Music, Music, Music...

I am sitting here watching KCTS our Public Television Network, where they are presenting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with Michael Tilson-Thomas Directing. He has just spent the past hour describing every movement, of Tchaikovsky’s
Symphony Number 4. Oh What a PROGRAM! For those of you who do not know me well, Music is my passion! And Classical Music reaches clear to the bottom of my soul and brings it out to the sunshine! I so LOVE it! The world comes to a screeching halt when I am allowed to have my music on as loud as I want it. Sometimes, it is awfully loud, other times not so much. It depends on the music, the orchestra, and the interpretation of the music. But the Most important thing is the Composer. Tchaikovsky is one of my absolute favorite composers. His music has such feeling to it. It is very Nationalistic.




I also am a big fan of Rachmaninov, Dvorak and Ralph Vaughn Williams. The Seattle Symphony and Gerard Schwarz have won Emmy’s for their performances and recordings of Howard Hansen. He is not as well known as the great ones, but his music is so wonderful. I have all of his symphonies, all recorded by The Seattle Symphony. Our Classical Radio Station here King FM plays a lot of Baroque and Chamber Music, and I am NOT a big fan of that. It is all great music, but there is just something about the way a great symphony can stir your blood, and your emotions.

All of my life I have said that if there was one wish I was allowed, it would be to be able to play the Piano better than anyone who had ever lived. The very first classical piece I remember listening to was of course Tchaikovsky’s piano Concerto Number 1. I wanted to be able to sit down and pound that one out just like Jose Iterbe did in the movies that my Mother always watched.

I sang in glee clubs and choirs all of my life, but when they were forming bands in grade school, my mother said I had to join the orchestra because little girls did not blow horns. By the time I got the permission slip signed and turned in, the only thing left to play was the cello, and Mother said that Ladies did not do that. I had to play the violin or the piano.

There were no violins left to play, and we did not have a piano because of being moved across the ocean every two years. So no piano lessons either. I majored in Music in College, but since I did not know how to play an instrument, I was severely handicapped. I sang Tenor in the College Choir, but it was not enough. My Mother quit work in my Freshman year of College, so I had to come home and go to work myself. Thus my career in Music was brought to a screeching halt. I KNOW I would have been great because I was so passionate about it then. I was scorned by my peers because I listened to classical music and easy listening (elevator ) music. It was not until I was 20 that I started listening to Country Music, and other genres. I like all kinds of music now, and have quite an eclectic collection, from Bach to Windham Hill.

I know that I could still learn to play, but I am so impatient with everything now, that I would get mad because I couldn’t learn it fast enough, and I would eventually quit. I have to settle for the radio and TV now. Occasionally we will go to a live performance but Seattle is so far away, it isn’t really feasible to run down and back for a concert.
The passion that is showing on Maestro Thomas’ face as he directs this work is so moving! He lives every note as it is being played, every feeling that the composer had as he wrote it down all those years ago. It was said on the first part of the program, that he Channels every composer he performs and it shows.

I know that there are those of you out there that have never really sat down and listened to Classical music, that it puts you to sleep, that it is boring, that it is for long-hairs only. Not so my man! Music is for every being that lives. There is a scene in the Movie OUT OF AFRICA that shows Robert Redford and Merle Streep playing an old fashioned record player on their front lawn. Monkeys heard it and were walking around it looking at it, and Robert Redford said “imagine, the first music they hear and it is Mozart!” Everyone should take time out of their day and listen, REALLY Listen to a great Classical Piece of Music. Know the story behind it and visualize the story as it is being played. There is no greater gift than a person who can write great music. Who knows, You might even get hooked…