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

Kicking the Caviar Habit

A couple weeks ago I had a fascinating conversation with a man named Markand Thakar. Markand is the Music Director for the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, as well as a co-director of graduate level conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of music. He was in Wichita as a guest conductor for the Wichita Symphony, and he was my captive audience for an hour long car ride to and from a radio interview. I learned a lot about his family, his background and in turn I divulged a little about myself. He said something about music, though, that I feel I already knew yet had never heard put quite so simply and accurately.

The gem: Music has two functions. One, to facilitate reflection and/or meditation on one's own life, or two, to connect us the world.

It was so simple, yet so profound in my mind. Too often classical music's defined function in society is "culture". Yes, music is culture, but culture for the sake of culture is useless. Aspects of culture survive because they reflect upon those the culture represents. This could explain why the concept of classical music is seemingly lost on a generation of music lovers- what part of them is reflected by classical music? When I ask this question, the typical response is more or less "nothing".

Ooooohhhhh how I wish they knew it wasn't the case, but who can blame them? Classical music has been embodied as the caviar of musical tastes only to be enjoyed by the elite, and really for no other self-gain than to say, "Yes, yes, I went to the Symphony last weekend and it was absolutely spleeendid." It's all of a sudden something that boosts your social stature rather than your sense of self and sense of what is all around us. As a 23 year old cellist from Kansas, whenever I share my occupation it never fails that I am told how wonderful that is- it's cool to be the cellist walking around with a big blue case. But when I ask them if they've been to a concert, 9 times out of 10 they will say, "No, that's not really my thing."

I know the picture in their head- 1,000 senior citizens gathered in concert hall, dozing off for an afternoon nap. I wish so badly they knew the picture in my head when I play. The pictures of loved ones; images of dreams; stories of history. The music serves the exact functions Markand explained to me. Here's an example.

This past concert season the orchestra I'm in performed Sibelius' 5th Symphony. I had never heard the work and frankly was not too terribly excited to play it. I did my homework and did my practicing- found out that parts of the piece were based on WWI and its horrors, and then randomly the last movement's theme was based on swans- weird. I listened to recordings on Youtube and thought okay, this sounds cool but there was no connection right away. About 3 days into rehearsal we were going over this "swan theme"- Now according to Markand, when you pinpoint something for a listener to listen for or think about, you take away music's highest potential. So, disregarding imagining swans flying around in my head, I let my mind wonder.

Have you ever had a dream where you tried to run but you couldn't? You were giving all you could to move but it just wouldn't work? Now, have you ever had a dream in which you could leap 20 feet with every bound? Knowing the feeling of not being able to move, having this second dream feels absolutely wonderful. You feel free and able to do anything, and I found myself imagining this feeling when I played. Having this feeling and this image in mind when I performed made me feel weightless. The music threw me back into this euphoric state where I felt like I could literally do anything.

This is what we must convey. Classical music is not caviar- it's moist, chocolate cake full of rich textures and enjoyable for everyone. Once this generation feels that classical music can tap into their most wonderful thoughts, that's when we can stop worrying about whether classical music still holds value in today's society. To wrap up my point, I encourage you all to watch this video with Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. His energy is contagious, and I think you'll be hard-pressed to hold onto any hardened feelings you may have for classical music.

Love Always,

Gnarleigh