General Relativity

Einstein thought that time is a pliable fabric. But, I don’t think he meant it quite like this:

The Bayside Trio push the boundaries of modern classical music, performing works by living or recent composers.

You know, recent composers...

For their weekend of concerts the Bayside Trio will perform two works with mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian: Maurice Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses...

...like Ravel, who has been dead, oh, since 1937. That’s right. Seventy-one years ago, Maurice Ravel died (he's certainly not living, so he must be recent, right?). Yet, Chansons Madécasses was written only a paltry eighty-two years ago, in 1926! At the time, Elliott Carter was only 17. The economy was alive and well. Herbert Hoover had a 53% approval rating (I made that up for my own satisfaction). The St. Louis Cardinals had just won their first World Series. The first transaltlantic telephone call just took place (“Uh...is Ivan Nuglibutt there?). 1926 was also the inaugural year for the National Bar Association. My how time flies when it has holes in it! Er...when it can be folded.

But I don’t blame our dear author too much. After all, there seems to be something of an all-encompassing sensory confusion thing taking place:

For some classical concert-goers, the group’s edgy program selections might be difficult to digest.

Chemical breakdown is a nice metaphor, if you’re into the campy cliché thing. (Really, is Ravel difficult to digest?) Instead, this is what I mean:

But the Bayside Trio perform for those who wish to see something different, something new, something alive. [drama mine]

So, the targeted audience is made up of...

Angela Stratiy, Andrew Foster, Ann Marie (Jade) Bryan, Bernard Bragg, Betty Miller, Christy Smith, Chuck Baird, Clayton Valli, Deanne Bray, Dummy Hoy, Heather Whitestone McCallum, I. King Jordan, Linda Bove, Marlee Matlin, Phyllis Frelich, Pinky the Deaf Juggler & Unicyclist, Terrylene Sachetti, Trix Bruce, etc.?

I don’t know about y’all, but I generally go to concerts to hear “something different, something new, something alive”--that's what usually happens when I go to a concert of music.

Then again, maybe I’m in my own strange dimension, because everyone seems to be seeing things out of whack.

“So many of my favorite modern composers came to classical music from a different place, like jazz or folk music,” says pianist Anastasia Antonacos. “The first classical composer they all seem to discover is Stravinsky and then they travel backward in time from there.”

(enter Rod Serling here)
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