The Gleaner: 'Beautiful music marks OASIS Caribbean Concert'; included Joplin's 'The Entertainer'

[OAS trainers play 'Concerto for Four Violins']

The Gleaner

Jamaica WI

Published: Monday | January 24, 2011

Marcia Rowe, Gleaner Writer

“It was more than a concert it was a result show, a lesson in musical instrument, and more.

“The occasion was the OASIS Caribbean Concert, organised by the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica (NYOJ) in collaboration with the Organisation of American States (OAS), held on Saturday at (what has become the venue of choice) the Courtleigh Auditorium located in the Island Life Mall, New Kingston. Acting as MC but with a music professorial twist, Marino Vales from OAS began his lesson on musical instrument by explaining that the orchestra is like a big family, and that it has many members in the family. He further explained that each member of the family rehearsed separately and would be seen one by one before coming together as the family.

“The woodwind instruments in the form of the flutes were first. They began the family story with a pleasant sounding Collins Cowles - arranged The Drunken Sailor: Traditional. Then it was on to the first of the string instruments. The violas, the most opaque-sounding of the string family, were the first. But the denseness in its sound was not as pronounced in the treatment of Georg Philipp Telemann's compositions. Like their akin, violins that performed a similar piece, except a little faster, was pristine sound to the ears.

“Next it was the brass instruments, one of the loudest members of the orchestra family, according to the musicologist, injecting some humour in his lesson. Then he introduced each with a demonstration from the individual trainer: the French horn, the trumpet and the trombone. And as a group they thrilled the audience with a beautiful sounding Johann Sebastian Bach's 3 chorales. But it was the lowest members of the string family, the cellos and the double basses, that received the first vocal response from the audience. With a fantastic presentation of Scott Joplin's, Werner Thomas - Mifune arranged The Entertainer, the musicians were captivating with their strumming of each note.” [Scott Joplin (1868-1917) is profiled at AfriClassical.com]