Introduction
This review will analyze the event titled “Live with Carnegie Hall: Judy Collins,” where American singer, songwriter, and social activist Judy Collins performs with a guitar. It is a virtual event released on YouTube in the summer of 2020. Since it is free to access on social media, the audience can be pretty broad and diverse. Although her career is more than sixty years old, adults and youths are attached to her performance due to the pleasant climate she and her songs create on stage. The piece being performed is called “Highwayman,” written by Jimmy Webb. The overall atmosphere can be associated with hope and healing that the whole world needed during the uncertain summer of the pandemic. Even though her performance was released on the virtual market during the COVID-19 lockdown period, her performance positively impacted the world by scattering the feeling of loss and unpredictability.
The “Live with Carnegie Hall: Judy Collins” Event
The performance was effective in a way that made me nostalgic for some old times of my carefree childhood, when I used to dream a lot, believing that whatever I wished could come true. Collins (1998) writes in her memoir that she mastered how to enjoy the taste and odor of journeys and to breathe in the forested mountains. She continues that she learned to bend her cheeks into the light on a sunny day in the wilderness, accept the scenes as they showed up, plunder them, and proceed. She notes that her father taught her to live the singer’s life. That explains the abundance of energy, simplicity, and “breeze” in her performance. When the performer possesses specific emotions, they are also conveyed to the audience (Collins, 1998). Since Collins attaches her feelings to her songs, her performance turns out to be sincere and soulful.
While performing “Highwayman” on the stage, Collins’ rocking movements demonstrate that she is making an expressive performance. The reason is that, according to Demos et al. (2018), the more organized the body movement is, the more explicit the execution is. Even the most untrained eye can see that motion and music are integrally linked (Demos et al., 2018). A mere observation of the three-minute staging of Collins shows that she is swaying with smooth body movements and well-balanced head motions. Her musical style promotes, establishes, and employs a strong voice technique that offers flexibility, lightness, power, resilience, and well-balanced exhalation. By repeating specific phrases, Collins constructs identifiability, portraying the importance of certain lines (Demos et al., 2018). There is also a uniformity of tone across the entire spectrum, as well as transmission accuracy. The synchronization of Collins’ movements with the other supporting guitarists is a good technique that embodies stability and unity.
Conclusion
To sum up, the general environment surrounding “Highwayman” is affiliated with the dreams and curing that the world community required all through the unsure season of the pandemic. Although Collins’ performance came out on the digital platform, it had a favorable effect on the world by dispersing the sense of loss and uncertainty. She represents one of the few who recognizes their mission and impact on their society and tries to realize their inner potential to the fullest so that their talent in them benefits others. The performance discussed in this review calls people not only to dream and hope but also to be optimistic about their visions.
References
Collins, J. (1998). Singing lessons: A memoir of love, loss, hope, and healing. Simon and Schuster.
Demos, A. P., Chaffin, R., & Logan, T. (2018). Musicians body sway embodies musical structure and expression: A recurrence-based approach. Musicae Scientiae, 22(2), 244- 263.