Before the Concert

Richmond Philharmonic, at The James Center

before the concert...

I love this view. 

It gives a sense of what it feels like to sit in an orchestral section,

well before a concert is about to start. 

My favorite is my friend sitting in front of me--she is tired, and messing with her tuning peg.  There's no way she is actually tuning in this prone position--it's just her fingers can't stop caressing the peg.

***

The principal viola player looks like he is trying to work a kink out of his neck.

No, this is not coal mining, but string players can get excrutiating, career-ending back, shoulder, and arm problems. 

I myself have a chronic misery in my right shoulder.

***

Someone is pointing her bow at something.

The bow is more than a tool.  It becomes an extension of your body...like another limb. 

But really, it's an extension of your brain, your intention.

***

I'll work on shutter speed....

This is what I see from my seat.

I like where I sit in (the) orchestra. 

I feel connected to the winds--in fact, most often I hear brass even more than violins, which helps you feel grounded, embraced, and buttressed.

***

Cellists become very good at attending to the sound of bassoon,trombone, tuba.

When you are 8 years old and the little old music teacher lady wheels a cart of instruments from room to room to entice you into choosing an instrument,

you don't think about stuff like this,

because you could not possibly know the ramifications of picking the cello over the violin, or the clarinet over the trumpet.

Then, as you grow older,

you can choose to like these vissicitudes,

or you can choose to not like them.

A zen koan.

That little old lady is probably some bones in the ground.

another koan

be happy

now

today