Please listen and critique your performance of "Sorcerer's Apprentice" that was made this morning. Include at least one positive and one constructive criticism.
Write your comments in the Comments section (below). You should add your name to the post in order to receive credit, but you do not need to add a website/email address. Click the Name/URL button under your comment.
Click on this link to access the MP3 file (you must use your DPS email to access).
47 comments:
This recording of the piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice is good enough but it isn't amazing. In a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate it about a 6 because he overall gist of the notes can be heard. The orchestra as a whole knows its notes to all of its relative parts - save a few individuals in certain measures - but they don't play it confidently enough. The notes aren't stable nor strong and the majority that plays the correct notes don't have enough confidence in their ability to play it loud for the audience. -Megan Cunningham
A good thing about the piece, The Sorcerer's Apprentice the recording is that most of the orchestra knows the correct notes and stayed together. One constructive criticism is that all the sections and the notes get muddled together. The orchestra as a whole needs to accent more of the notes and play more confidently. Because of that i would rate the piece as a 7 out of 10.
-Samantha Pensiero
On a scale from 1-10, I would give this recording of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" a 6 out of 10. One positive criticism that I could give this piece at this point is that although the notes were sort of out of pitch, we all started together at the beginning. One constructive criticism is that everybody needs to stay together towards the end, especially the first violins because you can hear how some people were on the right tempo while some people were off the tempo and rushing. With the isolations of different measures and everybody practicing this piece at least 10 minutes a day, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" will be a 10 and concert ready in no time!
- Talia Lauture
I would honestly give this piece a 4 out of 10 because the first violins fall apart numerous times throughout the piece. especially around measure 95. As well as this, in the beginning of the piece where the first violins play the flute and clarinet cues, we all come in at different times and we do not sound precise or confident. The only place where we do sound confident is when the cellos have the melody and even then, the cellos don't sound confident. I have difficulty believing that this piece will be concert ready because we barely have the notes down let alone the tempo change and the dynamics. Hopefully, we can get this piece to an acceptable place for the concert! (Sorry this sounded really negative but I was just being honest and realistic.)
Julia Canora
On a scale from one to ten, I would give this piece a 6. We started off very strong in the beginning of the piece, however some of the notes were a little out of tune, but otherwise it sounded good. In the middle of the piece when the cellos had the melody, they sounded a little quiet, so they should play a little more confidently and the violas and violins should play quieter in that section. Towards the end it started to get a little messier. Everyone wasn't playing together, some of the notes sounded a little out of tune and some people weren't playing at the right tempo. However, the big pause at the end adds something to the piece and overall "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sounds pretty good!
Overall, I would give this piece a 6/10. In the middle we were pretty good but in the beginning and the end we weren't together. The ending fell apart mainly in the violin section, but I think that was primarily a timing issue. The opening note however, was not in tune. Throughout the piece we had okay timing, but it needs to be better because this song relies mainly on timing between the sections. I don't think it's concert ready yet, but the things we need to work on can be fixed with practice at home and in class.
I think that we deserve a 6 out of 10. The beginning and last 5 notes of the piece sounded great, but in the middle it got a little messy. The correct notes were played, but they were being played not all at the same time, which made it sound a little weird. Overall, I think it sounds pretty good.
Mac McLean
On a scale from one to ten, I would give the recording a 5. I think the group as a whole could work on it's intonation. When the cellos first get the high D and the opening the first violins have sounds very unsure as far as intonation, but the whole piece defiantly needs some practice. The piece also doesn't sound very musical and part of that is that each person doesn't feel confident in his/her parts causing them to focus entirely on getting the notes right. In my opinion, if I had to pick between intonation and dynamics I would have to pick intonation. The audience will not enjoy the piece if it is painfully out of tune, they will just be clapping because it's over and they don't have to listen to it anymore. The group also has to work on shaping and phrasing. Dynamics and intonation are great, but, in my opinion, it's the shaping and phrasing of a piece that gives it the tone, mood, and that conveys the emotion. In order to get this piece ready, everybody needs to go home and practice slowly with the recording and see if what they are playing matches and sounds right with the recording. This piece shouldn't just be practiced in class (Well, none of the pieces should just be practiced in class, but we all know that's what people do... and it shows...) because it is fairly difficult for everyone. The purpose of rehearsal is not to learn your part, it's to learn other people's parts and to see where you mesh with the orchestra. For the orchestra to sound good at concerts, everyone has to pitch in by practicing. The piece isn't terrible, during certain parts of the piece, we sound confident, but it could still need some work. (Sorry this was really harsh, but it kind of had to be said...)
Elizabeth Garijo-Garde
I would give this piece a 6/10 overall. One constructive criticism i have is that in measures 92-97 the first violins sort of fell apart and if we make sure we are playing the right notes and count correctly in that section the piece will improve dramatically because it is an important part that can be heard prominently by the audience. One positive thing about this piece is that at no point did one section sound extremely lost and everyone overall knew what they were doing we just need to work on playing as a group
Catriona McIntyre
I would give this piece a 6 out of 10. In the beginning we sounded really together and confident, but as the piece went on wee did not continue to play this way until right before the end. For the most part all the parts of the sections could be heard but some drowned out others even when they had the melody. The section between the trills still sound kind of messy, no one part stand out leaving it sounding mushy. I think the strong part is probably the beginning trough the first page or very end but the middle still needs some work to be concert ready.
Devin Hart
I thought overall it sounded pretty good, but at the end at measure 93 the violins fell apart for a few measures.
I think the piece sounded very scratchy and it made me cringe at some points. I think we could also use a lot of work on dynamics, the piece was the same volume the entire time which is boring. I think the cellos were also out of tune during their melody in measure 19. As a whole we were all together the entire time.
I would give this piece a 6/10. The beginning was much stronger than the end. In the beginning of the piece everyone knew the music and it showed because the group sounded confident. Towards the end, the piece started to sound messy and disorganized. If everyone can listen to each other and try to stay together it will sound much better. I think if it is worked on, this piece can become concert ready.
Arushi Samal
Anan Durango said...
I would give this piece a 6/10. Throughout the entire piece there are people not playing with the rest of the group. Around the end I heard some rushing. The group does not sound well rehearsed together. The group does play in sync, almost every note together, however, we lack the ability to play fluidly together. In order to fix this, everyone has to master this piece individually, then the goal should be to play the piece as a group.
I would give this piece a 6/10. The beginning is strong and together but we werent following the dynamics. As the end it became disorganized and quieter. To imporve on this everyone should just listen to the other instruments to see if we are all together
I would rate our performance a 5/10. The start of the piece was alright though there was some issue with dynamics. When the melody was played, it was never loud enough and the notes were mashed together and gave it a poor sound. This was for all the sections in general. Also the intonation was off at parts, especially the parts that went faster. Lastly, the whole piece sounded disorganized. The sections weren't in sync with one another. On the bright side, we did get a decent amount of the notes in tune and the tempo was manageable for us. - Siddhant Parwal
The Sorcerers Apprentice was a great piece, but we were not prepared to play it what so ever. I would give our recording a 4/10. The intonation was off and a majority of the instrumentalists played in a major key when it was written as a minor key. This is clearly shown in the beginning and at the end. The first chord was very off, leaving it with the remnants of a really screechy sound. The first violins are where the intonation problems are coming from. I think their shifting is extremely off either shifting too low or too high; does everyone have a shoulder rest in that section? If they don’t all have one, that's a big problem. That actually might be contributing to the off key shifts, not allowing them to extend their arms into their full length in a relaxed way. Also at the last measure of the song the violins seem to have one note off. The whole orchestra actually sounds rather squeaky, making me cringe a few times. I suggest people apply less pressure to the bow and let it glide rather than push it across the strings. Also, cellos should work on their melody, it seems like they are very unsure about what they are playing and when to come in. As for violas, playing loud and proud is their biggest issue, the violas need to build confidence! For the second violins, they need to work on rhythm and intonation, they have an idea of the direction of the piece but aren't quite sure. For the whole group speed and dynamics are a few other things we need to develop. I feel that our fellow students haven't been working on this music and take it as something to do only in school. A reminder that your string instrument needs practice just like any other sport you play! All of us in the concert orchestra are a team, and if someone doesn't practice, then they let all of us down then we will all crash and burn! So please, be considerate of your fellow orchestra members and practice (and it indeed had to be brought up, or else no changes would be made!). I feel with a lot of practice and dedication, this piece will be a success and the highlight of the concert!
-Emily Grandon
I would give this piece a 5/10. At the beginning, the violins sounded good (together and in tune) whereas the cellos seemed to be at the wrong pitch and tempo. As the piece progressed, the cellos seemed to gain more strength while the violins slowly fell apart. Overall, I think this piece will be concert ready with a little more fine tuning and really listening to the other sections and you individual sound.
Caroline Lowder
I would give this piece a 6/10. The beginning sounds strong and confident but we then very quickly loose the confidence. Although all of the notes are somewhat played, the sections are not together. It seems that some people are missing the rests or they are playing the wrong notes at the wrong time. The violins also sound out of tune at some spots. Also it sounds like some people are playing to forcefully, applying to mush pressure to the strings. The piece, I believe is supposed to be somewhat quite and mysterious, but the scratching sounds do not portray that. Finally the entire dynamic of the piece is off. I do think that this piece will be great will a little more practice :)
-Jackie Benisch
I would give this performance a 6/10. We all know our parts but we dont mesh together. Either one group is slower or faster than the others. The whole piece hav places that need work but a big one is the ending after the trill we all kinda fall apart and only come back together after the long rest. The piece has a pontential to be really good we just need to work on it more at home. -Christina Chalis
I would give this 4 out of 10. Everyone knows their parts, but they are not all played at the correct times. The ending seems to fall apart especially towards the trill, but everyone plays the last 4 notes together. Over all the violins sound out of tune especially toward the begging. However, about half way through everything comes together, at least for a little while. - Ellie Brennan
I would give this performance a 5/10. The beginning of the piece just sounds really mushy, and doesn't sound clear just one big blob. Some notes are not just vivid enough and it makes it sound weird when a section just starts playing with the pickup not being vivid enough. Sometimes some flats and sharps are played when they are not supposed to be, while other times they are not played when they are supposed to be. The end also just falls apart, but the last notes are all together because of the big pause.
-Kieran Daly
I would give this piece a 5 out of 10 because the the beginning and the end were pretty strong, but the middle needs some work. It was a little sloppy at points, but hopefully before next week we can improve.
I would give this a 5/10, There are multiple places that the violins struggle to keep up with rhythmically. Unfortunately they are parts of the piece where they have the melody and it's important that violins have that part down by the concert. The violins are either anticipating when to play and play during the rests or they are just waiting for everyone else to start playing and they come in too late. There were a few times,however, when the group sounded somewhat put together, but overall, this piece is definitely not concert ready.
I would rate this piece a 6/10. In the beginning of the piece we start off well but as the tempo increases and the melody changes we begin to lose a flow and all the notes sound sloppy when played together. All of the dynamics of the piece seem to be falling out of place as well.
I think that this is a 5/10. I don't think that the rhythm is that bad, but at some points we struggle to stay together as an orchestra. I think a big thing that we have to focus on is pitch and sounding in tune. A way we can fix this is to pay attention to the key signature and any accidentals, and be aware of your fingering.
Overall the piece was alright, and I would give it a 7/10. I feel like we really need to work on intonation and dynamics, because at times some sections had trouble hitting the right notes, and at other times some sections would drown out the melody and other sections. If we can master this, our piece will become great.
The piece was alright, but not outstanding I would give it a 6/10. The sections that had the harmony played their parts steadily, but there were times when the group did not play in unison very well. If we all get on the tempo together it would sound much better.
I would give this piece a 6/10. The beginning sounds really strong and put together but then we start to fall apart. Although we are playing the correct notes, each section is going at their own tempo. We can fix this by practicing at home, in out free time. If we do this our piece would sound so much better.
The piece was mediocre. There were some problems right at the start, mainly intonation and timing. As the piece progressed it was easy to see that the main problems were still timing and intonation, specifically intonation in the Cello section and timing in the Violin sections. Right now this piece is probably a 5/10, but if we can fix those two large issues then we can make it an 8/10
Overall the piece sounded okay and I would consider it a relatively successful performance. One thing I think the orchestra should work on is staying focused on certain aspects of the music throughout the entire piece. What I mean by this is that both the dynamics and the intonation were very good at some points but were very weak at other points. If we could just make sure that we focus on these things throughout the entire piece then we would sound a lot better. That being said, I think we did a good job with rhythms and making sure that we played each measure rhythmically correctly.
I would rate this piece a 5 out of 10. During the song I feel like the cellos and the violins are competing for spot light both sections aren't following the dynamics and are just playing very loudly. At the beginning the cellos didn't start off very confident and not in tune but as the song went on it became better. The violins started off ok, there were some sections that weren't very good. The last part of the song was a complete mess for the violins. We totally fell apart because no one knew when to play. This piece is not concert ready.
For a lot of the piece the orchestra was not together, and a lot of people set their own tempo. We can fix this by looking up at Ms. Minnis more. Also, our flats were not always flat enough.
Overall, I would give the entire piece a 7 on a scale of 1 - 10. This rating is mostly because the orchestra did not stay together during some sections. Although everyone mostly knew the notes, we did not sound confident throughout the piece, and that led to some sections deviating from the others. With a little more practice, each player could sound more confident in their parts and that would help the orchestra sound more together. This piece can easily be improved.
I would give this piece a 6 out of 10. I feel like it was a bit confusing during the piece with balance between the violins and cellos. We also started very together and towards the middle began to fall apart and get off sync. I think that each section played their parts well, but when all of the parts are combined it did not sounds great.
I give this a 5/10. Two major points that need to be worked on is intonation and timing. The timing is a little bit trickier to correct on your own but intonation should be a simple fix. Once we have the intonation down I think the timing will be quick to come after. As an orchestra I think we did well at recovering from timing mistakes though. Whenever a section got off they quickly corrected themselves.
-Robbie Gaaserud
I thought that the orchestra did an overall okay job of performing this piece. It wasn't amazing, but it was no train wreck either. It was evident that there were distinct rhythms and notes that we were supposed to play in each section, but a lot of the time they got muddled because we were having problems with intonation. I think that if we worked on this issue and also adjusted our dynamics a little, this piece could be much more successful. Besides that, I thought we did a good job of the basic rhythms and also did a good job of ending strongly and beginning strongly.
First off, I did not like how the starting note sounded. It did not seem in tune to me. Also, there were many parts, especially towards the end, where the entire group was not together. On the bright side, we did a good job with dynamics. I believe that at our rate of progression with this song, it will be completely ready for the concert.
Tone was really bad- celli sounded like sandpaper. In fairness, that could have been the mike. Pitch mostly on-target. The main theme was waaaaaaay slower than it's supposed to be. Nobody knew the last few lines. We did really well in the rests. (Not sarcasm. Good job on the dramatic pauses). Excellent trills, people. <3 Brooke
this is about a 7 out of 10 it is a little hard to tell since the audio quality is poor. some sections defiantly appear to follow one another and some do get lost frequently. but it is a major improvement from where we were at a few weeks ago. Griffin S
I would give it a 3.5/10. From the audience, it doesn't sound like we think we can do it. In some areas, the pitch sounds way off. The last part was a jumble of notes, because we weren't together. This may be due to the fact that we were going slower than how we have heard it and others were trying to speed everyone up. We were also dragging too much on the legato sections, making it difficult to feel the beat. The violins need to be quieter in the beginning. The cellos need to be more confident (which doesn't mean louder). And I don't know what you're playing violas because I can't hear you! We all sounded pretty good when we were together, and if we all work on it, I'm fairly certain it can be concert-ready in time.
-Mary >^..^<
p.s. my brother wants to tell the cellists to work on their 1/2 position
The piece was not stellar. Most of the time, dynamic were ignored. Intonation was not perfect, and the piece had no attitude at all. I have a really hard time hearing the bass and violas. Violins seems okay, but I'm not sure, i dont play violin. Cello weren't as powerful as I hoped, but I was able to determine certain cellists playing louder than others.
-Scotty P
Alex Klarer said: The piece was never in sync, I could hear people playing the same part but at slightly different times, especially the violins. It seemed like every note had an echo to it. At least the piece had good intonation though, everyone knew the notes, and there were only a few wrong sharps and flats in there, but again, the notes were almost always on the wrong beat.
Alice Chidley
As a whole, the orchestra sounded heavy and fuzzy, instead of sounding like each section was one instrument, as we talked about today in class. It was clear that people were not looking up at Ms. Minnis to see the tempo and that people were unsure of their abilities in playing the piece, suggesting that they had not practiced...on the bright side, with practice, I am sure this piece can improve a lot! The notes are all very simple. The good thing about the piece was that it did sound like a song; it was recognizable, and that is a place we can improve from!
Jack Consolini
I thought we did a good job of adjusting to dynamic changes. Although there were a few instances where it took the group to adjust to the change in volume, once we go half way through the piece I felt more members of the Orchestra, especially myself and the cello section, were adapting well to the changes in dynamics.
As we hit the last 15 measures in the piece I felt that we got to excited and in the violin 1 section a lot of violinists started playing slightly sharper than they should have. I think that we need to work on control and paying attention to Miss. Minnis as we get toward the end of the piece.
most of the begging is a mess and we are not together. The very beginning is very nice and again the piece gets better towards the end and the very end. most of the piece we need to work on staying together and to work on pitch otherwise it is decent.
Post a Comment