Here's another link to Drew McManus' "Take a Friend to Orchestra" project. This is not to advertise my own contribution, which will be familiar to anyone who's read me droning on here, but to draw attention to the fabulous welter of posts that Drew received in response to his central, simple question: How should people who already love the music communicate that love to others? Obviously there's no one answer, and many brilliant proposals are circulating. What counts most is the almost desperate enthusiasm that everyone has shown in tackling the problem. I liked Garth Trinkl's ideas about attending outdoor concerts, free rehearsals, chamber-orchestra concerts, and manifold other variations on the "orchestra" idea. Whether humble or exalted, ragged or hyper-professional, the live concert is the one that changes people's minds.
The title of this post might sound like a mangled reference to the John Lennon song, but it's actually a nod to E. M. Forster's immortal description of the third movement of Beethoven's Fifth in Howards End: "...The music started with a goblin walking quietly over the universe, from end to end." Read the whole thing here; the relevance to TAFTO is obvious.
