{"id":826,"date":"2009-08-26T18:58:04","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T22:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linux.dickinson.edu\/wpmu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=826"},"modified":"2009-09-15T05:35:03","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T09:35:03","slug":"light-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/08\/light-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Light Sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Light \u2013 unnatural light from the hulking, undoubtedly gilt chandeliers and natural light which poured in through massive, paned windows \u2013 set a noonday glow upon the carved stone walls of <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org\/page\/home\/home.html\">Saint Martin in the Fields<\/a> yesterday. The same light spilled onto the crowd that had gathered to watch the performance. For a donation of a few pounds \u2013 or nothing, if one desired \u2013 appreciators of music of all ages had the opportunity to attend a performance by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ELFtrio\">E.L.F.<\/a>, a trio comprised of a pianist, flautist, and horn player.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The three are known for their versatility, playing anything and everything from classical and pop music to arrangements from soundtracks and musical scores. At St. Martin in the Fields yesterday, E.L.F. stayed true to their reputation, playing a variety of pieces, but none nearly as powerful and interesting as <em>Phantasia<\/em>, based on Andrew Lloyd Weber\u2019s famous <em>The Phantom of the Opera<\/em>. E.L.F.\u2019s interpretations of hit songs such as \u201cMusic of the Night,\u201d \u201cPast the Point of No Return,\u201d \u201cMasquerade,\u201d \u201cAll I Ask of You\u201d and, of course, \u201cPhantom of the Opera\u201d were unexpected and enjoyable. Tempos were adjusted, notes and rests altered to create surprising syncopation, harmonies and jarringly dissonant chords created where none existed previously. At one point during the piece, \u201cAll I Ask of You,\u201d a deeply emotional \u2013 and during the reprise, truly painful &#8211; love song segwayed beautifully into \u201cMasquerade,\u201d a joyful song with an element of whimsy. The transition was unexpected, but surprisingly appropriate and effective.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What else I found to be especially inspiring was the obvious love of the art felt by the performers and the flautist in particular. Even when he was not playing, the flautist made eye contact with his fellow members, smiled, rocked and tapped and swooshed to be beat &#8211; or off-beat &#8211; of the music, as if all the nerves in his body were firing and playing their own fleshy instruments rather than the flute lying in anticipation at his side.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The light glanced off of the musicians\u2019 instruments as they walked off and bowed to the crowd. The light burned my eyes as I left bliss inside St. Martin in the Fields and walked out into the crush of humanity that is Trafalgar Square. The light left shadows under my feet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-843\" src=\"http:\/\/linux.dickinson.edu\/wpmu\/norwichhumanities\/files\/2009\/08\/London-8.25-8.26-002-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"London 8.25-8.26 002\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Light \u2013 unnatural light from the hulking, undoubtedly gilt chandeliers and natural light which poured in through massive, paned windows \u2013 set a noonday glow upon the carved stone walls of Saint Martin in the Fields yesterday. The same light spilled onto the crowd that had gathered to watch the performance. For a donation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[736,93],"tags":[901,36,921,930],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anya","category-churches-and-cathedrals","tag-e-l-f-trio","tag-music","tag-st-martin-in-the-fields","tag-trafalgar-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}