Early Music through the Baroque Period Assignment

Early Music through the Baroque Period - Assignment Example This book is accompanied by a CD narrated by Ben Kingsley. I found it enlightening because of its overview of orchestra, which it follows up with an array of instrument groups used in orchestras. The brief explanations of the instrument group’s history and distinctive sound qualities However, it would have been better if the instruments were named where they were shown alone, rather than in small group photos, which I found odd. Nevertheless, the highlighting of individual instrument parts with clear labelling of their parts is very helpful, even though the instruments are only named in the smaller photographs showing them in orchestra groups. I agree with the post that the strings in this piece gave the entire performance a whimsical feel, although it would have been better to refer to the marimba, rather than the percussion. In fact, it puts the marimba, an instrument that is rarely given much space, in the centre stage. This post rightly notes that this piece almost follows the rules of tap-dancing, in that it only repeats long enough for the listener to catch its flow, before changing its step. In my case, I would have added the fact about the central character in the piece, a young girl on Christmas Eve, who awakens to romantic love and the wider world. The post makes an important point about this piece being Dvorak’s ninth and last symphony, but I would also have linked this with the fact that nine seems to be a magical number for most composers, such as Mahler, Bruckner, Schubert, and Beethoven.