I first listened to the cantata Carmina Burana in my music history class at Canadian Mennonite University in 1971. My professor was Dr. Henry Engbrecht and I remember being so taken with the unique sound of Carl Orff’s composition.
On Sunday afternoon we went to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet perform Carmina Burana in a work choreographed by Mauricio Wainrot. While the dancers were excellent and the visual effects were stunning it was still the music that was the highlight of the show for me.
The music for the performances last week was provided by the Prairie Voices and Winnipeg Boys Choirs and the soloists were soprano Andrea Lett, tenor Nolan Kehler and baritone Matthew Pauls. They were accompanied by members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Although I was at the ballet I did close my eyes several times just to appreciate the marvellous music. And no I wasn’t sleeping as my husband suspected.
Some of the music from Carmina Burana has become very popular. It has been featured in movies like Excalibur and Cheaper by the Dozen. It’s also been the background for Domino’s Pizza ads and ads for Gatorade and has popped up in television series like Glee, How I Met Your Mother and The X Factor.
Photo by Daniel Crump from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet website
On the Royal Winnipeg Ballet site you can access the translation of the Latin words to the text and the songs are about the coming of spring, passionate love, drinking and gambling and how fate and fortune direct our lives. But I don’t think it’sthe text that makes the music so popular, rather it’s the driving rhythms and the simple catchy melodies.
I’ve learned that Carl Orff always meant his work to be performed with dance and theatrical elements and the effect of the powerful music combined with the outstanding dancers of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet was terrific.
But for me, the music was the highlight of the show.
French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote his famous Quartet For The End of Time while in a German prison camp during World War II. Messiaen, a pianist, was incarcerated with three other musicians- clarinettist Henri Akoka, cellist Etienne Pasquier and violinist Jean Boulaire.
Photo of Messiaen and some of his fellow musicians in the prison camp
In her book For The End of Time,Rebecca Rischin tells the story of how Messiaen managed to write the quartet. A music-loving prison guard named Karl-Albert Brüll brought him paper and ink and excused Messiaen from work detail so he could hide out in a latrine and compose.
Poster announcing the concert
Quartet For the End of Time premiered on a bitterly cold night in the barracks theatre to three hundred or so prisoners and German officers.
Messiaen a devout Catholic based his quartet on a passage from the book of Revelation 10:6 which in the King James version ends with the words …..there should be time no longer.
Installation of Landscapes For the End of Time at the Winnipeg Art Gallery- photo by Ernest Mayer
In 2012 when I first began working at the Winnipeg Art Gallery we had an installation by artist Stephen Hutchings called Landscapes For the End of Time. Hutchings said the paintings in the installation had been inspired by Messiaen’s composition.
Tree by Stephen Hutchings photograph taken at the Winnipeg Art Gallery by Ernest Mayer
Quartet for the End of Time has eight movements and Hutchings did eight huge life-like paintings, one for each movement.
Hutchings said he hoped people would come away from looking at his Landscapes For the End of Time with a sense that life is a mystery and we are all a small part of the unknown.
Grove by Stephen Hutchings photographed at the Winnipeg Art Gallery by Ernest Mayer
His paintings certainly had an air of mystery about them for me. I found myself looking at each one and thinking ” I wonder…………….” and imagining what was under the water, behind the trees, down the road or over the hill in each gigantic landscape.
Hutchings’ paintings have a sort of timeless quality. It is hard to determine if they were painted to depict an era in the distant past, the present day or some point in the future. Hutchings has said he wants his landscapes to show the continuity of life and time.
Roads by Stephen Hutchings from the Winnipeg Art Gallerycollection
In Rischin’s book,she quotes Messiaen as saying that whenever he hears music he sees colours. Two of the colours that came to mind when he wrote Quartet for the End of Time were gold and brown. Interestingly gold and brown are the main colors in Hutchings Landscapes for the End of Time as well.
Sky by Stephen Hutchings- photograph from his website
Landscapes for the End of Time is an amazing collection of artwork based on its beauty, mystery and grandeur alone; but it is made all the more intriguing because of the story behind the music that inspired the paintings.
The Last Repair Shop was another one of the Oscar nominated documentary films we watched at a theatre here in San Antonio. It documented the lives of four people who work in a large warehouse in Los Angelos repairing the instruments of 80,000 public school children involved in the city’s music program.
It is the last such shop in the United States.
We are introduced to four children whose instruments mean the world to them and they tell us how music has changed their lives.
Then we meet the four people who have repaired each of their instruments and they share their life stories.
The man who repairs pianos is an Armenian refugee who fled to the United States with his mother after his father was brutally murdered.
The fellow who repairs woodwinds is a former music performer who gained international fame and did a concert tour with Elvis Presley.
The woman who fixes brass instruments is a single mother who initially was an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
The man who repairs the string instruments came out as gay in the 1960s at a time when LGBTQ people faced so much discrimination and hatred.
We learn how devoted and dedicated the four people are to repairing kids’ instruments. Their work means so much to them because they know they are making a difference in the lives of the children who own each instrument they fix.
In a time when so many schools are cutting their music programs to save money this is an important film that shows how music can be a game changer for children. As one reviewer put it- these people aren’t just repairing instruments, they are repairing children and families and communities.
The movie was incredibly heartwarming.I was in tears.I hope it wins the Oscar.
You can watch the film here on You Tubeand here on Vimeo.
If you do watch it I’d love to know what you thought.
My husband is a singing encyclopedia of popular music from the 60s and 70s. One of his hopes for our trip to Texas was that he would get to visit Luckenbach a place he knew from a song made famous by Waylon Jennings called Luckenbach Texas- Back to the Basics of Love.
Luckenbach Texas was written by Bobby Emmons and Chip Moman and mentions both Waylon and Willie in the chorus.
Willie Nelson dropped in when Jennings was recording the song in Nashville in 1977 and lent his voice to the last verse of the song.
Photo of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings from The Musical Divide website
Luckenbach Texas became a number-one hit and held that billboard position for six weeks. That literally put Luckenbach on the map.
To make Dave’s wish come true on the way home from our day trip to Fredericksburg we stopped in Luckenbach. It is said to have a population of only three people.
But it draws thousands of visitors each year from destinations around the world because of its dance hall and outdoor venue where you can sit at picnic tables, have a beverage and listen to some great music.Willy Nelson used to visit annually and bring along hundreds of friends for a musical party.
Dave poses with Jerry Jeff Walker and Hondo Crouch in a bronze statue of them by sculptor Clete Shields.
The music venue became famous because of the efforts of Jerry Jeff Walker and Hondo Crouch. Walker is a legendary country music singer perhaps best known for writing the song Mr. Bo Jangles. He recorded one of his albums in Luckenbach in 1973.
Hondo Crouch was the mayor of Luckenbach whose vision and inventiveness helped establish Luckenbach as a popular tourist destination. He is the one who came up with the Luckenbach motto- Where Everybody’s Somebody.
Every day different local musicians give shows on the Luckenbach stage. We heard two performers each with a backup musician.
The first was John Bardy.
I LOVED the second performer Ben Beckendorf. He had a lovely low gravelly raspy kind of voice and used interesting rhythms to sing favourites like The Glory of Love and Crazy About My Baby.
Although we went to Luckenbach to make Dave’s wish come true, I had a great time in Luckenbach too. So did our friends who were with us.
Wednesday night Dave and I decided to go and visit The Tower of the Americas in downtown San Antonio. We’d ride the elevator up to the observation deck, walk around it and take in the spectacular views.
Then we would watch the 4D movie they have about Texas and have dinner in the tower’s restaurant that moves 360 degrees every hour. As you eat you get a panoramic view of San Antonio.
After we parked our car we noticed the streets were full of people wearing big badges on lanyards. Signs on the light standards welcomed people to the Music Educators of Texas Convention being held at the Henry B. González Convention Center right by The Tower of the Americas. I would find out later that the conference had drawn 30,000 attendees.
When we arrived at the tower we saw a sign that said the observation deck was closed due to a special event for the music educators conference.No walk around the observation deck or movie for us.
Glass elevator ride to the restaurant at the Towers of the Americas
We could however take the glass elevator up to the restaurant. When we arrived there were no tables available- all reserved no doubt- for the music teachersof Texas.
The staff offered us a seat in the bar however so we had a drink and appetizers there. We had a nice view of San Antonio from our table.
Although our evening’s plans had been thwarted by the music teachers of Texas I have to admit it was pretty great to see that music instruction must be thriving in American schools to have so many people turn up for a conference. That’s terrific!
On Wednesday, just before the curtain lifted at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production of The Sound Of Music the audience was given notice that they were not to sing along with the cast during the show.
This was definitely a necessary reminder for people like me who know practically every song in the musical by heart. I would have loved to chime in with Edelweiss or My Favourite Things but I just mouthed the words along with the performers.
My parents took us to the Kings Theatre in Winnipeg to see the movie The Sound of Music when I was twelve.
Later they bought the LP record and it was played over and over again on our hi fi stereo. If I remember correctly Mom and Dad also had an 8 track tape of the movie soundtrack that we played in our car. It wasn’t long before we children could sing along with every tune.
When my sister was in high school she played Maria in the musical and of course I went to see her perform.
Photo of the Sound of Music cast from the Royal Manitoba Theatre Center- by Dylan Hewitt
Estimating the average age of the audience members at the matinee of the Sound of Music we attended, I suspected many other folks at the show had grown up in the 60s and were probably as familiar with the very popular score of the film and hit Broadway showas I was.
I found myself in tears during several of the songs I think partially because they brought back such fond memories of my childhood.
But I also think I was emotional because the story in The Sound of Music takes place during the rise of the Hitler regime, such a dangerous time in political history when democracy was in jeopardy.It seems eerily similar to our present time.
I followed the rules and didn’t sing along with the performers when I attended The Sound of Music performance on Wednesday afternoon but last night while I was making cookies I had a great time belting out all the tunes as I listened to the soundtrack while I baked.
In this photo, I am singing at the piano in my grandparents’ home in Drake Saskatchewan with my sister in the 1950s. My grandparents bought this piano when my mother was a young girl and she often played the piano for my grandparents when they sang duets together in church.
Here Mom sings and plays her Heintzman piano with me and my sister in the mid-1950s in our house on Home Street in Winnipeg. I can still remember some of the songs like Out in The Zoo and Peter Has New Shoes which Mom taught us when we were little.
My parents had to make do with very little early on in their marriage because my Dad was a full-time student and they had three small children to care for but Mom was never without a piano. Sometimes I think that playing music was as necessary to her as breathing.
My Mom and my sister at the Heintzman piano in our tiny apartment in the interns’ residence at the St. Boniface Hospitalone of our Winnipeg homes.
I started taking piano lessons when we moved to Steinbach when I was eight. My parents hadn’t been able to afford lessons till then because Dad was still finishing medical school and his residency.
Practicing piano at age ten in our house on the highway in Steinbach. I took piano lessons from Elsie Rempel in Steinbach for many years.
When I was a teenager my sister and I were featured in the local paper standing beside Mom’s Heintzman piano because we had done well at the Music Festival in Winnipeg playing in many different kinds of competitions including one for duets. We were studying piano with Lydia Wiebe in Winnipeg at the time and my Mom drove us to the city every week for our lessons.
My mother had always wanted a grand piano and when she finally got one she gave her old Heintzman piano to my husband and me. Here our oldest son sits at the Heintzman after we moved it to our first house in Steinbach.
When my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Henry Street in Steinbach my sister and I posed in our wedding dresses with Mom in her bridal gown beside her beloved grand piano.
Mom playing the piano for Christmas carol singing with my grandmother in the foreground
My Dad’s parents had a piano in their home and my sister and I always had to play pieces on it for our grandparents before we received our Christmas presents. There was lots of carol singing too at our Christmas gatherings with my paternal grandparents. My Mom or one of my father’s three sisters who were pianists as well accompanied on the piano.
Our son plays the guitar with his Grandma on the piano for carol singing
Our Christmas family gatherings at the country home near Steinbach my parents built in the 1980s always included carol singing with Mom at the piano doing her signature key change segues from one song to the other and often accompanied by one or more of her children or grandchildren who played their instruments along with her.
Mom on the piano with my brother on the violin and my brother-in-law on the cello
My niece plays a piano duet at Christmas with her grandmother
Mom on the piano with one grandson on clarinet and another on trombone.
My husband and I kept Mom’s old Heintzman piano for decades. Both our sons took piano lessons as children and practised on the Heintzman. Here it is in our condo in Winnipeg shortly after we moved into it in 2011. Mom was quite ill at the time and in a wheelchair but she still wanted to try her hand at playing her old piano.
Our two daughters-in-law and our grandson sing at my mother’s old piano at my sister’s house at Christmas time in 2013
Eventually, my sister was kind enough to have the piano moved to her home because it just took up too much space in our small condo.
My Mom’s grand piano found a home with my niece and she and her husband both enjoy playing it.
All throughout my childhood I remember my mother spending time on Sunday afternoons at the piano playing one piece after the other from memory. It was an oasis in her otherwise very busy life.
When my mother lay dying she used the blankets on her bed as an imaginary keyboard. She would ask me to help her find middle C with her thumb and after I did her fingers would fly across the bedding as she played her favourite pieces.
Earlier this month I did a post about discovering I had a fairly valuable Joni Mitchell artbook in my possession.
Joanne Ewert a relative of mine in Saskatoon who is a faithful reader of my blog sent me a note to let me know that I had a family connection to the famous Canadian singer as well.Here’s what she said……..
You have an interesting connection or “claim to fame” to Joni Mitchell that you can tell people about! Joni’s first accompanying guitarist in her Saskatoon days was Edgar Hamm, a second cousin to YOU! Edgar’s mother (Ruth Ewert Hamm) was a FIRST COUSIN to your mother and grew up on the Ewert farm just 1/4 mile from your grandparent’s farm. Joni’s songs that were originally accompanied by Edgar were played in the prelude at Edgar’s funeral which we attended.
You know how they talk about that six degrees of separation idea……. that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other?
Well, I’m only two degrees of separation away from Joni Mitchell since my second cousin accompanied her on his guitar.
Joanne also mentioned that there are tributes to Joni Mitchell in Saskatoon.
On Wednesday night we went to The Park Theatre here in Winnipeg to listen to a performance by the Toronto based music group The Good Lovelies.
The Good Lovelies- Photo from Wikipedia
We saw the three talented women in concert in Arizona many years ago and really enjoyed their music so when we found out they were going to be in Winnipeg we bought tickets right away.
The Good Lovelies have a new album called Find Our Way Home and they sang quite a few songs from it at their Winnipeg show.
One tune from the new album that really resonated with me was called Young At Heart. The song talks about a woman busy with her very hectic adult life and responsibilities but……… inside she still feels very much like the young carefree girl she used to be. She still feels young at heart.
Perhaps I connected with that song because despite the fact I turned 70 this week and am experiencing some of the aches and pains that come with my advancing age, in my heart I still feel much like I did when I was a much younger woman.
In the music video for the song a woman says she wants to act like she’s 21 again and then dances around her house and out into her back yard to join a party as she expresses how young at heart she still feels.
I hope I will be able to keep on dancing and joining in the party with my young heart for many years to come yet.
October 1 became the official International Music Day in 1975 by order of the International Music Council established by the United Nations.
Its purpose is to promote the musical arts worldwide, foster opportunities for people to express themselves and communicate with others freely through music and recognize the value of musical artists.
Cellist at a candlelight concert in Dubrovnik
To celebrate International Music Day here are some musicians I’ve photographed around the world.
A band playing in a park in New York City.
A violinist in Prague
Musical performer in Cape Town, South Africa
Maori musicians in New Zealand
Guitarist and singer in Fiji
Street musicians in Rome, Italy
Accordion player on a train in Madrid, Spain
Musicians performing on Bastille Day in Île de Ré France.
What Next? 