On Tuesday, September 30, I attended the Davidson College Symphony Orchestra concert as they performed Worth Fighting For. The orchestra consisted of around fifty musicians and called for multiple solos. The solos allowed the spotlight to occasionally shift from the larger ensemble to the skill of individual performers. The goal of the performance, as the title suggests, was to explore things worth fighting for, using music as a tool to fuel this exploration. Before the music began, the director, Tara Keith, pointed out that the performers, audience, and whole community were worth fighting for. This introduced the theme before the music began, allowing the audience to engage in the scene the director was creating. 

The first song, La vie en rose by Guglielmi, came about in 1945, which marks the end of World War II. The song is associated with the fight for love as it follows a narrative of soldiers fighting for the future of their homeland and their wives back home. The piece was legato and flowy, filled with rich decrecendos which created a sense of longing. As the music slowly quieted down, one could see audience members lean forward in their seats, bewitched by the story the orchestra was somehow telling without words. While fighting is usually associated with power and strength, Keith began her program with a different approach. She gave the audience a glimpse of the soft beauty that gives reason for fighting. Rather than evoking scenes of the brutality of World War II, this piece placed the audience in the shoes of a World War II soldier as he drifts to sleep. His sleep is supported by dreams of what the endless violence around him yields, a safe country to call home, along with the warm embrace of his wife waiting for him in his homeland.

Another piece performed, Restless Oceans by Clyne, juxtaposed the peace that La vie en rose provided with the harsher reality of the conflict which stems from fighting. The Clyne piece is based on the poem “A woman speaks” by Lorde, which delves into the innate barrier between black and white feminists. The song is a call for black women to fight for their identities, as they are often excluded from the “wide futures promised,” as Lorde put it. These futures are too frequently discussed for the benefit of white women, forgetting the equally important women of color. The piece began abrasive, percussive, and loud. Restless Oceans immediately transformed the performance hall into a place of uncomfortable conflict, attacking the ears of the audience. This was done so the audience felt the jarring presence of the orchestra, as they stood up and fought for their identities. The performers stomped to the rhythm of the song, figuratively and literally putting their foot down just as the black women of the current time period stand against racial injustices.

The performance was absolutely successful in achieving its goal of exploring things worth fighting for through a musical lens. The duality between the harsh fortes of the pieces, which represented conflict, such as Restless Oceans, and the soft pianissimos of the pieces, which illuminated the reason for fighting, such as La vie en rose, provided multiple angles of interpretation for things worth fighting for. The director did not choose a set list that beat one idea into oblivion, but rather chose pieces that supported her theme through opposing ideas. Endangered drilled in the idea of fighting for our planet, while Finlandia emphasized the importance of fighting for one’s heritage. Keith’s program is not meant to tell people what to fight for, but rather to encourage everyone to fight for something they are passionate about. 

I thought the performance flowed wonderfully, and I appreciated the stylistic choices Keith made. I have never been a part of an orchestra, so I was worried I would not be able to understand the deeper meanings that the pieces conveyed. However, because the director gave a short speech describing each piece before it was played, I was able to listen to the music with an idea of the message behind the notes. As someone who is neither a woman nor a person of color, I struggled to fully understand Restless Oceans. I will never know what it is like to navigate the world as a black woman, and cannot grasp the extent to which they must fight for their identities. Overall, the performance was incredible and opened my eyes to the power music has to tell stories of fighting for one’s passions.