Intermission

The All-Important Rule of Performance: Never play the riff of the tune you are getting ready to play during soundcheck. The rule applies to rock as well as classical concerts. I find it fascinating what musicians choose to play instead during this time.

My favorite part of a concert event is generally not the performance at all, but the ambience before, after and in-between. Especially shows with a live orchestra that warms up on stage or in the pit. The resulting sound is usually an atonal mass of sound with no structure, even to aleatoric 20^th Century standards.

One of my band directors was quite aware of and must have despised this dissonant bliss, and always instructed the wind symphony to warm up only in a set concert key, limiting us to a more “pleasing” 12 note selection of the Ionian mode. I’d consistently make a point to discretely produce the occasional tritone or minor second to see if he was paying attention. He was.

I have encountered a true gem while scrutinizing the interwebs. Seattle based composer/phonographer Christopher DeLaurenti has released an entire CD of intermissions he has recorded, appropriately titled “Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven - Stravinsky – Holst”. The limited re-release is still available as of today, as well as a free listening example on the site. Check it out:

http://www.delaurenti.net/music.htm

It is a binaural recording, so please remember to use headphones!