Rock 'n Renaissance
All Music is Soul Music (Day 68)
A couple things before we begin. First and foremost, my best and oldest friend, Alan, or Mr. Alan as Little Bean knows him, is a cool dude and basically a all-over-the-board music lover. Second, he not just enjoys but knows a lot about all sorts of classical music, a genre I have painfully little knowledge or understanding of. Three, Little Bean adores him and his wife, Miss Jennifer.
So, when they graciously sent us a Christmas gift of a link to watch the Piffaro Renaissance Band perform a show at Christ Church in Wilmington, Delaware, my daughter was excited.
“This isn’t AC/DC,” I told her. To my kid’s credit, with food and with music, she’s willing to give anything a try.
A couple days ago, we settled in with the pup and worked our way through the various links to stream the gift concert that Alan and Jennifer had sent us. The concert was called Christmas in Southern Germany and featured a German speaking (I think) Soprano by the name of Clara Rottsolk. It’s lovely. The band is wonderful.
And Little Bean did manage to last about 15 full minutes. I could see her squirming. What was happening is that this style of music was not exactly for her, BUT, it came from Mr. Alan. I could see her struggling to not disappoint him.
“What are you thinking,” I asked.
She scrunched up her face. “I don’t really think this is exactly for me. I like more, like, rock and roll music.”
“Well, this was pretty much the rock and roll of its time,” I said. She gave me a look. “Ok, how about this then, let’s learn something at least from this. Tell me the thing you don’t like the most. And then tell me the thing you like the most.”
She decided the thing she didn’t like was that the music was slow. Then she surprised me with the thing she liked.
“The instruments,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Like, I don’t know, what even are they? I’ve never seen instruments like that.”
“Ok, pick one.”
“That thing.”
She pointed to a man playing what looked like a wooden saxophone. We looked it up. The dulcian is a woodwind instrument and predecessor to the modern bassoon! (Then we had to look up bassoon of course.) Anyway, the dulcian dates back to the 16th century.
“And you can still play it today,” Little Bean asked.
“Apparently,” I said.
She nodded. And after another moment. “Daddy, can we maybe just fast forward through the rest?”
And so we do.
In about a week’s time, my daughter is going to begin piano lessons and while I’m pretty sure she’s going to end up a rock and roll kid, maybe the dulcian will find its way into her brain as well. That’s the thing about music. You never know what will take hold. For her sake, I hope she’s able to take it all in.
Many thanks to Alan and Jennifer for giving Little Bean the gift of music, it made for a pleasant evening! If you’d like to learn more about Pissaro, go check the out the link above or here at their YouTube channel: Pissaro The Renaissance Band.
Good luck to Little Bean with her piano lessons! I love that you expose her to all kinds of music, even those that aren't your favorites.
My granddaughter (age 7) started playing the flute, Cello (they have orchestra at school) and piano this year. She decided that the flute wasn’t for her (although her mom and aunts played it all the way through HS). I have noticed there has been less and less practice with the cello too. HOWEVER she is loving the piano! She is playing chords and even “experimenting” playing songs on her own! Uma will figure it out! She is lucky to have you to expose her to different types of music/instruments!