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Neuroscientists continue to explore the neural pathways that allow music to bring back memories, tell stories, and change hearts. Music influences us to buy stuff we don’t need. It can bring us together or create social distancing. It has reduced the odds in David vs. Goliath struggles. It does all this and more by connecting with feelings — and feelings, not thoughts, drive action.
Music innovators fall into two categories: redwoods, who create unique styles and spend their lives perfecting…..
I don’t know when I first met Lynn, but I’m sure it happened during a Friends in Art (FIA) function. She might have been offering wine to a bunch of us boisterous, visually-impaired artists from across the United States, each committed to making the arts more approachable for us blind people. She might have been staffing the FIA booth in the exhibit hall during the annual conference of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), an advocacy organization of visually-impaired…..
According to Dictionary.com, irony is “the expression of meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite.” This takes place in music when a composer sets a text in a way that’s contrary to its feeling or meaning.
Take, for example, Suzanne Vega’s song “Luka,” (1) which describes a small child being physically abused through the eyes of the child — made more heartbreaking because of the song’s up-beat, bright vibe.
Or take Tom Petty’s iconic song “Free Falling”, (2)…..
I never liked my graduate school’s choir conductor. He chose boring music. He covered his pomposity with lousy jokes and grating attempts at hipness. I didn’t meet his expectations of Pathetic Blind Man. My dad didn’t like him either.
Towards the end of the fall semester, the conductor announced with great fervor that the choir would be performing a piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams titled Dona Nobis Pacem. I had studied Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor as part of…..
“Sounds like a group of Missouri misfits,” a friend from New England quipped after I told her about the diversity in the Methodist church praise band in which I serve as the drummer.
“Methodist misfits?” I responded.
“No! Too hard to say!” she shot back.
The other members of the band don’t like the Methodist Misfits name. I think it sounds cool. It highlights our unique racial, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and age diversity. It reminds me that each of…..
Recently, I sang baritone in two performances of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” I was assigned to stand in a spot close to both the instrumentalists and the conductor, making it easier for me to anticipate her cues even though I couldn’t see her waving baton.
And she did one other extremely helpful thing: she breathed expressively before especially important entrances.
My organ teacher introduced me to this technique in high school. During lessons, he taught me how to read his…..
Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s song “Respect” was the first R&B tune to catch my attention. Prior songs by The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and James Brown seemed too similar to other music that I was hearing on New York City AM radio. But “Respect’s” powerful back beat, sax solo, the background singers’ vocal commentary, combined with Ms. Franklin’s uniquely lithe, soaring voice, made this ten-year-old kid smile while standing just a little taller.
Even though I…..
About a year after moving to Columbia, Missouri, I joined Missouri United Methodist Church, known for its music ministry.
Last April, the church’s new Director of Music announced that he was looking for volunteers to join the church’s newly-established praise band. Fully expecting to be turned down gracefully, I volunteered to play drums, as I had played for various ensembles in high school and college.
But to my surprise, I have been playing since then on drum kit, tambourine,…..
At 7 PM on Saturday, December 2, the Missouri United Methodist Church choir, accompanied by an array of instruments, will be performing its annual Advent concert. While the first half will feature a variety of carols, three composed by John Rutter, the second half will feature Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria” (to be more precise, “Gloria in D).” Both Vivaldi’s Gloria and Rutter’s carols have played significant roles in my musical journey.
When I was in first grade, Mom decided that the…..
Opera aficionados are familiar with Richard Wagner (pronounced Riccard Voggner). The music is bombastic. The plots are drearily complex. Only the best of the best of the best trained vocalists dare even to try to sing the music, and only the top-tier opera lovers are able to stay awake much beyond the first 30 minutes of a four-hour production. So Siri’s announcement that the University of Missouri’s men’s basketball team had defeated Voggner by 40 points came as quite a…..
Breaking Barriers - Working and Loving While Blind