Peak Musical Experiences!!!!!

The Austin Symphonic Band (affectionatley known as ASB) has an upcoming concert titled "Structures."  Sounds interesting so I asked one of my dear friends what was on the program.  She was kind enough to send me the weekly announcements with links to reference recordings to allow band members to get a gist of the music prior to rehearsal.  Invincible Eagle by John Phillip Sousa was on the menu.  We played Invincible Eagle as the opener for our UIL contest performance in 1989 when I was a senior in high school.  The rest of the program included Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations and the final movement from Symphony #2 by John Barnes Chance.  Quite a mature program for 15-18 year old musicians to partake.I've always enjoyed the piece and hearing it again brought back some great memories of one of the first peak musical experiences I've had in my entire life.  

Peak musical experiences are defined as experiences with music that stand out as especially physiologically arousing and meaningful.  Joseph Kaine wrote a thesis and has identified three components to a peak musical experience.  "First, the ability to prefer or expect a musical change or feature can have a large emotional impact.  Second, the arguably most important musical emotion of empathy can likely be created through rhythmic feature of tempo and synchronization.  Third, peak musical experiences are emotionally arounsing and largely include by musical structure and audience setting." 

During the concert we opened with Invincible Eagle.  Marches are always used to open a contest program.  They're relatively easy to perform and get the band warmed up and acclimated to the venue before tackling the more cerebral works to follow.  As we played Nimrod, everything starts out relatively simple.  The piece is played at a leisurely tempo and there are many opportunity for the conductor to stretch the tempo through various retardandos as the sonority and texture of the piece become more intense .  I vividly remember being transformed to another dimension.  There was a grandiose retard at the peak of the piece.  With stretched subdivision of the beat in a grandiose retard, the sound built to such an intensity of feeling and dynamic.  Goosebumps galore up and down my neck.  Hair standing on end.  The floor was vibrating, as was the chair.  I could feel it in every bone of my body.  My bass clarinet was vibrating and the intensity of the wall of sound was just incredible.  The tension builds and builds and builds and finally releases in a most spectacular resolution as the piece closes with a gentle statement completely opposite of the peak with the most content and satisfyingly delicate statement.  A complete relaxation of the soul after the most intense build up of passion, power and intensity that was musically rewarding beyond compare to anything experienced ever before.  

That moment was forever imprinted on my soul and was by far one of the most intense experiences in my life as a performer. 

The year was 1996 and my wife and I were dating.  She gifted me with tickets to see the Dallas Wind Ensemble at The Meyerson.  It was a November 19th concert entitled "A Garden of Dreams."  The program included Children's Overture by Eugene Bozza, Children's March by Percy Grainger, When Jesus Wept by William Schulman, Dream About Flying by Ernest Krenek, I'm Seventeen Come Sunday also by Grainger and David Maslanka's A Child's Garden of Dreams.  It was an amazing evening.  The concert was long and quite intense.  I remember sitting in the audience completely dumbfounded and in total awe of the veracity and energy gifted to us by the musicians.  The performance was BRIGHT and HOT!  You could feel the heat of the energy that filled the venue.  The acoustics are outstanding!  The sizzle of the performance as breathtaking.  Figuratively, you could see the smoke coming off the horns with each piece. The great hall was almost too small to contain the energy.  It was amazing!

Approximately six years ago I performed with the St. Marten's Symphonic Winds at St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Austin TX.  There was a group of musicians from ASB that were part of the music ministry.  The church embraced music of all kinds.  There was one festival Sunday in the fall and we played Alfred Reid's Alleluia! Laudamus te.  It was the postlude of the service and we played great!  We blew the doors of the sanctuary.  Good times.

Playing with ASB was an amazing experience. There were peak musical experiences during every concert.  I was never a better musician in my entire life.  There was something magical about playing with that group of people in that chapter of my life.  The people I played with made me a better musician.  Our director was Richard Floyd.  I've tried to play with other groups and it's not the same.  Playing in ASB was very academic yet most artistic.  We made such beautiful music.  It was a truly rewarding experience and my musical abilities as a performer peaked for those 3 years.  I look back on that chapter of life with extreme fondness and am extremely proud of what we accomplished.  

One of the special things about performing music in an ensemble is the bond that forms between all members of the group.  We come together, work hard and create something magical.  I don't know every musician I've played with but our lives were forever bonded in those performances.  A friend of mine wrote an essay about it.  I'll have to see if I can dig it up and post it here at a later date.