Category Archives: Music

2024, Family, home, Music, Mysteries

Endorphins

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Yesterday afternoon, after doing a boatload of errands, I came home feeling… joyous.  I’m not exactly sure why – it’s not my normal go-to reaction to doing errands.  The only think I could think was that yesterday, I finally handled two issues that have been on my back-burner for months.  Neither of the issues is the biggest deal, so it’s been easy to put them off.

The main reason that I addressed both these issues is because this meme has popped up a couple of time the last two weeks:

It’s funny because it’s true of a lot of us, especially me.  But seeing it multiple times felt like an omen that needed addressing.

Anyway, when I got home in my great mood, I asked Alexa to play “Sugar, Sugar” by the Archies.  I’m not putting the song up here because if you have any liking for it at all, you remember it.  And if you don’t like it, I don’t want to torture you.  But it’s a happy tune and it’s great to dance to in the kitchen while you’re putting away groceries.  Alexa then went on to play a lot more bubblegum rock – more good boogie music.  Gave the dog and cat some extra afternoon treats.  Texted YA that I love her. 

It makes me wish I had more things I’ve been putting off; wondering if I can recreate this mood at will by playing a silly song by a made-up cartoon group?

Do you ever dance in the kitchen?  Sing in the car?  Or the shower?

2024, animals, Media, Music, Mysteries

More Baader-Meinhof

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It’s been quite a while since I experienced the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon… when something you’ve just become aware of suddenly pops up seemingly everywhere.  It’s also called “frequency illusion” – even though you think you’ve discovered something for the first time, it’s just that you’ve noticed it for the first time.  Anyway, I’ve had a bunch lately:

Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Friends visited there this fall and wrote about it in their holiday newsletter.  First time I had heard of this city.  Then a couple of days letter, Ljubljana was mentioned in the National Geographic that I was reading. 

Tasmanian Tiger.  Also in National Geographic (although a different issue), there was a mention of the tiger.  Then the next day there was a sidebar in Scientific American.  I’d never heard of this dog-like “tiger” that went extinct in Tasmanian in the 1930s.  It’s been in the news because a paper came out in 2023 that they may have survived longer in the wild before the species died out.

Straight No Chaser.  While baking cookies right after Thanksgiving, I heard a funny carol on the radio – turned out to be a men’s acapella group called Straight No Chaser.  First time I heard of them (but I adore them already).  Then a week later, a friend of mind posted on Facebook that he was going to a Straight No Chaser concert that night. 

I do understand that the universe is not trying to send me coded messages but it’s hard to believe that the information is all around you and you’re just not registering it.  I do wonder why all three of these just popped up in the last month for me!

Any coincidences in your life lately? 

2024, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

Soundtracks For Living

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Our drive from Brookings to home on Monday was pretty uneventful, although long. The weather was good, and we had MPR Classical to listen to as we traveled.

We are typically not fans of Strauss waltzes, but hearing the Vienna Philharmonic play at the Vienna New Year’s Day concert was fun. We listened to it as we drove past a large collection of windmills on the Buffalo Ridge, aka Coteau Du Prairies, near Summit, SD. The windmills’ rotations made them look like they were dancing to the waltzes. Even more fun was our arrival in western North Dakota just where the buttes and ravines start. Just as we entered the area, Copeland’s Rodeo started playing. It was so appropriate! We were back in the West with the dancing cowpokes.

Sometimes it feels like the most appropriate soundtrack for my life is Khachaturian’s Saber Dance. I hope for a calmer January, with a peaceful soundtrack, maybe cool jazz. We shall see.

What soundtrack would best accompany your life of late?

2023, holidays, Media, Music, Uncategorized

Tchaikovskied Out

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Winnipeg has a rather renowned ballet company as well as a wonderful symphony orchestra. One December when we lived there we attended a production of The Nutcracker with some friends. These friends were good friends with two of the musicians, a cellist and a French horn player who were a couple, and who played in the Winnipeg Symphony as well as the orchestra for the ballet.

We all went back to our house after the performance. I was excited to play a new recording of some classical piece I had purchased, but the musicians pleaded with me to put on some jazz instead. They explained that they had played so many performances of The Nutcracker for Christmas that it felt like they had been eating nothing but sugar for weeks.

I confess I am getting tired of all the Tchaikovsky on the radio stream. I could also be happy if I didn’t hear John Rutter’s choral piece about the donkey for the rest of the season.

What is too much of a good thing ? What Christmas music are you getting tired of?

2023, Baboon Achievers, Food, Music, Songs, The Baboon Congress

End of an Era

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I teared up more than I expected listening to the re-broadcast of the last Morning Show at The Fitzgerald.  Since I was in the theatre, none of the re-broadcast should have been a surprise, but 15 years does dull the memory and I ended up crying just as much as I did that day.  At the end when Neal and Leandra did “End of the World”, I completely lost it.  (I simply could not explain this to YA who happened to come upstairs right at that point.)

When I went downstairs to make a little dinner, I decided I needed comfort food; Ralston Hot Wheat Cereal was on the docket.  Ralston isn’t making the hotel cereal any longer; I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I still had my container in the freezer.  When I measured it out, I had exactly enough for one serving.  Somehow it seemed fitting that the last of one of my favorite comfort foods was eaten after hearing the re-broadcast. 

I’ve done quite a bit of research and I THINK that Wheatena may be close.  I did purchase some last month but haven’t tried it yet.  Fingers crossed that it’s close.  The Ralston has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, so we’re talking DECADES.  I’m trying to take it in stride, but it’s hard.

Concerning the LGMS and the final broadcast, I am definitely seeing the bright side, as I would not be part of this fabulous community without the Trail! The Morning Show probably wouldn’t still be on the air at this point anyway and we baboons keep going and going!

What’s a product you’ve had to learn to live without?

2023, Family, Fantasy, Music, Uncategorized

Would You Like To Be A Pip?

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For some odd reason, Husband was musing recently about what it was like being a backup singer in one of the various musical groups from the 1960’s and 1970’s. He thought it would be fun to be a Miracle, a Blue Note, or a Pip.

This brought up memories for me of the Ronettes, the Marvelettes, and the Vandellas, although I don’t think it would be much fun to be an Ikette. I would have to put up with Ike.

What backup group would you like to sing with? Got any good ideas for names of new backup groups?

Baboon Achievers, Media, Music, Stories

The Sound of Our Lives – Steve Grooms

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It’s been two years since we lost Steve.  Below is one of his most iconic posts (in my view).

I’m passionate about music and life, so it is not surprising that the two often meld for me. Certain moments become inextricably associated with the music I was listening to at that time. The most familiar example of this is how couples can have a song or performance that becomes “our” song. But that sort of things happens over and over for people like me. We end up associating music with certain times places we have known. I keep hearing the phrase: “the soundtrack for my life.” And that, for many people, colors how they think of moments from their past.

The worst place I ever lived was a shabby little house on the West Bank near Seven Corners, but that place is also associated with the moment I discovered the music of Leo Kottke at the nearby Scholar Coffeehouse. As awful as that house was, Leo’s music was one of the happiest discoveries of my life. Some of the associations we make are complicated.

Sometimes the soundtrack we can’t help associating with something is wildly inappropriate to anyone else. I discovered the Lord of the Rings trilogy early in grad school. At the same time, I was listening to a lot of Ravi Shankar sitar music. Clearly, the epic trilogy is as thoroughly European and Nordic as Shankar’s music is Indian, but when I read Tolkien I keep hearing sitar music. It is, after all, exotic, and I found the novels exotic.

I think of these matters a lot now because I keep encountering two types of music that are linked in my mind to the pandemic. I discovered the music of the traditional jazz band Tuba Skinny just as the virus reached the US and changed our lives. When I listen to YouTube videos of the band, as I do for maybe an hour each day, I keep reading comments from others who say they could not bear the pandemic without the uplift of Tuba Skinny music.

Similarly, early in the virus shutdown period, Mary Chapin Carpenter began recording Songs from Home. She films herself with her animals (White Kitty and Angus, the golden retriever) at her farm home in Virginia. She delivers her performances (filmed on her phone, I think) with a breathy intimacy that is incredibly calming. Unless you somehow hate her music, I urge you to sample some Songs From Home to read the comments of all the people who say their sole salvation in this difficult time is the music she makes for them.

What about you? What music do you associate with particular moments from your past? Do you have “our song” with anyone?

2023, Gatherings, holidays, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

Sitting Next to Eileen

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I have been a member of our church choir for about 20 years, most of them seated next to Eileen, a retired college librarian. She and I are both Altos, and are used to following one another through the music for pitch and rhythm.

For Christmas this year we are singing Morten Lauridsen’s Oh Magnum Mysterium, a beautiful piece that has parts for Soprano I and II, Alto I and II, Tenor I and II, as well as Baritone and Bass. Here is a recording of it>

Our choir is small right now, with only two tenors and two basses. We have four altos. The Tenor I part in the piece is quite high, so I and one other low Alto are singing Tenor I. Both Tenors will sing Tenor II, and the two basses will split the low men’s parts. Eileen will stay as a First Alto. Eileen and I decided after rehearsal of the piece last week that we just can’t sit next to each other while learning the Lauridsen piece because I was following her and she was following me and neither of us was getting our parts right. Neither of us realized how much we depended on one another. It will be better being in the row with the Tenors.

Who are your favorite choral composers? Who have you led astray?

2023, Family, home, Music

Over the Rainbow

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As always, I am continually amazed when I see signs that the apple of my eye hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new set of bag clips; as time has gone by we are using these for more items than we used to, so we needed to beef up our supply.  We get the magnetic ones and, as you can see from the photo, we stick them on the hood of the stove for easy access.

The surprise was when I walked into the kitchen last week and found that YA had arranged them in rainbow order.  I laughed out loud because when I took the clips out of the package and put them on the stove hood, I did briefly think to myself “I should put these in rainbow order”.  Then I got distracted and didn’t get to it. 

Any discussion of rainbows makes me think of this one:

Other good rainbow songs?

2023, Gatherings, Kids, Music, Uncategorized

Musical Challenges

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We have a new church Worship and Music director, who also directs the choir. She is our son’s age, and we have known her since we first saw her at her infant baptism 35 years ago. She was an elementary music teacher and has a lovely mezzo voice. She has purchased lots of new, challenging music for us. We had got pretty entrenched with the same pieces with the former director.

Our church choir is pretty small with about ten regular singers. We are often short on sopranos, which we were yesterday on Reformation Sunday. This is a big day for Lutherans, and there was a display of Luther’s 95 Theses in the front of the church. Our choir director planned big, and we sang three very challenging choral pieces, and recruited the high school band director to play timpani, a college trombone student, a high school trumpet player, and three sopranos who sing in the Badlands Opera organization. Ironically, four of our visiting musicians were Roman Catholics, but they sat cheerfully through two services and sang “A Mighty Fortress” with gusto. They even took communion!

Our bell choir director is also the organist. She has been taking the choir director’s lead and giving us very challenging music, too. It is fun, but sort of daunting to try new things and stretch ourselves in ways we haven’t had to before. The congregation is very happy with our efforts. I believe it was Gustav Holst who said in reference to small church choirs attempting difficult musical pieces that “anything worth doing is worth doing badly”, which I take as encouragement to keep performing these challenging works even if we don’t do them perfectly.

What are some of the positive challenges you have had lately? Have you been part of an organization where positive “shake ups” have happened? What is the most challenging musical work you ever performed?