will sing for flash mobs

8/8/2019 Will Sing for Flash Mobs

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/will-sing-for-flash-mobs 1/5

“Will Sing

For Flash Mobs” By Katherine Shields

Musings of a Musician Mom, Opus 2, No.11

December 24, 2010



It’s Christmas time in the desert! Without snow to lend that picturesque “home for Christmas” look, you have tofake it with some serious high-wattage yard decorating ala

“Clark Griswald”. In this town, we’ve got holiday lightdisplays so big that when they get flicked on each eveningthe lights dim in every casino in Las Vegas.

Staying out of any shopping mall after

Thanksgiving is one of the basic tenetsof my religion, along with a few otherlittle-known commandments such as“Thou shalt not covet thy brother’s 12-inch solid milk chocolate Santa” and “Thou shalt not play Christmas gigsinvolving flying angels, singing Christmas trees and electric guitars.” The onlything that will get this composting, recycling , fishing, hiking, viola-playing, home-cooking, shopping-hating, chamber music-loving Musician Mom to any shoppingmall in December is a good old-fashioned “Hallelujah Chorus” f lash mob.

I thought a flash mob was some kind of political protest, or one of those internet“music teacher hoaxes” when I got the email about this event. Still a skeptic, Iwatched the YouTube of the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s “HallelujahChorus” flash mob which took place in a downtown Macy’s store withaccompaniment provided by an enormous theater organ. It was absolutelystunning- the music, the incredible resonance, the surprised looks followed bysmiles on the faces of the unsuspecting shoppers, the thunderous applause and cheers after the music died away.

In that digital video moment I became a flash mob believer.

At the appointed mall on Wednesday there must have been 2000 people in thefood court; I think 1000 of them were there to sing. I dragged my two children and Climber’s best friend along with me, bribing them with the promise of snacks and visits afterwards to the “Game Stop” AND the puppy store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU











We got our eats at Paradise Bakery and strategically positioned ourselves justoutside the food court atrium by an escalator. Actually, the place was so packed with Christmas-sweatered holiday shoppers we couldn’t have gone anywhere elseif we’d tried.

After parking the stroller we commenced the snacking portion of the program.After scarfing two $3.75 cinnamon buns, the two boys-without a word to me-charged up the escalator. Terror-stricken, I grabbed thelittle girl and followed.

I was in the middle of remonstrating with them when at11:45, a full fifteen minutes before the appointed hour,what should my wondering ears hear but a zillion people

singing the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

In mid-harangue, I began singing whilerummaging in my totebag for thecleverly-concealed score. I was shuffling pagesaround when Ballet Girl grabbed a couple and started singing. I took the only pages left intreble clef and chimed in, not realizing that I had page 1 of the alto

part and page 2 of the soprano.

At this point we were standing next to the “Pillow Pets” kiosk.

My daughter took advantage of my distracted state and tried totalk me into buying a pink poodle “Pillow Pet,” using the famous“grab and whine” play. I spent most of the rests in my part tryingto wrestle the toy away from her.

“For- the Lord God om-ni-po-tent reign-eth…Halle-lu-jah”… putthat down, I’m not buying it….

“Halle-lu-jah, halle-lu-jah”…I MEAN it….”Hal-le-lu-jah”…do it NOW or you’re grounded!

The really exciting part was getting trapped on the second floor when music wasover. The throng of people in the food court was so huge that the security guardsclosed the down escalators. We were marooned behind a gate guarded by two



burly security guards, directly above the stroller, all of our food and drinks and Ballet Girl’s pink faux-alligator handbag. Then , while we were waiting patientlyfor the gates to open, watching people arrive on the UP escalator, the singingstarted again---

---SO WE DID IT ALL OVER!

I never did hear the promised recorded accompaniment played on the mall’s PAsystem. And there was no-one singing anywhere near me, except Ballet Girl- whobarely reads, but chimed in on all the Hallelujahs with gusto. I would have had abetter musical experience if I’d been in the middle of the food court with all theother singers.



But after all, I’m not really a singer- and I’m not convinced the “Flashmob” conceptis about a supreme musical experience for the performers, or a great performancefor the listeners. It’s about a paradigm shift from the widely-held belief that musichappens only in concert halls and is listened to only by people sitting in seats.

These days we’re challenging that belief.

Music is fifty tubists dressed in Santa suits on the steps of the courthouse playingChristmas carols; a second-grade class performing “The Barber of Jump Street” and thirty viola players playing the National Anthem before a Diamondbacks game. It’sbluegrass jam sessions, gospel choirs, polka bands, gamelan orchestras, alp hornsand Tibetan monks playing metal bowls. It’s the Beatles, the Bee Gees, the BeachBoys and Beethoven, and the porcupine I heard sing the first five notes of a majorscale.

So I’m out there in a little corner of theworld, doing my own singing, kidschoir conducting, chamber musiccoaching, viola playing and teaching,opera orchestra, contest adjudicating,Musican Mom thing. I don’t knowquite where it’s all heading, but I’mglad I’ve learned to improvise. It’simportant that the music keeps ongoing.

Because if it stops—the silence will be deafening.

Katherine Shields lives in the Phoenix, AZ area. Between flash mobs, she writes“Musings of a Musician Mom” for Scribd.com. She is a rank-and-file violist

with the Arizona Opera Orchestra and is on the Teaching Artists Roster of theArizona Commission on the Arts with Quartet Sabaku.

will sing for flash mobs

Documents