IB Music Performer Category

 


Performer Category

For my first recording, I decided to use Folk Song and Shanty, measures 1-40 as my “easy” excerpt. The main performer technique I decided to focus on for this excerpt is phrasing. As you can see with the excerpt, there are a lot of measures of rest. 


Although this looks very simplistic (and it is), phrasing is a big part of playing this excerpt well. Playing too “static” does not complement the piece well, so it is important to pay attention to phrasing. For example, measures 13-20 are meant to be played grandiose, and this is also evident during measures 26-28, when you resume arco. Another measure where phrasing is important is measures 38-40, where the bass part slows down by quite a bit in order to get ready for “Shanty.” Morendo, the musical term written below, means “dying” or “dying away,” so I had to be careful with not only my tempo, but also dynamics. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Experimenting with Music Performer Excerpt 3 Commentary

For my "hard" excerpt for the Experimenting with Music Performer Excerpt Three, I selected measures 59-102 in Incantations. The main performer technique I focused on for this excerpt was rhythm—while for my other excerpts, rhythm was obviously a concern, there are many more challenging rhythmic ideas in this excerpt, hence my emphasis on it. For example, there are several key changes, such as in measure 71 when it swaps to 2/4 time briefly, and in measure 90, where it swaps to 5/4 time from measure 89, which had just swapped to 3/4 time. A sudden switch between time signatures is hard to keep track of rhythmically, so I needed to play that perfectly in order to preserve the integrity of the piece. There are also syncopated rhythms that were not present throughout other excerpts, such as in measures 63-64, and throughout 79-89, that need to be played perfectly as well. 
Read more

Exploring Music in Context Section 3: AOI 1

Image
Score:  For my Exploring Music in Context Section 3: AOI 1 recording, I recorded Myanmar’s national anthem Kaba Ma Kyei, or “Till The End of The World.” Firstly, I wanted to do the lyrical content of the piece justice in my recording, as the lyrics are completely centered around bringing love and freedom to Myannar, and vowing to preserve its precious land. This creates a very loving and warm tone, and I wanted to replicate the same tonality in the Double Bass by playing very expressively. One way I was able to do that throughout the piece is by incorporating a lot of vibrato—not only to mimic a soloist or choir’s voices that could sing the piece, but also because on an instrument, the piece sounds very dry without vibrato.  Since the score is written in treble clef, this means I cannot play as a double bass might play it, and instead need to play as a cello would. The tone cannot be too deep, so that is why I am pretty sure that I did not use the low E string a single time—I ...
Read more

Experimenting with Music Performer Excerpt 2 Commentary

  For my medium difficulty excerpt for the experimenting with Music performer section, I selected measures 11-47 in Incantations. While this excerpt is rather basic, staying in-tune and acting as a musical drone in an actual orchestral setting is fairly difficult. I need to make sure I am always on top of the beat. I also need to make sure to incorporate varying dynamics in my performance: In measure 20 for example, it reads mezzo-forte, then in measure 22-24, it increases in volume to forte, then goes back down to mezzo-forte. In measure 29, it then goes to “pp,” or pianimissio. All this goes to say that I should emphasize dynamics. There is also cases of ritardando in the excerpt, such as from measures 35-36, and near the end, where it says “molto rit for measure 42, so I need to make sure to slow down accordingly when those measures pop up. There are also time signature changes, so I also need to be aware of that when playing.
Read more