Critique of Our Band Performing Dark Fortress

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I watched the piece “Dark Fortress” being performed by the Hopewell Middle School Band. I was amazed at their posture, and look of attentiveness before they started playing. The trumpets started the piece, and their dynamics were good, but their articulation could have been much better,. They sounded quite muffled, and it was not very clear. As the piece went on, I realized that trombones and french horns were doing a wonderful job with their tone, dynamics, and articulation. However, I felt that the flutes and clarinets we drowned out, and they needed to play out more. Additionally, I felt that band was together for most of the performance. Still, it felt like the song was dragging along, I felt that if they had had a little faster tempo the song would have sounded better. The percussion sometimes overpowered the rest of the band, but they played with almost perfect dynamics, and their rhythms were clear, and correct. Overall, I felt that the brass section were probably the most showcased section in this piece, but they did have some intonation problems. They had a nice style, but at times the drowned out the flutes and clarinets. Sustaining notes was a big problem with this band, they kept clipping their quarter notes and whole notes, which was resulting into a chopped up sound. This also help ruin the flow of the music. The band itself, seemed very attentive, and they seemed a lot more focused than many other middle school bands that I have seen. Also, the ended very well, they were together and had a nice big finish. The band had many different styles that went well with each other.Additionally, the band acted very well on stage, they were wearing all matching clothing, and they looked professional. Mostly, the band did grea...

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...out the character from this piece. As a band we did do this, but if we had further emphasised these things, the piece would have been much better. We could also done a better job being together in the beginning. Lastly, we played the song “Heroes Return”. Our beginning was very off and were not together at all. We also need more articulation in the beginning. Also, we needed to have better change in dynamics, and played more in tune. However, the saxophone played out well during the piece. We played better as the we got towards the middle and end. Our main issues for our performance, were our dynamics, and the fact that whole band was not together at times. Also, we needed practice come pieces more, so we could perfect the begining, and other things, such as articulation. Still, I was impressed with our concert and I think we did a good job for our first concert.

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