What I Learned at the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra

Have you ever wondered if what you do is important? Have you ever pushed away from your desk at 3:35 PM on a Wednesday thinking, “What’s the point?” Have you ever told yourself that significance begins with the next pay raise or promotion? Have you ever thought you could make more of a difference if only you played on a bigger stage or in front of a larger audience?

Not too long ago, I made a wonderful holiday memory. My wife and I attended the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre. Just the two of us for an evening of spectacular music performed by an exquisite orchestra. Music just happens to be one of my loves (my wife's too, since she's a music teacher) and I’ve listened to everything from blues in downtown Kansas City to a steel drum reggae in the French Quarters of New Orleans.

I'll admit that during the first couple songs I was simply overwhelmed by the sound. Listening to music on your stereo and being a member of a live audience is the difference between talking on the phone and speaking face to face. Communication is 90% non-verbal. Music is no different. The movement and synchronicity of an orchestra is its captivating non-verbal message. To hear a melody is to hear a voice. To see the conductor’s dancing baton and to watch rows of wrists slide horsehair bows across the strings of violins and cellos is to look into the eyes of a song; to see and sense the mood.

I'm really intrigued by the significance of every instrument. There is only one piccolo player in the Sioux City Orchestra. Tiny instrument it is - this piccolo. Fits easily into a good sized jacket pocket. The instrument voted “Most Likely To Get Lost On The Bus.” Yet the musical story of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” wouldn’t tell nearly as well without the piccolo’s rapid and timely arpeggios.

And what about the harp? It's defined as an instrument that “takes 14 hours to tune and remains in tune for twenty minutes or until somebody opens a door.” It sat quietly on the end of the stage behind the second violins, thankful for a microphone just to have a chance against the trombones. Without the harp, “Silent Night” would be “Empty Night”.

Are sleigh bells and temple blocks really instruments? In a day care center they’d be tossed in the toy bin with the rattles and Lincoln Logs. In Christmas music they are the sounds of horses and motion; the brisk open air trip down snow covered roads ending with hot cider at Grandma’s house. Musically speaking, “Sleigh Ride” without sleigh bells and temple blocks is “Let’s You and Me Sit In This Wagon Without Wheels and Freeze.”

Could the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra play without the piccolo, harp, sleigh bells and temple blocks? Sure. Everyone would still recognize the melodies. Yet the audience would go home saying, “Something was missing…it didn’t sound quite right.”

The word is that night that the Sioux City Symphony played at the Orpheum for over 2,000 people. They could have crammed into an elementary school gym and played to an audience of 200. In either venue, without the piccolo, harp, sleigh bells, and temple blocks, the music isn’t complete.

Which reminds me. It’s not about the size of the stage on which you perform. It’s about the importance of the role you play. Whatever your life’s stage, make sure you trill, pluck, jingle and clip-clop your best this week. People are listening for your part. Without you, the music isn’t complete.