Big Sky Country!
Welcome to Bozeman, Montana!
So far I have visited Montana in the summer and the freezing winter, but this trip during my fall break was by far the best! Montana is gorgeous in the fall! All the colors were changing, and the leaves were falling. It was magical!
I am a substitute player with the Bozeman Symphony, so a few times a season, I will be flown out to play in their orchestra! The bonus to this is that my best friend, Chelsea, and her family live in Bozeman! So I am getting paid to hang out with my bestie and play incredible music!
There were two pieces on the program, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” and the world premiere of Stephanie Ann Boyd’s Carnival of the Nearly Extinct Animals. The program was so amazing and an enlightening and almost spiritual experience.
We rehearse Tuesday through Friday and have a dress rehearsal on Saturday morning with performances Saturday and Sunday. The week moves pretty fast, but Chelsea and I had a lot of time to go on a lot of fun adventures!
I will speak a bit more about the music and the symphony, and then list some of the shops and restaurants I visited!
Beethoven is known for his use of motives and musical logic to transform his works. They tend to follow the tragedy to triumph storyline and are very dramatic. Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony is an amazing work of art and basically does the exact opposite of any other symphony that came before.
Beethoven was in a very dark place in his life and was told by his doctors to leave the city and go heal in nature. What came from that experience was the sixth symphony. Beethoven titled each of the five movements to help paint the picture of his experience. Now this was not meant to be a literal representation or image of the nature, but the emotions and spiritual response that Beethoven had. He includes the wind, sunrise, bird calls, dancing, thunder, storm, a stream, and other elements of nature in the work.
Performing this piece was very surreal for me. As life throws its curve balls, it is nice to find moments of peace amidst the storms. Within Beethoven’s music, I found that peace. I found peace, light, joy, and warmth. I would highly recommend listening to it!
Stephanie Ann Boyd is an amazing up-and-coming composer. Her Carnival of the Nearly Extinct Animals is also an incredible work of art fit to be paired with a magnificent work such as Beethoven. While there are many similarities drawn from Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, there are many contrasts. The first obvious difference is the animals used in each piece.
The Saint-Saens animals are:
Lions
Hens and Roosters
Wild Donkeys
Tortoises
Elephants
Kangaroos
Aquarium
Characters with Long Ears
Cuckoo in the woods
Aviary
Pianists
Fossils
Swan
The animals of Stephanie Ann Boyd’s piece include:
Tigers
Bees and Butterflies
Polar Bears
Hawksbill Turtles
Elephants
Black Rhinos
Coral
Blue Whales
Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers
Passenger Pigeons
Grey Wolves
American Buffalo
Kahuli
Boyd did an amazing job representing each animal through music. In her explanation of her process, she paired the heartbeats of the animals with the tempos of each movement, or the sounds of their calls to timbres of instruments and exact pitches. The piece was so colorful and picturesque. Each animal had a poem that was read with the movement written by Jessica Lynn Suchon, and artist Sasha Parfenova was commissioned to create a piece to go along with the music.
It was such an amazing experience to be a part of the world premier process. To be one of the first musicians to play this music was incredible.
Some of the other things I did while in Bozeman!
Led a sectional for the Symphony Orchestra at Gallatin High School
Enjoyed walks and drives in nature!
Found some very interesting things at the Antique barn, including a very, very fake violin.
Tried to be loved by the cat…
Practiced… a lot…
Went to a mystical rock store and found a fun Amethyst geode friend!
Went to the Rocky Mountain Toy Company, so fun to find both old and new toys!
Visited many local bookstores: Virgo, Country Book, and the Isle of Books.
Went to so many yummy food places: Jam, Western Cafe, Naked Noodle, Pickle Barrel, Makenzie River Pizza Co., and Wild Crumb Bakery.
It was another amazing adventure as always, and a perfect way to spend my fall break! I can’t wait to go back in May and June!
Catch ya next time!
S
