Classic Infiltration: Insane Acoustics

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Caprice en Gigue, Bodinus

Talk about your classic urban infiltration, here’s the third of three recordings from the hauntingly deserted Downsview hangars. Once again, my thanks to ArcticLamb for the terrific photos (while my camera is in for repairs) as well as for his camaraderie and shared sense of adventure! While AL snapped away, I set up to record with my flute, all the while keeping a wary eye and ear open for any approaching security.

My gratitude as well for the kind offer of a lift up the Allan Expressway on a cold winter afternoon – if you venture up that way, you can dump your car at the nearby Idomo parking lot, though you don’t actually need a car to get there – there’s a TTC station right across the snowy field from the hangars.

Currently listed as a Grade 8 piece in the RCM Syllabus, this charming work for solo flute by Sebastian Bodinus seemed well-suited for some classic infiltration! Recording it in one take, huddled as I was behind a discarded pile of pink insulation, would bode well for the glorious acoustics of the huge interior space…withe cascading arpeggiated passages reverberating off the high, vaulted ceiling, I wasn’t disappointed!

Toying with the idea of venturing further through the series of massive, interconnected series of hangars and shivering with the cold and adrenaline, we talked it through and quickly agreed: dealing with security or police was one thing, but messing with the military was something yet again. I don’t know, I guess we were undetected as we respectfully tiptoed along the perimeter of this intriguing room, but, call me paranoid, I had the unnerving sensation that some sniper might be training his scopes on me as I played, or that a black-clad members of a SWAT team would suddenly descend from the  overhead skylights- yet again risking my life for Art!?

So we retraced our steps and got the hec out of there, perhaps to return another day.

Note: In reading a bit about Bodinus on good ol’ Wikipedia, there’s both good news and bad. It is quoted that, writing in a late Baroque style, he was a “minor master [who] appears to have written first-rate music.” That’s the good news. The not so good news is that in his latter years he became disoriented and was sent off to an insane asylum.

Insane music for an insane adventure at these historic hangars.