Another concert

Tonight was the last concert of the year for Scott's orchestra, so of course I was there. He was sufficiently tired of all the songs that he wasn't excited by the show. I, on the other hand, know almost nothing about classical music and so was looking forward to it. Plus, the last song was one I do know, a non-classical piece: "I've Got Rhythm." It was as fun as I'd expected it to be.

What struck me most, however, was Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. I wouldn't recognize it if it were playing now, because my memory for music without words is lousy, but at the time it quite moved me. I know from comments of the conductor and others that many people play this song on serious occasions, that it was a 9/11 memorial song, and so on. Some folks implied it was over-played and/or almost cliched.

I don't care. If I love a song, I can listen to it again and again regardless of whether others overuse it or have never heard of it.

In case you haven't heard it, here's Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC Orchestra in a 9/11 memorial piece.

Don't watch this if you don't want those memories to come back. Really.



I feel I need to do something to help you recover your mood. Try this TED video of Gustavo Dudamel leading the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra. I saw this performance via live simulcast at TED and still think about it. WARNING: It'll take 18 minutes to hear it all, and you don't want to miss the second piece.

Classical music and kid concerts

I have no musical training. I can't read music. I didn't grow up playing an instrument, and though I own a guitar and tried for a brief time to learn to play it, I never really could. I know next to nothing about classical music; I've always listened to and deeply loved rock. I don't have any vocabulary or training that lets me know the meaning of the instruments coming into a piece at certain points, how to tell when the orchestra is doing particularly well, and so on. I am ignorant of classical music.

Scott and Sarah, on the other hand, are excellent musicians who have grown up playing that music. Both play both violin and piano. Because of them, I've been to many concerts, most of which have featured classical music. This past Wednesday night, for example, I went to see the final concert of the year for the Duke Symphony Orchestra, in which Sarah plays.

The theme of the show was "Happy (200th) Birthday, Robert Schumann!" As you could guess, I'm not familiar with Schumann's music. In fact, I didn't know any of the three pieces on the program:

BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
HERBERT Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major ("Spring"), Op. 38

I went expecting to have my usual pleasant time.

What happened instead, though, was that I found myself genuinely happy to hear the orchestra. I realized I've come to love the soaring moments when an orchestra is playing as one, the air swelling with the sound, the music building and dipping and building again. I close my eyes, typically rock my head slightly to what I perceive to be the beat of the moment or sometimes just the way it feels, and I ride the music like a surfer on a wave.

I don't plan to buy a lot of classical albums or start studying that music, but for the first time in my life I'm wondering if it might not be worth catching the occasional symphony. (Wondering, mind you, not acting; the show I'll be seeing Sunday night will be Frightened Rabbit's concert. Sarah introduced me to their music, and she and I are going to see them live.)

Add that growing appreciation to the long list of things I owe my kids.

A talk well worth watching

As long-time readers of this blog may recall, last year I was lucky enough to attend TED@Aspen, a satellite location that participated in the famous TED conference via a blend of mostly simulcast and some live local talks. I had a wonderful time, and I left with my heart and my brain overflowing. All the talks were good, and many were simply awesome, but one that stood out to me has recently become available online. For your enjoyment, here's a link to that online version. (I originally embedded it, but the video took so long to load that I couldn't stand it and opted for the link instead.)

Note that I refer to it as the online version; that's because the real talk ran much longer and included an amazing several minutes during which Zander got everyone at the conference to sing (phonetically) the German words to Beethoven's "Ode To Joy." I wish I could show you that full version here, but I can't; you'll have to come by my house to see it.

I watched this online version the night before last, and it hit me strongly enough that last night I dug out my TED Blu-Ray discs and played the full talk for my family. (Yes, I insisted Sarah and Scott watch. I do that sometimes.)

I hope you find it as wonderful as I did.