NaBloPoMo Make-up, 11/21/12: The Planets

This is a make-up blog post that I had hoped to post last year.

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I took my children to a free concert presented by UAH at the VBC Concert Hall a week ago.  It was a last-minute sort of thing, and when you have a 3yo & 8yo, a last minute, late evening usually doesn't work very well.

Surprisingly, the worst they gave me was merely being tired & fidgety by the end of the concert.

A FaceBook friend (Amanda, I think) gave me a heads-up about the concert, and a check of web sites confirmed it.  The UAH Wind Ensemble and Chorus, joined by The Army Materiel Command Band, would be performing Gustav Holst's "The Planets" as the conclusion of "A Gala of Celebration of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences" day-long Liberal Arts forum/open house at the VBC.

I had to go see it.  I am a fan of Mr. Holst's band pieces, having played both his "Military Suite in E-flat" and "Military Suite in F" in high school and college (and, maybe, have the

melodies memorized-- consider yourself warned.)  Nowadays, "The Planets," despite their mid-century popularity, rarely get a full performance, even on the radio. This would be an exceptional treat for me, so I was excited to go.  I took the kids with me because 1) they needed some culture and 2) their dad had a choral rehearsal, so he couldn't watch them. (Nor could I get anyone else, it being last minute.)  The concert was the very night I'd heard of it; I called the proper UAH department to have them put 3 tickets at the Will-Call window for us.

We arrived and found a reasonable parking place, despite the hockey game in the arena.  I picked up the tickets with no problem.  Most of the Liberal Arts departments were closing down their booths, but of what I could see, it must have been fascinating to learn what they were doing to make science

even more visionary.  That was the theme of the evening: that the achievement and the execution science can only go so far unless it goes forth with the liberal arts.  The keynote speaker was Glenn T. Dasher, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts; his pre-show lecture "Colliding Spheres" illustrated that throughout the centuries, many scientists who looked to, dreamed of, and finally entered space were "well-rounded" men and women who read and wrote, who took in the marvels of the visual world and studied the esthetics of biology & physics, who heard the beauty of music & rhythm in its mathematics & inspiration, who saw the true meeting of the minds of art & science in the scientific art of psychology.  It is no wonder that we bestow the term "Renaissance" upon one whose mind and studies encompass the breadth of human knowledge and experience. Here in the "Rocket City", we are blessed with many individuals who are helping the art & science of thinking and creating be reborn.

What better work to evoke this than "The Planets"?  Is it not the idealized industry of Huntsville to seek out the planets, and to bring their discovered

secrets back to our Earth.  Do we not still dream of living out there?  The planets were named after the pantheon of old, given names as befitting to what characteristics each heavenly body seemed to have from what was observed. Strangely, even now that advanced telescopes, satellites and interplanetary probes have brought back more information, more detailed images than the original Renaissance scientists would have imagined, "who" the planets are still holds in our minds and is further reinforced.

"The Planets" is Gustov Holtz's impressionistic work of the solar system. Sometimes unsettling, sometimes yearning, it conveys each planet distinctly.  After the keynote speaker, there was a fanfare, followed by a "unworldly" excerpt from the Theater Department's recent production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."  Then began the concert.

The concert was further sensually enhanced by a complex light plot with full effects of gobos and a fog machine.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and was enchanted.  DLG, being young and short, was bored and  was overwhelmed by the powerful pieces like "Mars" and "Jupiter."  But when the orchestra was joined by the choir for the ethereal and almost atonal "Neptune," she snapped to attention. DLG adores singing.  MLB was fascinated by the effects and even enjoyed the percussion, no matter how loud it got; he practiced tapping out rhythms.  But "Neptune" he did not like; my budding musician and mathematician prefers order, organization, themes and harmonies.  (Reasonable enough.)

To bring us all back to our own planet Earth, the combined artists concluded with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and invited the audience to join in.  Oh, I did, singing with everything I had.  DLG smiled, and MLB relaxed in the military harmonies (despite the audience participation.)

Getting the two of them back to the car wasn't difficult.  Luckily for me, I had some bottles of water, for both kids were thirsty and tired due to the late hour.  I don't know what of the performance they'll remember.  My take-away was said succinctly on a UAH College of Liberal Arts bumper-sticker that I took away with me to apply to my tackle box of theater make-up:


"Do what you love.  Change the World."