One of the best things about my work here at MENC is the daily correspondence/conversations with members (and others) who call or write in, asking for information to help them teach music, or info to help with advocacy, or research, or a school paper. We used to keep tabs on how many requests we received each day/month; at one point we were getting several hundred/month! The demand comes and goes based on the time of year.....October and January seem to be BIG request months, with a small surge in March/April, particularly from college students looking to finish up their last papers........
What makes helping folks especially rewarding is when they actually reply and let us know how things went. Below is verbatim (no, I didn't make this up just to fill the blog and toot our own horn!) one reply received from a very grateful member. It made me happy to hear things were looking up for their music program, and all was not lost. So, Teacher Members, do not lose heart! Sometimes, this advocacy thing DOES work!
QUOTE: I talked to you several weeks ago regarding the possible Music reduction in time and staff in my school district. You sent me lots of material (it was great!) and the steps in the process of making a difference. The number one step was getting parents involved! I sent your emails to all the Music staff in our district. It truly helped all the staff, as they sent on what was pertinent for their groups of parents. I am happy to report back to you about the progress of this situation. Five very articulate and respected parents spoke at our BOE meeting against the proposed cut in Music and PE. About 100 people were there as a show of support. There was no action taken to eliminate and/or cut times! The principals have been directed to re-do the schedule and come up with different plans. This will then be presented to all the teachers and a parents committee has been set up to help with the process. Can you believe it?!!!! I am truly amazed at the developments! So while we are not sure of the outcome, we have reached the goal of letting the Board know the importance of Music and that parents do not want the time reduced! I will be sending you several articles from our local newspaper for you to see...I want you to witness our success because you are a part of it!
Around the Water Cooler
As an offshoot to the "American Idol" British invasion theme (see blogs last week)...
I was discussing with a co- worker how the first Beatles album allowed in our home (1966) was "Rubber Soul" (most likely because it was so acoustic and almost "classical"....Mom had her standards!) We devoured it; or rather I did. Day after day, singing along with "Rubber Soul", I imagined myself as a back up singer to the Fab Four. After all, why not? My fantasies were fueled further when the news came out (1967, 68?) of an unknown local gal from
UK who won the solo on (Paul's tune?) "Those Were the Days".....after all, I was only 7, and anything was possible!
I learned every vocal harmony on each song, including the back up choir parts "Oooh la la la!".....("You won't see me"....)
While sharing this info with co-worker pal, she also confessed to doing the same thing, and we agreed that's probably how we learned to sing harmony.....she reminded me how we could, in those days of mono-recording and early stereo, separate out the singing parts with one turn of the "balance" knob on our RECORD PLAYERS.....so that Paul's treble voice came out of one speaker, and John's more resonant tones came out of the other speaker. This certainly helped train our ears. We felt like geniuses with our "smart" listening....and rebalancing the tracks back together made a sound that was like candy!
SO! In honor of reminiscences about singing, and "American Idol's" themes of standards with Tony Bennett, and British Invasion and 60's Pop with Diana Ross......here is an"> 8 minute cartoon (go ahead, treat yourself!) from 1936, apparently a cult classic: "I Love to Singa!". Spoiler: If you rent the DVD "Happy Feet", this is one of the shorts on the disc..... has something to do with singing birds, as does "Happy Feet"! Teaser: "Singa" has a very "American Idol" like scene....hilarious! You will be reminded of the "wanna be" IDOL contestants during the IDOL audition phase!
">Description and history of the cartoon (click here!)
Speaking of cartoons....it's amazing to me how I became familiar with so much classical music.....via Saturday morning cartoons! Most especially, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. My husband and I can never hear it without breaking into wide grins, and then, "conducting" it right down to the final "DA DAHHH!", in imitation of whichever cartoon character was conducting the cartoon orchestra!
(For a more sober performance, see: youtube; and Click to see a list of many cartoons featuring classical music!
and CLICK THIS to see Rhapsody in Popular Culture" along with cartoon characters stills....
See you next Wednesday! SR
