It's been a long concert season...very long.

Summer is right around the corner and it's beautiful outside. You've been going to concerts every weekend for nearly 7 months now...season opening spectaculars, patriotic tributes, that obligatory performance of the Nutcracker, the unfortunate pops concert when Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels played with the orchestra. I know you're tired and that writing a concert review is the last thing you want to be doing right now. I understand.

But the finish line is so close. Don't give up yet!

First up, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra's season is coming to an end, and William R. Wineke is on the case for Channel 3000.

Review: WCO Ends 50th Season In Triumph

Johann Hummel's 1816 "Piano Concerto in A Minor" provided a thrilling end to a brilliant season.

Hummel did that? I'm pretty sure that nothing that Hummel did was "thrilling", but okay.

As always, the performance was enhanced by Norman Gilliland's "Grace Notes" commentary.

Yes, program notes can provide useful historical information and context for works far removed from modern day. What historical gems did Mr. Gilliland uncover about Hummel, an obscure-ish composer largely unknown to those who didn't play trumpet in high school?

Gilliland noted the composer was such a gifted artist that he was invited to live in Mozart when he was seven years old, went on to study with Haydn and Salieri and was a friend of Beethoven.

Who knew that Mozart was such a hospitable guy.

[F]ollowing the intermission, the WCO played Franz Schubert's "Symphony No. 9 in C Major," nicknamed the "Great" symphony, partially because it takes the better part of an hour to perform.

Well, not really. The moniker was meant to distinguish the work from his "Little C Major" Symphony...but you know, whatever.

So, how well did the WCO perform the "Great"?

It's a powerful symphony and was performed very ably by the very able WCO,...

I'm not going to lie, that's a very able description.

...but after the excitement of the Goodyear piece [the Hummel concerto, which is strangely being referenced by the soloist], it seemed almost anti-climactic.

The Hummel concerto made the "Great" Symphony seem anti-climatic?

It has been a very long concert season indeed.

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Down the road in Indiana, Ivy Farguheson, of the Star Press, thinks Orff is a musical genius (and Tchaikovsky too).

REVIEW: "Carmina Burana' was a live masterpiece to behold

Symphonies are meant to perform Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and luckily the Muncie Symphony Orchestra met with their fate Saturday evening in Emens Auditorium.

Okay, a bit ridiculous, but it's actually a pretty clever opening sentence. Good start, Ivy.

figure orff: "What has C sharp minor got to do with fascism?"

Most musical productions are meant to be listened to in person. Rarely is a live performance worse than a studio-backed recording and Carl Orff’s epic work is no exception.

A clumsily written thought, but point well-taken. On to the review...

That’s not to say there aren’t recordings,...

No, no, you don't need to explain yourself. Live performances better than the recording...we're with you.

Just move on and don't waste time backtracking, or you might get into some convoluted explanation comparing Orff's Carmina Burara to some random recording artist...like, say, Prince. That would be bad.

That’s not to say there aren’t recordings, even live recordings, that transfer the various emotions from the masterpiece on the stage or in a recording studio into your living room with passion. There clearly are.

Great. I was wrong. We made it out the other side unscathed.

But in much the same way seeing Prince...

I thought we had an understanding?

...live in concert can change the way you understand the guitar,...

figure prince: Changing the way I understand the guitar.

...compared to that nice CD in your car, listening to Orff’s music can open your ears to things you’ve never heard before.

Where are you going with this?

That’s why in both cases, with Prince and Orff, you choose the live option over the recording. You want to be in the presence of genius.

We are very liberal with our use of 'genius', aren't we?

And you want to be exhausted when they’re finished gracing you with their presence.

I suppose.

figure exhausted: Just heard Carmina Burana performed live.

Because Prince is great live, CDs should never have been invented? I like your logic.

So, how about the actual concert?

With the help of the Ball State University Chamber Choir, Concert Choir and the University Choral Union, the orchestra began the production with the most popular piece from “Carmina,” “O, Fortuna.”

I think most "productions" of this piece start with that part, seeing that it comes first in the score.

There isn’t an American who has ever seen a television commercial or watched the NBA playoffs during the last 20 years who has not heard the beginning measures of “O, Fortuna.”

Americans do love the arts!


embeddence orff: Wait, they have Orff in Canada, too?

And, sadly, maybe people’s experience with “Carmina” ends there.

Oh. You mean there's more to the piece than just the "O, Fortuna" part?

[snip]

So, the piece embodies the genius of Prince and the popularity of promo music for the NBA playoffs...what conclusions can we draw?

“Carmina Burana” is one of the most powerful musical pieces ever written and listening to it in any fashion will make you wonder why symphonies across the world don’t simply perform this production and maybe Tchaikovsky, another musical genius.

Carmina Burana is awesome and should be performed by every orchestra, "and maybe Tchaikovsky, another musical genius,"too.

This is quite possibly one of the greatest sentences I've ever read.

Listening to this epic live will make you wonder why musical recordings were ever created, period.

That's quite the side effect of attending this concert. Perhaps the surgeon general should slap a warning on this concert: May make you question why musical recordings were ever created.

And make you search for other live symphonic productions in another town near you.

Just a second...did you say that Prince can change the way I understand the guitar?

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It's been a very, very long concert season.

Changing Tenses in Mid(-Narrative) Stream

Or: There and Back Again

This little review shifts verb tenses in order to effect a tesseract. Or an exercise in experimental usage. Or...to convey a sense of motion...? I don't know. I'm not the world's best prose stylist, by far. But if something seems amiss, I go running:

Figure 1: I guess I need to get the 4th Edition

"...whichever tense the writer chooses he should use throughout. Shifting from one tense to another gives the appearance of uncertainty and irresolution." (3rd Edition, p. 31)

Alas.

MSO Shines in Saturday Show

One of these days, maybe not this year or next or even the year after that, Muncie residents are going to wish they had spent time listening to the Muncie Symphony Orchestra under conductor Bohuslav Rattay.

A bold prediction, tempered by absolute hedging about when it will come to pass. Couched in the future, the sentence nonetheless foreshadows the temporal adventure ahead ("One of these days...will...wish they had...").

Because, as much as some may hate to believe it, one day a larger city’s orchestra is going to snatch him up from under the MSO’s tutelage and all of East Central Indiana will refer to his tenure as the “gold ol' days.”

The temporal ambiguity (and point-of-view) is slowly introduced. The predictions ("is going to...will refer to...") are mediated by the imposition of the present at the beginning ("...as much as some may hate to believe..."), situating the reader in the current attitudes of (one assumes) residents of East Central Indiana.

Fun Fact: Residents of East Central Indiana traditionally use the unusual colloquialism "gold ol' days," which 1) uses the contraction of "old" to prevent the untoward elision of consonants threatened by the repeated "d" joining "old" and "days," and 2) replaces "good" in the common phrase "good ol' days" with "gold." The reason for the latter remains unclear; however, recent research speculates that this oddity of speech is accounted for by the fact that "gold" is a common word, coupled with the ongoing problem that Spellcheck does not understand idioms.

Rattay is that good of a conductor.

Ah, an unqualified "is"; present tense, here we come! [The construction "that good of a..." is irksome for some reason, but I cannot substantiate my displeasure. Anyone on rules of usage?]

And his greatness was especially clear during the MSO’s latest concert Saturday evening in Emens Auditorium.

Oh, dear, back to "was" again.

“The Tale of the Three Strausses” was the theme of the night, with the well-known “On the beautiful Blue Danube” beginning the evening in a unique and wonderful way.

We seem now to be situated solidly in the past tense. Or are we? (Dun dun dunnn!) Why use "beginning" instead of "began" except throw into question the temporal situation of the reader (or reviewer)? Also, the clever uncapitalized "beautiful" in the title is a wry comment on the state of the Danube today.

Rattay started the piece off slowly, a rarity with American orchestras which typically begin the piece with a bombastic flair.

Considering how the waltz begins, this 1) seems unlikely, and 2) is totally unsubstantiated.

The MSO’s process allowed the audience to tune their ears to the fanciful movements in the piece.

Assuming there was a "process" (strategy? approach? reading? interpretation?), was it the orchestra's or the conductor's? Also, there's only one movement in the piece; clearly something else was intended instead of the usual musical parlance, but...what? Finally, three uses of "piece" in the last two sentences alone gets redundant really quickly. At least we're in past-tense-concert-review mode.

The same was true with the “Voices of Spring” piece performed after the intermission.

There's "piece" again. And it's awkward; "'Voices of Spring' piece"?

This time, the orchestra began with the alert attention that was more than loud noise.

I have no idea what this sentence means.

It was the appropriate start for a Straussian piece so well known.

Hold off on "piece" for a bit, hyphenate (?) "well-known," explain what "alert attention that was more than loud noise" means and explain why it was an appropriate beginning for "Voices of Spring" (because it is "well known" [sic]?) and we'll have ourselves a sentence. Moreover, "Straussian" makes it sound like the piece (sorry) was like Strauss' work. "...a Strauss piece" would have sufficed, I think.

Sarah Hibbard was the guest artist for the evening, using her beautiful soprano...

The sudden switch of tenses back to the present in mid-sentence was appropriate considering the immediacy of the...what? Maybe the rest of the paragraph will help.

Sarah Hibbard was the guest artist for the evening, using her beautiful soprano to add more flavor to the orchestra’s interpretation of Richard Strauss. Although she did not seem as strong a soprano needed to perform “Vier Letzte Lieder," at times her voice and the orchestra’s collaboration was unbelievably beautiful and well worth the price of admission.

Wow. At least we're back in the past tense, I guess.

It is with the final piece, also by Richard Strauss, where Rattay shows his ability to take musical risks that are intriguing and enjoyable.

It is? Now? Suddenly? Is the concert still going on? Piece?

As was the case with Miles Davis during his “Kind of Blue” days, he encourages the musicians to bring their own voices to the performance.

What.

He also transitions these amazing artists beautifully in between movements,

He transitions...the performers?

...keeping the performance in a classical realm rather than a New Age version of Strauss.

I am so fucking lost. The present sure is confusing. Miles Davis? New Age Strauss?!

Figure 2: The dawning of the Age of Aquarius?

He is incredibly expressive during the piece without being overbearing or cartoonish in his body movements. He truly feels the music and the musicians do as well. The performance from all involved was simply great.

Ahh! Back to the past! What the hell?

Unfortunately, not many community members or BSU students were on hand to see and hear this very good orchestra. Not many cities of Muncie’s size can say they house a high-class orchestra and one has to wonder what it will take for people in Muncie to celebrate the fact that they do. Hopefully, it won’t be after Rattay has moved on to his next orchestra.

Goodness gracious. It's like some kind of swiftly tilting planet.

Figure 3: A Wrinkle in Time