This is a response paper to a classical music concert I attended at the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles on the 7th of December 2012. The title of the concert was ‘Toyota Symphonies for Youths’ created by Adam Reilly and Igor Stravinsky of the Musical Dramaturg and Production Consultant.
The music was conducted by Dietrich Paredes and directed by Abigail Deser. The main idea was to showcase a mix of classical music for the youth. The music was blended with fun and fantasy to entertain teenagers and young people, who are known to enjoy fun music. The first piece of art that I saw was written by Leon Martell and choreographed by Kitty McNamee.
In the main auditorium there was a nice synchronized melody of the blend of different musical instrument and a beautiful vocal performance from the performers. There were four performers; one lady and three gentlemen. The lady was mainly doing the vocals while one of the gentlemen was playing the piano, the other was playing an oboe and the last one was playing a bassoon. As usual the stage was well lit and the performers had confidence as they entertained the audience.
Since this was a classical music concert, it was obvious the kind of audience that would appreciate the performance. One interesting thing about this concert is the fact that classical music was incorporated with vocals. This is one of the modernizations that this genre of music has had to undergo. Before, it was very uncharacteristic for classical music to use vocals. The writings of the music had to be written down in musical notes and instruments used as the only means of output.
Apart from the performance of the first group there were other groups that also performed the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is an early piece that was first performed in 1922, by the Eugene Goossens. Just like in the previous performance the orchestra bands also did an amazing performance reading the notations from a script and playing the music with their different instruments.
Some of the instruments that I saw being played by the two groups were piano, organ, and harpsichord. These instruments are played mainly solo. Unlike the traditional classical music, I noticed there were several electric equipments that were used; for instance, electric guitar and synthesizers.
The music played by the two orchestra bands, were accompanied with impressive ballroom performances whereby ballet dancers would join the music and entertain the audience. The instruments used in classical music have undergone changes from the time the genre began.
There is a lot of modernization in which also includes the dress codes and the performers. In this concert each of the performers including the ballet dancer were dressed in suits. Considering the history of classical music and ballroom dancing, the kind of audience that enjoys these pieces of art are the elites of the society. It is usually a common thing to find the audience respecting the value of the music by observing decorum in the auditorium.
The music itself had balanced and harmonious phrases. The melodies were elegant that the audience was so impressed. Considering the nature of classical music from the traditional perspective, such pieces are only supposed to be performed in such a way. There is no need of oral presentations and recording. However, conventional classical music has tried to embrace certain things such as recording of the performances for commercialization purposes.