Symphonic Ramblings

My life has been increasingly harried lately, but this weekend, I'll take what amounts to a mini vacation, even if it only lasts a couple of hours or so. I'll be going downtown to hear the Alabama Symphony Orchestra perform Beethoven's Symphony no. 3 (the Eroica), a true watershed moment in the history of the composer as well as in the history of music itself. (You can listen to it and read about it here. Check out the fun anecdote in the first paragraph under "A Closer Look.")

I've had a soft spot for Beethoven for years. I spent many, many hours in the music aisles of my college library researching his life and music for a paper and speech. Accounts of his life break my heart more than a little—the pain goes beyond the obvious tragedy of his deafness. All of this can be heard in his works, which ushered music from the refined Classical Period to the stormy and dramatic age of Romanticism.

I should go to more events like this, and from now on, I plan to. About a month ago, I decided to check the orchestra's Web site, and I found that the season was almost over. I had missed Dvorak's wonderful Symphony no. 9 (From the New World, and anybody who's a fan of classic Westerns and the music in those films should check this out—very influential), along with the magnificent Symphony no. 1 from Brahms. But things started to look up when I discovered a letter from the new conductor. Apparently, his goal is to perform all nine of Beethoven's symphonies over the course of three years, starting with the current season. That meant I'd already missed his first two (which I have never heard). Ah well. I may have missed the appetizers, but I found out just in time to enjoy the main course—this one, my friends, is where Beethoven came into his own. And to think that he had been considering suicide around this same time period.

So next season will bring us Symphony no. 5. The season after that will include no. 7 (the second movement is my favorite; some here have heard it used very effectively in Karloff and Lugosi's The Black Cat). And then, a bit later, oh my word, we shall hear no. 9. That might be too much for me. (Can you tell I especially go for the stormier odd-numbered ones?)

Anyway, I’ve not been around an orchestra for years (other than a small one at church). I guess the last time I heard a "real" orchestra full of professional musicians was many years ago when I attended a performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Before that, I went to the symphony sometime in my early teens, but that was actually a night of show tunes. All I remember are many variations of "Hello Dolly" and a man a couple of rows in front of me who kept waving his arms and pretending he was playing the trombone. Then there was my art survey class in college, which doesn’t really count, but I like the story anyway. This class met in the music building, and an orchestra down the hall rehearsed the same piece of music during every class for weeks. The art wasn’t dull, but the professor was, so I found myself concentrating on that beautiful, stirring music. When they finally stopped playing it and moved on to something else, I was crushed. I’ve never heard that piece of music again, and I still have no idea what it was.

All of this scattered post is really just my way of saying I’m excited about this weekend. And now I must ask a question out of curiosity: Does anyone here dabble in any kind of music, play an instrument, etc.? Heck, feel free to list your favorite symphonic works if you’d like.