Colonia High School Concert Report

On December 7, 2017, Colonia High school hosted it’s Winter Concert. Pieces were performed by the Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band (directed by Kevin Perdoni), and the Concert Choir, Women’s Choir, Acapatriots and Show Choir (directed by Alaine Bolton). I, being in Concert Band, really thought that the show was a success and that we were able to display the hard work we have accomplished since September. The first band group to perform was the Concert Band. We performed “Christmas Spectacular”, “Chanukah Festival Overture”, “The Polar Express”, and “The Canadian Brass Christmas”. The first song, “Christmas Spectacular”, is a march (arranged by Mike Story) that consisted of familiar christmas melodies The piece began with the chorus

Powerful tones are kept throughout the entire song, hence it being a march. The next piece is called “Chanukah Festival Overture” (arranged by Richard Wernick), and it is another medley, but of famous Hanukkah songs including “Dreidel, Dreidel” and “Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah”. The beginning was soft and felt fast-paced because of the brass’ and the clarinet’s short notes, which is followed by a melody from the clarinets. The music soon became fuller and included more instruments. The middle of the piece gets a bit softer as it featured the low brass playing the melody of “Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah” and ends with the full band. The piece after was “Polar Express” (arranged by Michael Story). This piece was a medley of songs from The movie Polar Express including Believe, The Polar Express, Hot Chocolate, When Christmas Comes to Town, and Spirit Of the Season. This song was my favorite not because it reminded me of the movie I loved to watch as a child, but also because I liked my instrument’s part in with the music. I’ve always enjoyed the percussion parts in the beginning of

Ployhar. “Sleigh Ride” was generally at a medium pace at the beginning until the second chorus. I thought that the crescendos during the song added more depth and brought more light to the clapping sound of the percussion sticks at the end of the phrases. The song got louder and louder with each chorus and had a special different part with each one. For example, in one of my favorite parts of the song, the trombones play a scale during the second to last chorus. The band in general had a great sound because I could hear all the instruments at the same time and also hear the melody and harmony well. The next song, “Dec 7”, made me feel like I was in a war, and that there was a great tragedy during it. When I searched for the importance of the date, I found that it was the day that there was a surprise military attack, which made me. I liked this song more than “Sleigh Ride” because I felt like it told a story. After the trumpet and snare feature in the beginning of the song, the music started to sound joyous, then the music faded into a soft and depressing tone, leading into “Taps”, which made me realise that something tragic happened. After, the trombones played glissandos that resemble planes attacking over head. The trumpet and trombone played the tune again, which led me to think that two sides of the fight/war was affected. The song resumes to