Gustav Holst's
The Planets - This seven movement (primarily) orchestral piece pays tribute to Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Even if you're unfamiliar with it by name, most of you will recognize Mars and Jupiter, as they are both often used for dramatic scenes in movies and commercials. It is a beautiful work and I love how it gives each planet its own personality. In fact, it was my soundtrack for the 2024 eclipse. I listened to it in its entirety leading up to totality. I said primarily orchestral because the last movement, Neptune, actually involves a small choir. The key is that the audience is never supposed to see them or associate the music they're creating with people. It's like we're all the "sounds of space and the various planets." The decrescendo at the end is supposed to be so unnatural, like sound being silenced in the vacuum of space, that they often keep the small choir right at the stage door and gradually shut said door on them at the end to enhance the extremity and intensity of said decrescendo. It was either my second or third year with the Houston Symphony when I was one of 10 singers selected to sing Neptune. The chorus was somewhere around 230 at the time, so I felt really honored to be selected. It's not an every year sort of thing either, so it was just a really special one-off in that season. It is one of my most favorite symphony memories.
WARNING- Mini Novella Coming!
It was a one night engagement between the Houston Symphony and NASA. The concert was held at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion...which is one of those theaters where you've got a significant covered area for assigned ticketed seating and then a large outdoor lawn area for open seating. The NASA component involved tons of images of each planet from the Hubble Space Telescope. A massive screen came down in front of the bulk of the orchestra so that the audience would be hearing the music of each planet while seeing all of these incredible images taken in space. Those with lawn seating also had the experience of being under the stars while it all happened. I had to arrive in the middle of the day for the one and only dress rehearsal. I was already floored because we had dressing rooms and craft services the entire time. I had just seen an 80s concert there with groups like the Go-Go's, B52s, etc. so my mind was more on the fact that I was occupying the same private special spaces as these famous acts I'd seen just a month earlier. In any event, maestro played around with our location/positioning during dress for the proper volume during the main parts of the movement as well as that dramatic decrescendo. In the end, he opted for six singers in the hall, one in the stage doorway, three of us on stage and all of us silently moving away from the door/off stage and then the door slowly shutting in front of us at the very end. I was pretty stoked because I was one of the three that made the actual stage. Still totally out of sight, but I made the stage. The performance was fine but what really stuck with me was something the maestro did just before showtime. He knew that at least some of us identified as performers and not just musicians. So, he asked if we wanted to walk the stage right before just to get that feel for it, since many people had already filed into their seats or had set up their blankets out on the lawn. I jumped at the opportunity! I love to get that feel for the audience to get myself amped up. It was sort of a surreal pinch me moment to be standing front center stage in this major venue with thousands of people in front of me and more coming in (sold out show- between seating and lawn, capacity is over 16,000).
Oh, and since we were at the very end and our part was this super high, lyric sort of ethereal sounding thing, most of us didn't touch the food from craft services. Phlegm is a very real concern. One of the craft services ladies asked me what was wrong and I explained. So, at the end, we came back to all kinds of food boxed up and bagged so we could bring it all home. I think I wound up with 3-4 days worth of food out of it...from snacks, sides and desserts, to several main course options.
I'm sure I could come up with two other totally separate pieces of unrelated gratitude, but I think I've already woven more than three into this little story.
, things you're grateful for
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