With the Sound of Music

No Rodgers and Hammerstein here, as my seminar seems to have been putting a strong focus on traditional orchestral productions. I've decided that I like the concept and history of classical music much more than I do its actual performance.

Ironically, I left my primary source of contemporary music/I-Pod Touch in the Honors Lounge Friday afternoon. No one stole it or made me feel guilty for misplacing something valuable. I really love my classmates and the staff here!

That evening, after independently seeing a Hunter sponsored presentation by performance artist/architect Vito Acconci, I met up with my classmates to go to Carnegie Hall. We saw a sold out New York Philharmonic Performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major and John Adams' Harmonielehre. The pre-show lecture with Juilliard's Thomas Cabaniss provided a rare opportunity to sit in the front row and helped to explain why these two pieces of work were selected and paired together. Minimalism and parody fascinate me, but I lack the ear and the focus that would allow me to hear this in action. I spent much of my hour and forty minutes daydreaming.

Thus I really had to study for this morning's seminar quiz, which was announced yesterday afternoon via email. I think I did well, but am not 100% sure on everything. I did not want to give my all into the subject, especially when other things, like CUNY Foodfest, were so much fresher and more exciting in my mind.

After we took our quiz, we returned to Carnegie Hall. I found my second trip there to be more exciting than the first one. Carnegie Hall Archivist Gino Francesconi took us on a tour of the numerous theaters and told us stories involving music and his job. I found it interesting that a classically trained and well educated conductor would find his passion as a historian. This passion was obvious when he showed us around the site. I was most envious of his encounters with the rich and famous, and the creativity that in 30 years has built the massive Carnegie Hall Archives from almost nothing. I would not mind immersing myself more in this kind of music-world.

Perhaps the Macaulay Honors College's attempts to foster live music appreciation is not failing completely. I look forward to shows that are more lyric and visual oriented, such as the Sound of Music or American Idiot-- the latter of which I'm seeing next Monday.

-Danielle