Gregorian Chant Concert Reflection
1. At times the texture was monophonic with solos from certain
instruments/people, but then during a few of the songs layers of people would enter
to form a chorus and polyphonic texture. The harmony, although mostly ____,
became disjointed when they vocalists began walking around the room. This also
caused an interesting change in dynamics depending on where you were sitting in
the audience. The was a crescendo in sound when they walked towards you and a
diminuendo when they walked away. Through the rest of the pieces, the musicians
would generally crescendo when there was an increase in tempo, and slowly get
softer and slower, fading out of the piece. I noticed in one of the pieces there was
one vocalist singing on stage by themselves, then the chorus would be off to the
right with the melody. The soloist and chorus would go back and forth singing, but
the soloist would often come in a beat or half a beat “early”, or not right after the
chorus was finished, but slightly before, this being syncopation. The chorus
generally sung most of what you could call a melody. Each piece had a different
melody with the first being of moderate tones and medium range. The second had
much longer tones, was slower, and had a smaller, lower range. The third had a
contrastingly upbeat tempo, with a higher range and short tonality. The voices were
somber, which makes sense since the piece is from the medieval time period. They
seemed to project and echo off every wall in the room and last for a long period of
time after the note was actually finished, giving the impression the voice was going
for long amounts of time without breaks.
2. The appearance of the musicians had a good balance of unity and variety.
Everyone wore a different style of outfit. Some had pants, coats, and dresses, but
they were all unified in a midnight blue color. The transitions and connection
throughout the pieces were pretty interesting. The musicians used a series of bell
tones of different pitches and lengths to signify the ending of one piece and the
beginning of another. This created a connecting throughout the piece the audience
could follow. The bell tone also followed the theme of medieval music, with the bells
reminding listeners of church bells, connecting the pieces of music to the church.
The lyrics were religious with words like “Hallelujah” being repeated also connected
listeners to the time period and religious aspect of the music. There was more
pattern in how the music was written as well. There were 3 parts with each part
containing 3 songs. As I said previously, the first was generally of moderate tempo,
the second, slower, and the third was faster. This was repeated in each of the 3
parts. There was also contrast in the songs with a slower tempo and longer notes to
the much more upbeat, dramatic song that followed. These notes were shorter and
the words were much more concise, as opposed to being drawn out.
1. How did the space and design of the building support or detract from your
listening experience?
3. The space was perfect for this concert. Considering the history of the Notre Dame,
this medieval music was written specifically for a venue such as this. The music was
religious so a church made sense of course and the acoustics were really good as
well. The notes carried throughout the entire church and lengthened them as well,
so it seemed like a soloist could sing an entire piece without even taking a breath.
This sound also allowed for the audience in the back to hear just as well as the front
without microphones. The
2. What could you imagine the intent of the composer(s) to be who wrote this
music? How do you arrive at these conclusions? What was the music’s effect
on you?