TTT symphony and other weekend doings
As reported by a few others, Friday night was the TTT symphony, which I attended along with claudia603, lavendertook, mews1945, ninjamidget66, and aprilkat (and her friend). We had a very nice dinner at the on-site restaurant, then made our way into the pavilion (or whatever you'd like to call it) just in time to sit down before it started. We all had great seats, though we weren't all together.


The stage during intermission


A shot from my seat (no zoom -we were close enough to see well without having to strain our necks to see the screen :))


(apparently I need to fix the date on my camera... the concert was on 8/28)


I think I spent more time paying attention to the orchestra and the conductor than to the actual movie, though there were some places where I hadn't noticed how much music was in the background until the performance, because in the movie they have it so quiet in the background. And there's so *much* music! It seemed like there was maybe 10, 15 minutes tops of musically-silent spots scattered through the entire movie. Of course, I kind of knew that from the length of the extended soundtrack, but with the music played live, it's more noticeable. I also noticed that Frodo (and Sam) scenes were more likely to be silent or have minimal orchestration -just strings, for example- than could be said for any of the other characters (it's probably a hobbit thing, as that was also the trend for Merry and Pippin, but not quite to the extent of the Frodo and Sam scenes).

Watching the conductor was fascinating. He had a screen in front of him where the movie was playing, except there was a big white dot that would flash for the downbeat of each measure, and it would flash repeatedly to indicate the tempo right before the orchestra had to come in. There was a green vertical line that would scroll from left to right across the screen to indicate when the orchestra should start (when it reached the right edge, the orchestra should start playing). Similarly, a red vertical line indicated cutoffs (though the conductor took some liberties with those, and in all cases but one I thought the conductor was more true to the timing in the actual movie), and a blue line indicated tempo/timing changes. I spent a lot of time watching the conductor's little screen, can you tell? ;D

Oh, and any cellists or bassists who ever consider playing the full score... be forewarned that you will be playing basically every single moment that the orchestra is playing. Seriously, I'm shocked those poor musicians still have fingers on their left hands. I'm curious if RotK (or FotR) overworks them so much (probably, since the basic musical themes reappear in all three movies). In that regard, it's a good thing they're string players and not one of the wind instruments -you'd probably have musicians passing out from lack of oxygen if a wind instrument had to play so much, so often. ;)

I thought the music was wonderful, though the LotR Symphony in Houston was somewhat better, mostly because it made me cry -this one only (heh, 'only'!) gave me goosebumps. :D I'm sad I missed last year's production of FotR (it was over Memorial Day weekend, and I'd already planned a visit to WI before I heard about it), but you'd better believe I'll be marking the day for RotK next year as soon as we know when it'll be! And I can basically guarantee I'll be crying, so I'll have to remember to bring a box of tissues. ;)

I got home around 12:30a, went to sleep sometime after 1a, only to have to rise at 6:45a in order to be at church by 8a to go to the King's Dominion amusement park in Virginia. o_O It was a good day for rollercoaster riding, and I did enjoy it, though by late afternoon/suppertime I was getting a bit cranky from being tired and on my feet for so long (I'm so not used to being on my feet for long stretches anymore :p). Many of the coasters had seats designed for a narrower bottom half than I happen to have, but thighs have some give so I was okay (I'm just sore on the edges today as a result *rolls eyes*). We had fun and stayed almost until closing time... I think I napped a bit in the car on the way back, but I wasn't the only one so I don't feel too bad. ;) I would've taken a shower after getting home -it was hot and humid, so I was mucho sweaty- but I didn't get home until probably 11:45p, so I went straight to bed so I'd have some chance of getting up in time for church this morning. (The showering will commence as soon as RotK is over... I'm at the coronation now, so it won't be long.)

I'm definitely going to go to bed early tonight!