Hello Sweet, Sweet Summer!

I think I am having the perfect evening.  So perfect in fact, that I had to blog about it before it faded into the ether….

I am sitting at dusk in my house with my wonderful family, listening to a Wind Ensemble transcription of Bach’s O Mensch chorale.  AND I had lasagna for dinner.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  Not even the fact that I have to get up and go to school tomorrow (during Summer break, no less) is getting my spirits down.

I feel the need to discuss our man Bach.  This is one of my favorite chorales that he wrote.  I mean, let’s face it, he wrote a billion chorales, and I like a dozen or so, but this is one of my favorites. To me, Bach is more than a master composer.  He is a titan of music.  More than a demigod, but a full-fledged heavenly body of musical proportions.  Music flowed out of him on a scale unheard of today.  He wrote and improvised with such ease it was like breathing for him.  I could only dream of such a talent.  As a matter of fact, Bach had more than talent, it was if he thought through music.  He didn’t think like the rest of us.  Nature had provided him with the facility to think musically as if it were a sixth sense.  Ah, but I wax romantic…

I was listening to NPR the other day and there was a classical music critic talking about what song he was going to play for his new born son the minute he walked threw the door.  If you don’t have any kid you wouldn’t understand, but this is a big moment for anyone who is a massive music nerd.  I mean, you potentially inspire genius in this little bundle of potential.  It made me think back to when my son was born in 2006, of having the same dilemma. He chose Bach because of the absolute mastery and balance found within its hallowed verses.  I went another route.

Long story short I chose the entirety of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  Of course, I considered the mastery of Bach or Brahms, the balance of Mozart, the simplicity of Haydn, or the wild abandon of Strauss, Berlioz, or Liszt.  I chose the genius of Beethoven because I consider myself to be a Beethoven fanatic, and have become enamored with his passion.  It may be that I chose him also because of how much I know of him.  All I know is that Beethoven blows minds, melts faces, and busts guts.

Over the past thee years, I have exposed Benjamin to a multitude of other composers and styles of music.  For now, he is sticking to Twinkle, Twinkle and London Bridge.