#nzso

15/09/2018

So I went to the Classical Hits symphony orchestra the other week performed by NZSO and tickets graciously provided by Dimension Data. Attending this performance was a very important observation for me as I’ve never been to a symphony orchestra before. There were a few key things that I looked out for:

- The experience

- The performance / motions of performance

The Performance

I noticed several tiny things I thought were interesting and was worth noting about. I had a keen ear out to recognize the small nuances that you wouldn’t ordinarily hear when listening to a pre-recorded song. Things such as the ways people strum/pluck stringed instruments and how you can hear the change of chords on a guitar. The size of the room and how it influences the echo or the dampening of the sounds. How you can hear the singer breathe in and out during demanding sections of a song.

I thought it was oddly satisfying how the violins all swayed in perfect harmony with one another to match the speed of the songs. Almost to the point where if you closed your eyes you could be convinced that the number of violin players were no larger than three. On some of the fast sections of a song I heard the main cello players sleeve buttons strike his instrument as his metallic cuffling striked the wood. This may possibly be recreated for my instrument performance, to recreate a well dressed robot playing music. 

Another thing I thought was interesting which I had never noticed or thought about before was how every musicians head bobbed back and forth depending on the speed and length of their violin stroke. It makes sense as to why they’d do it though, an equal and opposite force to the direction their stroking the violin (I’m just calling it stroking because I don’t know the official term, shows just how much I know about music). 

The most interesting thing to me, a non musician, was not exactly how the music was played. I mean I have heard of these songs before during past leisure but never to the extent where I would pick up on any differences if this symphony orchestra played it wrong or slightly differently. But what I instead found most interesting was their performance as a whole, just wondering the years and most likely decades of practice, experience and knowledge that these many people in one area share together in the theme of classical music. I thought it was a wonderful idea that despite having 50 or so more people, my less than peculiar sense of hearing is only able to focus at most three or four instruments at a time despite there being so many instruments that I don’t even know most of its names in the orchestra. 

What I take from this performance is that unison and harmony drove the overall experience in terms of motion. 

The Experience

The experience was rather... Interesting to say the least. The night was introduced to us with a glass of wine (Though now that I think about it, I don’t think it was supposed to be free for everyone), upon which we were then welcomed into the town hall with rows of seats waiting to be occupied. Seats in a performance is an interesting tailoring experience I feel. Seats suggest, ‘sit here’, ‘don’t move’ and ‘be orderly’. Sit here and Don’t move means that, that in large is your unchosen perspective and the only point of view you will get for the rest of night rest assured that everyone despite how satisfactory or unsatisfactory will receive a different point of view thus different experience to one another. For someone like me who know little about classical music and was interested in seeing professionals play their personal instruments I wished I could get up closer, walk around and narrate my own experience in the performance.

The location also suggests something to the audience, it’s embedded in our minds, pristine pillars, complex shapes and premium decor implies stereotypically that this is a setting for the wealthy, a high class experience. I felt odd standing out from the wine drinking crowd as they dressed in tuxedos and fancy dresses, noting to myself that I perhaps may be accepting wine that should not be free to drink. However, things are the way they are, and understandably so because I would not be too surprised if the tendencies are that people who listen to and enjoy classical music are more likely to appeal to certain architecture, attire, taste and smells. I’m certain correlations are intended for these types of audiences, it just felt weird for me that is all. A bummer for me was that my seat location meant that I could only see the front row of the symphony orchestra and could not see the musicians at the back. :(

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