Whale Music isn’t for Everyone

Review by Denby Fortune

Have you ever heard someone attempt to create the illusion with only a piano, a flute, and a cello where you are underwater swimming with whales? If you come and see this music performance, you will. This 40-minute underwater whale song is not the only thing that is played at this performance. Before the unusual whale piece, there is a series of songs sung by four singers. After the whale piece there is four songs played by a pianist, a violinist, and a cellist. These three acts performed in a beautiful hall. The decorations around the proscenium were detailed and very intriguing. Along with the beautiful hall, the music was beautifully played and extremely captivating. 

The performance starts out with four singers, two women and two men, with two people playing the same piano at the same time. The sight of two people sharing one piano was an unusual sight, but was able to captivate everyone. A series of German songs were beautifully sung by these four singers. Each of them would step forward, either by themselves, or in pairs and sing a song. All four of the singers were captivating to watch due to how passionately they each sang. Although the music was marvelous, there was not much to watch on the stage, other than the singers stepping forward and singing. Nothing changed throughout this sequence of songs besides who was singing which was disappointing, but the songs that were sung were satisfying enough.

The next section of music that was played was a bizarre underwater themed piece. The unique sounds that were made to create the underwater illusion were unlike anything played before. The pianist played the strings on the inside of the piano to create an eerie sound, and the same was done for the cello. The flutist hummed a song into the flute while she played it, which created a whale like noise. These noises were extremely surprising to hear from the instruments that were seen on stage. The piece started out very peaceful and intriguing due to the fact that it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. As the song continued, it soon became extremely repetitive, and was somewhat hard to listen to. As the song climaxed, the noise from the flue became high pitched which was a very unpleasant sound to hear. Although it was not a pleasant sound, it added to the eerie affect of the underwater theme. Overall, this unusual underwater themed piece contained many tones and moods that were successfully played out by the musicians.

 The final part of the performance was played by a pianist, a violinist, and a cellist. This piece of music was absolutely beautiful, but it wasn’t anything special. Although the music was not anything special, the emotions that the musicians put into their music was absolutely mesmerizing. Watching the musicians put everything they had into the music they were playing made the experience of the music incredible. When the piece began to build up, the musicians put more soul into how they were playing their instruments. Often times, after the climax of a song, the music would abruptly stop and begin again softly. The musicians would follow this with as much passion as they could. This passion the musicians put into the songs added so much to the music that was being played.

Although some parts of this performance were very unusual and somewhat hard to get through, many parts of the performance created an experience I was not expecting when I arrived.