So, I sincerely apologize for the horribleness of my ability to update this. I am a bad blogger. From now on I shall be better.
This weekend I had the immense pleasure to listen to one of the world's most compelling and unique pieces of music: J.S. Bach's "Matthäus-Passion"
I almost didn't go to this concert. I almost stayed at my house my closest friends Jayne and Toby and Mustang Sally and was just going to procrastinate writing my recital paper, maybe watch a couple of episodes of SVU and then pass out. I know, I know...I don't know WHAT I was thinking. Who the HELL in their right mind not only gives up the opportunity to see this work performed but gives up the opportunity to see it FOR FREE?!?!
That's right, ladies and gents I was able to go for free. Why? Well, despite it's many pitfalls and non-handicap accessible areas Westminster Choir College of Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University's Princeton Campus does allow it's students to go to all on-campus performances for free.
So that's what I did. It was the Westminster Kantorei and members of Fuma Sacra and can I just say that it was basically the shiznit? Yeah, it totes was.
I have found myself lately unwilling to reach out an experience music in concert settings as an audience member. It is really interesting I think because I have performed in so many concerts since I have been here but I really have not actually BEEN to many concerts. Kantorei is pretty much the only choir I've seen in performance and I think that is a shaaaaaaaame. But I digress...what I mean to say is this:
There is something about being an audience member, about being separated from the score and having a primarily audial experience (hm...audience, audial...interesting) that brings back a sort of innocence to music that I was afraid I had lost. Maybe it sounds crazy but sometimes I feel like where I really belong is somewhere in between a master and an amateur, someone who really just loves is because it's worth loving. I used to be all shapes and bubbles and now I'm in love with theory and logic and the way music works mathematically, and perhaps that's just the evolution of myself...but it was nice to sit in the audience.
So, back to that innocence thing...the audience is such a valuable tool in performance because their minds are often not poisoned by the rehearsal process. Don't get me wrong, I love love love love being the performer, but I sometimes find myself not seeing the bigger picture, not hearing the whole piece because I'm so concentrated on the phrasing, the dynamics, the text; I'm preoccupied with conveying to the audience the right message and that often results in the inability for ME to realize the message. The audience acts as a really honest reflection upon the performance and upon the art. It's so powerful when an entire room full of people have the same reaction to a phrase that was written by a German Lutheran almost 400 years ago.
Which brings me to the set up of the room. Bristol Chapel was utilized beautifully, with the choir sitting on one side and in a horseshoe pattern and the audience across from them and also on the stage and in the balcony. I hate hate hate hearing concerts and singing concerts in Bristol Chapel but I think that Dr. Megill may have found the solution. If I asked Dr. Arneson I'm sure it would have something to do with the acoustic in the room having a shorter wavespan due to the singers facing horizontally instead of vertically, thus allowing for the fundamental pitch to be heard more consistently in the ears of the performers, or something like that I don't really know, but that sounds right, right?
Anyway, it made for a great concert. I'm really glad that I got off my ass and was able to experience real music being made by real musicians, and actually enjoy it!! I forgot what it was like to just enjoy it. And maybe I'm the crazy one because I like to rock out with my Bach out but like COME ON "Ich will mein Jesu blarggggg" that's like total head bang-Baroque, idn't it?
The world continues to move even when I'm not in it. It's important to get up and enjoy the things that you say you enjoy, you know? How often do musicians enjoy music as a hobby and not as a part of their workday. I wonder when the last time Dr. Miller really enjoyed a concert was? I don't ever want to be the kind of musician who has lost the beauty, joy, and innocence of the art, which is what drew me to it in the first place. I became a musician because it was an escape from reality that made me feel fulfilled. I don't ever ever ever want to lose that. And I don't plan on it.
Happy Humpday, and toodles!!
"Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul."
~Johannes Sebastian Bach :)
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