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Classical music in a class of its
own
Dallas Hansen
ADMIT it, you love classical music. Even if you don't know a concert
from a concerto, everybody has enjoyed an orchestral movie score.
But just as a 20-inch television offers no comparison to an IMAX
screen, so does Dolby Digital Surround Sound pale against the sonic
magnificence of 80 musicians playing live.
In lieu of the cinema, the symphony makes an ideal post-dinner date
destination: more sensual, and with less finality. Whereas a movie's
closing credits seem to suggest the night's end, 90 minutes of
classical leaves its audience thinking, What next?
Whether you seek to stoke a new flame or to reinvigorate a long love,
the sounds of a live orchestra uplift and unite, setting an agreeable
mood for the evening's denouement.
Having grown without musical training in a household largely
unappreciative of the arts, I can sympathize with those who find
classical music -- with all its esoteric minutiae of terms, works, and
composers -- impenetrably daunting. Yet you needn't be an expert to
know what you like.<P>
Like any concert, a Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra performance is most
enjoyable when you recognize what's playing. Between the public library
and the home computer, you may freely preview the works of any
forthcoming performance to find something you're excited to hear -- for
classical music is not some homogeneous body of like sounds.
The Beatles and Metallica, while sounding nothing alike, are both rock
quartets who in adjacent decades composed with the same instruments;
exponentially greater, however, are the centuries-wide stylistic
differences between Enlightenment-era Vivaldi and 20th-century Copland.
From Soviet symphonies to harpsichord harmonies, you'll eventually find
what you enjoy, and even if it turns out to be film scores, the WSO
Pops can accommodate.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many young people haven't visited the
symphony, at least not since a grudging trip during grade school. But
student tickets can be low as $12 -- and the balcony actually has the
best sound in the hall.
Flowers, champagne, even dinner would impress less and cost more.
Cheaper still is the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, but for the truly
thrifty or risk-averse, a surprising number of free performances can be
found from students, soloists, and small groups such as quartets.
At home, if you're friends with a classically trained musician, you may
be able to wangle ambient, neighbour-friendly entertainment for your
next party.
If your work attire is casual, the symphony also provides additional
legitimacy for dressing up for dinner; after your meal you'll find
yourself in yet another rare setting where you're glad not to be
wearing sneakers.
Diminished in the workplace, the suit's presence now largely lies as a
back-of-the-closet item reserved for court appearances, funerals, and
weddings, but amid the pleasures of the symphony it takes on a new
social lustre.
If you're dateless, the Centennial Concert Hall makes a superb solo
destination, for with each performance there are many outstanding
eligibles about, the intermissions offering a strategic window for
conversation.
As you and the rest of the audience share an admiration for the
performance, the social possibilities of the symphony scene can indeed
bring surprises to your life.
Classical music tends to infect an insatiable consideration of the
aesthetic in its listener, so much that you may find yourself consuming
or even creating more music, painting, cinema, theatre and other forms
of art. With all that exists to hear and see and read we could spend a
lifetime of waking hours absorbing it.
Adding the classics to our lives helps us to understand contemporary
music better, as the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and tone
colour are universal throughout musical forms.
You may end up surprised that your favourite DJ has lifted loops from a
Mozart symphony.
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www.dallashansen.com |
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