On Saturday, October 18th I had the pleasure to attend “We Like to Move It,” an orchestral concert conducted by Timothy Perry and played by the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra. As I arrived at the Osterhout Concert Theater at the Anderson Center, I bought my ticket and entered through the giant doors to the theater. I was greeted by a man in a bright red suit who led me to a seat on the far left. The audience was a wide variety of Binghamton elders, students, families and small children. Attire also varied from shorts and tee shirts to formal dresses. I myself wore a casual long sleeved dress with an orange cardigan and high boots, suggested by my suitemate who played viola in the symphony.
There was a rumble of feet and the tuning began and ended after about a minute. The concert started abruptly and without much warning with the crashing cymbals of March of the Toreadors by Georges Bizet, played forte bordering on fortissimo. The orchestra only played the disjunct first part when Perry explained the close relationship between music and motion. It was clear that this was an educational concert based on the plethora of screaming children in the audience while Perry explained the meaning of tempo, dynamics and the value of certain instrument in each section.
Perry spoke about the sense of motion through lines of music. He didn’t say it but I knew he was talking about contour, how the line moves up or down. Then he went through all the individual instruments in the symphony. He talked about their role and range. Whether they were for melody or rhythm, or both. This symphony, like most, consisted of four sections: percussion, brass, woodwind, and strings. The idiophones and membranophones of the percussion section played Jingle Bells, using imitation by repeating the melody with each instrument, creating rounds. The aerophones of the brass section demonstrated the same idea while playing Row,
Row, Row Your Boat. The other aerophones of the woodwinds played a nautical piece called Sailing, Sailing, Over the Bounding Main. Lastly, the chordophones of the strings played Wheels on the Bus in piano. It was the fanciest version I’ve ever heard because of the versatility of the instrument: plucking and using a bow. The performers also used vibrato to add sophistication to the piece by moving their hands very fast on the neck to create a fast and repetitive pull on the strings.
The orchestra finally played a piece all together: March of the Toreadors. Again. It was played in forte and started off allegro. The violins carried the beginning homophonic melody. It had a suspenseful tone to it but it was played in major so it wasn’t particularly an anxious or sad kind of suspenseful. The tone soon shifted as the dynamics turned to mezzo-piano. There was a crescendo and a decrescendo, outlining the climax of the piece, then the music refrained to the beginning, drawing up to a dramatic end in forte.
Part two of the evening consisted of pieces defined by different types of transportation in motion. Perry explained the three questions of music: 1. Where is a piece going? 2. How will the players get there? 3. How much time will one need to get there? He then mentioned the purpose of a conductor (to organize and unify all the instruments) and described tempo and all the italian words that can define it.
The performers started with walking by playing George Gershwin’s Walking the Dog. The conductor mentioned to keep in mind learning about tempo through this piece. It maintained duple andante tempo and piano dynamics to create a calm, flowing tone of someone strolling through town. It was predominantly in a major key but shifted here and there to create busy imagery of a bustling town in minor. Frankly, it sounded like an old Disney Movie soundtrack.
There was a small range of melody to the piece and ended without any dramatic dynamics or drawn out largo tempo.
Next up was riding a horse. Here, we’re supposed to think about rhythm while listening to an excerpt from Light Cavalry Overview by Franz Von Suppe. It was very well played in 6/8 time with a piano beginning by the brass section. The strings soon take over and take the piece to forte. The strings created a crescendo of repetition until the grand finale.
Thirdly, we went on a sleigh ride while learning about note values. The adventurous trot of the horses pulling the sleigh was displayed because of the moderato nature of the piece. The melody was shared between the string, brass, and wind sections, establishing a vast range of notes through the surprisingly conjunct and flowing melody. There was however a disjunct and accented trombone harmony in the background. Everyone played in quadruple meter for this piece.
Eventually came the trains. Pacific 231 (by Arthur Honegger) to be exact. This piece had an accessory though: in the 1940s, Jean Mitry created a film to be played with this composition. The train starts at the station, adagio tempo. The engine is defined by the linear motion expressed in meters and rhythms of 2. Contrastingly, rotary motion of the gears of the train were expressed in rhythms of 3s. The low brass section created the steam of the train. The strings created the horn while leaving the station. I was magical how an orchestra just became a train. The train sped up as well as the tempo. We were now in andante and still maintaining crescendo.
For a few seconds there was no set harmony or tempo yet a sense of dissonance among the instruments but the winds once again created consonance just as the film in the background showed men shovelling coal into the belly of the train. A minor tonality set in and the conjunct melody flew up and down the diatonic scale of the key. After the climax it was clear that the train was slowing down for the next station. Tempo went from allegro to moderate to andante to adagio to finally largo. However, the end was still in fortissimo as the train stopped and the film ended. This piece was more complicated than the previous compositions, as told by the conductor.
The following piece was apparently the most difficult so far: Short Ride in a fast Machine by John Adams. Being about cars, the woodblock expressed linear motion of the piece as triple meter rotary motion was expressed by the woodwinds. Instruments came in about one at a time in the beginning in major tonality, but when the strings appeared, so did the rest of the orchestra. That created a much fuller sound. I noticed that the tempo remained constant throughout the composition, but I also felt like the whole piece was an introduction to something. Without a solid melody, the piece felt like it was building up to something that ultimately wasn’t there. However, the nasally timbre of the wind instruments created a cool futuristic tone.
Lastly was Chase & Final Scene from ‘E.T. The Extraterrestrial’ by John Williams. This was very interesting to hear because I never thought about the music from E.T. before this concert. The piece started as a police chase with allegro tempo in major tonality with a disjunct and suspenseful melody. All sections of the orchestra had opportunity to play the melody even if it wasn’t necessarily something you could sing to. There was a heroic tone with a sprinkle of caution to it. Every time a major tonality built up to a sense of success, minor tonality appeared briefely to have the melody build itself up again. There was a lot of imitation going on between the brass and the strings as they finally united. Then there was a shift to adagio tempo in piano. My guess is this was the point that E.T. and the boy jumped off the cliff if you’ve ever seen the movie. There was no percussion and the soft feel to this part felt contradictory to all the commotion of the climax of the movie. There was a flute solo then imitation into a crescendo.
The brass then carried the melody until the conclusion.
Everyone stood and clapped. The conductor gave his speech of praise followed by a second applause. Perry suggested further patronage to the Anderson Center and bid everyone a happy Halloween. There was a final applause then everyone exited the theater.
Overall, seeing the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra play all the secular and diverse music in different styles was a fun yet educational experience. The performers all did a very good job at playing in unison with each other and establishing an overall theme depending on the piece. Because of this Music 101 class, I can analyze music like I haven’t before just as I have tonight, therefore I can appreciate the details of music more in depth in the future. Why did it take me until freshman year of college to thoroughly enjoy a symphony orchestra concert like this?
