The live performance that I had attended to was Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra “Messiah” near Madison, WI. The genre of composition is supposed to be drama. This composition genre is an oratorio, which is a large-scale dramatic genre originating in the Baroque. Baroque is based on text of religious or serious character, performed by solo voices, chorus, and orchestra; similarto opera but without scenery, costumes, or actions. This specific oratorio is different because this composition is in three parts but is compilation of biblical verses from Old and New Testaments.
The text for “Rejoice greatly” is actually from the New Testament itself. The soloists for the live performance was Sarah Laurence, the soprano was Jamie Van Eyck, the mezzo-soprano was Calland Metts, and the tenor was Peter Van de Graff. They were joined in by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Choir of Madison who are also the bass. The composer for the whole live performance was Andrew Sewell. During the first act, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra played along with Sarah Laurence.
The first part of the oratorio, which would be the Christmas section also would be no. 8 “Rejoice greatly”, Sarah Laurence did the melisma quite well, and I was able to hear the pitches during the long melisma while on the second syllable I was able to hear the melisma in a slower and on the minor key. There was a ritornello, which is an instrumental introduction, in the beginning of the performance and after Sarah Laurence sang only at least twenty seconds I believe. Then she continued to sings and when the end comes, the ritornello becomes abridged and I was able to hear the longer melisma on rejoice like I recalled before.
The melody itself sounds like it is was disjunt during the first part of the performance. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra was made up of both male and females that had quite high voices which made me believe that they were the Sopranos. During the second part of the oratorio, which would be the Easter Section or known as No. 44 “Hallelujah Chorus”, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra started the performance off then Festival Choir of Madison starts to sing “Hallelujah! ”.
I was able to detect the homorhythmic at the beginning of the performance then I felt it had disappeared until roughly when they started to sing “The kingdom of this world” then I noticed it had returned. I also noticed a little bit of polyphony in there when the chorus started to sing lower and then start to get higher around “He shall reign for ever and ever”. I believe where I detected it, along with the dynamics taking an effect. Then the around the ending the homorhythmic melody came back because of the settings from the trumpets and the timpani setting the mood to complete the performance.
I also found out that this would be a SATB chorus, which is a 4-part chorus and orchestra. The last act of the night is the Redemption section or otherwise known as no. 56. The first person to start the performance was the soprano, which was Jamie Van Eyck. After his lines of “I know that my Redeemer liveth” then the Festival Choir of Madison and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra joined in by singing and playing “Since by man came death”.
Then after a little bit the tenor joins in, which is Peter Van de Graff joins in by the lines along with an alto “O death, where is thy sting? then the chorus came back in a E-flat major I beleive like the alto and Peter Van de Graff did but had the oboe playing along with them. To end this scene, I recall that the soprano, Jamie Van Eyck, sings and lead the chorus to do the final singing of the scene. The last scene of the performance overall was sung by the chorus which I believe sounded like in a D major. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra instruments that I could recognize that played along was the trumpet, timpani and the oboe.
During the performance I felt that the melody was polyphony because the voices did build up from being low to higher by the end of the performance. Overall, I enjoyed the whole performance and was glad to try something new out and see some amazing singers. Overall, I enjoyed the whole performance and was glad to try something new out and see some amazing singers. The instruments that were used were strings like violins and the continuo, which is a form of musical accompaniment used in the Baroque period.
This is usually played by a keyboard instrument and another bass instrument like the cello, violone, or bassoon. I saw some trumpets, oboes, and drums along with the strings and continuo. The Baroque period is most commonly called “classical music” which also means being widely studied, performed, and listened too. All the sections of the Messiah, which are Christmas section (part one), Easter section (part two), and Redemption section (final part) are all in a da capo aria. What a da capo aria is a lyric song in an A-B-A form, which is usually found in operas, cantatas, and oratorios.