Concert Report #3

            This past Sunday at 4 pm I attended my third concert for my blog post. Unfortunately, I was not able to attain a program, but the name of the person I listened to was Sean Cotty. The concert was his senior piano recital, and it was very enjoyable. Going alone gave me an advantage to listen to the technicalities of the music even more. I arrived to the concert about ten minutes early so I was able to listen to Sean rehearse before he actually started performing. He warmed up with different types of scales, like the major and minor scale. Right before he began the actual concert, he received a pep talk from what I’m assuming was his professor. He told him that it didn’t matter if he messes up or if sometimes the technicalities weren’t perfect; what really mattered was the performance that he gave and to make sure that the audience felt the emotion that should pour out of the songs that he played. He did in fact successfully portray the emotions that the audience was supposed to hear. The first composition that he played involved something electric along with it. It was a very interesting piece that used what I would call diminished cords that were pretty dissonant. It was definitely a modernistic approach to the classical music that I was expecting to hear. The melody was hard to identify, and there was no distinct rhythm throughout the piece. The texture was something different from what I had ever heard before. Honestly, I did not really like this particular piece because I did not find it pleasing to the ears at all. My mind was instantly changed when he began his next song. It was definitely a more classical piece, which was much more pleasing for me. There was a clear meter of 4/4 and the tone was very light. The melody was obviously heard in the higher keys on the piano, played with the right hand. The left hand on the piano was used to play mostly the chords and the deeper tones that you hear throughout the piece. This could be called a polyphonic texture, since the hands are playing different things at the same time. Even though I didn’t particularly enjoy the first piece of the concert, I thought that it would have been cool to hear something with the electronics again, just with some notes that ended on more closed cadences rather than a numerous amount of open ones. The next song that was played was very similar to the second. It was still in the classical genre, but it had much more deeper tones throughout the piece. There was still a distinct 4/4 meter, and the phrases were all closed and sounded pleasing to the ear. The melody was again clearly played on the higher notes of the piano. Despite having the same meter, the rhythm was a lot faster and sometimes it was a little syncopated. All in all, this concert was not my favorite. I did enjoy the more classical pieces, but the electronic piece threw me off a little bit. I would’ve also liked to hear more diverse pieces, but I did still find it enjoyable. Anytime I can be entertained with music, I find it very rewarding.