Pitzer Project: Taproot New Music Festival Experience Analysis

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February 8, 2020
Experience Analysis: “Taproot New Music Festival”
January 30, 2020 – 12:05 pm – 1:00 pm
Wordcount: 1089 words
Experience Analysis – Taproot New Music Festival
Just like for any other piece of art, a genuine appreciation of music requires more than the mere usage of one’s hearing, but also of a person’s overall senses. This is because any musical experience could be affected by what the audience sees, smells, touch, and even feel. In turn, this is the reason why some musical artists appeal, not only to the arrangement and melody of sounds but at times take active participation at how the stage should be set. In line with this, I would like to discuss my personal experience while attending the “Taproot New Music Festival Opening Concert.” In the succeeding sections of this paper, I would like to discuss the whole experience before and during the performance that I attended. All in all, I believe that utilizing keen observation processes of both one’s internal and external environment during a musical performance creates a more fulfilling experience as well as an in-depth appreciation of the music itself.
Before the Concert
Before going to the concert, one of the things that I did was do my research about the genre and the performers that would be playing during the opening performances. Accordingly, I was able to find out beforehand that the three groups playing are; (1) Empyrean Ensemble, (2) Quince, and the (3) Spektral Quartet. Even though I personally knew about the Empyrean Ensemble and have listened to their performances a dozen times before, it was my first time to hear about Quince and the Spektral Quartet. Accordingly, to familiarize myself with their achievements, as well as their genre and style, I did a quick search about them from the internet and found out that they are both known bands. In fact, the Spektral Quartet is even a four-time Grammy award nominee, which made me excited to hear what they are going to play during the event.
During my research, I was also able to reflect on the idea of ‘new music’ as compared to ‘classical music.’ Generally, both can be played by an ensemble or an orchestra, but one of the main differences is in terms of when they have created as well as the techniques employed by artists in performing them. On the one hand, Classical music includes musical pieces composed before the 17th Century in different parts of the world, yet most of them were created in Europe during the Renaissance period. On the other hand, New music were those created in the 17th Century and employed a more liberal style in terms of both the melody and rhythm of their pieces as well as the instruments that they use.
In light of what others say and my research about the performers, I expected that the whole experience would be new and exciting for me and would teach me more about the evolution of music from class...