OK, so I have to do a better job of categorizing posts I think, just using the date and location isn’t gonna work. I’m not sure if I want to use categories yet… but I’ll try and be more descriptive with titles. I’m not going to remember what the hell I wrote what day if I don’t.
Last day in Venice. Surprisingly, like the preceding day, the highlight was music. I decided to get tickets to a performance of Mozart and Vivaldi at the Chiesa Della Pieta. It’s hard to describe the experience- but it’s kind of religious, and I think it’s supposed to be. Something about beauty- It’s not just about the musicians, it’s about the thing they make together in that moment. I’m thinking about this in a weirdly theological sense because of some crap I read from CS Lewis the other day, but I’ll leave that to another post.
What I want to document here, is the acoustics. Specifically, the thing we call reverberation, or “reverb” for those in the biz or whatever. The reverb in these basilicas is breathtaking. Every cough, every step, becomes something… longer, bigger… kind of epic. One footstep, and you know you’re somewhere big. With a lot of air. I feel like I’d want to just put on some big boots and walk around like I’m really important and about to make a big speech or something… just for the steps echoing behind me.
The effect that the acoustics has on a violin… and on a quintet…. is confusing and staggering. (Organs too, but that’s for later in Ravenna.)
I think the main point here, is that true “reverb…” is really something you have to experience. It’s not in a pedal or a box in the back of your guitar amp, that makes springy noises when you bang it against the backstage door during load-in. It’s also, frankly, not something the best algorithm in the best digital recording suite money can buy. We try valiantly, and in some cases it’s not half bad. It’s better than sounding like your singing into a sack of wet potatoes. But it’s not like the real thing. It has something to do with air and space (literally,) and you have to be there, for that moment when the last note hangs after the bow leaves the string, but before that inevitable philistine starts clapping before the whole piece is over…
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