26, 2010.

Evans, Kathryn. Program notes. Shakespeare In Song. March 26, 2010. Richardson: Jonsson Performance Hall. (Evans).