One of the best things about December and Christmastime is that it gives me and Shelly greater reason to get out and go to some concerts. We love Christmas music, and there are a lot of free (and otherwise) Christmas concerts around this great city of ours. Last week there was a stretch where we went to four concerts in a span of seven days.

First was the US Air Force Christmas concert at DAR Constitution Hall. It was free, and it was great. They did the most hilarious version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" I've ever seen - the musical style changed with each verse, including odd musical allusions (the "Five Golden Rings" verse was almost a direct quote of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," for example). Plus, I saw one of the most unusual sights any human being could ever see over the course of a normal lifetime: a male harpist.

The next day we took the kids to a musical fireside put on by our stake at our church building. Our stake has a wonderful handbell choir, which was joined by a couple of other performances. Clearly the one that made the biggest impression on Ellie was a saxophone duet on "Carol of the Bells." Ever since, whenever that song comes on, she cries out, "Daddy! It's the saxophone song!"
The next day was the Merry TubaChristmas concert at the Kennedy Center. This is the third year in a row we've gone, so I think that qualifies it as a bona fide Astle Family Christmas Tradition. Shelly has her description and photos on her blog. There's something wonderful about the sound of 320 tubas. It's not the best musical performance in the world, as they have only rehearsed for an hour right before the concert, and the group is so large (and includes such varied skill levels - there were people from the military bands as well as several 11-year-olds) it's pretty much an impossible task to keep them all precisely together. But it's the only place you'll hear that wonderful carol, "Santa Wants a Tuba for Christmas."

We took three days off, and then we went to the National Symphony Orchestra Pops Holiday Concert for the second year in a row. This is Shelly's favorite concert of the year, and I think it's cute that she thinks it counts as going to the symphony. I guess, technically, there is a symphony orchestra there, and they did play some Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker) and Schubert (Ave Maria). But I also like the very non-symphony parts like the conductor bantering with the audience, and the guest performers. Last year they had an a cappella group, and this year there was a dixieland band and a gospel choir. That ain't no symphony!

Every time I go to a live concert I think how much I wish I went to more live concerts. There's something about being in the presence of the music as it's created, about feeling the actual sound waves that are created by the instruments and travel through the air with no earphones or speakers or other intermediaries to your ears (and let me tell you, 320 tubas make a lot of sound waves), and about the great feeling of comraderie with the musicians and other audience members that I really enjoy.

For Father's Day and my birthday this past year, Shelly let me choose two real symphony concerts to go to, and they're coming up in January (Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique at the Kennedy Center) and February (Saint-Saens's Organ Symphony at the Strathmore Hall in Bethesda). Plus, Ellie is old enough to start going to some of the children's concerts around town all year. Hopefully that will be a good start to a 2009 full of more live music.