Fire Synapses Fire!

About ten months ago I discovered that Andre Watts was going to appear with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto sometime in June. Well now, my Pepsi-sniffing granddaughter is getting pretty serious about her piano lessons so I thought that I would take her out on a date and we would attend. By the time that I could finally purchase our tickets in May, we had grown to eight. One of my other granddaughters started to sustain with her piano lessons by this time also so I included her as well. My wife and I have fond memories of this piece dating back to our days at Pasadena City College so she wanted to go as well. By the time we attended, our party consisted of one each: daughter, son, daughter-in-law, piano teacher, two granddaughters, wife, and I. By the way, I should mention that this other granddaughter is getting pretty good at “sniffing” as well. Oh yes, I almost forgot that there was also going to be a performance of something called the fourth symphony by some guy named Tchaikovsky. We all met at an Italian restaurant near the concert hall and did what was proper and then attended.

OK, so with Kenzi and Tasha sitting on my right hand, the concert begins. When it was all over? Good food, much love and fellowship, a whole new world for two young and beautiful girls, a world-class artist playing with a world-class orchestra, passionate music composed by two of the giants, and a lasting memory. Oh by-the-way, this Tchaikovsky guy’s not too terrible awful bad either, huh? The PSO is just down the freeway from us, so we will be doing this more often. Girls, I hope that you want to do this again. Grandpa does. OK, let’s go from the sublime to the mundane.

In the subsequent days, I have dwelt on two thoughts: The first is just a musing. How in the world can mankind produce music like this and still murder (etc.) like we do? Sin must be incredibly powerful beyond our imagination. I’ll let that lie for a future blog.

The second thought surfaced when I poked Kenzi and Sassas in the ribs. It appears that in history a few of the great composers who were also great pianists would love to insert sections into their compositions that were so difficult to play that few pianists could “keep up”. When the soloist got to one of these passages, and Kenzi and Sassas were looking, I did the “pokin”. Andre Watts’ hands were like a blur. I poked, and Kenzi said “I know, I know”. Here is the mundane side of it: “Evolution can’t do this! Think about it. The human physiology has to memorize this composition. At the right time, the artist must respond. The mind tells the artist to play this note and at this time. The chemistry of the body must produce the electro motive force to generate the ability for the synapses to fire. A cybernetic response is demanded of the human physiology. Traveling at lightning speed the synapses fire, the motor system responds instantly, muscles activate instantly, and memory continues. There is no time for the human system to relax. Memory then demands another response – instantly, then another and another and another. Cybernetic feedback demands continuous responses for the entire composition! It doesn’t matter whether the artist’s hands “are a blur”, or not. The mind must say “do this” and the motor system must respond instantly and continuously. And the result? Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto! Yes, I can understand how the shepherd David must have felt when he wrote the 139th Psalm.

Thanx girls; let’s do it again.