Stream of Consciousness

Thoughts that crossed my mind during tonight’s Utah Symphony program titled “Echoes in Aqua,” featuring Mozart’s “Water Music” and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “A Sea Symphony:” . . . a bass violinist is chewing gum . . . where does a conductor learn all of the little gestures that go along with taking a bow . . . this Ralph Vaughn Williams guy has pretty pedestrian lyrics to go along with his music . . . part of this thing sounds kind of like the Village People’s “In the Navy,” but not as good . . . wait a second, according to the program notes the lyrics are entirely taken from the works of Walt Whitman . . . in my home town there is an elementary school named after Whitman, but his works still seem pretty lame . . . one of the male violinists has long hair like a rock star, weird . . . the vocal soloists are staring straight ahead without expression except for when they sing, what are they thinking about . . . hey, I get it, “Water Music” and “A Sea Symphony,” there is kind of a water theme to all of this . . . when are vocalists expected to memorize everything, and when can they get away with just reading everything, like they’re doing tonight . . . there is not one catchy tune in all of this . . . NOTE: This entry relates to experiences I had on March 4, but was written on March 21, 2006.