Life is Like A Symphony

Life is Like A Symphony - Poem by Angel lockheart

Please enjoy listen Beethoven 6th Symphony "Pastoral" when you read the beautiful poem below!

Life,
Is like a symphony.
Everyone has a different part to play,
But when we all play together,
We make a beautiful melody.

Sometimes we play notes that are wrong,
And get in trouble,
And sometimes we have to start over again,
But that's just how it is;
That's just how it works.

We practice to get better.
And when we play,
We set our emotion free,
Showing them to all who care to look.

Sometimes, you just know,
That everything's alright.
Because everyone's playing their hearts out,
And the music sounds like it's pouring out of heaven.

The few precious times that this happens,
The music sounds so lovely,
That just for a couple moments,
Everyone stops worrying,
And the whole world seems at peace.

But when we are mad,
The music gets dark and loud,
And sometimes it gets so loud,
That it doesn't sound good-
We clash together,
And we have to stop,
And pause,
To cover our ears,
To shut our eyes,
From all the horrors of the noise,
From all the horrors,
Of life.

But always,
We have to watch the conductor,
And listen to him,
Otherwise, We'll get lost,
And all be at different tempos,
Some of us taking our time, Enjoying it,
Savoring every moment.

Sometimes, when it gets tough,
We want to give up,
And put down our instrument.

But if we do,
The rest of the symphony will get lost,
Because everyone depends on one another,
To know what to do,
To know right from wrong.

Life,
Is like a symphony,
Everyone has a different part to play,
But when we all play together,
We can get through anything.

Why Dudamel is different from other conductors?

Gustavo Dudamel is one of the most popular conductors in this century. Even if you haven’t heard his name before, I’m sure you have seen his face and hair on the internet. Why he looks so different from other conductors? Is it because of his hair style?

In my opinion, his conducting style is unique from the others. Since he is very creative, he tries to use his interpretations to conduct the classical pieces. He expresses his own characters through conducting the orchestra. Orchestral players also respond well to his efficient rehearsing methods and clear conception of music’s shape and tempo. Therefore he brings a fresh feeling to the audience and is successful to grab the world’s attention, even the people other than musicians or those who don’t enjoy classical music that much. His clear and exaggerated conducting gestures bring out an especially powerful atmosphere, and I’m sure the audience can feel his craziness and excitement through his conducting. It’s fun to watch his own interpretation of different symphonies.

Classical music in STAR WARS!!!

If you are a STAR WARS fan, you must know the tune of STAR WARS well.
In the movie, when Darth Vader marches out with millions of Stormtroopers, the Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) is played as the background music to show the dark fate of Anakin Skywalker(becomes Darth Vader) and the strong empire ruled by him. The music is always a clue to us that evil is afoot – Darth Vader is coming!



Actually, the Imperial March’s rhythmic pattern is taken from Gustav Holst’s “The Mars, the Bringer of War” of “The Planets” suite.(Start to listen from 4:24) So we can see that John Williams has borrowed the ideas from the “Mars”. Besides the rhythmic pattern, both pieces feature trombones playing  the main theme in order to show the strong and powerful atmosphere to the audience. I think “The Planets” suite is such an inspiration for John Williams as he has taken a lot of musical ideas (e.g. instrumentation, harmonic progression, rhythmic pattern) from it to compose orchestral music for STAR WARS. So we can see how classical music influences modern music, especially film music.

Czerny is More Than Just a Torturer of Piano Pupils!

     Czerny’s collected studies op. 299, op. 849… I dare say they were most pianists’ nightmare when they first learned how to play the piano. All people remember about Czerny is how they were tortured by his studies or etudes, but never the fact that he also wrote piano concertos, church music, chamber music, and some symphonies too! To be honest, I was also shocked when I first knew that. Here’s Czerny’s Symphony No. 5 in E flat Major.

     After hearing this, you may come up with a thought about Czerny’s symphonies, ‘this is Beethoven’s harmony!’ That’s normal, because Czerny was one of Beethoven’s pupils at a young age. Personally, I think this is the nicest one among all Czerny’s symphonies. The work has so much zest and energy, the counterpoints are simply incredible. The orchestration is well arranged, which  proves he’s not only talented and professional in composing pieces for piano. However, thanks to the giant mighty shadow of his teacher, Beethoven, it’s a pity that not many people are familiar with his symphony works. Hope there’s one day when more people get to appreciate his excellent symphonic works!

Outdoor Orchestra Performance trains and shows more our professionalism?

Cultural Centre, Carnegie Hall, Goldener Saal… Classical Music fans always buy tickets and go inside the music halls to listen to classical music. Therefore, professional musicians usually perform indoor more than outdoor.



In an indoor environment, the performance is undoubtedly more successful as the acoustic is better. The humidity is more stable which is good for woodwind instruments. The most important thing is that the whole performance will not be affected by the weather. If there is heavy raining and thunderstorm, the show may need to be cancelled.


Of course, there is still uncountable accident that can influence the show. The following video shows a performance by Vienna Chamber Orchestra last year. A dog suddenly came out and “disturbed” the orchestra members.


Luckily, the dog did not bark or bite people. The most crucial is that the members are professional and concentrated on the show so the show can ran through fluently. 
Performing outside really gives musicians many surprises that they need to change according to the situation. Especially for orchestra, they need to cooperate. If one member goes wrong, the whole orchestra maybe fail.

Impressive Performances of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

No musician will be unfamiliar with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. It is a concert overture composed in 1880 to memorize the French invasion of Russia. It is a famous nationalism music as it begins with a Russian liturgical hymn “O Lord, Save thy People” which representing the praying for deliverance from the invading army. The playing of La Marseillaise representing the French invasion. The final climax represents the victory of Russia.



In this piece, the most famous part is the appearance of the loud and noisy cannon sound. In some performances, firework comes out when the cannon comes out. However, it is super dotty that there are some show really put budget for using real cannon.
 The above performance was in Leningrad. Maybe you will think that "Oh! It is quite natural that using cannon outdoor." Then, you will be surprised to see the indoor cannon. It is shocked and excited to see the indoor cannon. But we have to understand that not every organization has the ability to support a show with real cannon. The following performance by Sydney Symphony Orchestra used paper bags to imitate the cannon bang.

Why I love Leonard Bernstein?

Why I love Leonard Bernstein?

Leonard Bernstein was a philanthropist, innovator, educator, conductor, composer. He was a truly a master of his time! He changed everything in classical music, in a positive way.

As a composer, he wrote in pretty much every style: symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and thetre music, choral music and solo pieces for piano. Bernstein met Aaron Copland at his birthday party in 1938 and decided to play Copland's Piano Variations at the party. Bernstein loved this work, but had never known anything about the composer until that evening. From then on, Bernstein regularly went to Copland for advice on his compositions and has seen him as "his only real composition teacher."

As a conductor, even after he rose to fame, Bernstein endeavored to make music accessible for all. In 1954, Bernstein was the first conductor to present a series of television lectures on Classical music and his this continued until his death in 1990.

As you can see, he leads us from the very birth of primordial, monotonal music all the way up to the chromatic experiments of the 20th century, and all he has was a great script and a piano.

In this video, using Beethoven as example, Leonard Bernstein explains exactly what's improtant about conducting: tempo, instinct, drama, interpretation - and occasionally the composer's wishes!

He never give up...

During his last performance as a conductor, suffering from lung disease, he suffered a coughing during the third movement of Beethoven Symphony No.7. However, like a true professional, Bernstein kept conducting until the end of the work.

Finally, he left us a quote...

Even a Toddler May Listen to More Symphonies Than You Do!

     Woah, wait, no offense. You have also listened to a rich reportouire of symphonies or orchestral works already if you enjoyed cartoons as a kid. Can you imagine that, you were already listening to the piano concerto no. 2 by Shostakovich when you watched Fantasia by Disney, Symphony no. 7 by Beethoven when you watched A Ham in a Role and The Barber of Seville by Rossini when you watched Rabbit of Seville?

     And of course, I do have my favourite one too, and yes, I have listened to the Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss when I didn’t even know what is an orchestra or a symphony. This piece appears in the famous  American cartoon, Tom and Jerry. Here’s a formal performance in the 2010 Vienna New Year Concert.

     Here’s a fragment of the Tom and Jerry version (The Hollywood Bowl), too.

     It’s funny in the way that the writers of Tom and Jerry made use of the orchestration of the Die Fledermaus to arrange the plot. How talented were they to make Jerry saw underneath the riser and floor to dispose of the orchestra members, one by one, when the orchestration is cut down towards the end of the piece? Of course, there are some ridiculous parts (for who can play five violins, five violas, four trumpets and a bass drum at the same time like Tom?), but that’s the funny part, so sit back and enjoy!