Schubert S Unfinished Symphony at Carnegie Essay

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New England Symphonic Ensemble at Carnegie Hall

For this paper I visited Carnegie Hall on May 8th, 2016 for a 2 pm performance by the New England Symphonic Ensemble, conducted by Filippo Arlia, Jacqueline Hairston, and Wendolin Munroe. The program included Schubert's Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished," Jacqueline Hairston's African Diaspora, Peter Anglea's Jubilate Deo, and Thompson's Selections from Frostiana. Overall, it was a very diverse program that include Romantic Era classical music (Schubert) and modern or new classical music (Hairston's work).

The music itself was entertaining and moving in different ways. The "Unfinished" Symphony by Schubert was very moving in the sense that it stirred the emotions as I listened to it. It made me think of various things -- of my own life and moments and feelings that I have experienced, from sadness to happiness and deep longing. I enjoyed this symphony the most as it was something that I felt that I could easily listen to without having to focus too intently or try to figure out what was going in with the music. It just poured out and all I had to do was sit and let it interact with my mind and my feelings. Anglea's Jubilate Deo was also moving -- it was a choral piece and the voices that were used to sing the Latin words made me think that this piece was very old indeed, from the classical era or the Baroque era -- however, it actually was not because the composer is a modern composer and the work actually sounded very modern in terms of pace and melody and rhythm: there was a rhythmic quality to it that was not classical or Baroque in the slightest (the Baroque feels very measured to me with a tempo that is regular and quick). Anglea's piece felt like something coming out of the modern church, where the sounds are far more sentimental and less rigorous like the old sounds of a Baroque piece or something by Bach, for example. I was not that impressed by it or very fond of it at all, as I prefer the old music, which sounds more refined and noble to my ears. Anglea's piece reminded me of movie music which is usually not very complex or is meant to trigger the emotions in a way that is not really deserved or built up -- not like the Schubert piece, which takes time to draw the listener in but which also offers some complexity and nuance and feels very much deeper in terms of what it is doing to the listener.

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Thompson's Frostiana selections was enjoyable: this was another choral piece with musical accompaniment on the piano (like the Anglea piece). This work was older, however, from the 1950s and it sounded a little more refined and complex than the Anglea piece, which made me like it more. The pace was also slower in some selections and it had a moving quality to it, for instance, when the melody would swell and become very forceful or when it would slow and take a quiet moment to unwind. It had an important feeling to it, and there was also some harmony to it, as there was a balance between hopeful notes and darker, more foreboding notes. I like when musical compositions take this approach, when they incorporate both extremes of a scale into the composition and balance out the emotions that they are compelling in the listener. The Anglea piece did not really do this, as it was mostly geared towards a happy, rejoicing theme (but even here it was too sweat sounding and not very ordered the way older pieces are that make use of the Latin hymns). Nonetheless, Thompson's Frostiana was good in that it had a rural quality to it -- as though it were composed in the countryside and made for quiet evenings on the farm or something like that.

Shubert's symphony was my favorite overall as it was full of dramatic tension and seemed to tell a story through the music. I did not mind that it was "unfinished" because I felt that this made it even more powerful, as though the music was so intense for the composer in writing it than concluding it and resolving the issues and tension in a thematic way would have been too much for him, so it was left the way it was. I liked this about it and it made me appreciate the Romantic Era music all the more because it considered feeling in an orderly and thematic way but also in a way that did not try to put the feeling into a box or into a prearranged formula. It was ordered and yet not stifled….....

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