Supply: Samuel Sianipar / Unsplash

From the primary second of getting into the live performance corridor, you may really feel it—a way of magic and marvel. From the milling round and discovering your seats to the cacophonous sounds from the gamers, who’re additionally milling round on stage—making ready scores and checking a couple of runs. It appears so pedestrian for “classical music pomposity.” You sense that you’re all about to expertise one thing on a unique aesthetic stage. Then…the lights dim. Silence falls within the corridor. Then…a girl with lengthy flowing hair in a protracted flowing black robe enters together with her violin, the concertmaster, and alerts for the oboists to present an “A” (at all times an “A” as a result of each string instrument has an “A” string.) and the orchestra collectively “tunes” for remaining preparation. Once more silence.

Then…

He seems. Like a messiah rising, or Gandhi, or Elvis getting into the constructing. He seems—the maestro—in a superbly becoming tux, with a purposeful stroll and baton in hand. There’s a swell of applause from each the viewers and the orchestra. Anticipation has reached Defcon 1. He provides a comforting smile, assuring us that we’re in good palms, shakes the concertmaster’s hand, and takes his place on the rostrum—now hovering above all noble and laypeople within the room. Silence (I can hear my heartbeat in my ears.), baton up, devices on the prepared.

And…

Seventy devices produce a sound with such precision and depth that it instantly envelops you—now part of the collective viewers—and places you into an aural trance. I’ve seen Inexperienced Day in a full stadium and Foo Fighters in a packed area. Van Halen’s unique lineup on the seaside. High-of-their-game jazz cats at Greenwich Village underground golf equipment. Hamilton on Broadway. However experiencing a top-notch symphony orchestra of their pure atmosphere is like no different dwell music expertise. Ever. It is auditory nirvana. (And if I had seen Nirvana, I might nonetheless really feel the identical.)

Stay and in a Live performance Corridor

A part of the attract, I feel, is that that is how this music is, and has at all times been, meant to be heard. Stay and in a live performance corridor. Different genres can create audiophilia recordings that can’t be recreated dwell. The Beatles by no means performed most of their songs in live performance, as they had been meant to be heard by way of their recording mastery.

When the push of music overtakes you, the “chill issue” kicks in. And the dopamine launched in your mind produces such a euphoria that you just can’t assist however smile. You “really feel” the music swell all through your physique. You develop into part of the orchestra’s ebb and stream. You expertise it along with your whole being and virtually really feel like you could float in the direction of the heavens. The music creates stress, and when it resolves, heat floods your veins. Your coronary heart charge entrains to the tempo. The Adagio is calming. The allegro makes your insides need to burst with sonic pleasure. You develop into one with the music, and the music turns into one with you. It is a full body-mind-spirit expertise.

“Experiencing” the Music

I used to be lucky to lately expertise the Nationwide Symphony Orchestra (at The Kennedy Heart in Washington, D.C.) with my lately turned 21-year-old son, who was house from a break from faculty. He loves classical music (and listens to it on objective) and all of the feels from the expertise of the live performance corridor. And sure, he additionally loves rock, hip-hop, experiential jazz, and Fado (I wish to take credit score for my youngsters’s well-rounded musical tastes from introducing them to quite a lot of music once they had been younger.). Actually, he enjoys music festivals with pals and area concert events (see Inexperienced Day reference above). However seeing the thrill and pleasure that he felt, sitting subsequent to him, experiencing Dvorak and Rimsky-Korsakov within the ingredient that it was meant to be heard, made all of it the higher.

That is what “experiencing” music is all about—the creative emotion and the connections it creates with strangers and family members. The complete expertise was so joyful—the live performance corridor, the music, the fervour, the precision of gamers who’ve studied and practiced their craft for a lifetime and…being with my son. That’s my completely satisfied place. That’s my pleasure. That’s my remedy. That’s the magic and marvel of the symphony.

That is the therapeutic energy of (dwell) music.