This week, the MOB traveled to Gallipolis to perform at the Drug Free Drug Rally. The energetic performance had a very positive effect on the crowd and other bands watching. The band earned a trophy and had a great performance to be proud of. Also, this week the MOB will be staying at home for the football game. This Friday is also senior night for our band and athletes. Come show your support for your favorite seniors and your Oaks football team. This Saturday, the MOB will be traveling to Logan for the band show. This is the biggest band show of the year and will feature about seventeen bands. The band show starts at 3:00 and will last around three hours. The MOB is set to perform around 5:45 and will be performing a mix of the “Paul Simon Show” and the “Halloween Show.” They will be featuring a new dance for the song “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. We hope that you will be able to catch one of the upcoming performances! 

This week, the MOB will be performing two shows for the Friday night football game. They will be performing their “Paul Simon Show” during halftime, and their blackout “Movie Show” after the game. Since their blackout show got cancelled due to weather at the Oak Hill band show, they’ve decided to perform it after the home game vs Valley. The MOB also  performed as a pep band during the junior high football game against Wheelersburg this past Thursday. The Junior high football team has won every one of their games this season, and the band will be there to cheer them on and celebrate their achievements. Also, next week on October 14th, the MOB will be performing at the drug free rally located at the Gallipolis park. There will be many other bands attending and showing off their musical skills as well. Many should attend to support these musical students, and all the hard work they have put in this far into the season. Marching season is coming close to the end, and for the seniors, this is their last ever marching season with their high school band. People should show up and support their band seniors for how far they have come, and all the great things they have done!    

As I’ve said before, I will be typing about each song we are doing for choir, especially during slower weeks. “Connected” is a song that I do believe we aren’t singing at a concert, but we are using it for practice. Brian Tate is the writer of this song; he wanted it to be about unity,  something fairly easy to learn and easy enough to understand and sing off book. This pop music inspired song is to help bring us together with its imaginative music and community-building texts to make it happen. “Connected” is a funky and rhythmic a capella piece. The lyrics emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals by repeating the phrase, “I am you are me” throughout the song. Brian Tate stated that “Connected came from a theory in quantum physics that I have always found quite amazing: in our human selves, we think of ourselves being in ‘containers’, and we see others as apart from us, different from us, with empty space in between. But when you get small enough, at a sub-particle level, the distinctions disappear - there is no difference between body, skin, air and the next body. It is all a continuum. Hence the lines ‘I am you are me,’ ‘Something between us that's greater than air,’ ‘It's just an illusion of me and you,’ ‘It’s a fact subatomically,.’ Interestingly enough, this features strongly in Buddhist philosophy going back over two thousand years.” Brian Tate often explores Buddhist themes in most of his songs, but this one is greatly known not to be easy but to be a great song about interconnecting even on a subatomic level. I think it is a wonderful piece and am kind of sad we won’t get to sing it for a concert, but I do love the song, and I’m glad we get to sing it, even if it's for practice. Source one (quote): https://www.sacredprofane.org/news/2021/5/28/nearness-of-you

Source two (Picture): https://www.halleonard.com/biography/412/brian-tate

As we sing these pieces for choir, I shall go into little depth about each of them and what they are about. “God Bless America” is a song that was made because Irving Berlin wanted to write a song about great peace. Berlin took this challenge of making this anthem that would inspire his fellow men to live in harmony. Berlin himself had already become a successful songwriter and had already lived through one world war, and the rise of  Nazi Germany and knew a second one was brewing. He at first was going to call the song ‘Thanks America,’ but he didn’t like it, so he changed it to ‘Let’s Talk About Liberty’; that also didn’t get very far before he finally called it “God Bless America,” which is the current name of the piece. During the time Berlin wanted to release it, there were many other patriotic songs coming about, so he stashed it away. Two Decades later, Berlin went over the song and revamped the lyrics a little before finding someone to actually sing it. On Nov. 11, 1938, Kate Smith sang “God Bless America” as part of her Armistice Day broadcast (anniversary of the end of WWI). 

The drama students finally finished watching the “Hadestown” musical, marking an end to having to see the elements of theatre within the show. While the beginning of the musical was bright and hopeful for change, the other portion was much more depressing and dramatic. The supporting woman lead, Persephone, had been taken from the surface too early, ending spring. According to the original myth, Persephone spends half of her time on Earth, and the rest in the underworld–creating the seasons. Because she was taken too early, cold weather soon arrived. This meant the struggle of citizens in poverty intensified. The female lead, Eurydice, had no choice but to take shelter from none other than the antagonist, Hades. He had offered her a “ticket” to the underworld, signing her soul away. This triggered the male lead, Orpheus, to go after the love of his life, spending ten years traveling to the underworld on foot. Instead of finding a traditional underworld setting, Hades had turned it into an industrial nightmare, repressing his lover Persephone. Orpheus was shocked to discover Eurydice had lost all sense of herself, working in the mines. With the boy being the son of a Muse, his music broke the workers from their trance. Using the weapon of song, he united the love between Hades and Persephone, ending the hostility. Unfortunately, Hades was reluctant to let go of his loyal workers who yearned for freedom. He decided to task Orpheus to take Eurydice and his workers in a single-file line and leave the underworld on foot, never to look back on the trip. When he nearly finished the journey, the Fates toyed with him, giving him paranoia. Just as he neared the end, he turned back. This led Eurydice and the workers to return to the underworld forevermore. But even in such a sad story, it repeats once more and more and more. Never-ending. 

Having already gone through the elements of theatre, Mrs. King put on “Hadestown” for the drama kids to watch. As the students watched the musical, we applied the elements of theatre to the performance to better understand what they are with an example behind them. One element, atmosphere, was used in “Hadestown” from how the lighting changed. The musical references the seasons constantly and are differentiated through lighting to determine the type of atmosphere occurring during the scene. One moment, the stage is bathed in a warm light to represent spring, then the next cool or dim lighting to represent cooler weather. A key element, spectacle, was used in how something impossible happened. In a scene, the protagonist, the male protagonist, Orpheus, sang a song that would bring back spring. As a result, he created a flower out of thin air. When the female protagonist, Eurydice belted the lyrics, “shelter us”, the emotion the actor felt in this moment would be considered immersion as she fully immersed herself as the character. Almost as if she could feel Eurydice’s real pain. Each and every element used throughout the musical brings together a beautiful piece of art and creates the amazing show known as “Hadestown.”

The Human Condition is a 1933 oil on canvas painting made by surrealist painter René Magritte. When making this, his only need was to challenge how every individual perceived the world around them. On its surface, it looks like a simple scene: an easel holds a canvas in front of the open window. This makes the viewer automatically assume that the canvas depicts the correct scene of what is outside without taking a look behind it. Thus, bringing me to a conclusion, Magritte's whole motive was to create an illusion. This work is a painting within another painting, use of a thematic device that is a way to communicate the message of the painting. To Magritte, no two people look at the world the same way; hence the analogy for the canvas: everyone sees life through their own canvas. This painting challenged anyone who looked at its eyes; many thought it was just a painting, while others saw past the canvas and wondered what was truly going on behind it. Most fail to see the world around them; Magritte helps remind us that our perception of truth is more often than not an illusion. Today it resides in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. To this day, it serves as an intellectual mirror into the mind and soul.    Source    

Nighthawks is a 1942 piece that was painted by artist Edward Hopper. He began this work just a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which left the state of America in paranoia. The silent, almost empty-looking diner represents the unsettling feeling left with most Americans. To add, the composition of this artwork is what really brings it to life and gives it emotion. Hopper used great contrasts of light and shadow to build up his piece. Taking a look at this painting, you can see there are 4 different figures inside. A man and woman who almost seem to be together yet out of it; across from them, a man sits with his back to the viewer whilst the tired-looking man works behind the counter. While observing the smaller details, you notice there is no definitive exit or entrance to the building, only a door leading to the kitchen. This was done intentionally to show the feeling of being trapped many felt in this time of war scares. There's a handful of people in the building, yet it still radiates a sad, almost gloomy feeling. All in all, he did an excellent job of portraying the mood and atmosphere of America in that time period. Today, Nighthawks resides in the Art Institute of Chicago, where it continues to captivate people each and every day. Source