Student orchestra embraces nostalgia
USC’s Student Symphony Orchestra performed at Bovard Auditorium Sunday.
By JINA UMAKANTHAN
The Gothic structure of Bovard Auditorium breathed life on the evening of Nov. 5, as the Student Symphony Orchestra performed a repertoire of nostalgia.
Around 7 p.m., the lights dimmed and the rolling sound of cellos tuning filled the air. The smooth, deep hum was immediately followed by the higher pitched violins, mimicking the sound several octaves higher. The wind instruments followed suit, and for a moment, the entire auditorium filled with the swelling of four notes being played in tune.
Then silence.
As the precursory breath of the instruments faded away, music director Roberto Gemignani took the stage, dressed in a fully black ensemble, and gave the audience a small exposition on the theme of the evening: legends and fairytales.
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Gemignani briefly summarized the program for the evening and acknowledged the wide span of time covered in the repertoire, with the compositions ranging from 1841 to 2004. Yet, in the program description, Gemignani wrote in the director’s note that the pieces are “transcendent of the context of their creation, speaking to a level of shared humanity uninhibited by the time and space which separates them.”
As Gemignani finished his statement, he turned to face the orchestra, lifted his conducting baton and the sound of horns filled the room, immediately followed by a high-speed procession of the entire orchestra.
As the first notes of the Giuseppe Verdi’s “Nabucco Overture” were played, the entire audience was rapt in the precise interpretation of the piece.
“You can really tell how much time and dedication is put into [the show],” said Madeline Lilley, an attendee and sophomore majoring in political science. “It gave me chills multiple times.”
The raw emotion of the program was palpable through the tonal shifts in the music.
Going from the loud, forceful opening of Verdi’s “Nabucco Overture” to the sweetness of the violin movement in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Othello Suite,” the span of emotions greatly varied and created an overwhelming sense of raw experience throughout the music.
The third piece in the repertoire, a symphonic variation of Joe Hisaishi’s “Merry-Go-Round,” is from “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004), and was noticeably the piece that evoked the most response from the audience.
The soft blending of the strings with the wind instruments carried the entire auditorium into a space of peace and memory. After the nearly 14-minute performance, the entire audience erupted into the loudest roar of applause for that evening.
When asked her favorite piece of the performance, Kayla Jung, an attendee and sophomore majoring in biological studies said, “I really liked the ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ … It was one of my favorite childhood movies.”
A third theme of the night, beyond myths or fairy tales, was the overwhelming sense of nostalgia. The history of the repertoire and the individual, emotional connection to pieces like “Merry-Go-Round” are what allowed for a seeming transcendence of time within the music.
In his introduction, Gemignani wrote that “these composers … found something in these tales and legends which resonated with them and, in turn, inspired them to write music which now resonates with us.” Each piece performed was inspired by a specific legend or myth: Nabucco, Othello, Howl’s Moving Castle and The Nutcracker.
The derivation of the music from preexisting literary works reaffirms Gemignani’s commitment to emotional responses that transcend time barriers. Despite the generational difference between the composers and modern-day audiences, it was clear that wordless, orchestral compositions could still incite great feelings in the audience.
From a technical standpoint, the orchestra went through great lengths to synchronize and organize the performance, practicing for two hours every Sunday.
Beyond the scope of the mechanisms of performance, one of the fundamental components to the orchestra was the sense of community felt throughout the group.
“It’s everyone from everywhere,” said Neelie Lim, a violinist in the SSO and a sophomore majoring in business administration.
“[From] neuroscience to music majors, getting to play with them was so influential.”
This sense of camaraderie and the shared experience of the members of the orchestra was felt by the audience in the wholeness of the performance. Beyond the cohesiveness and the technical subtlety of the music, emotion was transmitted between the musicians and the audience.
As Gemignani raised his baton to begin the final piece, Pytor Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite Pas de Deux,” the audience was taken, one more time, to a world of soft melodies and a story commonly associated with the holidays. Gemignani introduced the piece as an ushering of the Christmas season from the orchestra to the audience, once again setting the tone for an environment of memories and nostalgia.
As the strings slowly mellowed their sound to the final bars of the piece, it marked a conclusion to an hour-long performance of music written over 200 years.
The lights were brought up again, and the intricate lacework of the Bovard Auditorium decor was on full display as the audience applauded and filed out of the building.
This final moment of connection, the shared experience of witnessing the performance was in and of itself a statement of time and nostalgia, and this sentiment is exactly what allows music to transcend the boundaries of time and history.
