Barber Response

Conor Larkin
Barber Response
The starting movement of this concerto, the Allegro, was the one that resonated the most with me. I thought it was a very well composed piece of music. The mellow beginning stood out to me quite a bit, especially with the main violin melody that we hear right away and throughout the rest of the movement. It was a very relaxing start, the music reminded me of a video game me and my friends used to play called The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The music in the game while your character was running around was very similar, and I could picture in my head this music being in the game.
When it moves away from the mellowness the first time, a few minutes in, it gets almost sinister. I can hear a story forming from the song at this point. When it starts to get intense, I feel like something bad is happening in the story. It is almost as if somebody is being chased or is in trouble until it gets calm again. The transition always reminds me of riding in my grandmother’s car, as she always had the classical music station on, and I am relatively certain this piece was played in her car before.
There is almost a pattern of repetition that I notice with the piece as well. It is constantly moving from a mellow and softer pitch to a more intense and almost sinister sounding one. The violinist also plays the opening melody throughout the piece, which is what stood out to me more than anything about the movement. There was something about it that I really liked and it is what pushed me to call this my favorite of the three movements.