Prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” – Richard Wagner The first piece played by the University Symphony Orchestra was a prelude to an opera by Richard Wagner. The instrumentation of the piece included flutes, oboes, clarinets, violins, bassoons, French horns, trumpets, viola, trombone, tuba, harp, timpani, bass, and the cello. To me, the piece sounded like it was in quadruple meter. The piece had a very dramatic start with a quick tempo and forte dynamics. The tempo remained fairly quick throughout the performance at about allegretto, but it did occasionally slow down to moderato. The dynamics of the piece hovered on forte with the intermittent slowing down to a mezzo-forte level. Throughout the piece, there were instances where the …show more content…
The pieces contrasted the first one in many ways. This piece had a more individualistic approach with various instruments getting the opportunity to play alone, leading to a difference in textures throughout. In addition, there was more disjunction in these pieces than in the first. Each movement was unique, yet they all flowed together well and had re-occurring themes. The first movement started out very solemnly with a slow tempo and quiet dynamics. Later, it built up to a quicker tempo and got louder only to come back down again. Eventually, it ended on a powerful note. The second movement was overall more solemn and slow than the first. The times that it did get louder, it was through the use of trumpets, causing them to really stand out. In contrast to the first movement, this movement ended quietly, with the last note fading out. The third movement was the shortest. Just like the previous movements it starts out serious. Dynamically, it seems to go from mezzo-piano to mezzo-forte and then peaking at forte before finally coming back down. Towards the end, the tempo becomes faster and the dynamics louder before it slowly fades. Unlike the first three movements, the fourth movement began with a lively trumpet fanfare. It then mellowed out through the usage of flutes, but about halfway through, the trumpet comes back. Then the piece goes back to being mellow. The piece ends