July the 1st, 2011 was a memorable and exciting day for the city of Monaco because it held the wedding of Albert II, prince of Monaco, and Charlene Wittstock. It has been described as Monaco's "biggest party in 55 years", in other words, the biggest since the wedding of Albert's parents. The celebration included a special performance by the French composer, performer, and music producer, Jean Michel Jarre.
The concert was an event offered to the public, open to all without restrictions, and free in this natural arena which was the massive Port Hercules located in North Monaco. The audience was standing on the docks in front of a 650 foot long stage, which included 6 huge rectangular shaped projectors held next to each other. A high-tech visual extravaganza above the 650 foot-long stage was synchronized to Jean Michel Jarre's music and includes state-of-the-art light and HD video effects featuring lasers and pyrotechnics. The performance was filmed in HD by 18 cameras for live feeds on Euronews and via Ustream online. It was a two hour show. There wasn't a specific dress code actually; the audience wore what they wanted because it was a public event. The style of music Jean was playing was very different than any other style I've ever seen. The performance included styles or genres like Ambient, New Age, Electronic, Trance, and Progressive rock, all combined to make various beautiful melodic pieces. I found out that the audience in the concert was interacting with the style of music performed, although it's not that common around the world. This happened because Jean at that time was the most successful live performer in France, and mostly in the world. So eventually the audience was familiar with the pieces of music that Jean performed. Jean came with his band which was composed of him, and 2 other guys (Claude Samard and Francis Rimbert). One was on the drums, and the other was on a midi keyboard. Jean himself, was playing on 3 huge midi keyboards, and was playing percussion as well; percussive sounds like the crash, cymbal, etc. There were also several other people accompanied by the organizers which were sound mixers, vision mixers, lighting designers, and last but not least, the concert production team. There wasn't a concert program for the audience, but Jean himself had set a playlist for his music. The live performance was of multiple tracks composed by Jean, whom he combined together and performed the melodies of them live. He started off with a small intro then performed his most famous and successful piece which is called Oxygene Part I. Jean made several parts by the same name, but each track he would add a roman numeral, Ex: I, and then ascends; he made up to Oxygene Part VI. All of these tracks called Oxygene I, II, III, IV, V, and VI are part of his first album "Oxygene", which was released in December 1976. All of the songs which were performed in the concert are considered to have Polyphonic texture, and combine both tonal & atonal work. So first of all I found two intriguing things that happened in this party. The first thing is that, when we reached half of the concert, jean began playing melodies on this laser harp. It was basically 6 lasers coming out of a black box. How did he make sounds out of them? Well, I think that each laser line represents a key on the piano, but that's not it. Each part of these lines represented a different note than the other. So basically, it was like a laser piano. He touched parts in each line to make a melody. Amazing isn't it?
The second thing I found intriguing was the fact that it was considered as the biggest party ever made in Monaco, with over 3 million guests present. I guess that was because it was an important event; the wedding celebration of the Prince of Monaco, and his wife. In Oxygene II and Oxygene II the movement of the notes was in a conjunct manner in an upward direction. The shape of the melodic line was wavy, and its range was wide. The tempo was unchangeable, and was about 135 BPM. The dynamic range of the songs was around -2 Dbs. They were all long notes. The beats were organized in a quadruple meter. The overall harmony of the music played included both pleasant consonant and dissonant notes. There weren't any counterpoints because no vocals were included. In several of his songs, Jean started off with contrapuntal texture, and then the sound progressed to homophonic texture. The instruments used as I mentioned above are three midi keyboards, one drum set, several percussion controllers, and finally the laser harp. There wasn't any vocal use. The overall mood of the concert was up-beat. In conclusion, my overall reaction to this composition is that it was something very new to me; I've never seen this kind of live performance before. I liked Jean's diverse use of instruments. He kept the mood up-beat, and kept people dancing throughout the whole event. I liked the concerts light and sound system, and also the location of the venue. Finally, I would be much honored to attend one of Jean's concerts again, and hope one day I could meet him in person to gain more experience about live performances.
