I love music! All styles and genres. I was fortunate to grow up listening to and developing an appreciation for classical music. I also loved the tapes that came out in the 1980’s: Hooked on Classics and such. A few years ago, I was introduced to Bond and fell in love with their work and this morning while surfing the ‘net, I came across an orchestra that is new to me. However, this is not ordinary orchestra! No siree! Talk about a beautiful, stimulating blend of classical and modern. Visit here and view the video of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance.
I enjoyed reading Peter O’Neill, the band’s founder and his thoughts what the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was about, Paul O’Neill replied, “It’s about creating great art. When asked to define what great art was, Paul said, “The purpose of art is to create an emotional response in the person that is exposed to that art. And there are three categories of art; bad art, good art and great art. Bad art will elicit no emotional response in the person that is exposed to it, i.e.; a song you hear in an elevator and it does nothing to you, a picture on a wall that gives you the same emotional response as if the wall had been blank, a movie that chews up time. Good art will make you feel an emotion that you have felt before; you see a picture of a forest and you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, you hear a song about love and you remember the last time you were in love. Great art will make you feel an emotion you have never felt before; seeing the pieta, the world famous sculpture by Michelangelo, can cause someone to feel the pain of losing a child even if they’ve never had one.”
[Emphasis mine]
You can also read an interview that Christianity Today had with Paul O’Neill here.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and I can’t vouch for their productions or performance, but we had some great discussions about the power of music and how stimulating and evocative this band is. This is great art, in my opinion…I’d love to pass an appreciation of music on to my children.
