No matter who you are, you’ve probably heard Gioachino Rossini‘s before, largely because of Looney Tunes. There’s nothing wrong with that. His music is so energizing and playful – perfect stuff for watching the Road Runner outwit Wile E. Coyote and by extension, the Acme corporation. More than that, he doesn’t play any musical guessing-games with his audience. When there’s a melody, you hear it. When it gets faster, you know. No special knowledge required.

This is the overture to his opera “La Cenerentola” – Cinderella.

So why is this post titled “Wait for it …”? The first two minutes of the overture is “sit down and shut up” music. Some quiet notes, a couple big chords, some noodling around, some weird harmonic progressions. Stuff to pass the time as opera patrons rush to their seats before the real action begins. (I’m actually convinced that at 2:09, Rossini was actually setting the words “sit down, shut up, sit down, shut up” to orchestral music.)

So if you get bored or lost early on … wait for it. Things start to get going around 2:15.

Humans love to categorize things. It’s not a bad thing – it helps us predict what will happen when we come across something new. For example, if I come across a new life form, and it looks like a plant, smells like a plant, and acts like a plant, I might assume it’s a plant, and therefore, it probably won’t jump up and eat me. On the other hand, if I meet a new life form that looks like a tiger, smells like a tiger, and acts like a tiger, it’s probably too late to run, because that tigeresque creature has already thought that I look like food, smell like food, and act like food.

So how does this affect music? You probably know Leonard Bernstein from his “West Side Story“. You might also know he was the longtime conductor of the New York Philharmonic, one of the top orchestras in the world. People today are still arguing whether his pieces are “Musical Theater” or “Opera”, “Classical” or “Pops”, “new musical territory” or “borrowed from other musical genres”. So then they start calling this music “Crossover“.
Oy vey.

His Broadway Show, no, Opera, no, piece “Candide” is based on the story by Voltaire. The overture, below, has clear, singable melodies (like musical theater) and complex rhythm, harmony, and masterful orchestration (like opera.) And, no matter what it looks, smells, or acts like, it won’t eat you.

Music has been around for thousands of years. Actually, tens of thousands of years. Maybe it’s too bold of a statement to make in my first blog post, but I’d like to think that the ability and desire to organize sound – to make music – serves as one of the greatest milestones in human evolution.

This new blog, I suppose, is nothing new. We’ve been doing this for 40,000 + years. Amazing, though, that we are still fascinated by music – in fact, you could say we can’t get enough. Music is everywhere in our modern lives, from formal events like church or graduations, to casual things like shopping or even sports games.

Claudio Monteverdi‘s (1567-1643) opera “L’Orfeo” (1607) was not the first opera ever written, but it is the earliest opera written that is still performed today, 400 years later. (a mere 1/100th of 40,000 years – the dating of the earliest musical instrument found). The overture is pure rock-and-roll: 8 bars of loud music, all in the same key. No development. No tricks. Just rock, and repeat. After the overture, a sweet aria, in which a character called “La Musica” sings:

I am Music, who with sweet accents can make a troubled heart to be at peace;
I can set ablaze even the coldest of minds with noble anger or love.

A fitting beginning for the Fine Art of Listening. Thanks for visiting!

How about them Harry-Potter robes, eh?