2019 Christmas Singalong

Here are some pics from the singalong we had at the Music Room this past December. It was quite a milestone for me. We combined some members the Fun Band with some members of the Rapidan Pops, creating for the event the largest and most expert group of musicians I've ever led. As for the singers, I've led larger groups, but never so many experienced singers - even though the singers only had lyrics with no music - and all the hymn tunes were transposed down a couple or three steps - there was often four part harmony in the voices.

Here's a pic that shows all the strings. Clockwise from the right: Brian, Pam, Betsy, and Jenny on violin; Michael and Darlene on viola; Mary, Joe, Barbara, and Caroline on cello; and Hank on guitar. Back against the wall you can see our vocalists Maryvonne, Alegra, and Karla, and then Judy on ukulele, and Dale on guitar. 

Also in this pic you can see how we seated some of the singalongers right behind the strings. The gentleman right there in the bottom left hand corner is Al, without whom the Music Room wouldn't exist. Besides starting the Orange community chorus and band, he somehow got me to join the band, which is where I learned to play the horn from a standing start, which later led to playing in the Rapidan Orchestra, and the orchestra needing a rehearsal performance space had a lot to do with the Music Room coming into existence.

Here is a pic of the winds - Rebekah on flute, Jane on recorder, Heather on clarinet and Madelyn on bassoon.

Here's Don on drums.

In this pic you can see our friend Sara sitting to the right of Judy and Dale. Besides having been a member of the Orange Music Society and then starting the Culpeper Music Society, she was the one who first started the Shakespeare in the Ruins outdoor productions over in Barboursville. She had a great time and with both her and Al participating there was a wonderful feeling of solidarity with previous community performing arts projects.

This pic shows the overall shape of the room, which is much like a shoe box - and when people talk about the great music spaces in Europe, a lot of them apparently have a shoebox shape, so that must have something to do with good acoustics.

We did a Christmas singalong two years ago and here's a pic of that.

You can see the lights have been changed, that risers have been added in front of the stage - and that curtains have been added, which did a great job of damping the too bright sound. With the curtains, and a lot of people in the audience soaking up sound, most people think the sound is exceptionally good. Back when Rapidan first started rehearsing in the Music Room, conductor Benjamin said after just a couple of rehearsals we were playing better because we could hear each other better.

How We Receive Music

     As we’ve gotten the Music Room up and running this year, what has struck me most has been the audience reactions. Because it’s a very comfortable space with sparkling acoustics, the audience experience is about as good as it gets aurally and socially. At intermission and after the music, people are physically and verbally animated; there are lots of wide eyes, hand gesturings and animated conversations. I always ask as many people as I can what it is they like, and the answers are all over the board. 

     Back in the 60’s I came across Karl Jung’s idea that there are four ways of experiencing the world around us - via thinking, via sensation, via feeling, and via intuition. A recent FaceBook conversation with Kyle Gann catalyzed my realizing those four modes are a great way to talk about how different people receive music, and that since we all have different combinations of these four modes of experiencing music, it goes a long way towards explaining why so may different kinds of music can have such ardent fans.

THINKING - “Theory mind” is the term I use for people who can distinguish instantly between major, minor, diminished and augmented chords and whether they have added pitches like 2nds, 4ths, 6ths, 9ths, 11ths and so on. Theory mind can also hear and name the chord functions in real time, such as the I chord leading to the IV chord, to the vi chord. When modulations occur, they can say what the new key is and how the chords in the previous key were manipulated to prepare the ear for that modulation. 

On many occasions I’ve had band directors and fellow brass players tell me that when you have the third of the chord it should be played slightly flatter than it would be in equal temperament, and I marvel that they can automatically know where in the chord the pitch they’re playing fits. 

Part of Kyle Gann’s FB comment that triggered this post illustrates theory mind:

The other day a cultured woman with a little musical knowledge asked me what I thought made Schumann's music so wonderful. I went into my spiel about his diagonal harmonies, how he'll hit a dissonant note and not resolve it until the chord meant to harmonize the resolution has already passed, and also about how unusual the spacings of his piano sonorities are.

SENSATION - I think one of the reasons the live performances at the Music Room so affect people is that they’re simply hearing the various timbres of the instruments much more fully than what recordings can ever capture, especially if those recordings are compressed down to mp3 levels. Even audience members sitting in the back are quite close to the performers, and the very good acoustics make the aural sensations immediate and fully textured. This means the fast/slow; high/low; and soft/loud parameters of the music are easily perceived. 

When playing the horn, I have to trust that my sensation is helping me play in tune, even though my weakness in “theory mind” means I don’t know where in the chord the pitch I’m playing fits.

FEELING - One way music “touches” us is that it often encodes physical gestures that trigger our emotions. Most straightforwardly, when we see a violinist caressing notes out of their instrument or a timpanist pounding out a martial rhythm, we feel the emotions we associate with those gestures. The neural pathway for this phenomenon employs mirror neurons. When we see someone making a physical gesture, our brain fires the neurons we’d use to make that same gesture (more here). I also think, with zero proof, that just hearing some gestures in music can trigger mirror neurons, even if we can't see the performer making the physical gesture. Less straightforwardly, while phrasings and articulations in music may not have direct physical cognates, they can evoke less specific feelings and moods.

Also, a piece of music can call up emotions we’ve come to associate with that particular piece because of when and where we’ve heard it before. 

INTUITION - Intuition is non-verbal and non-rational by nature, so it’s hard to talk about. I’ve been told professionally I’m more intuitive than most, and while it’s a great help to me as a group therapist, the problem is that I can’t know right away if my intuition about something is correct. With that caveat in mind, I’ll suggest that one way intuition may come into play is those of us without “theory mind” can still intuit the general structure of a piece. I think our intuitive side can also inform us as to how the performers are approaching the music and their connection to the audience.  

Our intuitive sides are probably also part of whatever it is that happens during “flow” experiences  when our normal ego fades, time flows differently, and we feel part of a larger whole (more here).