Just a thought… Because life is a symphony it must have its C Minor. Days there be when we hear only a discord of sharps and flats, and we wonder whether harmony will ever be restored. [Thomas Hylland Eriksen]
Ah, and what a perfect symphony it was – times two!
A week that began last Sunday with a perfect evening ended Friday with another soul-stirring experience, and I couldn’t wait to share them with you.
Rob and I were watching a comic we love on YouTube and a little ad popped up for the Victoria Symphony accompanying the 1987 movie The Princess Bride at the Royal Theatre. On a whim I went online and found three tickets – among very few left – for Sunday night.
We took our niece Ava, whose mom, my sister Leslie, and family live in West Kelowna. Ava’s in Victoria, about a 40 minute drive from us, attending university there to become a music teacher, and is specializing in clarinet.
It was an incredible two hours: the symphony performed the stirring soundtrack to the film, giving us not only the inspiring feeling of hearing live music, but also enjoying a most entertaining film – with subtitles, thankfully – and one that neither Rob nor Ava had seen! “Inconceivable!” to quote a memorable character. (If you subscribe to Disney channel, I can’t recommend this Rob Reiner-directed joy highly enough!)
We left the theatre with spirits higher than we’d felt in a long time. Later the same week, I shook with nerves as I introduced our local Liberal candidate and the president of the Liberal Party of Canada at a local rally that was well-attended and successful and only proved how out of practice I am at standing up in front of people. (Boy, did I miss the podium as a shield, as I trembled holding my iPad!)
Sadly, my services weren’t needed for another local candidate’s rally, attended last night by Mark Carney himself. Waaaaaaah! And I’m not going to take it personally, LOL. Even though I would have found a way to answer what the internet wants to know this week: what is this cat’s name?
Fast forward, in an already highspeed week, to Friday. Ava and the rest of her course’s musicians were joined on stage at the university by the incredibly talented members of the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy: 35 musicians whose sole purpose is to support Naval Operations, ceremonial events and public outreach operations. Here’s how they looked just before the conductors were introduced.
The theme was Fantasy, Myths & Legends and featured music from Holst’s The Planets, a piece by John Williams from the movie Hook, and my personal favourite piece of classical music of all time, the final minutes of the Suite from The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky. I closed my eyes and was transported outside my body. It was truly transcendent and so good for my soul.
I was reminded of how little music I listen to, except in the car, and don’t know why that is! It’s right there at our fingertips through YouTube (here’s the link to Peter Oundjian conducting the Toronto Symphony; you may want to go ahead to the last four minutes to be reminded of this exceptional piece).
I warn you, you may get taken down the best internet rabbit hole there is!
The film and its exceptional accompaniment on Sunday, as well as this past Friday’s concert, which we decided to attend at the last minute, served as perfect bookends and a reminder that no matter how loud the voices outside (and the ones in our heads and on our devices) get, there is always – unless we’re hearing impaired, and I’m sorry for that – music. To feed our soul. To right our inner balance and remind us of the beauty that is at our fingertips at any time.
To bring us back to who we are.
Have a beautiful week and thanks for spending a few minutes here with me. I appreciate it.