Infinite MonkeysI've been wondering how Monkey Ben, our resident classical music aficionado, is going to react when he finds out that my wife and I are attending the Lord of the Rings Symphony tonight.
A two-hour journey to Middle Earth, created by Howard Shore from his Oscar-winning score for the celebrated trilogy, played live in concert. The six-movement Symphony features 200 performers, with images by illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe projected above the orchestra as the action unfolds.Low brow though it may be, I'm curious about how it might stack up against the first Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.
The nine-piece orchestra play instruments constructed from vegetable material -- from a flute made out of a carrot, a saxophone carved out of a cucumber, a violin from leek and to a pumpkin converted into a double bass.I'm inclined to believe that neither of the aforementioned ensembles would be able to hold their own against The Punk Rock Orchestra...
...a forty-piece orchestra that hails from San Francisco, Calif. Their set list includes music by some of the more well-known punk bands, including Dead Kennedys, Sex Pistols, Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag. ...all classically trained ... Many of them are recognized as masters at their instruments. Members of the orchestra have played with local symphonies and ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera.Here's the PRO's official site.
Worldview aside, sometimes postmodernism just makes you smile. But I only have tickets to the LOTR production. Alas, Phoenix is not yet a cultural mecca. Perhaps the more metropolitan Monkeys in LA, or our lost Monkey(stein) in NYC will be able to provide reviews of classical music's equivalent of le Salon des Refuses.
Posted by Brad at May 26, 2004 09:22 AM | TrackBackIt's funny: when I was younger, single, and making much less money, I thought nothing of living like a fat cat (or pretending to, any way). I had season tickets to the L.A. Philharmonic, and I used to schedule trips to see my then-girlfriend/fiance in the Bay Area around certain performances of the San Francisco Symphony. My wife and I managed to do this a few times after we got married, but once our son came along and especially since we moved to the sticks, our cultural outings have fallen off dramatically.
The "Lord of the Rings Symphony" sounds like good fun to me. I have the soundtracks from the first two films, and I think Howard Shore is pretty good. As more than one critic has observed, "the symphonic tradition died and went to Hollywood." I'm no snob. I love film music. (If you listen to Internet Radio on iTunes, check out "A Fistful of Soundtracks".) I have a penchant for buying string quartet "tributes" to rock and metal bands. God help me, I even kind of liked "The Queen Symphony" (though I don't own it).
I'd be curious to hear the punk orchestra.
The thing with the vegetables, though? That doesn't seem right to me...
Posted by: Monkey Ben at May 26, 2004 11:22 AM