Musical Evening

Reluctantly I accepted 2 tickets from my sister for the Harmonica nite. She performed in 3 items including the first. During the first piece when certain high notes almost pierced my ear drums I whispered to my husband that I have never liked harmonica music and I needed to brace myself for a tough evening. I was even contemplating an excuse to leave after the break if I could meet her during the interval. As the majority of the performers were senior citizens, the audience also comprised largely of middle aged and senior citizens with some grandchildren in the crowd.

Surprisingly as the evening progressed the expected boredom that I perceived turned to light merriment. In fact I must say my husband who grew up listening to folk/old songs over Chinese radio stations seemed to be enjoying himself. What a far cry from the deadpan look and steady stream of yawns during Western concerts which I used to drag him along in a blue blue moon. To be fair to my initial misjudgement , the first item had the disadvantage of teething mike adjustments and my sister's group was relatively amateurish. As better trained and more experienced harmonica players took the stage, some good pieces were show cased. A more youngish group put up a remarkable composition of  斗牛士进行曲 (les toreadors) and other popular western classical favourites. What was more unexpected was the spontaneity of the audience. All the 'uncles', 'aunties', grandpa and grandma clapped along when told to do so. I also found myself singing along with many others when even my sister's amateur group struggled to keep the right tempo whilst playing TV themes and karaoke favourites like 万水千山总是情  and 越来香.

One item which left an impression on me was a rock and roll piece performed by a male soloist in his early forties. It was not perfect harmonica music but it was his total enjoyment delivering it accompanied by his own choreographed movements, the authentic joy exuding from his whole embodiment that led to a roar of applause from the audience. The guy's 2 young daughters were excitedly taking snapshots of him downstage, what a gift from dad.

He expressed the joy in music and I was reminded of it and wondered why I had abandoned it. Andrew Lloyd Webber was once my favourite and I often remarked to my children "What would the world be without Andrew Lloyd Webber!".  I used to love singing, was in a choir once, had the dvd player on whilst bathing or sang in the bathroom. Somehow along the way everything stopped beginning when the nature of my career took a very busy turn. Inexplicably the pleasure of music just floated away in thin air.

The evening ended when the combined groups, for encore played 高山青 to the delight of the audience who spontaneously sang along in great merriment. Think again if you think our generation and that before us are not sporting at performances!

Yesterday I was reminded "What would the world be without music"