One of the greatest things about art is that any given work can inspire different feelings and emotions in each of us. Because it is the most abstract of all the arts, this is most true for music. So, as not only a performing musician but also an avid concertgoer, what does music inspire in me?
The answer is at once both surprisingly simple and necessarily all-encompassing: In me, music inspires faith. Not the faith of any particular religion, but a faith in the power of togetherness. A faith in people. A faith that none of us is alone, that the world is smaller than it often feels. A faith in the common good. A faith that there is indeed good in all of us, and that our inherent inclination bends toward sharing that good with others.
What else could explain Mahler’s desire to encompass “the entire world” in his monumental Fifth Symphony? What else could explain Beethoven reaching out to the masses in his Ninth Symphony, the “Ode to Joy,” or Carl Orff doing the same (albeit in a very different guise) in his Carmina Burana? What else could explain Richard Strauss’ depiction of the triumph of the human spirit in his A Hero’s Life, or the same spirit in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony? What else could explain why millions of people the world over gather together to celebrate the romantic spirit of Rachmaninoff, the brilliant songs of Cole Porter, or the eagerness and awe of young minds first encountering such masterpieces?
Throughout history, composers have given of themselves, time and again, with the same ultimate, selfless goal: sharing their feelings, their thoughts, their beliefs, indeed their very souls with their fellow man. Every time we attend a performance of Mahler 5 or Beethoven 9, we travel the same emotional path that those composers did centuries ago; we journey with them, hand in hand, from the despair at each work’s beginning to the seemingly limitless elation of their climaxes. We emerge from the concert hall on wings after such performances. We have renewed faith that we, too, can face adversity in our own lives, not only overcoming it, but actively making the world a better place when we, too, reach a brighter day on our own, personal journeys.
Yes, music gives me faith in humanity. It gives me hope for the future. It reminds me that we are first and foremost a sharing people, a people who believe in the importance of the other at least much as much as the sanctity of the self. Gathering together for a musical performance is no less than the ultimate celebration of the human spirit: We witness a composer’s personal journey, make it our own, and in doing so realize that there is indeed more that unites us than divides us after all.
-Brett Mitchell, assistant conductor
I tend to go hot and cold. For hot, I like Brahms first symphony – the whole thing or Sibelius Symphony 2 or Franck’s only symphony. Cold is cool and for that the slow movement of Shostakovich Symphony 5 and the slow movement of Bruckner Symphony 7. What a hard choice!!
I think that it would make a great HSO concert where the first half was all serene music, e.g. Mahler 5 Adagietto and the last half was great get-up-and-go music beginning with Rossini’s William Tell Overture
I tend to go hot and cold. For hot, I like Brahms first symphony – the whole thing or Sibelius Symphony 2 or Franck’s only symphony. Cold is cool and for that the slow movement of Shostakovich Symphony 5 and the slow movement of Bruckner Symphony 7. What a hard choice!!
I think that it would make a great HSO concert where the first half was all serene music, e.g. Mahler 5 Adagietto and the last half was great get-up-and-go music beginning with Rossini’s William Tell Overture