The Thunderer Analyse

The song that is being reviewed is The Thunderer by John Philip Sousa. It has been analyzed by the balance, tempo and unity of the ensemble. I tried my best to be accurate about how the music was actually played, but everybody perceives it a different way. Although this song had been favored by many, there were obvious places where it didn’t sound so well, like measures eighty-eight through one hundred, only because of the higher octave. Although all three aspects analyzed seemed to be pretty well done, there were spots where they weren’t quite up to par. This is a review of the way the band played The Thunderer. Let’s start with the balance of the piece. The first ten measures were really well done, maybe even the best they have ever played them. The low parts did not overpower anyone else and the higher parts surprisingly kept their intonation well, even though there was a major change in the octaves. Not one part was heard more than the others, which is what we strive for. However, in measure twenty-one the lower parts begin to take over a bit more and that can become an issue because most of the time the lower parts are not playing the melody and the melody is what we want to hear. In measure thirty-three the higher

In measures one through sixty-nine they stayed perfectly on tempo. After that though they started to play slower only because the dynamics had shifted to piano and they tend to get slower when they play quieter. No one happens to know why such things are associated but they have to work on it a bit more. After measure eighty-eight we sped up suddenly and the band got to be the correct tempo. It has really been a challenge to keep a steady tempo throughout songs especially with this song being longer than some and having repeats it can drag sometimes. It sounded much better just from the last rehearsal to the performance. This may not have been the steadiest tempo but it sure was up