Classics from the movies

[magid]

Last night I went to a Boston Landmarks Orchestra, with the theme "Classics from the Movies". Due to the unchancy weather, it wasn't by Jamaica Pond, but in a rec room underneath a church instead, which turned out to be good (not being rained on, and wonderful acoustics) and bad (the lighting was horrible, the folding chairs not so comfortable).

The program, however, was really fun, a crowd-pleaser, and done well.

Entry of the Gladiators (Julius Fucik)

Eine Kleine Nachtmusick (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (Gustav Mahler)

Excerpts from Piano Concerto No.21 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
(re-arranged, since the orchestra doesn't travel with a piano, though a small child in the audience did manage to open the piano at the side of the room during the piece before her father could stop her.)

Beautiful Blue Danube (Johann Strauss)
[intermission]

Two works from Schindler's List (John Williams)

Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana (Pietro Mascagni)

Bolero (Maurice Ravel)
(really, this could be an interesting veil belly dance piece)
[encore]

Second and third movements from The William Tell Overture (Gioacchino Rossini)

I haven't yet listened to the CD I bought, which has Make Way for Ducklings (narrated by Ted Kennedy!) and Peter and the Wolf on it.

Other thoughts from watching an orchestra:
-Holding a violin under the chin to one side looks fatiguing. I wonder if there's any more ergonomic way to play a violin?
-There are so many different shades of brown for string instruments. I tend to prefer the redder browns over the yellower ones.
-Formal/informal: all the men wore black bow ties with their white shirts/black pants, while the women could wear any white top, black bottom combination.
-I wonder if string musicians tend to have more or less incidence of carpal tunnel. Does it make a difference if they type a lot? Does playing a piano a lot help strengthen hands enough so that typing a lot is less of a risk?
-Really, a conductor's baton looks like a perfect wand. It even does music magic.

Comments

i was busy eating TOSTADAS YUM!

[bitty.livejournal.com]

oh, i'd forgotten about this! it's a good thing it waws indoors, otherwise i'd've regretted not enjoying time out on the pond.

Re: i was busy eating TOSTADAS YUM!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Only later did I realize I should've called, even if only to stop by to pick up glazed pottery. Oops.

Tostadas sound as yummy as all the rest, and yet another thing I haven't yet had...

Re: i was busy eating TOSTADAS YUM!

[bitty.livejournal.com]

We were pretty wiped out, so I doubt a concert would have worked. Also, the outlaws really wanted to do dinner before leaving for Maine.

And BEANS BEANS THEY'RE GOOD FOR THE HEART.

dammit, now i want another quesadilla ;)

[cnoocy]

The author of the definitive work on RSI (the set of injuries that includes carpal tunnel), Dr. Pascarelli, learned about it working with musicians, I think mostly string musicians.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

You know, I'd never thought of musicians with RSI before last night. Somehow, in my head, it's mostly tied to typing. I don't know whether that's because most of the people I know with RSI seem to have come to grief by typing, or because I assumed that this complaint must be a modern one, or what.

Re: i was busy eating TOSTADAS YUM!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Tostadas lead to quesadillas?

Oh, and I wasn't sure just when you were coming back, and whether fruit-picking would happen on the way, or what. But having options is good. Anyway, I hope the dinner with the outlaws was good.

I wonder why I'm not getting email notification of your comments, while Cnoocy's came through? Weird.

[cnoocy]

Typing is certainly the huge modern vector for it (especially among geeks), but musicians, athletes, and even people who scoop ice cream have been getting it for a while.

Re: i was busy eating TOSTADAS YUM!

[bitty.livejournal.com]

these days, anything leads to quesadillas.
the rain was a solid sheet removing all visibility yesterday. not so much with the fruit-picking.

and notifications have been off for quite a while. i gave up trusting them.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

defense against using a pooper-scooper: "i didn't want to get rsi!"

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

That's true in my case. My RSI isn't from typing but from punching people. (I do competetion sparring in taekwondo.) The only time I have to worry about my wrists is when I have been working on my punches a lot, because then I can't type.

anything leads to quesadillas

[magid.livejournal.com]

Including the yellow brick road? And whales? And typos? And...?

Huh. Up here, the rain tapered off by morning, so while the fruit would've been wet, and totally less than ideal, it might've been ok. But not in the rain, definitely.

Strangely, this was the first comment from you that came through :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized that sports would be an arena for RSI too. I was under the (obviously mistaken) impression that it's small movements that lead to RSI, not the bigger movements that take larger muscle groups, like punching.

(I'm definitely getting an education this morning!)

[cnoocy]

My RSI isn't from typing but from punching people.

That's the best sentence I've read in the last month.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I do aim to please.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

Punching involves most of the small muscles in the forearm. Good punching involves the rapid application of many fine-grained muscle movements; bad punching involves the rapid application of coarse-grained muscle movements. That's how I know that I am doing it right -- my forearm muscles hurt. There are also wrist issues from the repetitive impact and to a lesser degree elbow and shoulder. Of course, this also assumes that I don't throw anything wild where I impact at a less than optimal angle. Nothing hurts my wrists and arms more than a few punches gone awry.

quesadillas

[bitty.livejournal.com]

Everything.