<p>What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised,
unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?
When playing in the concert band at my high school, every piece we played would be a new encounter, an entirely new entity. Usually they had many similarities and could easily be written off as boring, classical music by those who dont appreciate it, which I must admit, is a category that used to include me. But, in my junior year we played a piece which undermined all of these expectations I had previously held to a classical piece of music. This work was called Asphalt Cocktail. The day our conductor told us we would perform this song, he played a recording of it over his speakers, and the whole class was blown away, almost speechless. It was a very modern song, and had been written less than a year before we played it. The composer of the piece described it a way that embodies it entirely. He said Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides. This is exactly what the piece was like, with its blaring brass section, and screeching woodwinds, pounding away at the many interwoven melodies and countermelodies. I played bass trombone for our performance of this song, and I was allowed to do things that I had never done before on the trombone. It was my first experience with flutter tonguing, but I was also allowed to virtually overpower the rest of the band at some parts, which was a great experience because I am usually told to quiet down. To be perfectly honest, my conductor tells me to not overpower the rest of the band nearly every rehearsal. He once told me that It shows how much you like to be heard and really get into the music, but you sometimes need to tone it down a bit. Before rehearsing this piece, he, luckily for me, recanted on that statement and allowed me to play my heart out. After we played this piece in one concert, the whole ensemble begged our conductor to let us play it again, and he consented. I would say it was the most memorable work of music, not only for me, but for the rest of my colleagues as well; that it just how much it defied all expectations.</p>
<p>I was expecting you to tell me why this piece defied and undermined all your expectations of classical music, but you suddenly switched gears and started talking about what a great experience it was to play it really loud and why you don’t get to do that very often. </p>
<p>I think this essay definitely has potential, but you need to focus on what it is you are trying to say. Convince me this really was a memorable piece of music. If it undermined your expectations, what did you expect from classical music and why did this piece change your mind. If it was a memorable because of the performance experience, what specifically made it so.</p>