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| Our Big Concert |
Last Wednesday night was the most prestigious concert yet
for our community orchestra…
We had all managed to find the venue, a 14th/15th
Century church at the brow of a dark cobbled street. It was converted into an
educational centre and concert venue in the 1970’s but still retains the
architecture and feel of an ancient place of worship.
The magnificent sandstone medieval arches sweeping
upwards towards the richly carved vaulted ceiling made it a rather different environment
to the little village hall that our orchestra is accustomed to performing in.
After a bewildering game of Tetris, involving music
stands and chairs, the stage was finally set and we settled into our places for
a last minute run through. The difference in acoustics was very noticeable with
sound waves behaving in a most peculiar fashion.
The lighting was alien to us too; a soupy murky ambiance
with brilliant spotlights on the stage casting deep shadows onto our sheet
music. “Don’t look into the lights!” commanded Maestro; an instruction
guaranteed to make at least half of us do so and spend the next three minutes
looking like startled bush babies.
The audience started to arrive. Someone had mentioned
that they had been to a concert at this venue the week before and the audience
consisted of only around thirty people, but Wednesday night they kept arriving,
more and more people until every seat was taken and more chairs were being
requested. The front row seats to my right were reserved for the Mayor and
Mayoress. I don’t think the Mayor showed up, unless he was dressed down in one
of those brown cardigans with reinforced shoulders – the sort that are always
advertised at the back of weekend newspapers.
The Mayoress was there though; a petite and friendly
looking woman sporting an impressive chain of office and an equally impressive
head of purple hair. Seated next to her was another woman with hair of a
brilliant shade of aquamarine. Their hair remained these colours even after my
eyesight had recovered from looking into the spotlight.
Maestro tapped his baton on his stand, paused on the
upbeat, and then we were off, starting at a bristling pace with The March from
Carmen by Bizet. The first half of the concert went well and the audience was
very generous with its applause.
Then came the second half; the lighter side of our
repertoire including music from films. A chance to enjoy playing with Hollywood
style luscious long bows and wearing suitably dramatic facial expressions (often
unintentionally).
We had rehearsed the powerful and fierce
five-beats-in-a-bar section of “Lord of the Rings” hundreds of times before,
but instead of the usual heavy base line introduction:
“BOM! bom bom BOM! bom, BOM! bom bom BOM! bom.”
It had changed to:
“BOM! bom BOM! bom bom, BOM! bom BOM! bom bom”
It may not seem like a great difference, but it was
enough.
The music started to slide apart as we lost all sense of structure.
We had left the safety of The Shire and were lost in the
terrifying depths of Middle-Earth.
I looked up at Maestro, he was now Gandalf with his wand,
his hair was turning grey before my very eyes.
His mouth was fixed and he pointed towards his dark fiery
eyes – an instruction to watch carefully, very very carefully.
He began conducting with a potent mystical intensity,
drawing us all together into a unified whole again.
At the end of the piece the audience applauded wildly.
Subtle glances were exchanged between the players,
glances that spoke of a shared experience of triumph over adversity.
At the end of the concert, we all stood to accept the
applause. The audience members looked as though they had enjoyed themselves and
the purple-haired Mayoress seemed to be impressed.
The stage was dismantled and we orchestra players wearily
carried our instruments down the dark cobbled street and went our separate
ways, reflecting on the very special evening that we had spent together.
An orchestra to be proud of.
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much
by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has
had to overcome while trying to succeed.” ~Booker T. Washington~
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