Norwell High School Music Department

We’d like to sell refreshments during intermission of the Spring Concert like we did for the Winter Concert.  To that end, we’re going to need a parent (or couple of parents) to coordinate those efforts.  Please contact me by email (obriant@norwellschools.org) or by phone if you’re interested, and I’ll talk you through what will need to be done.  Thank you!

-Mr. O’Briant

I don’t normally write posts to this website about the passing of musicians, but I felt it was worthwhile in the case of Rostropovich.

Slava Rostropovich was a renowned cellist and one of the giants of 20th- and early 21st-century music.  Azerbaijani by birth, he lived most of his life in the Soviet Union, remarkable given that his personal beliefs regarding freedom of artistic expression ran so counter to the Soviet party line.  He left Moscow Conservatory in protest when Shostakovich was fired from his professorial posts.  He welcomed author and fellow dissident Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn into his home when he had nowhere else to live and shortly before he was deported from the USSR.  He picked up his cello and went to perform at the Berlin Wall while it was being knocked down in 1989.  He and his wife even started a charitable foundation meant to improve health care for children in Azerbaijan.

He would have been considered a hugely influential musician even if we were to disregard his political efforts in Soviet Russia.  He directed the National Symphony in Washington, D.C..  He commissioned works from a list of composers that reads like a Who’s Who of composers of the 20th-century: Shostakovich, Aram Khatchaturian, Leonard Bernstein, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten and Krzysztof Penderecki, for starters.

His presence in the world of music will be sorely missed, and I strongly urge you to track down a recording of Rostropovich, especially if you’ve never heard him before.  For starters, I’ll link to his recording of the Bach Cello Suites, where you can listen to excerpts before deciding if you’d like to purchase the recordings for yourself.

-Mr. O’Briant

As a reminder, NHS’ Spring Concert will be taking place on Thursday, May 24th at 7pm in the NHS Auditorium. On the first half of the program will be the NHS Symphonic Band and Chorus, and after a short intermission there will be performances by both of the Jazz Labs. It is the department’s last full performance of the season, so make sure to get out to the high school to see our wonderful, graduating seniors and all of the hardworking, dedicated music students who make these performances happen!  Everyone is invited to attend–friends, families, members of the community and music lovers alike. There is no charge for admission, but donations to Norwell High School Music will be accepted. We’re hoping also to have refreshments in the cafeteria during intermission.

Hope to see you there!

-Mr. O’Briant

Quick reminder: Friday during school the symphonic band classes will be working on marching basics in preparation for the Memorial Day Parade.  Please be prepared to go outside if necessary and wear comfortable sneakers.  Period 1 will catch up and do marching basics in the middle of next week–I’ll be sure to let you know ahead of time which day it will be.

-Mr. O’Briant

1) Most of class today was spent in discussion about the events that transpired at Virginia Tech this past week, how our school community is affected by it and what lessons we might draw from it. If you’re interested in reading over the comments I prepared for class today, please drop me a line and I’ll be sure to email them to you. My thanks and admiration go out to all of the music students today–you responded very maturely and thoughtfully.

2) We also laid out concrete plans for the rest of our performance season, touching on the Spring Concert (May 24th), the Memorial Day Parade (May 28th) and graduation (June 9th). All students are expected to participate except in extreme cases, which I will judge on a case-by-case basis. Excuses will only be accepted well in advance of the event and only in extreme circumstances. Dates for all events scheduled between now and the end of the year can be found at the top of this page in the “Important Dates” tab.

-Mr. O’Briant

Another media note: NHS music students Alex Bourque ‘07, Kelly Fanning ‘08 and David Neves ‘07 were also featured in a blurb in the April 5th edition of the Boston Globe’s Globe South section for their participation in the MMEA All-State and MENC All-Eastern honor festivals.  Congratulations!

-Mr. O’Briant

Be sure to check out the print version of today’s Norwell Mariner for great photos of Tom Quinn ‘08 (front page!) and Alex Bourque ‘07 performing last Thursday at the First Parish Preschool here in Norwell.  You can see from the gaggle of four-year-olds dancing in the background that everybody had a great time!  Thanks again to the jazz students who traveled to perform and to First Parish Preschool for inviting us!  We look forward to doing it again next year.

-Mr. O’Briant

A jazz quintet led by Dave Neves ‘07 is performing at Mount Blue in Norwell tomorrow night, Friday, from 9-midnight. Sadly, I’ll be in Virginia by then, but I hope everybody can make it out to support Dave and the rest of these talented, hard-working young musicians! There’s no charge to get in. The full band:

Dave Neves (tpt), Mike Wilbur (sax), Jake Sherman (pno), Evan Becker (bass), Jimmy Elcock (drums)

1) Period 1 and 3 will be having their first mock quiz for the final tomorrow. It contains items from all three info packets we went over in class, and will be delivered as follows: you get two pages of musical score, one from a piece for symphony orchestra and the other from a piano piece. There are ten symbols, words or indicators circled. There is a corresponding question for each of them regarding spellings, definitions or how they might be interpreted or executed. We’ll have a few more of these before the actual final, since it’s in everybody’s best interest that you be well prepared and fully able to make informed interpretive decisions when you play.

2) Please bring your instruments home over break! Even better, practice on them over break. You should now have a whole host of new music to prepare for our final performances of the year. Good luck!

In addition to Chorus, Jazz Workshop and Symphonic Band, the Music Department will be offering two new courses in the 2007-08 academic year:

1) Music Appreciation: This is a survey-style music history course geared towards non-musicians as well as musicians. Although a fundamental grasp of music reading will enrich your experience in the course, it is by no means a requirement. The focus of this course is on listening to, experiencing and responding to music. We’ll look at the forces that have shaped musical development over roughly the last millenium and how music in turn reflects and shapes societies. We’ll spend a fair amount of time on non-Western music and music from the 20th century to the present, including units on popular music, rock, hip-hop and jazz.

2) Music Theory: I describe this course to students as a more nuts-and-bolts approach to understanding music. We’ll look in detail at the elements of music as they are used in composition–harmony, voice-leading, basic tonal and post-tonal analysis and a lot of composition. If you’re interested in writing music or understanding on a more fundamental level what makes music “tick,” this is a great course for you.

As always, if you’re interested in either of these courses but have questions, feel free to email me: obriant@norwellschools.org