Andrew Marks 4/10/14 MUMH Concert Report The Heart Sings

The UNT sponsored concert I chose to attend was the April, 8th A Capella choir concert The Heart Sings. I have always enjoyed a capella music because the human voice is so versatile and can produce sound that no instrument could match. Most of the pieces were performed by only the vocalists on stage but some of the pieces used piano and organ accompaniment. The concert included 10 musical pieces ranging greatly in musical era, and language they were performed in. there were only two songs performed in English I would live in your love, and Every stone shall cry. I enjoyed listening to all the pieces performed but I found it slightly frustrating that the majority of the songs were in different languages such as; German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and even Korean. My favorite piece performed (even though I could not understand the lyrics) was Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV225 by Johan Sebastian Bach, which was composed during the Baroque era. Another very interesting piece was Hine e Hine performed in what I think was Korean, resembled the same style of a piece we studied in class, Jingjus The reunion. Finally the last piece of the performance of the concert was Salseo a wordless song that is meant to resemble the spirit and musical style of Latin American countries, utilizing percussion sounds and Latin style notes. Although all the pieces of the concert were moving there were a couple that stood out to me more than others Love is the every only god and Tuo Ling (Camel Bells). In Love is Every Only God , written by J.A.C Redford in 2001, there were three passages sung out of the original eight. Passages one, four, and five. Throughout the passages the singers were constantly going from Piano to forte to fortissimo and then back down, and at several points the singers went straight from piano to fortissimo which was very interesting to me because I noticed as they were changing their volume so dramatically they were able to keep their pitch the same. As the singers progressed from the fourth passage to the fifth passage the tempo dramatically increased and the song became much faster. Tuo Ling is a shortened version of Si Chou Lu Shang Tuo Ling Sheng meaning The Camel Bell On the Silk Road. The song started by the singers sing Dong Dang Dong in Piano and gradually getting louder. There was not much pitch variation during the song but the chorus (Dong Dang Dong) got louder every time it was sung, except for the last repetition which was sung very softly. During these pieces, while I was listening I was thinking more about how the different voices of the singers blended together but also seemed to stand apart. For example during Love is the every only God I noticed how the sopranos and the basses seemed to contrast each other, but the tenors and the altos complimented one another creating sounds that were both similar and different. The musical pieces from this concert varied greatly in musical era from 1762 up to 2007. Most of the music was very modern but there was one piece from the Baroque era, and one from the Romantic era. Because most of these pieces were written in a modern time, and that they were mostly from other countries around the world, we may perceive these pieces differently because generally speaking someone may not understand the music properly, just as America has its own popular musical style, and

other countries around the world do too. I perceived the musical pieces as telling stories, whether it be a love story about star crossed lovers, or simply a Mongolian lullaby used to sing children to sleep, all music shares a story. Many of these songs related to religion also mentioning God and certain bible verses in several of the songs. The concert was held in Winspear Hall in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, or as I like to call it the armadillo building. There were not too many people who attended the concert, as I looked around the all I saw many families and older people who may have been related to the performers and just came to watch them sing. The performers were dressed simply yet formal enough to look professional. I believe this concert was put on very simply just for entertainment purposes so that the students in the acapella class may perform what they have been working so hard on all year. I enjoyed attending the concert, and I could tell the rest of the audience did as well due to the thunderous applause at the end of the show, if I were to hear about another acapella concert I would absolutely go again.