OH...hold it. It started FAR earlier than that!!!
From
as far back as I can remember I have LOVED music!!! As a young child I would
stand on the top step leading down to the lanai and pretend I was conducting
great orchestras. A record would be put on the phonograph and I would stand
there, with an invisible audience and I would conduct. AND even though I was
younger than six, I knew there were different parts to the orchestra or band;
with my equally invisible-magic-conducting-wand waving around, I would conduct
the various sections…horns, strings, woodwinds, etc. AND, like I said, I was
younger than six.
So,
there I was with Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky,
Haydn, Handel, Liszt…and others, but never leaving out John Philip Sousa. I don’t
know how much time I spent with these great men, but it was enough to make a
musical impression on me.
Then
there was the DANCING music!!! The music which makes you move...just makes you
WANT to move. I would listen to the Big Band music which we had when I was
little. I learned to Jitterbug, Charleston, Fox-Trot, Waltz, etc. I took
ballet. Music put dancing in my blood.
For
my 8th Christmas, in 1962, I received a record of my very own. It was…
…and while I don’t know who it came from, I do know that I LOVED it!!! AND many
records followed this one over the years. Eventually, as my mother got rid of a
lot of her things, I absconded with the vast record collection she had. Happy
dance of excitement here!
I
also grew up going to Church, and fell in love with the hymns. I have my
favorites, and then there are some that I thought I didn’t like…but have found
that the reason I “think” I didn’t like them was because of the emotions they
bring out in me. This has changed the way in which I “listen” to music now.
I
found this to be true with Christmas carols as well. Silent Night was never a
favorite of mine. For some reason, a few years ago, while singing it, the whole
meaning of it came pouring in to my being and I was overcome with this feeling.
Another
genre is Patriotic music. It is rare for me to get through America the
Beautiful without tears streaming down my face…at times I have sobbed. I was
living alone in St. Joseph, Missouri…it was the 4th of July. I had
no plans for the day, other than going out and working in the yard. I got all
of my yard tools, etc…and a portable CD player with a LONG extension cord and
headed out to the yard. AND my new patriotic CD...
…and there I was out in the
yard, thinking about past celebrations of the 4th in various places,
thinking of my son who was serving in the Army and singing along with my CD.
The first song is a relatively new patriotic song, God Bless the USA, and I was
already a basket case. But, I kept singing, and crying and letting the music
fill me. I didn’t do anything that evening. But my day was wonderful, and I was
thankful for this great music and those who were inspired to write and compose
it.
Music
fills my soul, makes my heart swell and many times brings tears of memories and
feeling to my eyes. There is SO much music in me that during a conversation,
someone can say something and a song will come to mind. OR someone will do
something and another song comes out. The music is there, and it has thoroughly
and completely enveloped me.
I
work in a middle school right now, in the band room. The band director is the
same age, and I understand him. We came from the same era. I love to listen to
the bands play all day, and the orchestra is on the other side of the wall and
I hear them. It’s great!
IF
my life was a movie, my youngest son would describe my life as a musical,
romantic, comedy…with some drama mixed in. His would be an action, drama, where
you sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat and hold-on-for-your-life…with enough comedy
to make it interesting. So, he doesn’t watch musicals. He has, BUT he does NOT
like it. He believes music is NOT in real life, so shouldn’t be in the movies.
BUT I’m just the opposite. I feel the music all day long, even if there isn’t
any playing. I hear it, I sing it, I feel it. I always have a song. I can’t
imagine a life without it.
NOW,
we are back to December 26th 2013…and Katie and I went to see
Frozen. I thought it was delightful, marvelous and fun. When it ended, Katie
and I looked at each other and both confessed that we didn’t know what we were
in for, and that wasn’t what we thought it was going to be, BUT we loved it.
The movie was made from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of The Snow
Queen. It’s a Disney movie, so we knew it would be fun…AND it had music. So, I
called my youngest son, who wanted to see it, and “warned” him it had music,
similar to The Little Mermaid, etc. Well, he went to see it on January 5th,
his birthday. THEN he came here for his birthday dinner…and went off on how “IT
WAS A MUSICAL MOM!!!! EVERYTIME THEY OPENED THEIR MOUTHS THEY WERE
SINGING!!!!!!!!!!”
WOW!
And the conversation continued…I found it amusing and just shook my head. Well,
I decided to see just how “musical” it was compared to other Disney animated
movies…and here are the ones I compared it to:
Place, unless someone thinks of another one
|
Name of Movie
|
length of said movie in minutes
|
number of songs
|
1
|
Alice
in Wonderland
|
75
|
22
|
2
|
Lilo
& Stitch
|
85
|
14
|
3
|
Aladdin
|
90
|
13
|
3
|
Little
Mermaid
|
83
|
13
|
4
|
Anastasia
|
94
|
12
|
5
|
Lion
King
|
89
|
11
|
5
|
Tangled
|
100
|
11
|
5
|
Frozen
|
102
|
11
|
6
|
Dumbo
|
64
|
10
|
7
|
Fantasia
|
125
|
9
|
7
|
Peter
Pan
|
77
|
9
|
7
|
Robin
Hood
|
83
|
9
|
7
|
AristoCats
|
78
|
9
|
8
|
Jungle
Book
|
78
|
8
|
8
|
Snow
White
|
83
|
8
|
9
|
Wall-E
|
98
|
7
|
9
|
Sleeping
Beauty
|
74
|
7
|
9
|
Cinderella
|
74
|
7
|
10
|
Bambi
|
70
|
6
|
10
|
Sword
& the Stone
|
79
|
6
|
10
|
Tarzan
|
88
|
6
|
11
|
Fox
& the Hound
|
83
|
5
|
12
|
101
Dalmations
|
79
|
2
|
I’m
sure there are other Disney animated movies which I could have included, but
these 23 will suffice. I know he’s seen most all of these, if not all of them. I
would love for him to weigh in on how he feels about them, now that he knows
some of them are more “musical” than others.
Until
the next musical….
