MuSac
We had our dress rehearsal the other night (Monday) for my orchestra. No, nobody was dressed up, but we did practice in the hall that we will be preforming in. It is a really nice hall in a high school that has all of the acoustic doodads that make for a nice warm and focused and crisp sound.
I would be the first to say that there were mistakes and problems between myself and others, but playing that night was extremely satisfying for some reason. The hall was nice in that I could easily hear everyone who was playing. I could pick out specific people who were playing specific things and I could hear people easily on the other side of the room. I realized how many people we had that were playing so tightly in unison time wise and tone/pitch wise.
There are six people in our 1st violin section. We are all expected to begin making sound at the precise millisecond and then cut out at the exact same time. We are also expected to maintain tolerances of hundredths of an inch along the string.
Naturally we rarely achieve such tight tolerances between absolute pitches and variable tempos (After all, if we could do it every time we would be getting paid for this), but when it happens, even if it is just for a second, it is so very satisfying to think that we are all in sync for that very moment. To think that the same hands that we use to smash nails through wood can be capable of placing a finger down on exactly the same spot every single time with only a vague positional reference that cannot be "measured" in the absolute sense of the word.
And then we had a whole orchestra behind our section producing colorful tones and beautiful processions and volume changes, it is an amazing feat that I would never have guessed was possible if I ever had to study the mechanics of playing a violin (or any instrument for that matter). The mental audio processing that goes on to separate, time, compare, adjust, and analyze every single sound in the air. The visual processing of separating hundreds of dots and lines and visual cues of the person to your right, to your left, across the room, the conductor, and bows moving up and down. Let alone all physical movements that are necessary.
Being in such a large group, there is some feeling of insignificance: what I give out will add only only a little to the overall total. Yet, if only one person screws up, it echoes around the whole place and can be heard. And, after all is said and done, you still need every single person to give everything they got to make it work. I guess you could call this one sort of a definition of a team. Thinking of this as a team, it occurred to me that playing in an orchestra is much like any other sport such as football, basketball etc. I think that I like the idea of participating in an orchestra as a sport. It makes everything and everybody seem more critical to the overall total. And it defiantly beats the crap out of playing baseball in the rain, or something like that.
I first started playing with these people last year, not knowing any of them save my cousin that was on another violin. We are now making music together in such an awesome way. I can't explain it, but it felt really really good that other night. Hopefully everyone will be back next year. I know that our concert master, Matt, will not be there. He is graduating. That is going to be a blow to us, and I will miss him.
I would be the first to say that there were mistakes and problems between myself and others, but playing that night was extremely satisfying for some reason. The hall was nice in that I could easily hear everyone who was playing. I could pick out specific people who were playing specific things and I could hear people easily on the other side of the room. I realized how many people we had that were playing so tightly in unison time wise and tone/pitch wise.
There are six people in our 1st violin section. We are all expected to begin making sound at the precise millisecond and then cut out at the exact same time. We are also expected to maintain tolerances of hundredths of an inch along the string.
Naturally we rarely achieve such tight tolerances between absolute pitches and variable tempos (After all, if we could do it every time we would be getting paid for this), but when it happens, even if it is just for a second, it is so very satisfying to think that we are all in sync for that very moment. To think that the same hands that we use to smash nails through wood can be capable of placing a finger down on exactly the same spot every single time with only a vague positional reference that cannot be "measured" in the absolute sense of the word.
And then we had a whole orchestra behind our section producing colorful tones and beautiful processions and volume changes, it is an amazing feat that I would never have guessed was possible if I ever had to study the mechanics of playing a violin (or any instrument for that matter). The mental audio processing that goes on to separate, time, compare, adjust, and analyze every single sound in the air. The visual processing of separating hundreds of dots and lines and visual cues of the person to your right, to your left, across the room, the conductor, and bows moving up and down. Let alone all physical movements that are necessary.
Being in such a large group, there is some feeling of insignificance: what I give out will add only only a little to the overall total. Yet, if only one person screws up, it echoes around the whole place and can be heard. And, after all is said and done, you still need every single person to give everything they got to make it work. I guess you could call this one sort of a definition of a team. Thinking of this as a team, it occurred to me that playing in an orchestra is much like any other sport such as football, basketball etc. I think that I like the idea of participating in an orchestra as a sport. It makes everything and everybody seem more critical to the overall total. And it defiantly beats the crap out of playing baseball in the rain, or something like that.
I first started playing with these people last year, not knowing any of them save my cousin that was on another violin. We are now making music together in such an awesome way. I can't explain it, but it felt really really good that other night. Hopefully everyone will be back next year. I know that our concert master, Matt, will not be there. He is graduating. That is going to be a blow to us, and I will miss him.
posted by Cyphoid at 1:40 PM
12 Comments:
i dunno....playing baseball in the rain can be pretty fun...
In chorus one season, our director made the comment that making music en masse was unlike any other group activity...
Other members of the chorus said, "not so! what about [sports]?" much as you mentioned. And he, being somewhat spineless like myself, backed down and said yes that they were like music or some such thing.
But they're not... In all of the ball games, two people may work together toward a common goal, but only one person controls the ball at a given moment. So, yes, it's a team effort, but the only synergy that comes is emotional, really.
In music, as soon as you have two or more people, there is instant, real synergy. When you increase volume, it's exponential instead of linear.
The only sport I can compare music to, off the top of my head, is tug of war because all the people are working simultaneously on the same task.
Just my opinion. :-)
I actually was thinking much along those lines when I was pondering this. Everyone is much more closely bound and is a very critical part of everything that is happening. I had just realized how long my post was getting, though, and didn't want to bore people too badly.
I like the ToW analogy. Very descriptive.
Since I haven't a modicrum of musical ability, I shouldn't comment on the comparison with playing baseball in the rain, but I think I appreciate the sense of wonder you express about what a group of people can do together.
As an engineer, I stand in awe of the design and capability of the human mind and body. Something as seemingly simple as your pinky finger is really a device more sophistocated than anything humankind has designed.
The ability of your group to make music together is another example. Even if you could make a machine that could reproduce the sound exactly, the machine itself could never feel the satisfaction of having produced the sound.
By the way, does it bother you that they call it a dress rehearsal when its clearly not? I mean, they said dressing up was optional, but even with a group of music nerds, they must have known than no-one would dress up if not required.
Dress rehersal? They wanted you to wear a dress? I mean that's OK for the girls, and this IS Massachusetts, but comeON! It's not like your a bunch of Scottish guys or something.
Orchestra is like a sport. My fingers are very athletic by the way. I have to keep them in shape. One of my excersies is typing. So you'll understand why I just keep going on and on and on and on and on (The "on and on and on" is a particularly good excersie). So I know everyone will forgive me for just going on and on and on and on and on and on an........
Orchestra is a sport, except you can be a lot fatter in a orchestra, but in soccer, nah.
when's the real thing, Drew? - Sar H
"When's the real thing, Drew?"
What is real thing are we refering to?
The real thing would be Monday night May 22, 2005. Wanna go?
Monday May 23rd
7:00pm
Nashoba Regional Tech. HS
Route 110, Westford, MA
Ehem... I was hoping for a small group.
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