The Odyssey

March 2014, Issue 4

Reported by Myeong Jin Choi and James Bok Contributors Upamanyu Kashyap Donald Cosgrove

Modernizing the ancient story

On the 19th of March, many different classes of performing arts participated to collaborate and put together an amazing musical about the Odyssey. The musical started off with an introduction of the story of Odysseus who faces impossible obstacles on the way back to his home island, Ithaca. Many of the scenes are portrayed with music from the junior and senior band, the rock band, MS choir and the MS strings class, allowing the mood to be enhanced in the way the scene should be. Our senior band performed on the horrifying scene where the Cyclops intervened Odysseus journey and attacked the group of men. The style of music was chosen so that it supported the frightening mood of the event. For all this to be possible, the musicians had to practice and strive towards the goal of performing the music with maximum musicality. Some of the musical elements necessary for a good performance were technical skills such as clean articulation, note accuracy, and the musical skills such as expression of music and tone maturity. The final product came out with a success of engaging and entertaining the audience. Mr. Cosgrove (the director of MS band for The Odyssey): How did you feel about the performance? Overall, very well. Our band had good control on the piece and
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understood their roles with other roles such as not playing loud in available light. It was also a very nice performance when we played Legend of Sleepy Hollow with the Cyclops performing on the front stage. Did you think the band did it successfully enough to entertain the audience? The audience were very entertained and the feedback was very positive. Both teachers and parents loved the performance. If you could change one thing about the performance, what would it be? I think, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Every player followed all the cues, but some people played in the wrong measure like slowing down a little. Upamanyu (a musician of The Odyssey): How did you feel about the performance? Our band played well, but the rehearsal was quite tiring. What do you think was best about the performance? Available light. The finale was the best. If you could change one thing about it, what would it be? I think we couldve done more music pieces, and it wouldve been better if we played with the 7th graders in the finale.