By KELLI FONTENOT
Published Oct. 1, 2008 by The Current Sauce
Audience members settled into their chairs in Magale Recital Hall Thursday night as Douglas Bakenhus, the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra conductor, prepared backstage for the first concert of the semester.
Onstage, his hands floated over the detailed score on his music stand, keeping time for the students with a precise inner metronome.
Behind the energetic conductor is a man who takes the historic significance of his song selections into consideration, making every movement meaningful.
The concert included several classical pieces, including Gioacchino Rossini's "Overture: The Barber of Seville," Giovanni Bottesini's "Duo Concertant on themes from 'The Puritans,'" and Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th symphony.
The 7th symphony was a favorite of many students who performed.
"We pulled it off," Bakenhus said.
Paul Randall Adams, a music education major and viola player in the orchestra, said the soulful aspects of songs like Beethoven's 7th are what inspire him to perform.
"I like that music touches souls," Adams said. "If I can help touch somebody's soul, then I feel like I've fulfilled my purpose."
Adams, who wants to teach music to autistic children after he earns a degree in graduate school, said Bakenhus takes a unique approach to conducting.
"I think he's really knowledgeable about the music, and he gives us the history of the pieces that we're performing. To me, it's always better to know the history because it lets me know what emotion to put into the music," Adams said.
Bakenhus, who directed college bands for nine years before teaching orchestra students, explained that old music fascinates him because the emotions transcend time.
"It doesn't matter if you lived in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 21st century. It doesn't matter what color your skin is; it doesn't matter where you grew up. You can relate to what happens on the inside of someone," Bakenhus said.
This "human condition" is the same whether you're wearing a powdered wig or attending classes at a university. Bakenhus said that if forced to choose, though, his favorite composer would be Johann Sebastian Bach.
Studying Bach's scores, including "Magnificat in D," which the orchestra and choir will perform later in the semester, fascinates Bakenhus.
Though much has changed since the 18th century, listeners can still relate to the sensations conveyed by the songs.
"We can feel what Bach felt," Bakenhus said.
Bakenhus analyzes the structure of the music before he begins teaching. For this particular concert, Bakenhus also studied Beethoven's history and read many of his published letters.
"What I like about Beethoven - and I think it's represented in this piece - is that he's triumphant. He took a bad situation - he went deaf - and he turned it into triumph."
Like many of Beethoven's works, the beginning of the 7th symphony sounds joyful and exuberant. The second movement is profoundly sad, Bakenhus said.
To Bakenhus, the movement represents a somber period in Beethoven's life.
"When he went deaf, he became very depressed about it at first, and then he wrote a letter to a friend saying he was going to grab fate by the throat. And I think he does in this piece. He grabs it by the throat."
Bakenhus describes the final movement as a total change. "All of a sudden, it's like the sun comes out," and the song lifts the audience's spirits with a victorious chord.
The man behind the stand
Bakenhus has come a long way from his beginnings as a fifth-grade clarinetist.
"I told the band director I wanted to play violin, and he said, 'Our school doesn't have strings. Why don't you play clarinet? It's kind of like a violin.' He just wanted someone to play clarinet," Bakenhus said.
Bakenhus later switched to bassoon because he thought it was a "weird-looking thing" and the idea of carrying around a larger case - to compete with his friend's euphonium case, of course - piqued his interest.
As a beginner, he was able to play the lowest note on the bassoon - something he has never heard another beginning student do.
Bakenhus got his undergraduate degree at University of Texas at Austin and later went to graduate school at Texas A&M Commerce.
"I wasn't even going to go to college," Bakenhus said.
When his high school band director, Karen Johnston, asked what his plans were after graduation, Bakenhus told her he wanted to be a truck driver.
She suggested that he audition for college orchestra as a bassoon player, but he said he preferred the idea of being behind the steering wheel of a big rig. He reminded her that he didn't make all-state.
"I'm not good enough," he told her.
She encouraged him to try anyway - after all, he had never taken a bassoon lesson before - and he took her advice to heart.
Today, Bakenhus conducts the NSU orchestra, teaches private bassoon lessons to college students and plays bassoon with a performance group, Trio de Llano.
His work may have taken him away from the road, but he has traveled across oceans for his performances with the trio.
In fact, he is leaving Natchitoches on Friday for a series of concerts in England.
Johnston showed up at UT-Austin in 2006 to listen to his doctoral recital.
"I told her, 'If it weren't for you, I'd be a truck driver,'" he said.
Coming up next
In addition to its performances in the Christmas Gala, the orchestra will perform a concert Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall.
Bakenhus said one of his favorite pieces, "The Camp Meeting" by Charles Ives, will be included in the patriotic concert.
Bakenhus originally wanted to hold the concert on Lincoln's birthday so that he could conduct Aaron Copeland's "Lincoln Portrait," but scheduling conflicts pushed the performance from February to November.
As it happened, the concert is now set for the day of the presidential election.
"It was just serendipitous, I guess," Bakenhus said.
