Observation In Middle Schools

On March 15, 2017 middle schools from across the state came to Cedar Ridge High School to perform and be judged. This was the large ensemble day, so our exposure to drastically different ensembles was limited. In the amount of time that I was in the audience, there were a total of three bands who performed. In this review, I will dissect one piece per band. The first band to perform was the Daniel’s Magnet Middle School 7th Grade Band. The piece that I will critique is named “Imperium” composed by Michael Sweeney. To start off with the positives, the children were surprisingly engaged and responsive to the conductor. Another positive was that the band held through barlines shockingly well. Unfortunately, the negatives outweighed the positives. Near the end of the first movement of the composition, there was a sectional solo with the tubas, and they could not agree on a note to save their lives.
The section was slightly behind the conductor’s tempo, and the audience begin to hear the fatigue begin to seep into the entire ensemble by the end of the piece. Jumping to another section of the band, the flutes were a little airy and could’ve greatly benefitted from more breath support. Although the brass & woodwinds had a couple mistakes …show more content…
They performed “Images of Ireland” arr. By Brian Balmages. The flutes and oboes were not together during the parts where they had the melody. The saxophones did an amazing job during their descending scales. Their part was written to emulate water trickling down a hillside. During the middle movement, the band transported the audience into feeling as if they were flying above Ireland, looking out over the vast landscape. Their long, sweeping, and legato lines were whimsical. For a middle school, I thought they had very nice breath support and dynamics. Even though this piece obviously had no text, the band did an excellent job at portraying the imagery of