2023 Young People's Concert

- [Announcer] This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

(bright music) (gentle orchestral music) (audience applauds) (audience applauds) - I want to tell you a story.

This story starts very quietly.

Once upon a time in a galaxy not so far away, there were a bunch of astronauts sitting in their spaceship waiting to blast off.

This is the sound of the thrusters getting power ready to ignite.

(low trembling music) Do you feel the potential energy ready to blast off?

You know who those astronauts are?

You.

You guys are the astronauts.

(audience cheers) And that sound, that very quiet sound that you first heard, like the ground is shaking, that's the first sound you're gonna hear on your journey to save the galaxy.

That's right.

You've been called to blast off in a rocket ship to outer space, so tighten your seat belts, make sure your oxygen is flowing and your spacesuit is secured.

Are you guys ready to blast off?

- [Audience] Yeah!

- All right.

You have to be very quiet, just in case mission control has something to say on the radio.

Here we go.

You ready to blast off?

(low trembling music) (low trembling music continues) (dramatic orchestral music) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (audience applauds) Congratulations.

We've made it to orbit.

We're in space.

But was that really the sound of a rocket ship?

- [Audience] No!

- No, of course not.

It was music, but I used my imagination to create the story of the rocket show.

Today we're going to explore the relationship between music and your imagination.

Who makes music?

Musicians make music, right?

But there's a special type of musician called a composer, and composers are the people who write the music.

They create it out of nothing.

One of the tools that they have to use to make this music is their imagination.

Everybody here has their own imagination.

Therefore, all of you are capable of writing your own music.

Did you know that?

It's pretty cool.

You should try it sometime.

Another tool or tools that composers, maybe like some of you, might use are musical instruments.

So for example, a composer might write some music for the voice, someone singing.

You guys want to hear me sing?

- [Audience] Yeah!

- Yeah?

Prepare yourselves for the most amazing singing you ever heard.

Okay?

You ready?

Okay.

(Thomas bellows) Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

(audience cheers) Yeah, I practiced a lot for that, just my big moment.

Of course, you can also write for other types of instruments, for example, like the guitar (mimics guitar music) or maybe piano (mimics piano music) or an entire symphony orchestra.

But the symphony orchestra is made up of lots of individual instruments, and together they create that symphonic sound.

I heard that a few of you might be deciding which instrument to play next year.

Is that true?

(audience cheers) Yeah?

That's really exciting.

We're so thrilled that you guys are gonna be playing musical instruments.

So we wanted to show you, introduce you to some of these musical instruments one by one before we put them all back together.

So first we're gonna start with the flute.

Listen very carefully to the flute.

(gentle flute music) (gentle flute music continues) (gentle flute music continues) Pretty, right?

(audience cheers) Will, can you hold up your flute to show?

See how shiny that instrument is?

Can you hold it up for us?

Look at that.

Isn't it beautiful?

Yeah.

Next, we have the oboe.

Listen very carefully to the oboe.

(gentle oboe music) (gentle oboe music continues) Beautiful, right?

(audience cheers) Darcy, can you hold up your oboe so we can see what the instrument looks like?

See, look at that oboe.

Isn't it beautiful?

It's got lots of buttons on.

It looks really complicated.

Very elegant instrument.

Next, we have the same instrument that Squidward Tentacles plays.

Do you know what instrument that is?

(audience cheers) It's called the clarinet.

But listen very carefully, because thankfully Emily here plays the clarinet so much better than Squidward.

(gentle clarinet music) See, that's what Squidward would sound like if he actually practiced.

Yeah.

Emily, can you hold up the clarinet for us?

Pretty cool.

It also has lots of little buttons and gizmos on it.

And next, we have the bassoon.

(soft bassoon music) (soft bassoon music continues) Kind of mysterious, right?

(audience applauds) John, can you hold up your instrument?

This is the bassoon.

It's like, like a big piece of wood with also lots of buttons in it.

Sounds really beautiful.

Yeah.

Nice.

Okay.

What family of instruments do those come from?

Say it.

(audience yells) They're called the woodwind family.

Now, the next family, let's see if you can guess.

The first one is called the French horn.

(soft French horn music) (soft French horn music continues) (soft French horn music continues) Beautiful, right?

(audience applauds) Dan, can you hold up to the French horn?

Look at that thing.

It's got lots of curves and the pipe is actually really, really long.

Next we have the trumpet.

(bright trumpet music) (bright trumpet music continues) (audience applauds) Pretty, right?

Next in this family of instruments we have the... Oh, two trumpets there.

Here's a trombone.

(bright trombone music) (bright trombone music continues) Nice.

(audience applauds) Ruben, can you hold up your instrument?

Can we see the trombone?

Look at that thing.

It's got a big slide on it so you can go, woo.

Pretty cool, right?

And finally, the lowest instrument of this family is called the tuba.

(low dramatic tuba music) (audience applauds) So what instrument group was that?

From which family?

Say it.

- [Audience] Brass!

- The brass family.

Yes.

You guys have learned a lot already.

I'm so glad you've done your homework.

Next, we have maybe the most interesting and eclectic family of instruments.

It's called the percussion family.

First we have the timpani.

(dramatic timpani music) (dramatic timpani music continues) Pretty cool, right?

(audience applauds) Yeah.

Percussion instruments can almost be anything.

You can literally have a pine cone or a piece of a car or an anvil or maybe a special instrument like this bass drum here.

(low bass drum music) It's like an earthquake, right?

(audience applauds) And then for some really splashy sound we have the cymbals.

(bright cymbals music) Pretty cool.

(audience applauds) And there's lots of different types of drums.

This particular drum is called a snare drum.

(rapid drum music) Sound familiar?

(audience cheers) It's before your time.

It's changed slightly.

The introduction.

Next, we have the piano (playful ragtime piano music) (playful ragtime piano music continues) (audience applauds) And then maybe the softest, most beautiful, heavenly sounding instrument of all in the orchestra.

Listen very quietly to the harp.

(dreamy harp music) (audience applauds) Beautiful.

We move on now to the string family.

First and the highest member of the string string family we have, what's this called?

- [Audience] Violin.

- Violin.

That's right.

Let's very quietly listen to some violin music.

(pensive violin music) (pensive violin music continues) (audience applauds) Beautiful.

Next, a little bit lower than the violin, a little bit bigger is called the- - [Audience] Viola!

- Viola.

You guys are great.

Let's listen to some viola.

(dark playful viola music) (dark playful viola music continues) (audience applauds) A little bit lower and a little bit bigger in the string family, we have the- - [Audience] Cello!

- The cello.

Listen to the cello play.

(dark pensive cello music) (dark pensive cello music continues) (dark pensive cello music continues) (dark pensive cello music continues) (audience applauds) Did you guys know that that beautiful music is actually about a guy named Billy?

I'll tell you later.

Great.

Oh, I forgot the biggest instruments of all, the bass.

Let's listen to the soft and epic sounds of the bass.

(soft dark bass music) (audience applauds) Pretty cool, right?

All right, throughout the concert today I want you to listen very quietly and very carefully to how each composer uses these instruments of the orchestra together and independently to serve the music and to tell the story.

Now, we've already met the players behind the soundtrack of our story.

So let's get back to where we left off.

To recap, we just blasted off into outer space.

Congratulations.

You are now officially astronauts.

(audience cheers) Ooh.

Now imagine, imagine you are floating gracefully in microgravity as you orbit the Earth.

That soft sound that you hear played by the violins, that's the sound of the spaceship engine checking, whirring in the background.

And then the French horn comes in and tells us that the sun has come up.

(soft orchestral music) Hear these little drops?

Those are the sparkles of the sun and the stars.

(soft orchestral music continues) The sun is so warm and bright.

(soft orchestral music continues) And the Earth is so beautiful outside the window.

It's really a wonderful time to be in space.

And I've got some good news for you.

We just received word from Mission Control Houston that we have been invited to the intergalactic microgravity dance party.

I said, we've just been invited to the intergalactic microgravity dance party.

- [Audience] Yeah!

- Yeah!

It's just like a regular dance party, but it's space.

(audience cheers) But we have to hurry.

We have to hurry because the party's about to start and we don't wanna be late.

(cheerful rapid orchestral music) We made it just in time.

Phew!

Now, an essential piece of information that I must inform you about is that the only dance move that is sanctioned officially by NASA is called the Space Waltz.

You guys heard of the space waltz?

- [Audience] No!

- No?

Well, it's got three steps, but it's in zero gravity, so it kind of just floats.

It's sort of like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2...

It's very elegant.

This is what the space waltz music sounds like.

(soft elegant orchestral music) (soft elegant orchestral music continues) Elegant, right?

Are you guys ready to go to the dance party?

- [Audience] Yeah.

- Yeah?

All right.

So put on your fanciest tuxedo spacesuits and ball gown spacesuits.

Tighten your ties.

Get ready for the zero gravity intergalactic dance party.

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Yeah?

Do you enjoy floating in zero gravity?

Wait, do you guys just see that?

Wait!

No, it can't be.

Wait.

No.

(dark dramatic music) (dark dramatic music continues) I'm so sorry to tell you that my worst fear has come true.

Aliens!

They've come to invade our dance party and they hate dancing.

Do you know why they hate dancing?

Because they have five left feet.

So whenever they try to dance it just kind of looks like this.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 3, 4, 5.

It's kind of awkward.

So they really don't like dancing.

This is what it sounds like whenever they dance.

(dark dramatic music) (dark dramatic music continues) Scary music, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Well, we're about to hear the entire alien invasion.

So prepare yourselves.

Make sure you're strapped in tight.

It's gonna be a rough ride.

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Yeah.

Wow.

Things are pretty bleak right now.

The alien invasion is complete.

They have infiltrated our ranks.

They broke up our dance party and they kidnapped our princess.

Poor Princess Leia.

Princess Leia.

I don't know if we're ever gonna see her again.

Guys, we're trapped.

We need to save the galaxy.

We need to get the princess to Alderaan, but we're stuck here on this space station held hostage by aliens.

Wait, hang on a second.

I'm getting a call.

Yes, sir.

Yes, Mr. President.

Oh, really?

Oh, that's good news.

Okay, great.

I'll tell them.

Yeah.

Guys, I just got word.

We have some good news.

We managed to negotiate a settlement with the aliens.

We challenged them to a game of spaceball.

And if we win, the aliens will let us free and we can continue on our journey to save the galaxy.

You guys know what spaceball is right?

- [Audience] No!

- No?

Oh, you never heard of spaceball?

Well, I guess this is your first time in space being, you know, nugget astronauts here.

So if we play spaceball really well, we win.

But you still wanna know what spaceball is?

Yeah?

Okay.

It's great.

Spaceball is basically just baseball but in space!

It's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So I could tell you the rest of the story.

I could tell you if we, the astronauts, win the game of spaceball or the aliens win.

But I thought it would be more fun if we let you use your imaginations.

So we're gonna play another piece of music for you, which depicts the spaceball game in all of its glory.

And you can decide for yourselves if we the astronauts won or lost.

Are you ready?

Okay, you guys might recognize this piece too.

Here we go.

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What is it from?

- [Audience] "Star Wars"!

- "Star Wars."

So who won this bass battle?

Clap your hands if you think the aliens won.

(audience applauds) Okay.

I think that's perfectly possible.

It's up to your imagination.

Clap your hands if you think the astronauts won.

(audience applauds) All right.

You might be wondering why we're talking about imagination.

What's the point of imagination?

It's just make-believe, right?

Nothing is real.

Well, I have to tell you something.

If you use your imagination and combine it with your knowledge, the things that you're learning in school, together they can become something called creativity.

And creativity is what changes the world, it's what makes the world a better place.

And you all have that responsibility.

So study hard, do your homework, brush your teeth, look both ways before you cross the street, listen to your mom and dad and your teacher, and keep being creative and using your imagination.

Let's hear it for the South Dakota Symphony.

(audience cheers) Thank you.

Okay guys, may the force be with you.

We'll see you soon.

Bye!

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