I love it when things go like clockwork.

Yesterday, I went to my very first official concert, and I must say that it was very epic. It was the San Francisco Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra and they performed three pieces: Haydn's 101th Symphony (otherwise known as the Clock Symphony), Haydn's Violincello Concerto in C Major, and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Every single movement of every single piece was beautifully played and sounded so...professional. The best way for me to describe it was that it was like listening to 102.1, but being able to see the inside of the radio.

I also picked up on some concert etiquette:

-The conductor always shakes the hand of the principal violinist before and after every piece.
-The conductor leaves the stage and immediately comes right back out during the applause.
-It is almost a sin to clap or talk during the silence of two movements, but it's okay (maybe even encouraged) to cough and sneeze.

It's also occurred to me that a conductor of a professional band isn't really there to keep time. His job is to remind the players of their dynamics, articulations, and expression. They do so by hopping and danicing to the music. Tempo is less of a priority than it is in school band, except during rubato sections and fermatas and stuff like that. Well, that's the way I see it anyway. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too much into all of this conducting business. Even Mr. R has noticed how much I enjoy conducting. He says he'll let me do more in the future. Yay!

I really liked the 2nd movement from the Clock Symphony because it's where the piece gets its nickname. It comes from the "ticking" parts that keep time throughout the song. When I hear the song I imagine a small town and the villagers going about their daily business, and the steady ticking of the town's clock driving them through their routines. The townspeople buy food from the street stands while the children run around and play with the animals. The sun sets, the villagers go to bed, but the clock just ticks and tocks away.

In a lot of ways, clocks and orchestras are very similar. They're both made of countless small, yet equally important, components. If one part is missing, the performance of the entire thing suffers. It takes every single part of a clock and an orchestra to make it perform correctly. Everything works together to meet a common goal: from something as complex as making music or something as simple as progressing the stream of time.