zaphod
Well-known member
while our HT systems are good, often even better than a movie theatre, live performance is something special.
what is your favourite/memorable/best live musical experience? i'll start.
Seeing REM's first Canadian appearence (they opened for the English Beat in 1982) was one heck of a concert. I couldn't walk for days after dancing all night. Good thing too, as I was supposed to be cramming for finals and the best thing for me was to keep my butt in a chair.
But the best one musically would have to be Carmina Burana as put on by the University of Western Ontario's Music department. the whole department. If you were in the department you were performing (i worked on campus and knew some of the people there).
the venue was Alumni Hall, a huge auditorium seating 2300 with a stage that is 117 feet wide, 36 feet deep. between the stage and the seating is the pit. this is only 3 feet below stage level and is actually a basketball sized floor which can be used for a mosh pit, basketball games, or seating which is on tiered bleachers that stack under the immobile seating. for most UWO students is is the first and last building you'll see because in september you pick up your timetables there and 4 (or 5 or 6) years later your graduation ceremonies are held there.
For Carmina Burana a number of adult choirs filled bleachers set up on stage to create a wall of voices 100 feet wide and 7 or 8 rows high. off in the pit between the stage and the seating to the right were bleachers for 2 additional childrens's choirs and the full orchestra. before the orchestra were the soloists.
I arrived early to get a prime seat, center and just a but up, 6 or 7 rows. I looked at the 28 foot wall of bleachers i grumbled that they could have kept some of them in storage instead of messing with the sound.
when the choirs started to file in and fill the bleachers my response went from spotting friends to incredulous to amazement to "now they're just bragging" as they stuffed all the people onto the bleachers.
then the two kiddlet choirs (no suprises there i can guess the size of a children's choir) and the orchestra, which the empty chairs gave away for size.
after much shuffling and so on, the conductor raised his arms and began.
The opening of Carmina Burana is not a ... delicate ... work of music. with the lyrics wrenched from the lewd stories of medieval monks, Carl Orff's music hits you hard with pure power. I have several recordings of the piece and they test the limits of my CLS. The opening "O Fortuna" has become almost cliched in it's use by hollywood when "big majestic power music" is required. The trailer for Glory used this piece for the battle scenes.
In many ways O Fortuna is the "3 chord power rock" music of the classical world, but of course a bit more musical than BTO.
The UWO music department did not dissapoint. As the baton fell, my hair moved back from the wind of hundreds of voices and instruments in perfect unison as the elephantine opening bars shook the hall. Then the male basses took over as the piece settled into it's rhythm.
But Carmina is more than power and might, in the center of the work, delicate children's choirs accompanied by little more than a triangle floated across the hall, a lot more quiet but no less moving than the opening with every note and syllable in perfect harmony.
less than an hour later it was all over, and 12 years later the memory is as vivid as the night i listened to it live.
and that's music.
what is your favourite/memorable/best live musical experience? i'll start.
Seeing REM's first Canadian appearence (they opened for the English Beat in 1982) was one heck of a concert. I couldn't walk for days after dancing all night. Good thing too, as I was supposed to be cramming for finals and the best thing for me was to keep my butt in a chair.
But the best one musically would have to be Carmina Burana as put on by the University of Western Ontario's Music department. the whole department. If you were in the department you were performing (i worked on campus and knew some of the people there).
the venue was Alumni Hall, a huge auditorium seating 2300 with a stage that is 117 feet wide, 36 feet deep. between the stage and the seating is the pit. this is only 3 feet below stage level and is actually a basketball sized floor which can be used for a mosh pit, basketball games, or seating which is on tiered bleachers that stack under the immobile seating. for most UWO students is is the first and last building you'll see because in september you pick up your timetables there and 4 (or 5 or 6) years later your graduation ceremonies are held there.
For Carmina Burana a number of adult choirs filled bleachers set up on stage to create a wall of voices 100 feet wide and 7 or 8 rows high. off in the pit between the stage and the seating to the right were bleachers for 2 additional childrens's choirs and the full orchestra. before the orchestra were the soloists.
I arrived early to get a prime seat, center and just a but up, 6 or 7 rows. I looked at the 28 foot wall of bleachers i grumbled that they could have kept some of them in storage instead of messing with the sound.
when the choirs started to file in and fill the bleachers my response went from spotting friends to incredulous to amazement to "now they're just bragging" as they stuffed all the people onto the bleachers.
then the two kiddlet choirs (no suprises there i can guess the size of a children's choir) and the orchestra, which the empty chairs gave away for size.
after much shuffling and so on, the conductor raised his arms and began.
The opening of Carmina Burana is not a ... delicate ... work of music. with the lyrics wrenched from the lewd stories of medieval monks, Carl Orff's music hits you hard with pure power. I have several recordings of the piece and they test the limits of my CLS. The opening "O Fortuna" has become almost cliched in it's use by hollywood when "big majestic power music" is required. The trailer for Glory used this piece for the battle scenes.
In many ways O Fortuna is the "3 chord power rock" music of the classical world, but of course a bit more musical than BTO.
The UWO music department did not dissapoint. As the baton fell, my hair moved back from the wind of hundreds of voices and instruments in perfect unison as the elephantine opening bars shook the hall. Then the male basses took over as the piece settled into it's rhythm.
But Carmina is more than power and might, in the center of the work, delicate children's choirs accompanied by little more than a triangle floated across the hall, a lot more quiet but no less moving than the opening with every note and syllable in perfect harmony.
less than an hour later it was all over, and 12 years later the memory is as vivid as the night i listened to it live.
and that's music.
