Palm Sunday cantata

Younger Daughter was informed by her music teacher, Mr. B, that she would be participating in a Palm Sunday cantanta as part of a small orchestra accompanying a choral group. (Ahem. Her participation was not voluntary.)

This was a contemporary classical piece by a composer named Pepper Choplin. The students only had two weeks and three rehearsals to get the music down, so Mr. B requested that everyone practice for at least one hour each day. Younger Daughter found the cantana on YouTube and practiced and practiced and practiced.

Apparently so did everyone else. From the first very rough sight-reading rehearsal to the second and then third rehearsals, Mr. B was extremely pleased with everyone's progress. Yesterday was the performance.

Here's the dress rehearsal. The performance took place in a church in a nearby town.

Mr. B was conducting so fast his arm was blurry.

This was Younger Daughter's first time playing with a group of more than one or two, and she carried herself splendidly.

Mr. B is one of the most beloved music teachers in the area, the kind of person who can pull together fifty or more people of different ages and skill levels and do a lovely performance at almost the last minute.

The cantata played to a packed house. Every pew was full and some people were lined up against the back walls.

Younger Daughter did wonderfully.

Everyone did wonderfully.

Thank you Mr. B!

Music music music

Older Daughter's music recital was last Saturday. Her elderly teacher, in addition to teaching piano, also teaches harp, so the harps dominate the scene. It really is extraordinary to be in the presence of fourteen harps at once, ranging from full-scale concert pedal harps down to little Irish lap harps.

Ages for the harpists ranged from young (13) to old (88).

There's just nothing prettier than a harp and its player.

One of the students played French horn...

...and this young lady belted out "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" in beautiful style.

Older Daughter played two pieces (We Three Kings and Prelude in C) and played them beautifully, without one single mistake.  She was relieved!

The relief was short-lived, however, since the next day (Sunday) both girls played in church, along with some other children.

Little Reeser at first was more interested in the camera than the music.

This fellow has only been playing trombone for two months, and I was astonished by how clear his tone was.  That's a difficult instrument!

This young lady made a mark with her clarinet.

Little Haileigh (age 4) gave a rendition of Away in the Manger, along with her Sunday school teacher.  The microphone was turned up too high so she nearly blasted us from our seats, which gave the congregation a good chuckle between putting our fingers in our ears.  She's not shy!

Younger Daughter played beautifully.  She won't admit it, but this performance was less nerve-wracking than the last (though when she reads this she'll deny it).

Older Daughter not only played a couple of pieces solo, but she also played the accompaniment to Younger Daughter's violin and the other girl's clarinet.

Younger Daughter lights the advent candles.

Our pastor reads the Gospel text upon which the sermon was based.

Altogether it was a beautiful service, though I think the girls are relieved it's over!

Fiddling around

Younger Daughter had a fiddle recital in Spokane last Friday. Her teacher and his wife have a small music school, and all the students participated. Fiddle is their specialty, but they also teach guitar, piano, and mandolin.

Here are some of the kids warming up in the hallway behind the stage (it was held at a high school auditorium).

A chaos of cases. I thought this photo turned out pretty neat.

Here's Younger Daughter, nervously warming up by herself at the end of a hallway.

Here are the parents who run this music school, Andrew and Deanna, performing with their talented brood of homeschooled kids (three boys, one girl). (A family friend is playing the base.)

At last it was Younger Daughter's turn. She was scared spitless but played beautifully. What a kid!

Snark of the week

I just love it when people prove my point.

This fellow took exception to last weekend's WorldNetDaily column, Artistic Parasites. So he took it upon himself to write this long missive which, inadvertently, proves my point since he is clearly an artist (or musician, in this case) who couldn't make it on his own without government subsidies.

He left his full contact info which I could have included, but I don't want to (a) encourage anyone to visit his website or (b) encourage anyone to send him snarks. Let him think he "won" the round.

Enjoy!
_________________________________


Dear Ms. Patrice Lewis,

Every couple of years or so I happen across an opinionated editorial of such extraordinarily striking pungency that I just have to respond in kind. Your recent World Net Daily piece, "Artistic Parasites," is just such a one. Naturally, I passed it along to numerous arts contacts across the continent so they could share in your thoughts. So, as one rural ragged redneck to another, let me say I found your content and terminology extremely offensive and derogatory.

To some, God gives the insight to create art.
To some, God gives the skill to draw pictures, write prose or verse, or make songs.
And to some, God gives the mentality to call such people "artistic parasites," "creatives" and "artsy-farts."

Lately, it seems that teabaggers and a certain brand of creepy christians (small case deliberate) work overtime to make the latter a traditional family value. They have helped me to become a believer in evolution--theirs!

We artist types have had quite enough of some 30 years of that type of hate speech from self-appointed manure spreaders determined to dumb down and destroy every attempt to raise some arts above the lowest common denominator commercial level that pervades so much of our lives.

While I do not approve of urine as a means of photographic enhancement, I do not condemn all artists and funding sources just because one such controversy got through. Furthermore, that example is over 20 years out of date as are the congress folks and religious moralizers who still cling to it as the highest point of their artistic experience. I had thought we had finally neutralized most of those derogatory group names like "japs," "krauts," "spics," "wops," "kikes," "niggers," and "fags." But we still seem to have to contend with derogatory artist terms. Too bad. We still intend to sit at your lunch counter. And one day we will eat your lunch.

Yes, I'm happy to be a "creative." I've received a few grants. Some of my works have failed while a few have done well. I'm not wealthy but I do a little better than minimum wage. I'm happy to be able to have health insurance. I know of no real artists who will immediately quit their jobs just because they have health insurance. I'm a victim of Hurricane Katrina and the insurance aftermath. Like most everyone else down here, I listened to neighbors swear they were going to burn down insurance companies and eat the agents' children. Inefficient as the government and FEMA were, it was still the government that made the grants that made going on with life possible for me and many others. What insurance companies provided was stonewalling, lies, cheap payoffs and a 200% increase in home insurance rates. Now, with a relative in the medical field, I've seen similar stuff on the health insurance plate. I have no empathy for that kind of free market extortion and the blind and vicious people who espouse it. Freedom with a balance of social safeguards might be a good thing. It worked pretty well for King David's Israel.

Meanwhile, from my Mississippi coastal home, I remain in humble awe of what spiritual values our best selling, free market, wealthy, brilliant, important, talented and subsidized oil executives and Wall Street banksters have just contributed to the Gulf of Mexico. Our local residents should be ashamed of themselves for calling on the government for help in containing BP and the oil spill. They should just suck up and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, muck and gravity notwithstanding. After all, the free market can fix it. Like Grover Norquist said, government should be small enough to be able to drown it in a Gulf of Mexico, er...bathtub.

Now, if I have not sufficiently insulted and offended you, please advise. I would be willing to try again.

Most cordially,

Ken D-----
Artistic Parasite and Arts Advocate

Music music music

Some neighbor kids came over the other day, and before I knew it we had an impromptu jam session.

Fun song

Here's something by a guy called "Ed Montana" ("Six Pack Music") called Obamination.

WAY cool video clip!

The depth of talent one finds in this world never ceases to amaze me.



Here's a link to an a cappella jazz choir from Slovenia called Perpetuum Jazzile. They're singing "Africa," which was a huge hit in 1982. But get this - there are NO musical instruments beyond the voices of the singers. The video starts out with a simulated thunderstorm - turn up your speakers and enjoy this amazing rendition.