Watching Dudamel for the first time
Never seen him before. Whoa, he’s so flow-ey my cousins in LA see him all the time. Its like a religious pilgrimage for them. Shameful I haven’t seen him live, yet. (Watching on PBS) I think it’s the arm movements. And of course, the hair. Something about the tux and sideburn combo. And the silences, as well.
The Silences
The Silences. Maybe its a good conductor thing. I remember how impressed I was when I saw my DC buddy, George Steele conduct the early music chorus my friends Hai Ting and Wesley sang in. George would just hold those silences in his palm. A little beyond the place one would expect. It was okay, though cause we (those of us watching) were right there with him.
The Motion
I think what Dudamel is more about motion than silences. Contant motion. This thing he does with his eyes before starting another section of the orchestra also grabs me. Its like he raises his eyes toward the section of the orchestra about to play, as though to give permission. And then the music just tidal waves forth. And you realize prior to that it was just held there, anticipating. And there another thing about Dudamel. He gets the softnesses also. And the light part are like these tiny mountain river streams. It’s all so utterly in motion the entire time; doesn’t stop until the end.
The Audience
Was sharing these thoughts with Wesley, who now directs opera, while writing them and this is what he pointed out to me: “Being a good conductor is partly about your personality–it’s all about your ability to have and project musical ideas to other people, so manner and all kinds of communication are key.”
Years ago, I was temping for a company called Metromedia, a fiberoptic cable company located on Hudson Street in Lower Manhattan. I worked the front desk and answered the phones for a room that was staffed by engineers 24/7. The engineers kept track of the fiberoptic cables that spanned the globe and was responsible for most of the internet connections, well, connecting.
We’d eat our lunches together in the conference room and I’d use the opportunity to find out more about what was happening on those video screens. After getting a tour of all the different cable centers and the node, I was given the opportunity to examine the cables themselves. Shocked by how fragile our physical communication lines actually were, I wanted to know what would happen if something something happened to them out there beneath the ocean.
For the most part, no one messes with them, given how far beneath the ocean they happen to be. Occasionally, however, sharks like to chew on them. But there are deep sea divers who specialize in resorting the cable lines. At any rate, I wrote a song about it. Stefan Weisman scored it, Mezzo Soprano, Hai-Ting Chinn did the lead vocals (I did back up vocals and when Stefan worked his magic it came out sounding all fugue-ie). When Linda Ganjan created this amazing animation to go with it, it became it’s own entity—an animated short! Was screened at a couple venues and I recently posted it on my You Tube channel, as well. The video you’re streaming when watching it is, very likely, being transmitted to you over the very cables that inspired me to write it.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering whatever happened to Metromedia and did they ever find out about the song? They didn’t. Tried and track them down to share the song w/ them long after the fact, but they seem to have disappeared. Dunno if it means they merged or just went under the deep down under ocean night. If anyone reading this knows who I’m talking about and forwards it onto their engineering team, I’d really appreciate it, though.
