Example of a Sonnet

The Russell Middle School Orchestra performed on Dec. 3 at 7:00 p.m., ending exactly a half hour later. They started off with a sloppy, yet together, Star Spangled Banner. It was not organized, had poor technique, and was quite bland as can be expected from a middle school orchestra, but they did follow their conductor and have acceptable dynamics. Their third song, Holiday Magic, had to be the most poorly done song in the entire concert. They disregarded dynamics, had strong intonation issues, and completely ignored the cheery feeling that a holiday song should be played with, making it sound like the Grinch had thrown Christmas into a wood chipper. However, the orchestra redeemed itself with Apache, a classic that they play every three years. It had impressive intonation, strong dynamics and techniques, no rhythmic issues, and even had a feeling of suspense and mystery. When the orchestra enjoyed a song, the audience knew it, especially in the concert’s last song, Antagonist. After several songs of poor technique and confusion as to what is going on, Antagonist came as a shock to the audience as to what the orchestra could do. Unlike other songs, it had a clearly defined melody that flowed between the first violins and the cellos. Each section listened to each other, worked together, and brought out their parts with passion not normally associated with an orchestra of their type. Overall, the concert was not as bad as expected. In essence, it was somewhat disorganized, bland, and poor in intonation and technique, yet no violin/viola beards were to be seen, and the orchestra followed their conductor quite well, staying together throughout every piece and following the rhythms to a point of perfection. Russell Middle School’s orchestra holiday concert could be described as weak and unsuccessful, yet it was victorious and noteworthy as a middle school.