The Eighth Page

Weekend Music Review: A Flute Recital Gone Wrong!

Last week, I was forced to go to this orchestra recital as a requirement for Music-225. Usually, these things are pretty lame, but this one was actually pretty entertaining. Everything was going pretty smoothly at first. Then, across Kemper, I heard one of the parents comment on the flautist who was performing and having trouble with ‘tremolo’ or something like that. Like I normally am in music class, I was half asleep at the time, so I really couldn’t be sure exactly what she said. I think it had to do something with trembling. Just a guess. But after that parent criticized the flautist, things really started heating up. The flautist’s mom jumped from her seat. She had this crazy look in her eye, and, interrupting her son’s concert, started shouting at the lady who had criticized her kid! She stood up and was waving her arms around so violently that she accidently hit one of the other performers standing near by. That guy whipped his head around, and, thinking it was one of his buddies that had hit him, started yelling at the other performers! Pretty soon the whole auditorium was in total chaos. It looked like it was a bar fight, except in a bar in Carnegie Hall. Flutes and bows were being used as swords; timpani drums were being pushed into people, and I’m pretty sure I saw a kid get stuffed in a tuba. Trumpets were blaring and the chorus was singing a cheery rendition of an old war song. In the midst of the heated battle, I even managed to catch a glimpse of the original source of the fight. The two mothers were duking it out with clarinets while their sons were standing on the sidelines watching in horrifying amazement. The flautist who had been first criticized on his ‘tremolo’ was trembling pretty hard just about then, so I guess the criticism was unwarranted. Needless to say, it was one of the better orchestra concerts. Next time I have to go to one of these things, I’ll be sure to try to provoke a similar confrontation!