Of Musicians and Whales
The other night I was talking with a good friend from high school and our conversation turned to the wonderful times we had shared in band. That opened a flood gate of memories, and we reminisced about "Choral and Shaker Dance," "March of the Belgian Paratroopers," and the legendary "Of Sailors and Whales." I'm sure everyone who was in band with me the year we played "Of Sailors and Whales" will agree that it was incredible. That five-movement piece based on Melville's "Moby Dick" had an uncanny power to penetrating your heart and suck you into the music. The song begins, like the book, with Ishmael , followed by Father Mapple , in which the band sings the mournful, yet hopeful strains of Jonah's hymn within the whale. The frantic fast-paced Queequeg was a technical challenge and a veritable adventure to play. And the angry, obsessive tones of Ahab paint an accurate picture of that crazed captain. With The White Whale a...