An Intellectually Challenged Society?
November 13, 2007
by: Jenny Baxter – AWS Percussionist
I want to dole out a big thank you to everyone who came to the Creature Features concert. I had a great time playing and was glad to see all the pirates, Frankensteins, skeletons, bees, wizards and even the Phantom of the Opera.
Now we are already in our fourth week of practice for the First Night concert on New Year’s Eve. Thanks to Branden for directing the symphony in the first couple weeks of practice; that can’t be an easy job during the sightreading stages.
“And now,” to quote Monty Python, “for something completely different.”
Before last week’s practice I watched a movie titled “Idiocracy” which was very funny but in a scary sort of way. The premise is that average Joe Bauer (Luke Wilson), who dawdles his time away in a military library, is chosen for his perfect mediocrity for a “Human Hibernation Project” along with a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph.)
By a string of bad circumstances, the one-year experiment becomes 500, and the pair awake to a United States that has fallen into a deep state of stupidity. This seemingly far-fetched plot is explained by the fact that stupid people reproduce more (think of your favorite trashy relative), causing Average Joe to wake up as smartest person on Earth. Looks, strength, profanity and advertising have replaced intelligence, morals and other virtues.
After watching the film, I listened to classical music on the way to practice just to feel smarter. I wondered if that time would actually come when we would completely value commercialism and profanity over music, literacy, education and morals.
I also thought about how classical music is always associated with intellect, by myself and others. Film and television music is generally thought of as lower in some way, similar to popular music.
Why? The music doesn’t require any less talent to play and studio orchestras spend hours perfecting a piece for a film. Part of our challenge is that people know the music we’re playing. Five-year-olds in the audience will know if we don’t play Batman or Superman perfectly. They may know Beethoven’s Fifth and William Tell Overture, but mistakes aren’t as easily noticed.
Stay smart, appreciate all music whether it really is “intellectual” and check us out on New Year’s Eve.
Below are some photos from our “Creature Features” concert… Enjoy!
