Why classical music is so great, pt. 2

Have you ever sat and listened to the entire orchestral Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky? Have you ever listened to Pictures by the Chicago Symphony? I love NPR programming. Every Thursday and/or Friday morning on my way downtown, Lois Reitzes hosts an hour of classical music, and it's always the best. And this week... Pictures by CSO! It's a wonder I made it downtown safely.

Pictures always reminds me of 9th grade Phil audition. After that, I'm reminded of an ASYO concert I attended in sophomore year. It's the only ASYO concert I've attended besides my own. Anyway, what found that I liked so much about the piece that morning was the absence of breaks. No pause for the entire forty-, fifty-something duration of music. (Am I correct??? Or are there breaks?? Oh whatever, I didn't hear any.) The promenade theme fills in the gaps that would normally be the pauses where people hope that no one claps in because the next movement is about to start.

What's so great about this continuous music is the sheer momentum and stamina. You go to a rock concert. There are three, four, five people playing on stage. They're all plugged into these ginormous amps and mics and playing their stuff. But think about a symphony hall. Around a hundred of people sit together, with the sounds they make and the ears of the audience directly connnected by the medium of air. And these hundred people, for a full forty-five minutes non-stop, are all connected in concentration on one piece of music. Every one of those people dedicated to producing every one tenth of a measure, and the second tenth of that measure, the third... soon the entire next measure, and the next, until they have completed hundreds of measures that are all part of one complete piece of music. And these hundred people do it together, milisecond by milisecond. Isn't just the thought of a hundred people concentrating on the exact same thing for forty minutes straight exhilerating? Thursday morning in the car made me see this in a special light because unlike usual symphonies, Pictures was non-stop. By the last part (Honestly, I don't even know that much about this piece. Don't even know what the last part was about) the force of the music was incredible. If I had been at a live performance of that recording, I think I would literally have been blown off my seat.

It's so good to write about stuff I like to think and write about. It relaxes and enlivens my soul at the same time. (That sounds so cheesy... haha.) Part 1 of "Why classical music is so great" is somewhere in my Xanga. It would take me hours to find it, so I'm not gonna bother. But back then, I wrote about the "intertwining harmony" in Vaughan Williams' Thomas Tallis or something. Different parts fitting together...? I don't know. But I guess ASYO has been an influence in me noticing more of the "people" side--what classical music requires out of each musician and out of the orchestra as a whole. Orchestral music is so humble. It's not people in funky clothes with every man trying to get as much attention as possible to himself and boasting his own talents. It's the entire group and its unity that matter. The conductor? Well, isn't he the guy with his back to his audience?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing rock, I love rock. Classical music is just better, that's all. =)