Hi everyone,
Well, after a long absence, I'm happy to come back and say that I've had a really enjoyable last week. For three main reasons:
Reason 1. Sunday before last, I held a classical music appreciation afternoon at my house. A few people from church came over and we listened to Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1.
I was testing a theory that I'd long held that if people actually understood the
structure of classical pieces, and had some sort of outline to guide them through a piece, they'd be able to cope with a long piece of music, and actually enjoy it.
So, I write up special program notes that broke the pieces up into parts. So, for instance, if a movement is in sonata form, you have an introduction, first theme, second theme, repeat of first theme, repeat of second theme, development, recapitulation, and coda. I broke the music up into those segments, and marked them down with time notations corresponding with the time on the CD. So the audience, at any time, could check where they were up to on the piece of music.
Well, either they were all being polite, or it worked really well. Most people (a few of them self-confess musical Philistines) actually sat through a whole overture, concerto and symphony without falling asleep. I'm definitely going to try it again.
Reason 2. John Ottman, one of my favourite film score composers (he did
The Usual Suspects and
Apt Pupil, two of my favourite film scores) came to town for a Q & A. He was a real trooper and went for three hours, with just a 15 minute break and then stayed around to sign my CDs afterwards. A great guy, and I can only hope one day that they give him a different style of movie from the usual superhero and horror films that he gets at the moment. He's a really nice guy, too.
Reason 3. Last, but certainly not least, I caught up with my three groomsmen at the annual Briz Crowd AGM. This was held in Mooball, picked because of it's totally corny name. We probably could have stayed there for a week, but we would have run out of money.
