bikelovejones

I began blogging a year ago, if not exactly on this date, then on the last Thursday before Labor Day. I know because my first topic was a report on the Oregon Symphony's Waterfront Park Concert, which Sweetie and I plan to attend again tonight.

First, the concert: it's a big, friendly, beautiful mess. Several thousand people congregate at the park, which is basically a humungous green strip of grass planted alongside the seawall of the Willamette River. They plop a huge stage at one end, and we all sit on blankets and in lawn chairs, filling up the grass all the way back to the end of the park. Of course, those of us in the "cheap" seats can't really see much, so they kindly place huge speaker towers throughout the park to at least let us get in a good listen. Those with easier work schedules show up early to hear the Portland Youth Philharmonic (one of America's oldest youth orchestras and a farm team of sorts -- the Symphony is home to several PYP alums). The rest of us poor slobs show up in time for the Symphony concert, which will feature movements from works to be played in full later in the season, along with some pops selections. Tradition dictates that the concert ends with a performance of Tchaikowsky's 1812 overture -- yeah, THAT one -- complete with howitzers, courtesy of the Oregon Army National Guard 218th Field Artillery. (I know these details because Sweetie writes the Symphony's notes and has to know all this stuff.)

Once, many years ago, I opted to stand close to the field artillery, assembled under the Morrison Bridge off-ramp, so I could watch the sergeant conduct the howitzers with a large light-stick. He had to time his cues a split-second AFTER the beat, glancing at an orchestral score and also at the conductor onstange, in order to time the blasts just right. That year, he got them all. Last year, they missed one and it fell slightly behind where it should have. (Every percussionist and former percussionist KNOWS this piece intimately. Although Tchaikowsky intended cannons to be used, most of us who played wind ensemble transcriptions of this work in school usually covered those cues on a large concert bass drum. My first experience with this piece as a high school sophomore was partly responsible for making me a noise junkie.) The 1812 is followed by a fireworks show, the last one of the summer season.

This concert has been going on for years and if the Symphony ever skipped it there'd likely be a protest in the streets.

I'll discuss the blogiversary in the next post...