The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra has instituted a "Casual Fridays" concert series, where you can "come as you are" and "One of the players will tell you about the music beforehand" I think it's a great idea to listen to blissful music easily on a Friday night.
On KPCC this morning someone said that the musician who tells you about the music is also going to explain when to clap and when not to. Dr. Romance thinks this is also a good idea, but a little sad -- there's not much music in the schools these days, so more and more people are exposed mostly to rap and pop, and who don't know the thrills of classical music. Dr. Romance hopes these concerts expose people to classical repertoire and give them a chance to be turned on by music powerful enough to have lived for hundreds of years, to motivate musicians to practice eight hours a day (what applause we'd give a skateboarder who's that turned on!) and to reconfigure and organize your brain waves. Who needs Prozac when we've got Mozart and Bach?
Dr. Romance is classically trained, a lyric coloratura soprano, and knows first hand the thrill of reaching back through time to bring alive Mozart's lyrical love letter to his favorite soprano, or to strive to make the modern composer in the audience nod and smile at a good rendition of his or her work.
As we seem to sink further and further into passively letting the Ipod anesthetize us with a pounding, ear -deadening beat, the need for explanations from the stage is both encouraging and a painful reminder of our fall from classical grace.
What floats your musical boat?
