Everything Going Through My Head at a Concert

This was a Violet Evergarden orchestra concert — Evan Call's score performed live, with scenes from the series projected above the stage and Aira Yuuki singing.

Note: I am not a musician. Just a random guy who listens to random music.

But in any orchestra I try my best to catch every detail I can. Here is roughly what that sounds like from the inside.

The instruments

What is that sound. Wow, a cello can do that?
That's woodwind. Flute? Oboe? Clarinet? No idea.
They're using a real typewriter for the typing sounds. Damn.
You can layer brass under this section to make it that rich?
Hold on, a violin can play that?
That's a harp. It can sit under the piano like that?
Ah — these two lines. One violin group is playing this while another plays that.
Violin solo, let's go.
How was the trumpet that smooth? When did he breathe?
Were the trombones too loud there? They fought with the chorus next to them.
That tubular bell was too dense. It muddied the harmony.

The music

Those melodies — major pentatonic?
Those chord progressions…
Wait, why a minor key there? Interesting choice.
Evan Call, you are a genius.
Another key change. Nice.
I practised this piece on piano too, but the professional has polished it into something else entirely.
The violin melody in that passage was god-like.
The duo singers were so good.
Short pauses here? Why? That changes the rhythm.
Did the pianist hit the right hand too hard, or was that intentional?

The screen

Ah, this is from episode 3.
Right, episode 10 goes like this, so the music has to go like that.
The animation is so detailed.
Those watercolour backgrounds are all hand-painted.
A waltz — I knew it. It's for the dance scene.
The conductor is steering the whole orchestra to match the video.
They timed the fireworks exactly to the cymbal.
They didn't use that scene for this part?
The transition editing here is a little inconsistent.
Why that font for the text?

Everything else

Aira Yuuki is in white. Ah — she sings Violet Snow, and "Yuuki" means snow. Of course.
They dimmed the lights. Can the musicians read their scores? Oh, fluorescent paper.
Red and green stage lights for this section. Why?
They have to change the lighting carefully so they don't startle the players.
That microphone was slightly out of position, or oddly tuned. Maybe I imagined it.
How did the engineers design this hall so that everything lands this well? Speakers, instruments, audience, walls — every distance, reflection, material and frequency calculated to somewhere near perfect.

Just imagine all of that at once, for two hours.

And underneath all the analysis, the thing I actually walk out with: the musicians rehearsed this to death. The conductor is tracking everything simultaneously. And the lead players are carrying passages where they are the only person in the room making that sound — with a full hall listening. That is a level of pressure I don't think I have ever been under.

Being this analytical does have a cost. I noticed after taking a digital photography class that I can no longer look at my own photos without listing ten things to fix. The same skill that lets me hear a harp entering under a piano also makes "ปล่อยวาง" much harder than it used to be. I am still deciding whether that trade was worth it.