After a hiatus of more than two and a half years, the New York Times has revived its blog The Score, where contemporary composers write about many of the issues surrounding music in the 21st century. In the first post, published on Halloween, Michael Gordon argues at length for the creation of a video game called "Orchestra Hero" - along the lines of Guitar Hero and Rock Band - where players could play pretend brass in Janáček’s Sinfonietta, or fake conduct Mahler's 9th. (This is apparently no mere fantasy, as Rock Band has announced that it will soon be opening up its format to classical music.) He uses the opportunity to launch into a paean to the orchestra, in perfectly plain language that anyone can appreciate:
"Competing now with movies, television, the Internet and popular music, the orchestra no longer has the platform for cultural dialogue that it once held. But, for me as a composer, the orchestra still holds an allure, a mystery and a sonic power that is hard to beat…"
Gordon goes on to reference the astonishment he felt watching the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, with its cast of thousands performing in perfect precision.
"But," he writes, "the classical orchestra is even more dazzling, even more virtuosic, and so much more precise that it boggles the mind. A hundred instrumentalists can, with exact accuracy, divide a second into 16 micro-parts and play an off-beat note on any one of those 16th notes. In fact, they do this as a matter of course. As a whole, the instruments can play at mind-numbing speeds, produce an infinite array of sparkling colors, and thanks to the high octane boost of music notation, a huge work can be rehearsed and performed in a matter of hours."
Speaking of dazzling, I'll be spending the rest of this week ensconced in Carnegie Hall, where the Berlin Philharmonic is making its biennial appearance, performing the symphonies of Brahms alongside works by Schoenberg. Not the most exciting repertoire, nor are they doing anything extracurricular the way they did in 2007. No matter: if you want the ride of your life, raid the piggy bank and get yourself up to 57th and 7th.
(Note: If you're under 40, you can purchase tickets for $20 (plus a $20 membership fee) through the Carnegie Notables program.)