Tune in and listen...

Today I’m going to keep it light since it should be “Good Life Friday”. This weekend shows promise as I get to do another full day in the yard, clipping, cutting, burning and catching time in my new hammock when I can. Sunday I get to participate in what is arguably the strangest yet most addictive wastes of time invented…golf.

I’m no golfer, but I do enjoy swinging clubs and crushing golf balls off the tee, no matter which direction they go. Whit’s company is having their spring picnic and they do a golf outing before hand, so I’ll be sucking up a blue streak in front of all her piers. What could be better on a Sunday afternoon than embarrassing yourself in front of all your wife’s co-workers.

Ok, back to the good stuff. Today I want to talk classical music. As a child I was exposed by my parents to two types of music that have shaped my life in more ways than I can count. Classical and Jazz. My father is the culprit here, having seen many of the legends of jazz live in concert in Atlanta in the 40’s, he began plying my ears with Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, Monk, Goodman, Ellington, Coltrane, Herman and so many more that it would be pointless to list them, but you get the point.

In much the same way he exposed me to the great classical (and modern) composers. Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Handel, etc. I always listened to classical while I did my homework because it calmed my ever racing brain and relaxed me into a state of well being that I still find while listening. In time I began looking for more music, expanding my own horizons into more modern orchestral areas. This brought Grofe’, Prokofiev, Copeland, Dvorak, Shostakovich and other hard to spell names….But seriously, by the time I was 11 and choosing an instrument to play in band, these two types of music had shaped me to such an extent that the choice was already made. I began playing the saxophone in 5th grade and play it to this day (though not as much jazz as I’d like). I also picked up the drums, the clarinet, piano, and to this day I fail miserably at the guitar. But I love to play, no matter how bad I am, it always brings me peace.

I can honestly say that music is responsible for my life’s direction, and much of the happiness I’ve known. Being a part of a musical group has allowed me to see places and be a part of events that I otherwise would never have been able to even see on TV.

So today’s Good Life is dedicated to music. I hope that you all are able to find the peace and happiness in music that I find. Below I’m listing a few of my all time favorites, the songs that really take hold of me and don’t let go until the last note fades into ether…

My all time favorite:
Appalachian Spring, by Aaron Copeland. (I like the Leonard Bernstein recording best) This song puts me into a trance like state from which its nearly impossible to wake, but I listen to it constantly and have since my teens. The last three minutes are the most beautiful requiem to a piece of music I’ve ever heard… worthy of tears.

The Planets by Gustav Holst. I love this music because it’s raw, powerful, and narrative. In writing this suite, Holst made movie music before movies really had music. The powerful use of the low brass and strings is a punch in the chin that makes me (nerd I know) crank the volume every time Mars comes up.

Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copeland. I know, I’m stuck on Copeland, but he is my favorite after all. Fanfare is one of those pieces that puts very distinct images into my head. It reminds me of the first time I saw the monument to Iwo Jima in Washington D.C. I was 13 years old, and appropriately in D.C. on a band trip. We were visiting Arlington that day and seeing the Vietnam Wall and other war monuments. I walked off by myself (because that’s what I do) and wandered up upon the statue of those men raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi. I had a mix tape in my walkman that just so happened to have Fanfare on it. Well, it was like something out of a movie. It was dark, the spotlights were shining on the monument, I’m all by me onesee listening to Fanfare for the Common Man, staring at this statue of soldiers hoisting the American Flag together. I think I must have just stared at the thing for over an hour. Up to that point I wasn’t very patriotic, never thought about politics, the military, and precious little about our country’s history. That began to change that night. To this day whenever I hear that piece of music I picture soldiers, doing what they do. If that’s all the song makes me think about, then that’s enough.

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. This guy played rock and roll piano before it was invented. This piece is bright lights – big city combined with classical orchestration that reels like a roller coaster. Short, quiet hills followed by big, roaring down-hills with piano and horn runs that leave you dizzy (especially if you play and know how difficult some of them are at speed)

Ode to Joy by Beethoven. This piece is just classic. Pure sound, big and full. We played this at our wedding as we were walking out…it just fit.

Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. This piece is one of those that stops you in your tracks if you’re moving, and hypnotizes you if you aren’t. I love this piece because it illustrates the power of the human voice to create music unlike any instrument man can create. I had the pleasure of hearing this piece played by a large orchestra (about 67 pieces) many of whom are in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. A church we attended had a musical program in their main sanctuary and had many of its members who played orchestral instruments provide the music. They also had their full choir on hand (about 120 people) For a little background, this is the single largest Presbyterian congregation in the country. The Sanctuary is huge, and acoustically wonderful. We were lucky enough to get seats about 7 rows back from the stage. I was excited to hear this piece live but I had no idea what I was in for. For those of you who are familiar with the work you’ll understand my description. The lights were slightly dimmed and the air was thick and quiet. The conductor raised his baton and ever so slightly nudged it forward and down, so slowly that it probably wasn’t perceptible from more than 15 rows back. With this began what is my favorite thing about live classical music: The violins slowly pulling the first notes of the piece from the strings. For those of you who have never heard this live and close up, it almost sounds like breath. Soft and airy, pure in tone and shuddering just a bit so that it really does resemble a whisper. Multiply that by about 25 and you have the strings playing these first notes. I can’t even describe what the sound did in that church, but it was ethereal. By the end of the piece even the small children in the crowd were dead silent and still. Knowing what his group had accomplished, the conductor held the last note until it simply drained away into silence, and held his baton up for another 10 or 15 seconds after, just to keep the crowd in thrall. It took him lowering his arms, turning towards the crowd and nodding his head for anyone to dare clap and break that silence. After that there was about a 5 minute standing ovation…and that was just the first song.

Ok, well, I’ve written a small novel and haven’t even scratched the surface of the jazz side of my picks, so I’ll leave that for tomorrow. Until then I wish you all happy listening.

Capt.