I miss my theme music.

I went to summer camps as a teenager. Orchestra camps. I say this knowing full well ridicule will ensue when I tell people this. Make fun all you want, I won't budge on how awesome they were. I bring up orchestra camp because of one specific moment. When I wasn't practicing or in rehearsal, I would take a book out to the dock and read. I remember pulling my headphones out of my pocket to listen to a CD (yes, CD player, not iPod), but then I heard music in the background.

I'm not crazy- these camps have rehearsals going constantly around the clock, and as it happened, the resident faculty orchestra was having rehearsal just across the pond. They were housed in a building, but since the rehearsal room opened up to the pond the music was able to find its way to all corners of the camp grounds. I put my headphones down, and enjoyed my own little live soundtrack.

How picturesque is that moment? Yeah, I staged it a little bit. I'm not an avid reader and sometimes I just do things because they make me feel cool, but that hour or so gave me a movie moment; those moments where you need a little theme music to make everything perfect. Only problem being- I can't really keep on orchestra on staff to follow me around.

Where can I find that moment again? Sadly, the probability of a true recreation is not promising. However, the ability to take music wherever we are is available, and although the fidelity is not optimal, it's still affords us the opportunity to make our day to day routines a little bit more... scenic.

I get it- iPods have been around for a while and we all know that we can create our own "walk to work" playlist- not revolutionary. This post is merely to make my argument for some classical music on that list. I was inspired to write this when I had Brahms' Symphony No. 4 playing on my iPhone for a downtown trek to my car after work. Coincidentally, Brahms is the same composer that seeped into my ambience at camp some odd years ago, and I thought of that moment as I walked downtown.

Brahms' Fourth Symphony is absolutely enchanting. Mystery and beauty weave in and out of this piece, with moments that make you take a big breath and realize just how rewarding life can be. It made me so much more aware of my surroundings, and as odd as it sounds I felt like I had a better insight into the lives of those who walked past me. I felt that same feeling of joy as if I was back sitting on the dock with a book in hand and an orchestra only a short walk away.

LoveAlways,

Gnarleigh

Reviving the 1812 Overture

Last October I performed Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection; it's a monumental work lasting about an hour and 20 minutes and absolutely daunting. It revolves around themes of death and the meaning of life, questions of doubt and redemption and concludes with the strongest argument for heaven I can think of. As pointed out by a colleague of mine during rehearsals, we would perform this piece the very same week the Chilean miners were rescued. At first I couldn't tell if she was trying to make a joke about it or if she was actually inspired by the correlation; of course it was the latter and the more I thought about it the more I was inspired by it as well.

When playing pieces that deal with topics such as death, sorrow, doubt or fear, I honestly cannot rely on my own experience and/or thoughts to connect to the piece. When Mahler wrote his second symphony, he was dealing with death and the meaning of life, and the fear that it is meaningless. Not to say I haven't lightly pondered on the subject, but I'm a young, white female from Kansas with not much struggle to speak of. My life account of adversity amounts to about a two on a scale of 10. But if I were to imagine being trapped deep underground for 3 months with no assurance that I would live- that is something I can draw upon when trying to connect to a symphony like Mahler's.

Our conversation renewed this week as we rehearsed for an all Tchaikovsky concert, mainly because the 1812 Overture is on the program. Look at a musician's face when they learn they will be playing this piece and you might catch an eye roll. The 1812 Overture has become so commercialized by pop culture that it has almost lost the spark it ignited when first written. We hear it on commercials, the band plays it on the Fourth of July and I'm sure you can find in a bad, old war movie. But seeing the new development that our Orchestra seemingly has a say in world events, my eyes have been opened anew to it.

The Overture was written as a symbol of overcoming impossible odds. You may have seen V for Vendetta, a film in which a tyrannical government is overturned, and in the end a sea of masked citizens join together to celebrate their new found freedom. In this fashion we have had the privilege to watch the people of Egypt come together to fight for their human rights and completely shift their future- 18 days of protesting and an oppressive government steps down. It's a powerful reminder of what we are actually capable of.

So tonight and tomorrow, I dedicate my performance to the citizens of Egypt and the opportunity that lay ahead them. And I'll put in a word to our music director not to have us play anything too morbid. We don't want that on our hands.

LoveAlways,

Gnarleigh