5th & 6th Year Music students visit National Concert Hall

The music class went to the National Concert Hall to see the RTE Concert Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Not only did they play the entire Overture but they broke the whole work down and explained the many musical features of the work. They started the concert with the ‘Strife Theme’  They explained many terms such as Sonata form, which consists of an exposition, development and recapitulation sections, a Canon which was a piece in imitation at a fixed distance. (Click on thumbnails to open an enlarged version of image.)

The whole presentation started with Tchaikovsky’s life story, the presenter explained that Tchaikovsky battles many issues in his life such as his own sexuality and fighting bi-polar depression, all of which led up to one thing, creativity. Tchaikovsky is known for his highly melodic works such at the Nutcracker suite and Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet was written to portray the emotions of the characters and not the story of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy.

The whole work requires the whole orchestral family such as Strings, (Violin, Viola, Violin Cello and Double Bass) Woodwind, (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon) Brass, (Trumpet, Trombone, French horn and Tuba) and Percussion (Bass drum, Crash Cymbals and Timpani) Tchaikovsky cleverly uses each family to produce the perfect sound to represent the emotions in Romeo and Juliet.

This overture was written in Sonata form, which means generally the work would be written with an ‘exposition’ section, ‘development’ section and a ‘recapitulation’ section, also with and intro at the beginning and a ‘ coda’ at the end.
Alex Lai (6th Year)

The 5th and 6th Year music classes went to the National Concert Hall to listen to "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture" by Tchaikovsky. The orchestra started to sit on their chairs and the presenter and the conductor came in. And when all of them were ready to play, they started off with the Strife theme.

From then, the presenter explained each section to us in sections with a Powerpoint presentation. For example I was able to understand the Sonata form and a personality of Tchaikovsky.

It ended with the orchestra playing the whole piece right through from start to end. Each person looked very enthusiastic therefore the sound quality was excellent. I especially enjoyed the Strife theme where all the instruments were played in a dramatic and dynamic manner.

It was enjoyable to see it and also I really like the piece now that it was played in front of me. The presenter was very good and I got to know a lot of new information therefore overall it was a good help for my Leaving Certificate.
Nao Mutai (6th Year)

The 5th and 6th year students went to the National Concert Hall to see a showing of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. The show was in preparation for the Leaving Certificate so all the students were guided through all the different themes of the piece. It was a good experience for the students to not only listen to the set work that they’re learning for their course but to see an orchestra playing live!   
Hugh O'Rourke (5th Year)

[Photos: Ms. Conlon]