And lo! what is this?!
I have decided to reconnect with classical music. This is the genre that I first came to know, by way of a tape of a symphony by Gusctav Mahler that I got for Christmas. I forget which one, and remember only that my mom was the one to give it to me. I probably got it when I started playing the middle school band. I played flute. I remember quite clearly still that first day of band - I needed another class, and my guidance counselor at Guy B. Phillips Middle School pointed out Band. Or maybe I pointed it out. I don't know. But to Band I went, and was asked by Ms. Cutchens to chose either clarinet or flute. Back then, we didn't have a good sense of gender identity, or what that phrase even meant, so I went with flute. Little did I know that I would be subjecting myself to an adolescence full of potential mockery. At the time, I figured that if I played the clarinet, I'd have to buy reeds pretty often. If I played flute, I wouldn't. I was just being frugal.
but that's just a tangent, really. Point is, I was introduced to classical music. And my first crush. Mary Clarke-Pearson. God. Even now she brings a smile to my face. The middle school-era Mary, that is. God knows where she might be now. I almost wonder if I should use her whole name. Why, she might google herself (oh, we all do it) and find her way here. But she knew I had a huge crush on her, if not at the time then soon after I moved from Chapel Hill to Columbia. But that's another story, for another day. Ask me sometime if you're so inclined.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand, classical music. We played crap back in middle schoo. That's what a middle school band is for, though, so whatever. I was a pretty good floutist (sp?). First or second chair, pretty reliably. There was one quarter where we were playing Copland's 'Appalachian Spring' and it involved the piccolo. Now, I was first chair at the time, so that meant that it fell to me to play the piccolo. It was just like a normal flute, but made of wood, I think, and much higher pitched. Think 'solo from Sousa's "stars and stripes forever", as that's some fine, fine piccolo-ing. However, I didn't want to play piccolo. At all. I think it was because there was a flute solo later in our arrangement that I really wanted to play, and I somehow got it into my head that I couldn't play both. Which, as I think about it now, nearly some 10 years later, makes no sense at all. But, um, yeah, my parent's just got a divorce? i was a teenager? Point is I raised a big ruckus, because that made the most sense to me at the time. In the end, the second chair, which was Mary, come to think of it, wouldn't voluntarily play the piccolo solo, which meant that I had a choice - suck it up and play the piccolo, or abdicate the first chair position. I abdicated.
Which was kind of retarded, but like i said, it was middle school. those were the worst three years of my life, I htink. Of everyone's life, right?
Despite the petty, first-chair or no shenanigans, I came to know classical music. Which is totally my point. From which I keep digressing. But I digress even now. Classical was the music I listened to, at the time, and I liked it. When I got to high school, thank god for band. I guess I was a band nerd, but at my high school, there were so many popular kids in the band that no one thought less of of us for playing. The whole school liked us. During spirit week, we would march around the school after morning announcements playing various football game-esque songs to rally the school, and boy were they rallied. It was fun, and I made some good friends. I could enumerate them here, but I won't. Suffice it to say, band in high school was my sole saving grace, and I think about Mr. Dutrow often (or, at least, as often as any of us think about a particular high school teacher).
But encroaching on classical's monopoly on my music taste was more modern stuff. Which is entirely acceptable and good, really. I was approaching 16 - should I still have been listening to PDQ Bach? hardly.
Instead, I was listening to They Might Be Giants. Some would say, and probably rightfully, that they hardly constitute an improvement. Well fie on that. I had a BMG membership and they were the best I could do (thanks Tiny Toons!). I'm pretty sure I picked up other random CD's that way, too, like Blues Traveler and Creed. We all make mistakes.
But throughout the 90's, I missed out on the big releases. most notably Nirvanna and Radiohead. If ever there were two bands that have managed to impact music, vis a vis what I listen to today, it was these two bands. And I... missed them. Utterly. hell, I still remember the time during school when I went to Mike's house during one summer break and was like, "Radiohead? Who are they?" Talk abotu a schooling. He gave me a mix CD of their stuff (through OK Computer) and it was fabulous. I went on to give that CD to one of my kids at the summer camp I worked at. I sure do hope that it opened his eyes. It opened mine, is all I'm saying. I'm pretty sure that that was the same summer that I bought some Pixies CD's, and Weezer, too. Yeah, Weezer's blue albumn totally passed me by. I was a late bloomer, in so many more ways than one. What can I say?
And since then, I like to think that my taste in music has grown and changed and developed to be a far more respectable entity. But I could be wrong. One casualty, though, of this appreciation for new music is my appreciation for classical. When it came time to leave some CD's with my mom, which ones were the first to be left? the classical. When I look for something to listen to as I fall asleep, when I'll hear but one or two tracks off a whole albumn, what is my go-to genre? classical. It's irrelevant to me these days. And that's a shame.
And so it's been an utmost pleasure to listen to a new CD. It's a series of pieces written by Bach but transcribed for a full orchestra by some other dude (fine, his name is Leopold Stokowski, but it's not like you'll know who he is). It's all quite lovely, especially his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. You want to hear it, really. But as I was listening to this CD -- to the Air On the G-String, to be precise -- I had a sudden epiphany about my long-starved passion for classical. It's hard to explain, but I could pick out, quite clearly, a bassoon in the midst of the piece.
[After starting high school, my mom lobbied the director, Mr. Dutrow to switch me from the flute since she was concerned that it would, I don't know, make me gay? keep me from making friends? whatever. But I switched to bassoon anyway, which was lovely, because then Rachel David and I became to be quite good friends, even if my friendship with Jessica Wooldridge was then forever soured (a good trade, in all honesty). All of which is to say that the bassoon is near to my heart, sort of.]
And I was just so pleasently surprised that I could do that. Say, "there's the bassoon!", not to mention say something similar with most other instruments. It made me feel like I did know something about something. Which is nice, as we all know. and it just brought back to me a love that I suppose I had forgotten about. Already, I'm itching to get Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. talk about a good work or art.
And in addition, it got me thinking about other things that I had maybe forgotten about. People, and the like. Why, even as I've been writing all of this up, there's been an old... friend? might be the right word, on AOL. She's someone that I haven't talked to in absolutely ages, and while I can't say that I have anything to say, I'd like to know if I could say it nonetheless. As I was able to rekindle my love with Classical, I guess I'd like to rekindle my ability to say 'hi' every now and then. she's someone that means a great deal to me, even if I don't quite mean so much to her these days. I mean, I wouldn't blame her if she didn't think so much of me these days - I think the last time we spoke, it was... wierd. I probably said some things that were out of line, and possibly even retarded. And since then... well, hell, if I did say so much as 'hi' then it would be the first thing said in a long, long while.
And she is but one example of the other relationships and friendsjips that I've left behind in my past. Discarded, almost, much to my chagrin. And so as I have with classical music, maybe I'd like to feel so moved to once more say 'hi'; i had forgotten the joy of a bassoon solo (shut up), and I'd rather not forget it again, as I also would rather not forget how much some people can mean to me.
xoxo,
ddm
email me
I have decided to reconnect with classical music. This is the genre that I first came to know, by way of a tape of a symphony by Gusctav Mahler that I got for Christmas. I forget which one, and remember only that my mom was the one to give it to me. I probably got it when I started playing the middle school band. I played flute. I remember quite clearly still that first day of band - I needed another class, and my guidance counselor at Guy B. Phillips Middle School pointed out Band. Or maybe I pointed it out. I don't know. But to Band I went, and was asked by Ms. Cutchens to chose either clarinet or flute. Back then, we didn't have a good sense of gender identity, or what that phrase even meant, so I went with flute. Little did I know that I would be subjecting myself to an adolescence full of potential mockery. At the time, I figured that if I played the clarinet, I'd have to buy reeds pretty often. If I played flute, I wouldn't. I was just being frugal.
but that's just a tangent, really. Point is, I was introduced to classical music. And my first crush. Mary Clarke-Pearson. God. Even now she brings a smile to my face. The middle school-era Mary, that is. God knows where she might be now. I almost wonder if I should use her whole name. Why, she might google herself (oh, we all do it) and find her way here. But she knew I had a huge crush on her, if not at the time then soon after I moved from Chapel Hill to Columbia. But that's another story, for another day. Ask me sometime if you're so inclined.
Anyway, back to the issue at hand, classical music. We played crap back in middle schoo. That's what a middle school band is for, though, so whatever. I was a pretty good floutist (sp?). First or second chair, pretty reliably. There was one quarter where we were playing Copland's 'Appalachian Spring' and it involved the piccolo. Now, I was first chair at the time, so that meant that it fell to me to play the piccolo. It was just like a normal flute, but made of wood, I think, and much higher pitched. Think 'solo from Sousa's "stars and stripes forever", as that's some fine, fine piccolo-ing. However, I didn't want to play piccolo. At all. I think it was because there was a flute solo later in our arrangement that I really wanted to play, and I somehow got it into my head that I couldn't play both. Which, as I think about it now, nearly some 10 years later, makes no sense at all. But, um, yeah, my parent's just got a divorce? i was a teenager? Point is I raised a big ruckus, because that made the most sense to me at the time. In the end, the second chair, which was Mary, come to think of it, wouldn't voluntarily play the piccolo solo, which meant that I had a choice - suck it up and play the piccolo, or abdicate the first chair position. I abdicated.
Which was kind of retarded, but like i said, it was middle school. those were the worst three years of my life, I htink. Of everyone's life, right?
Despite the petty, first-chair or no shenanigans, I came to know classical music. Which is totally my point. From which I keep digressing. But I digress even now. Classical was the music I listened to, at the time, and I liked it. When I got to high school, thank god for band. I guess I was a band nerd, but at my high school, there were so many popular kids in the band that no one thought less of of us for playing. The whole school liked us. During spirit week, we would march around the school after morning announcements playing various football game-esque songs to rally the school, and boy were they rallied. It was fun, and I made some good friends. I could enumerate them here, but I won't. Suffice it to say, band in high school was my sole saving grace, and I think about Mr. Dutrow often (or, at least, as often as any of us think about a particular high school teacher).
But encroaching on classical's monopoly on my music taste was more modern stuff. Which is entirely acceptable and good, really. I was approaching 16 - should I still have been listening to PDQ Bach? hardly.
Instead, I was listening to They Might Be Giants. Some would say, and probably rightfully, that they hardly constitute an improvement. Well fie on that. I had a BMG membership and they were the best I could do (thanks Tiny Toons!). I'm pretty sure I picked up other random CD's that way, too, like Blues Traveler and Creed. We all make mistakes.
But throughout the 90's, I missed out on the big releases. most notably Nirvanna and Radiohead. If ever there were two bands that have managed to impact music, vis a vis what I listen to today, it was these two bands. And I... missed them. Utterly. hell, I still remember the time during school when I went to Mike's house during one summer break and was like, "Radiohead? Who are they?" Talk abotu a schooling. He gave me a mix CD of their stuff (through OK Computer) and it was fabulous. I went on to give that CD to one of my kids at the summer camp I worked at. I sure do hope that it opened his eyes. It opened mine, is all I'm saying. I'm pretty sure that that was the same summer that I bought some Pixies CD's, and Weezer, too. Yeah, Weezer's blue albumn totally passed me by. I was a late bloomer, in so many more ways than one. What can I say?
And since then, I like to think that my taste in music has grown and changed and developed to be a far more respectable entity. But I could be wrong. One casualty, though, of this appreciation for new music is my appreciation for classical. When it came time to leave some CD's with my mom, which ones were the first to be left? the classical. When I look for something to listen to as I fall asleep, when I'll hear but one or two tracks off a whole albumn, what is my go-to genre? classical. It's irrelevant to me these days. And that's a shame.
And so it's been an utmost pleasure to listen to a new CD. It's a series of pieces written by Bach but transcribed for a full orchestra by some other dude (fine, his name is Leopold Stokowski, but it's not like you'll know who he is). It's all quite lovely, especially his Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. You want to hear it, really. But as I was listening to this CD -- to the Air On the G-String, to be precise -- I had a sudden epiphany about my long-starved passion for classical. It's hard to explain, but I could pick out, quite clearly, a bassoon in the midst of the piece.
[After starting high school, my mom lobbied the director, Mr. Dutrow to switch me from the flute since she was concerned that it would, I don't know, make me gay? keep me from making friends? whatever. But I switched to bassoon anyway, which was lovely, because then Rachel David and I became to be quite good friends, even if my friendship with Jessica Wooldridge was then forever soured (a good trade, in all honesty). All of which is to say that the bassoon is near to my heart, sort of.]
And I was just so pleasently surprised that I could do that. Say, "there's the bassoon!", not to mention say something similar with most other instruments. It made me feel like I did know something about something. Which is nice, as we all know. and it just brought back to me a love that I suppose I had forgotten about. Already, I'm itching to get Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. talk about a good work or art.
And in addition, it got me thinking about other things that I had maybe forgotten about. People, and the like. Why, even as I've been writing all of this up, there's been an old... friend? might be the right word, on AOL. She's someone that I haven't talked to in absolutely ages, and while I can't say that I have anything to say, I'd like to know if I could say it nonetheless. As I was able to rekindle my love with Classical, I guess I'd like to rekindle my ability to say 'hi' every now and then. she's someone that means a great deal to me, even if I don't quite mean so much to her these days. I mean, I wouldn't blame her if she didn't think so much of me these days - I think the last time we spoke, it was... wierd. I probably said some things that were out of line, and possibly even retarded. And since then... well, hell, if I did say so much as 'hi' then it would be the first thing said in a long, long while.
And she is but one example of the other relationships and friendsjips that I've left behind in my past. Discarded, almost, much to my chagrin. And so as I have with classical music, maybe I'd like to feel so moved to once more say 'hi'; i had forgotten the joy of a bassoon solo (shut up), and I'd rather not forget it again, as I also would rather not forget how much some people can mean to me.
xoxo,
ddm
email me
1 Comments:
Cool blog you have. I have a clarinet in c
related site. Check it out if you get a chance. The URL is clarinet in c
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