When you know the symphony is gonna be amazing...

[Flint]

...as you find your seat and look down at the stage and immediately notice there are two harps, two full set of tympani, five flautists, two contra-bass clarinet, a real glockenspiel, and some sort of massive wood drum thing with a giant Viking style wooden mallet resting on it.

Last night I watched an amazing performance of Mahler's Symphony no. 6 performed by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. The weather was so amazing we hung out on the veranda overlooking the city of Austin from across Lady Bird Johnson Lake enjoying our cocktails and just loving the night air. Then we found our seats just in time for the first movement and were carried away for 80 minutes of musical paintings of the world Mahler lived in. At one point I wanted to holla out, "more cowbell!!!" But chose to refrain.

While I was on the third level, called the balcony, and the orchestra was pretty far from me, I still got the enjoy an extremely broad dynamic range from a single violin soft enough to hear the air noise of the room to the full blast of the larger than normal orchestra putting all they had into it and that huge drum thing packing a massive punch. My ears were actually ringing after that and only settled down later this afternoon.

What a great experience!

 

[Flint]

 

[Flint]

This is that crazy drum thing...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158303819550212

It was shockingly loud.

 

[Flint]

According to Wikipedia, the crazy drum is the "hammer" as described below:

^ The sound of the hammer, which features in the last movement, was stipulated by Mahler to be "brief and mighty, but dull in resonance and with a non-metallic character (like the fall of an axe)." The sound achieved in the premiere did not quite carry far enough from the stage, and indeed the problem of achieving the proper volume while still remaining dull in resonance remains a challenge to the modern orchestra. Various methods of producing the sound have involved a wooden mallet striking a wooden surface, a sledgehammer striking a wooden box, or a particularly large bass drum, or sometimes simultaneous use of more than one of these methods.

 

[Towen7]

I haven't been to the symphony in too long. I need to go.

 

[CMonster]

Heh, we went to the KC symphony for the first time today. The performing arts center has two halls and we'd be to one several times for operas and ballets. This was our first time in the other hall and it was pretty nice; looked and sounded great.

 

[CMonster]

Heh, we went to the KC symphony for the first time today. The performing arts center has two halls and we'd be to one several times for operas and ballets. This was our first time in the other hall and it was pretty nice; looked and sounded great.

 

[Botch]

Chuck, tell me about that pipe organ! Are those actual wooden pipes?? That must have a completely unique sound, wow!

(and, I must confess, that large euphonium in the first pic reminds me of chalkboard eraser contests in Junior High... SCORE!!!!)

 

[CMonster]

Chuck, tell me about that pipe organ! Are those actual wooden pipes?? That must have a completely unique sound, wow!

(and, I must confess, that large euphonium in the first pic reminds me of chalkboard eraser contests in Junior High... SCORE!!!!)

It wasn't used for the performance today but here's a link to info about it: https://www.kauffmancenter.org/the-center/venues/helzberg-hall/the-organ/

 

[Haywood]

 

[Deleted member 133]

It wasn't used for the performance today but here's a link to info about it: https://www.kauffmancenter.org/the-center/venues/helzberg-hall/the-organ/

Love the multiple Canadian connections with both the building and the organ!



Would dearly love to hear it played some day.

Jeff

 

[Flint]

Here's footage of the Mahler Hammer thingy from an actual performance in various slo-mo speeds... this was the loudest part of the performance and made my ears rings four almost a day afterwards.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10158310635855212

The first two times it was played, the guys playing the snare in this clip was the one to hit it, and he didn't do a full over-the-shoulder axe swing like this. The guy in this video was playing the Xylophone, Bells, and other chromatic mallet instruments for the majority of the performance, so it was his chance to shine as a "real" percussionist and not just a glorified pianist. hehehe...