Ray, I've noticed that when people are happy they sing. Or, perhaps, when they sing, they are happy.
I think I told you that when I was scratching a hold on this new land - actually in Oakville, about 20 miles out of Toronto - I spent some of my meager cash on a good stereo system. It was tuned to a classical station all day long. The four kids listened to this as they moved through the house (and outside on the patio). I had a patio, but not much furniture. One day, Harry Jr. was whistling. He didn't know it but he was whistling Mozart's Serenade #6. I said to myself "touche"! I had made a touch - or Mozart had! It worked with four of the five kids and now, when the old man isn't sure of a piece, they'll tell me. I didn't like opera for a long time,but came to it late, whereupon I realized the emotions that can be stirred by the human voice. But as luck would have it my favorite opera became Falstaff - an opera with possibly one tune within the great music. As future workers would certainly agree, there is more to life than making a living. As the Classicals would say, we must find out how to cut Maintenance (the necessary chores) so we can spend much of our time on the good stuff of life. Harry ______________________________________________ Ray wrote: >God, we are so polite. I'm going to lose my New Yorker grump license if >this keeps up and where is Mike Hollinshead? He's a tenor. (I'll bet >Arthur and Sally sing also, if not out in the open, somewhere in the >secretness of their hearts.) Why didn't he sign into this? Well, just >to nitpick again. > >Harry said: >. First you need to stay alive and > > if you can do it fairly easily, you pay attention to music - or to the > > World Series, or something. The choice is yours - if you can enjoy life. > > > >When I was in the Army doing KP, I used to sing Wagner at the top of my >voice as I was scrubbing pots and pans outside. > >"O du mein holder Abendstern" > >(Tannhauser) The rest of my company liked it and I guess that means >since they had eaten they had time to enjoy a little art now. > >But I was doing something else. I was asserting my identity as a >singer. Ridding myself of the BS I was being required to do. I also >did the same whenever I was required to paint the dayroom > >"Give to me the life I love, let the lave go by me." >(It made a mighty resonance chamber) or to rake leaves. > >"I wouldn't give a bean to be a fancy pants marine, >I'd rather be a dogface soldier like I am." >(Singing outside is an interesting issue for resonance). > >I used to go out into the middle of a farmer's field in Pennsylvania and >"sound" the field as a meditation on acoustical resonance. > >What was even more interesting was that the birds set up a rhythmic >relationship to my sounds in their singing as well. It happens that in >the morning at the San Diego Zoo as the sun first tips the horizon the >Gibbon Monkeys begin a kind of squawk chant on a definite pitch. All >generally around the same pitch. As the sun slowly moves out of the >shadow of the earth the Monkey's pitch rises until the earth finally lets >go of the golden orb. At that moment the Gibbon sounds have risen a >perfect octave and then they go on about the rest of their day. The >composer Pauline Oliveros recorded that when she lived in San Diego in the >1970s and played the recording for me one day in the Experimental >Intermedia Foundation loft in Soho NYCity. So I can attest for its >truth. > > And finally there are all of those babies and their words. I first > noticed it with my daughter but I have seen it happen many times since > then. The child is getting ready to go to sleep and begins to chant. > >"And so I did this, yes I did and I will do it yes I will and....." > >The child launches out on a long aria about what she has done during the >day and what her parents are doing and her dog and her big sister etc. >etc. and they all use basically the same notes. Perfect >fourths. The same as "here comes the Bride" "I'v been working on the >railroad," or even the medieval Scholar's melody that Brahms loved so >much in his academic festival overture. You know it all you latin >academics. "Gaudeamus igutur luvenes dum sumus!" It seems that there >is something missing when a person is not able to lyrically expand their >words into song. Something very important and primal in life. > >Definitely missing and if you don't plan to facilitate it and you are a >social scientist then what kind of a human being are you? Have you read >how the Koran is taught to children in Pakistan? They hold the knee on >one leg and sit on the other foot rocking back and forth over the perineal >area opening the energy at the base of the spine putting passion into >religion. They are not the only ones. All that chanting and working to >put the sitzbones on the floor in Zen, etc. etc.. Something very primal >that can be used for joy or fanaticism. Remember the marches of the >American war machine that did in my people that Hitler admired so much? > > "Garry Owen Garry Owen Garry Owen, In the valley of Montana all > alone." > >They played that as they attacked "Dull Knive's" women and children at >Wounded Knee with Hotchkiss guns sitting in all four directions and >killing their own as well as the Lakota with "friendly fire." > >Boy, do you learn to love a brass band playing a military cakewall! I >finally got over that kind of conditioning that came from the government >and society in my early schooling with six years in the best Male Chorus >on the planet singing > >"Garry Owen, Garry Owen, Garry Owen." > > >One day I said "hey those bastards were shooting at us." So guys you >can use a diamond for many things. Some good, some evil but it is still >a rock. It all depends on your implicit values and who your mother was. > >Best > >Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director >The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc. ><mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >PS Thanks Harry! ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
