Duke Ellington (band)

Hi guys, today’s blog would be about a piece that I played when I was freshman. This piece is called Duke Ellington. As you guys can notice by the title “Duke Ellington” you guys can probably assume what this song will mainly be about. This is a contribute and mix of Duke Ellington’s hit songs such as “Take the ‘A’ Train.” What is cool about this song is that it composes numerous genres including jazz, classic, and latin.

The piece itself is not hard to play. However, how the orchestra play and match together is the difficult part. For example, in my school, we had too much flute and clarinet while we didn’t have too much percussion and brass section. Now, whenever people think about jazz, they tend to think about trombone, trumpet, and saxophone. So, our band conductor convinced most of our clarinet players to change their instrument to french horn, euphonium, or tuba. By the end of our year and when it was time to perform, I think our band and good mix of instruments. The reason why I emphasize about the good mix of instruments is because when an instrument section is dominant in the band, the rest can’t be heard especially in a song like this. Although their isn’t solos, their are many soli. When one group’s soli is extremely loud, and the other’s soli’s can’t be heard, then the balance is broken.

Anyways, happy listening to the song!

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Minuet- Bizel

Hi guys, today’s blog is about Minuet by Bizel. Bizel’s most famous Minuet is from L’Arlesienne which can be translated as “The girl from Arles.”  Before I begin writing about the melody and how much I like about this song, I’ll first write about what Minuet is slow, melodic classical music which is designed so that people can dance slowly at it. It usually is cheerful and romantic and describes the beauty of their nature, society, or lady that the composer loved. Many of the Minuets are simple to play, so if you are clarinet player like me, probably one version of minuet had come out from your practice book.

Now, let’s see about Bizel’s Minuet from L’Arlesienne. The story line of L’Arlesienne is actually quite simple. If you guys want to know the basic story plot, go to wikipedia and type L’Arlesienne.  Anyways, I think that this song is incredibly beautiful (is that even correct phrase?) It reminds me of a sheep jumping around the lake peacefully and happily. However, I think that in real play, it is bunch of girls that play around the paradise (I’m not quite sure cause I watched the play when I was 6). Anyhow, if you guys like listening to relaxing music, I can bet you that this is the song perfect for you~. Happy Listening

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