Cafe Counterculture

The Cafe Counterculture was a very good performance. I especially liked Scarborough fair, with
its fast swelling part on the violin, and the sea shanty vibe it gives. I noticed that I more enjoyed
the faster songs in the performance because they feel energizing and take a lot of technical
skill, and are really well executed. Another thing I really liked was the vague call and response
you can find in a couple of pieces, along with the vibrato that was often used on the longer
bows. I feel it gave the pieces more depth. Overall I liked this performance. It was well balanced
in between the 1900’s style music and baroque, and extremely well played.

I want to go in depth about the dynamics of Winter boy and Scarborough fair. In the winter boy
violin takes the lead, playing arpeggio-like notes that get louder on the higher notes and more
calm on the lower notes. The bassoon plays softer but still loud, as to accompany the violin. The
base also plays the same arpeggio-type thing as the violin, but softer. In Scarborough fair, at the
start the violin/lead plays in usinime with the other players, opting for softer accompanying bows
along with the base, bassoon ,and harpsichord. The harpsichord plays very quiet in the
background and almost gets drowned out in the faster parts. At the faster parts the violin gets a
lot of fast notes while the violinist plays a scale like arpeggio similar to the one in winter boy.
This goes from piano to fortississimo. The violin then quiets down again to mezzo-piano. The
base and bassoon keep a base-line through all of this staying mezzo-forte.