music
Music Ed.
Currently reading When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin. It’s obviously influencing my listening habits as well: haven’t listened to this much Zeppelin in at least twenty years. I mentioned it to a class in a “what are you reading” conversation to fill the last few minutes of class. I was shocked at the number who’d never heard of them. Needless to say, I remedied that the next day during their bell ringer with “Dazed and Confused.” The next day, a petite, preppy blond asked, “Mr. Scott, can we listen to that song again?” Small victories…
Ave Maria
What angels sound like.
Sto Lat
If, the day after your birthday, you visit friends in Poland, you shouldn’t be surprised to get a spontaneous rendition of “Sto Lat”
Sto lat, sto lat,
Niech żyje, żyje nam.
Sto lat, sto lat,
Niech żyje, żyje nam,
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech żyje, żyje nam,
Niech żyje nam!
If the friends are deeply rooted in the Polish Highlander tradition, you shouldn’t be surprised when Pan Gospodarz dashes off beforehand and returns with his altówka (viola) to accompany the marry well-wishers.
And with that many instruments, it could hardly come as a surprise that all the kids decide to form a band.
Theme Music
Anyone who has lived in Central Europe probably recognizes this theme song from a Czechoslovakian cartoon called Pohádky z Kechu a Kapradàand known in Poland as Å»wirek i Muchomorek.
Barber for Chorus
Beauty
Dear Terrence and Teresa,
Have you ever experienced true beauty? Your lives sometimes seem so lacking in it — the fruits you show in class make me wonder if you’ve ever been struck dumb by something truly, deeply, and unquestionably beautiful.
Listen to this if you haven’t experienced that kind of beauty.
Sincerely,
Your Teacher
School Dance Misogyny Mystery
Dear DJ Splatz (or whatever you clever name is),
I’ll have to admit that I was somewhat surprised, and pleasantly so, when you called down a young man at our school dance this evening for getting a little out of control. Slinging his shirt around and dancing in an overtly sexual manner, he was clearly out of line at a middle school dance. I commend you for calling chaperons’ attention to it and insisting that he leave the dance. At the time, I thought that such a strong response was entirely called for and set a much-needed example for students, and my opinion of you improved greatly. You later began talking about the need to have “good, clean fun,” and while I thought, “My definition of that term is probably different than yours,” I very much appreciated the sentiment.
The next song you selected for the dancers, though, seemed to negate everything you were trying to accomplish with that warning. I’d never heard the song — for I don’t listen to such trash — but the lyrics of the refrain stood out clearly: “To the window, to the wall, / To the sweat drip down my balls (MY BALLS).” At least that’s the lyrics that lyrics007.com displayed when I Googled “window wall sweat drip balls.”
Really? You’re going to reprimand someone for sexually explicit dancing and then play that song? When I read the rest of the misogynistic lyrics of this piece of garbage, I wondered how producers could have cleaned it up for a radio-ready version, so filled it was with the lowest, most degradingly misogynistic profanity imaginable. Which lyrics do you think were going through their mind as the song played, the radio version or the vile original? Of course, we don’t have to wonder about the lyrics coming out of their mouths, but it is particularly distressing to see a bunch of sixth-, seventh-, and eight-grade girls singing (who are we kidding? it’s rap: it’s merely talking, shouting, or mumbling to a generally-computer-generated beat) shouting about sweat dripping off their — well, you get the picture.
So, in closing, if you find yourself this evening wondering why that boy was dancing like a sex fiend, I’d suggest you review the lyrics of the songs you play.
Sincerely,
A Teacher Who Will Probably Never Let His Daughter Go To A Dance He Doesn’t Personally Chaperone
Ecstacy
Reading Tony Hendra’s Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul (Amazon) today, I found his first experience with Gregorian chant to resonate with mine, and my experience much sacred music in general. He writes of the sense that this was a timeless music, a music that arose from the passion of the spirit, the soul, instead of the passion of the heart, like most music. I’m not convinced much of what passes for music today could be said to have arisen from the passion of the heart. I rather think its origins are more hedonistic. That being said, much of the music I listened to growing up impressed me with its passion. “Here are people creating from the heart,” I thought.
Then I heard medieval polyphany for the first time. In college, a professor introduced us to Thomas Tallis, and I was immediately in love. Here was the intricacy of the soul itself laid bare. (It’s a bit tragic now that this particular piece will be associated in the popular mind with Fifty Shades of Grey, but the upside, if there is one, is that more people have been exposed to this glorious music and perhaps will investigate Tallis and his contemporaries — Byrd, Desprez, and others.)
Listening to this music, I had, and still have, the experience of ecstasy in the classical Greek sense of ecstasy — ek meaning “outside” and stasis meaning “a stand” — to stand outside oneself.
It was the first real hint I had of the spiritual, the first existential evidence I had of something more.
Biebl’s Ave Maria
There are some pieces of music that defy words, that make it all but impossible to think we’re just chunks of meat walking around, just bags of chemical reactions. This is one of those.
The Song Likely Most Listened to Today
It was the last day of school before Christmas break, and students were waiting for their buses to arrive when one girl mentioned how sad it was that they would never see each other again. “The world is going to end Friday!” she explained. Nothing can get fourteen-year-olds excited than superstition, and before long, the room was abuzz with talk about what Friday would hold for us. This particular young lady — I’ll call her Susan — was convinced that all the hype about the Mayan calendar was anything but hype.
“I’m serious!” she insisted. “We won’t be coming back to school.” Everyone discussed it a while, and all remained unchanged. After a few minutes, when the conversation had apparently died down, a skeptic, upset that the end of the world was once again the primary topic of conversation, got upset: “Man, don’t talk about it. You’ll jinx things!”
The day is almost over, and I guess we all feel fine.
Przy Hornej Dolinie
From time to time, I’ll be sharing a few Polish Christmas carols as we approach Christmas. Perhaps commentary, explanation, or translation would be helpful, but for now, just enjoy the music.
Przy hornej dolinie w judzkiej krainie
Paśli my owiecki przy Betlejemie
A jaÅ„dzioły z jaÅ„dziołami
A pastuski z pastuskami
Do Betlejema, do Betlejema
My tyz haÅ„ pódziemy, owce zawremy
Jezuskowi dary od nos weźniemy
Parzenice z oscypkami,
A oscypki z plecionkami
Ku obdziwieniu, ku obdziwieniu
Current Obsession
This is the song that the Girl, through her enthusiastic, dramatic singing, has drilled into my head, K’s head, and likely little E’s head.
“Honey, could you sing a different song?” is our little refrain to this particular number.