Up Next

I didn't realize that this next concert is connected with a television network.  Nor did I realize that our arrangements of Swan Lake and the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition dissolve into dub-step mutations by the second line.  We have another piece called, "007" or as our conductor referred to it, "zero zero seven," as well as an arrangement of Borodin's Polovetsian Dances arranged as a ballad with singer.  There are some pieces from the canonic repertoire, as well.  Because this is related to a cooking show, a chef will apparently be cooking/dancing to Tchaikovsky's Trepak from the Nutcracker.  It's all a little hazy and strange to me at this point.  I'll find out more when it actually happens on Saturday, but I think this promises to be a far more engaging pops concert than any in which I've participate thus far.

What is the role of classical music?  I wonder if this is any stranger than Greek gods dancing to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.  But I feel like this fits a more commercial role similar to  Palladio and diamond rings, or Copland's Rodeo to sell beef for dinner.  Or maybe even the pops concerts which mix Santa and baby Jesus and the symphony orchestra to legitimate the evening.  Why are backing up a cooking show?  Why does a cooking show need us?

At this point, not having had the full experience, I know that I am prematurely asking empty questions. I will sit back and wait for Saturday to come.  But in the mean time, it has made me wonder, a little more deeply, what role the world thinks that classical (i.e. art) music can play.  Is it the time that we put into practicing and rehearsing, is it the sound of orchestral instruments, the amount of focus it demands on an audience?  What is it that makes pop culture want to twist classical music into something different to serve its purposes?  What are the qualities of classical music that are so desirable and why are they so?  And what qualities does pop culture not value and why not?

I'm not sure if this concert will seem uniquely Japanese.  And I'm not sure that I will know even after the fact.  I won't be able to understand the lyrics for Pictures at an Exhibition.  I'm not sure I will really be able to understand the purpose of the whole experience.   But maybe some things are not meant to be understood.