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and now doth time waste me
Aug. 6th, 2021 07:59 pmOne of the things we lost in the pandemic is the descriptive programs. Instead of that, we get biographies of the violinist and vocalist. I'll do my best to write descriptions based on what I've heard and what I've read.
On the way in to Boston, there was a guy regaling his friends with stories about losing money at the casino, reasons to kidnap someone, Everclear, and having to destroy his uniform with a boxcutter because sometimes people acquire old uniforms and then steal things or whatever.
I found three books, two of which not even the Internet Archive has (Virtual Girl by Amy Thomson and Cassilee by Susan Coon. One, Cloudcry, by Sydney Van Scyoc, I was mistaken about), at Brattle Books, so that even if nothing else went right, August 5, 2021 would still be a victory.
Gabriella did show up, despite the rain and despite it being held on a Thursday instead of the typical Wednesday. Later, on the train ride home, there was a woman with a tattoo of a Medusa head on her leg and a woman with mesopelagic blue hair and matching mesopelagic blue eyeshadow. Earlier, someone spilled a bag of cheez-its on the train floor. I was hungry, but not that hungry.
George Gershwin - Strike Up The Band Overture
A really festive introduction for our first concert in almost two years. The trees seem more bedight in moss than usual, the gardens more overgrown. Perhaps it is neglect, perhaps just the unremitting rains of July.
Florence Price - Concert Overture no. 2
To me, it evokes Antonín Dvořák's 9th symphony, and quotes from Go Down Moses, up until the second part, where it becomes more triumphal, like a brassy late Henry Cowell. Then it goes back and forth between the fanfares and the increasingly intense spiritual. a woman with a sprawling dark birthmark on her arm took a picture of the stage. She had a yellow filter on her phone that made it look like a Hollywood movie set in early 21st century Mexico. So it goes.
William Grant Still - Spirituals
Nkeiru Okoye - I am Harriet Tubman, Free Woman
An excerpt from an opera about the life of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman lived from 1822 to 1913. Nonetheless, the excerpt sounded like a Jazz Age torch song.
James P. Johnson - Drums
It delivers exactly what it promises and then some, and by that, I mean some brass and a flute solo. James P. Johnson was primarily a composer of jazz, and wrote the Charleston.
Jules Massenet - Thaïs: Méditation
An intermezzo for an opera as a duet between orchestra and violinist. By then, it was dark, and the church spire arose like a mutilated finger and pointed blasphemously at heaven.
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony no. 5.
burning question: Isn’t it a wee bit premature to be claiming V for Victory? In their defense, they probably didn’t see it coming. I mean, I had that thought about prematurity back in June because I was expecting it to dwindle away by October, not August. I mean, who could have known that the anti-vax movement was so powerful? Oh, right, EVERYONE, because we can’t get vaccinated for lyme disease. Out pets can, but we can’t. Because of the autism hoax, you see.
Even the weather agrees with me. Or maybe it doesn't, I don't know, It's been doing this since the end of June.
On the way in to Boston, there was a guy regaling his friends with stories about losing money at the casino, reasons to kidnap someone, Everclear, and having to destroy his uniform with a boxcutter because sometimes people acquire old uniforms and then steal things or whatever.
I found three books, two of which not even the Internet Archive has (Virtual Girl by Amy Thomson and Cassilee by Susan Coon. One, Cloudcry, by Sydney Van Scyoc, I was mistaken about), at Brattle Books, so that even if nothing else went right, August 5, 2021 would still be a victory.
Gabriella did show up, despite the rain and despite it being held on a Thursday instead of the typical Wednesday. Later, on the train ride home, there was a woman with a tattoo of a Medusa head on her leg and a woman with mesopelagic blue hair and matching mesopelagic blue eyeshadow. Earlier, someone spilled a bag of cheez-its on the train floor. I was hungry, but not that hungry.
George Gershwin - Strike Up The Band Overture
A really festive introduction for our first concert in almost two years. The trees seem more bedight in moss than usual, the gardens more overgrown. Perhaps it is neglect, perhaps just the unremitting rains of July.
Florence Price - Concert Overture no. 2
To me, it evokes Antonín Dvořák's 9th symphony, and quotes from Go Down Moses, up until the second part, where it becomes more triumphal, like a brassy late Henry Cowell. Then it goes back and forth between the fanfares and the increasingly intense spiritual. a woman with a sprawling dark birthmark on her arm took a picture of the stage. She had a yellow filter on her phone that made it look like a Hollywood movie set in early 21st century Mexico. So it goes.
William Grant Still - Spirituals
Nkeiru Okoye - I am Harriet Tubman, Free Woman
An excerpt from an opera about the life of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman lived from 1822 to 1913. Nonetheless, the excerpt sounded like a Jazz Age torch song.
James P. Johnson - Drums
It delivers exactly what it promises and then some, and by that, I mean some brass and a flute solo. James P. Johnson was primarily a composer of jazz, and wrote the Charleston.
Jules Massenet - Thaïs: Méditation
An intermezzo for an opera as a duet between orchestra and violinist. By then, it was dark, and the church spire arose like a mutilated finger and pointed blasphemously at heaven.
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony no. 5.
burning question: Isn’t it a wee bit premature to be claiming V for Victory? In their defense, they probably didn’t see it coming. I mean, I had that thought about prematurity back in June because I was expecting it to dwindle away by October, not August. I mean, who could have known that the anti-vax movement was so powerful? Oh, right, EVERYONE, because we can’t get vaccinated for lyme disease. Out pets can, but we can’t. Because of the autism hoax, you see.
Even the weather agrees with me. Or maybe it doesn't, I don't know, It's been doing this since the end of June.
