Monday, January 26, 2009

United States of Awesome

I'm sure many of you checked out the incredible inauguration of our 44th President of the United States Barack Obama (If not please go Youtube it, or read an article, or at least take your head out of the sand). 

Of course it was an incredible event, with moving speeches and a groundbreaking social change. But, in my mind, one of the most stirring moments came from the musical performance written by John Williams. Alex Ross of the New Yorker had some brilliant words to say about it, "[what] I liked most of all the diverse picture of the classical world that the performers presented: an Israeli-born violinist, a Chinese-American cellist, a Venezuelan-born pianist, and an African-American clarinetist from the South Side of Chicago."

While it was a moving piece, the ensemble playing it was just as moving. They did personify the wonderful thing about this country, our diversity and acceptance. And while the election of our first black president epitomizes this fact, this piece played tribute to it through music. Check it out...

2 comments:

  1. You know, they weren't actually playing "live" - the music was prerecorded and they were miming the playing. The reason was because of the bitter cold and wind, which would have created distortion and feedback in the mics.

    But a great piece nonetheless - a return to something a little classier in high office...

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  2. Yeah. I was leaving that part out...

    I was working with a bunch of event producers at the time, and they were saying they should have added some wind effects at least to make it sound realistic.

    Another reason too is that it's impossible to keep instruments tuned at those temperatures. Eh, what can you do. The piece was still pretty moving.

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