Sunday morning. We would all be better off if we would just turn the TV off. Today I am listening to Bach performed by Yo Yo Ma and Isaac Stern and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as well as Jascha Heifetz performing Brahms Violin Concertos and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. When I was in highschool, I took a music theory course with a handsome young teacher named Mr. Marsh. He was not hard to look at as well as listen to...he later married another student, and my silly fantasies were (happily) not realized but that is not why I loved the course. I loved listening to only one symphony, knowing it by note and passage, and really thinking and talking about it for a whole semester. That one class was the high point of my highschool years. Sad, but true. It was Beethoven's 7th. I listen to part of it every morning and I never get tired of it. Thank you, Mr. Marsh, wherever you are.
I do not hear many people talking about classical music, and my enjoyment isn't very educated...I had it in my home when I was growing up, when I was taking piano, voice and organ classes, and it is something that I want to make room for in my life every day. I have decided to put a filter on what I hear and see. I do not want to see violence against children, or hear the latest terror report. I cannot subject myself to horror movies of any kind. I do not want to see rivers of blood unless it is by Quentin Terrantino. I want to filter out the emotion wrenching media that we have become used to. I do not want to unwillingly become audience to someone elses plastic surgery. I need more loft, more peaks, more sky and sun, more gladness, more hope and joy. Do I need another episode of the Victory Garden or CSI or do I need more Brahms and Beethoven? Am I selfish? Or is this self control and self care?
Last year we took a trip to see the National Cathedral in Washington, where Kennedy and Reagan were buried, as well as the venue for many other huge historical events. I can just imagine what the music was like....and wish I could be there for a service some day. Another goal to add to my moleskine.
Happy Sunday.
