Orchestra Festival Reflection

Aniela Crayton

Mr. Wolf

9th Grade String Orchestra  

March 20th, 2014

Orchestra Festival Reflection

• Over all grade- Excellent (-A)

The musicality of all three pieces was great, I feel we as a group moved together.  The intonation was lacking for violins on the high notes and for violas and 2nd violins C's were out of tune.  The tone got better as we moved through all three pieces, though overall I think tone was good.  The rhythm was good in most areas, though there were some trouble spots.  Interpretation was great in all pieces, though lacked a little in Bells.  Finally, technique was only lacking in Rondo Energico.

Tone- Excellent (A)
Intonation-Good (B)
Rhythm-Excellent (-A)
Technique- Good (+B)
Interpretation- Excellent (+A)

1. Rondo Energico- Over all- Excellent (-A)

Some good things we did were I could really hear the contrasting parts and they sound really good together.  Then the plucking at that the bottom of the first page were well together compared to what they had been, also we counted the long notes and we all came in at about the same time, though it wasn't perfect.  Lastly, we used vibrato at good times, had good style at the end, and had a strong ending in general.  Some things we could have worked on were making sure the 16th notes were together, because they sounded muddy.  Also, though the plucking was fairly together it was out of tune and so were a lot of the high notes, especially the violins.

• Tone- Excellent (A)
• Intonation- Good (B)
• Rhythm- Excellent (A)
• Technique- Good (+B)
• Interpretation-Excellent (A)

  2. Faraway Place- Over all- Excellent (-A)

Some good things we did were we had good musical techniques at the top of the 2nd page, also we used vibrato to warm up the piece.  Then, we had great dynamics and a great ending.  Lastly, our intonation got better over time.  On the other note, the 8th notes were rushed and they were played with different styles. Next, we were really out of tune, especially the high notes and all of the different parts didn't fit together at some points in the song.  Lastly, some parts of the song were muddy.

• Tone- Excellent (A)
• Intonation- Good (B)
• Rhythm- Good (+B)
• Technique- Excellent (A)
• Interpretation- Excellent (A)

  3. Bells- Over all- Excellent (-A)

Some good things we did were had a good style in the beginning and we sounded very confident through out the song.  Also, the high notes were very in tune and there was good contrast between instruments.  Some things we had difficulty with was we didn't count long notes and the violins rushed.  Then, the dynamics from f to mf were not as good as they could be.  Next, 1st violins were muddy sounding at 54 and the transition at 29 for the 2nd ending was weak.  Lastly, in the process of speeding up all the instruments were not together.

• Tone- Excellent (A)
• Intonation- Good (+B)
• Rhythm- Excellent (A)
• Technique- Good (B)
• Interpretation- Excellent (A)

Plan-

• Practice with a metronome to make sure that long notes are held the same amount by everyone.
• Practice scales, which will improve intonation.
• Focus on dynamics more.
• Memorize certain parts of the song, so that during places in a song with difficult rhythms we can pay attention to the conductor.
• Make sure that all instruments are together to make sure that no parts sound muddy.
• Practice getting bow closer to the bridge so that even during quite moments the tone remains good.
• Subdivide, so that long notes are held the correct amount of beats.
• PRACTICE MORE!!!!