A lovestruck Romeo sings a streets a serenade...

I went to the University Symphony Orchestra concert last night to take notes for a class, but even if I hadn’t had to go for credit I would have gone. It was a great concert. I had fun looking over the orchestra because it occurred to me that I knew so many people onstage; a few from music theory classes, two from church choir, a girl from my English class, the cellist that worked with us in women’s ensemble last year, one of the RAs from my dorm, and two friends from the honors program that I met last year. Nine people. It was so cool to see them all in action, especially in concert attire. I’m not one to judge by appearances, but there is something to be said for already good-looking boys in tuxedos and already-pretty girls in concert black, and great lighting shining on instruments (which are beautiful by themselves) and watching them all in their element, working together. Sometimes you forget how talented your friends are until you see them in action. I was quite proud of them all.

They played three pieces: Egmont Overture by Beethoven (great piece, you know how I loves the Beethoven, grumpy old dude that he was, but damn, he could compose); the Romeo and Juliet theme by Tchaikovsky (one of my favorite pieces, and it was really cool because the director explained what each section was supposed to be about—Friar Lawrence contemplating how to get the families to quit fighting, duels in the street, the love theme, the duel theme overtaking the love them [ooo, symbolic], a funeral march and a more hopeful funeral hymn, but ultimately ending with sorrowful chords [as the Prince says in the last scene, “All have suffered.”]. Great piece. Tchaikovsky was a bright one, too. Incidentally, I just went to a performance of Romeo and Juliet this past week. More on that later); and the final one was by a Russian dude named Moussorgsky, a bunch of movements that were inspired by some paintings that a friend had painted in memory of a mutual friend who had passed away. Very innovative and interesting, if unsettling piece (but it was the Romantic period, what do you expect?). What was really cool was that some movements began or ended with a single instrumental solo, and a few of my buddies played them (holler, Neil and Adam!). The end moved me to tears. Big surprise. There were pealing church bell effects and it was a variant of the first theme of the piece, and it was in that fantastic Russian style (think Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, so very heart-on-sleeves), and I just teared up. It wasn’t my favorite of the three, but it was still really effective and moving.

Bravo, all those who performed. The cool thing about dead week is that all of the ensembles play their concerts for the end of the quarter, and they’re all free. So I’ll be indulging all week in a bunch of free concerts and watching my friends perform. It’ll be a nice break from the research paper and the “textual analysis” ones for English, as well as cramming for the music exams. All will be well.

Now that I’m done gushing about the symphony, I have to go put my laundry in the dryer. All my clothes filled (get this) four machines because it’s been a while since I’ve done laundry, and the snow meant wearing more clothes, and the mud meant really dirty clothes…