How video games may save orchestral music

More on my continuing theme of the elevation of video games to an art from that challenges traditional Hollywood product when it comes to the allegiance of my kids.

When we travel in the car nowadays and the kids plug in their iPods, I find them shuffling more and more musical scores (far more classical than you’d expect) from favorite videogames.

Rob Garner really, really wants a set of timpani.

Garner doesn’t play the drums himself. He’s a graduate student at the University of Maryland, getting a degree in library science, and his instrument is the trumpet.  But Garner is also president of the GSO, a student-run 100-member orchestra that’s been performing several times a year since 2005.

GSO, by the way, stands for Gamer Symphony Orchestra. This group is devoted exclusively to the music of video games.  And timpani could really come in handy when performing some of the themes from the popular game Halo.

These days, a lot of people in the classical music world are worried that kids aren’t connecting with orchestral music. But the music of video games is emerging as one way orchestras may actually be reaching new audiences. It’s certainly proliferating.

Hmmm, and I was so ready to harrumph about kids today!

Deep Reads: "West From Appomattox" (2007)

Great book that a reader recommended during my run-up to writing "Great Powers," and it was a perfect suggestion.

The basic thesis:  Reconstruction wasn't North reconstructing South, but East integrating West--all according to Lincoln's vision, who front-loaded the process as much as possible with the Homestead Act, RR Pacific Act and so on.  He wanted a reconstructed America to be middle-defined--as in, middle America, the middle class, and "men of the West" (which he was). A real eye-opener and beautifully written by Heather Cox Richardson.

I scan through it now and notice the heavy notations I made throughout--always a good sign.

Movie of My Week: Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

When I first heard about Sergio Leone completing his dream project after 12 years of labor, I was ecstatic to see it, being a huge fan of his "dollar" trilogy with Clint Eastwood.  I always found his style so dreamily stylized as to be otherwordly, projecting quintessentially universal stories against iconic American imagery.

The earliest reviews from Europe were fabulous, but then I read about how the film had been altered from its 227-min original form to a much-shorter 139-min version that was chronologically ordered instead of told in flashbacks.  As a result, the film came off rather choppy, skipping from here to there.  I remember thinking it was good, but odd and almost Frankensteinian, like all the good parts were sliced out for a TV audience and you could spot the zippers.  I fell in love with the romantic music, though, and felt like it was a troubled classic that I would someday hope to see in its European version, but being in the before time, the only way you could see that is if you caught it at some art house theater.

The outcome seemed tragic:  Leone was heartbroken--literally, and died soon after.  Enrico Morricone's amazing soundtrack was never registered for Oscar consideration, and so didn't win, despite its "Doctor Zhivago"-level quality.

Then, years later, I finally got ahold of the original cut on VHS and was astounded at how it all worked so beautifully.  I had come across other director cuts, but frankly, the differences in just about all were minor (save Ridley Scott's scotching of the narrative by Decker in "Blade Runner").  But this was an entirely new film. 

Still, the two versions competed in my head.  Until, years again later, I watched the remastered DVD version in my home theater--instead of on a modest TV, and I have to tell you, this is one of the best films ever made. There are scores of fabulous scenes and performances, and the set design is gorgeous.  A long list of great performers:  DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern (in arguably her best role), a young Jennifer Connolly (who sticks in your mind even then), Danny Aiello in a screamer cameo, Joe Pesci, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, and so on and so on.

It was the quickest, nearly 4-hour movie I've ever watched, and I would watch it again in a heartbeat.  

Vonne said she thought it was as good as "Godfather," and I put it in the same class.