Music from the Inside Out.(Video recording review)

Music from the Inside Out. (DVD from Emerging Pictures, 2004, 90 minutes.)

"Music, n. 1. An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. 2. The tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both. 3. Musical work or compositions for singing or playing. 4. The written or printed score of a musical composition. 5. Such scores collectively. 6. Any sweet, pleasing, or harmonious sounds or sound. 7. Appreciation of or responsiveness to musical sounds or harmonies."--Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1999.

It's easy to get a dictionary definition of "music," but it really isn't so easy to explain why music affects people on so a personal level and why people react so differently to various types of music. That's why documentary filmmaker Daniel Anker ("Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust," "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy") set out to make "Music from the Inside Out" in 2004. He wanted to get inside the meaning of music, to bring it down to a personal level; and to do so he went to those folks who know music inside out--some of the best professional musicians in the world, people who have worked in the music field all their lives. In this case, he spoke to the 105 members of the renowned Philadelphia Orchestra.

Naturally, these men and women have devoted most of their lives largely to classical repertoire, yet many of them share with us their love for a variety of other musical genres, too, covering everything from folk to jazz to bluegrass. The documentary won a number of nominations and prizes when it was released, but the question is whether it answers the fundamental question, What is music? Like it or not, the film, subtitled "A Musical Essay," raises more questions than it answers, and it's the musical journey more than the final destination that pulls us along.

I suppose trying to define music and its impact on people is like trying to hold smoke in your hands. Yet, with enough points of view, we do begin to get a general feeling for the subject. When director Anker asks his subjects "What is music?," it's clear they're not sure exactly how to answer. Everyone relates to sound differently, and one of the first interviewees responds saying it is an intense personal experience, and that it's the performer's job to relate this experience through "intense personal expression." Fair enough, if pretty vague.

One of the first things the film does, and perhaps its greatest achievement, is to humanize each of the Philadelphia players. They are no longer a mass of impersonal instruments and tuxedos playing music; they are individuals, with separate minds and souls, most of them quite down-to-earth as opposed to the stuffed shirts one can mistakenly associate with classical musicians. In their off time, one of them plays trombone in a Latin band, calling it "dancing with a horn"; two of the violinists play in a bluegrass band, and so on. It's comforting to know that most of these folks have no more idea why they love music than you or I do, but they certainly love it in all its forms.

One woman in the orchestra says she was drawn to music because she was never all that articulate with words. Music, she says, gives her a better sense of self-expression, a new way of speaking. Another person explains that in music you're free to experience the divine, another world. In addition to the Philadelphia members, we hear from singing waiters, a fellow who performs on drinking glasses, and yet another guy who plays Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" on the accordion. The members of the orchestra seem almost as appreciative of these alternative performers as they are of the greatest virtuosi.