Restoration

Today is election day. If we are to do our job well, it is not about politics as usual, this candidate over that one, this issue over that one. It is about answering the call to help restore a broken world. A world purposefully dismantled so the rich, greedy and powerful few can guard their unearned privilege at the expense of everything that truly matters. They’ve done so with our permission. Now is the time to withdraw it. To vote with our dancing feet and singing voices and joyful celebration. To restore harmony, order and balance. To awaken from the sorcerer’s spell and walk forward in beauty. To heed the call some of our first Americans put forth and we have ignored to our peril. May all the benevolent forces gather and fulfill their prophecy!

 

NAVAHO NIGHT CHANT (excerpt)

 

House made of dawn. 

House made of evening light. 

House made of the dark cloud. 

House made of male rain. 

House made of dark mist. 

House made of female rain. 

House made of pollen. 

House made of grasshoppers. 

 

Dark cloud is at the door. 

The trail out of it is dark cloud. 

The zigzag lightning stands high upon it. 

An offering I make. 

Restore my feet for me. 

Restore my legs for me. 

Restore my body for me. 

Restore my mind for me. 

Restore my voice for me. 

This very day take out your spell for me

 

Happily I recover. 

Happily my interior becomes cool.

Happily I go forth. 

My interior feeling cool, may I walk. 

No longer sore, may I walk. 

Impervious to pain, may I walk. 

With lively feelings may I walk. 

As it used to be long ago, may I walk.

 

Happily may I walk. 

Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk. 

Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk. 

Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk. 

Happily on a trail of pollen, may I walk. 

Happily may I walk. 

Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.

 

May there be beauty before me. 

May there be beauty behind me. 

May there be beauty below me. 

May there be beauty above me.

May there be beauty all around me. 

In beauty it is finished. 

In beauty it is finished. 

 

'Sa'ah naaghéi, Bik'eh hózhó

 

The Use of Beauty

My first of two days free in Athens began with a delightful meeting with Katerina, an Orff colleague I had met over the years, mostly in Salzburg. She gifted me with a book by Polyxena Matey, a woman who studied in the Munich Guntherschule where Orff taught back in the 1930’s. They developed a lifelong friendship and upon returning to Athens in 1938, she established her own school both for children and training teachers in Orff Schulwerk. It’s the very school where I taught these last two days, soon to celebrate it’s 90^th anniversary! 

The current economy, bad traffic and parking, along with diminishing interest in gifting children with the arts as fundamental to their education, seem to be taking their toll and enrollment is suffering. Likewise, young teachers eager to train themselves in this life-changing, soul-stirring approach are harder to find as everyone prefers to stay home and find some cool lessons online. But nevertheless, we persist. 

 

Katerina gifted me with a little book Polyxena Matey wrote when she was 90 (!) and we sat on the hotel 11^th floor veranda looking out at the Parthenon and lamented about the decline in authenticity and integrity in the modern world. Some of it the usual elder complaints about the younger generation that has been our dubious privilege since time immemorial, but much of it is genuine concern about the way machine-thinking has gained such monstrous power as machines now literally our doing our thinking. Back in 1992, Ms. Matey was already warning us about this: 

 

“This technological civilization, with its astonishing achievements, has enslaved us. We orient our lives primarily toward what can be measured, calculated, and judged as useful.”

 

Indeed. Here she echoes thinkers from time immemorial hoping to remind us as to what’s truly important. Here is Victor Hugo in his epic Les Miserables.

 

“You are always eager to make everything useful, yet here is a useless plot. It would be much better to have salads here than bouquets.”

 

…the bishop replied, “You are mistaken. The beautiful is as useful as the useful.” He added after a moment’s pause. “Perhaps more so.”

 

Ms. Matey independently arrives at the exact same conclusion: 

 

“We should offer our children an education that cultivates in the developing human being a sensitivity to Beauty. Beauty, which may not appear ‘useful,’ yet is an essential nourishment for the human soul.”

 

So Katerina and I talked about the danger of our diminished capacity to think for ourselves, to live with passion, to savor genuine beauty, all concerns every teacher in every place I talk to is noticing about the next generation. Rather than mere old-people whining, the purpose was to notice and then work yet harder to keep these lights burning in those who will follow. And my happy report is that they respond! When we give them, be they children, college students or adults, what they genuinely need and richly deserve, they happily step forth into their enlarged humanity. At least that has been my experience. 

 

After I parted from Katerina, I went on my own little odyssey in search of beauty and found it ascending to the top of Mount Lycabettus. There I was gifted with a sweeping 360^o view of Athens, including looking out at the Acropolis and the Pireaus Sea beyond it. The sun had come out, the temperature was perfect and the cats were out enjoying it all alongside the people. 

Back at the hotel, I treated myself to a Greek salad dinner back at the penthouse restaurant, now with the Parthenon lit up. I then met with another person interested in translating some of my books into Greek. A lovely person and another profound conversation, more pleasure than business. We agreed to start with my Humanitarian Musician book and include some quotes from Polyxena Matey and also her song that we sang at the closing of yesterday’s workshop. 

 

Here is a photo of me in the workshop with the photo of Polyxena Matey on top of the piano. Two spirits sharing the same vision.  

The Beat Goes On

 I was going to title this entry: One Word. And my entire post was going to be: 

Valkries!

 

People in San Francisco would have understood. A mere two years as a team, our fair city’s Women’s NBA Team (WBNA) won the championship on Halloween night in the 7^th game of the playoff. How I wish I could have been at Yancey’s Sports Bar on Irving Street and experience the jubilation of the patrons as I have before with the Warriors and Giants. But watching the highlights was enough to start my day with tears. Of joy.  While it still bothers my compassionate self to know that the other team walked off the court disappointed, I’ve been hard-wired to exult in these epic victories and there is some sense of glory, alongside the deep communion and ecstatic euphoria of the fans. I challenge even the most tranquil Zen master to not feel a least a twinge of the rush the roar of the crowd unleashes. 

 

From there, I went to the last day of a different kind of euphoria where everyone wins, my last workshop in this most marvelous three-week tour. Two days in London, two days in Izmir, two days in Istanbul, two days in Koaceli, two days in Athens. 10 workshops with over 300 beautiful souls and the deep satisfaction as, before departing, so many looked me in the eye, touched their heart and said “Thank you.” And I sent the same feeling back to each of them. 

Then off to dinner with five of the organizers, one of whom I had crossed paths with many times in Salzburg in the 90’s but hadn’t seen for over 30 years! The re-connection was immediate and we enjoyed a nostalgic tour through our memories over some excellent souvlaki, tzatziki and other delicious dishes. Bittersweet to remember moments with some Orff folks who have passed on and marveling at the ones—including us— who are still at it. 

 

Two free days in Athens ahead and then on my way to my 43^rd American Orff Conference in Richmond, Virginia. So class is over—for now. I just agreed to sub next week at my old school, teaching my colleague Sofia’s classes. Which of course, will be great fun. And so the beat goes on.

 

I feel so far from ever wanting to stop teaching and the energy from folks in England, Turkey and Greece to get me back again makes me hopeful that opportunity will keep meeting desire. May the beat indeed go on!

Kissing the Joy

The German’s have that word “Schadenfreude” to describe taking pleasure in another’s misfortune. But I wonder if they—or anyone— has a word for being displeased about another’s happiness. Post-Greek-workshop, I am smiling ear-to-ear and would hate to think that a reader might be thinking, “Will you shut up already about being happy?!!” Of course, it’s bad taste to crow too much when good fortune alights and I believe I’ve had my proper proportion of grief and sadness to keep things real and humble. 

 

But when the glad bird of happiness alights on my shoulder, I feel some need to mark the moment, a kind of kissing the joy as it flies (from a Blake poem). Tonight I started the workshop already in grand humor after my walk today and the way that emotion travels through the air, be it happy, sad, angry or bored, from one body to another, there is certainly no shame in being happy. The group was infected by my gladness from the first minute of the 4-hour workshop to the last and that’s a good thing. 

 

But best of all was my decision to bring Halloween into the room (as described in this morning’s post). Truth be told, I rarely teach this ritual event in workshops and it has been six years since I’ve done it with the kids. As I shared a reduced version of it, I felt the full measure of its power, beauty and brilliance, expertly weaving together speech, song, movement, folk dance, percussion sound effects, Orff ensemble, recorder and drama. The Greek folks were mesmerized, entranced and thoroughly delighted by it all and I was in heaven hearing these sounds again and reviving the muscle memory of all those years of doing it with kids. 

 

And the icing on the cake was ending the workshop with the aforementioned Skin and Bones song and scaring one delightful student so much that she yelped out loud! 

 

Did I mention how happy I am?

 

 

Confessions of a Traveling Music Teacher

Well, that title was the mission statement for this Blog when I started 15 years ago. And while many of the posts follow that theme, probably a good 50% is just about whatever is on my mind. 

 

But today is a good testimony to the moment when the pleasure of sharing what I know, carrying my repertoire and culture into the room of wherever I may be, is beautifully balanced with leaving that suitcase behind and wandering unencumbered through the streets of a new place—or at least a new neighborhood. The former starts in a couple of hours, unusually so as many of the participants are teaching in Saturday music studios. Thus a 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm workshop instead of a 9 to 5 one. 

 

That gave me the morning to wander and wonder up the pedestrian Diogenes Street up to the Acropolis. Such grand pleasure dropping all my selves and identities and just strolling anonymously. No need to stand in line for the 30 Euro ticket to get into the more inner sanctum. Pleasure enough to just to join the throng of tourists and see what seemed worthy of my camera. After the grand sweeping panoramas views looking outward and downward and the stirring site of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis, I descended into twisting intimate alleys and loved that as well. (Just for the record, I’ve been a paying tourist at the Parthenon at least three other times, so it made it easy to forego it today). 

As things flattened out, it was the churches, squares and of course, shops, shops, shops. Again, happy not to need a single thing, but curious to window shop. The restaurants and cafes were beginning to fill as lunchtime approached and it was tempted to grab a table. But the economical young traveler by need who first walked these streets in 1978 is now the economical- by- habit elder who takes food from the hotel breakfast to be enjoyed for free (shhh!) at lunch. An overcast but mild temperature day, I’m stepping out to my little terrace/patio to enjoy it all— the food, the view, the fresh air, the echo in the muscles of the 10,000 steps taken. 

 

Combining the solitude of wandering with the exuberance of playing, singing and dancing with the Orff students with the architecture, food, feel of a refreshingly different culture with the pleasure of dinner after with old or new friends— today could be the poster child for the Traveling Music Teacher’s Mission Statement. 

 

As always, I am grateful.  

Intery Mintery Comes to Greece

Today is Halloween. One feature of holidays is the opportunity to recall where you were on this day in other years of your life. A great conversation starter—“What was your most memorable ____________? (insert holiday of choice or birthday).”

 

I’ve had memorable Halloweens at Antioch College (full confession—one of the most intense of the eight LSD trips I took back then), in the mountains of North Carolina at a Quaker Boarding School, in my first celebration at The San Francisco School where we had a costume parade and contest. My wife worked so hard sewing a costume and I woke up that morning, put on my overalls, went to the horse stables in the park to gather some hay and stuff it in my overalls, grabbed an old hat and that thrown-together scarecrow costume won first prize!!! My wife was not happy. :-)

 

Halloween became a favorite at the school as I created a unique Intery Mintery ritual performance with all 100 elementary students somewhere around 1984 and it continued unbroken until my last one in 2019— and still continues unbroken today with colleagues James and Sofia. (The whole performance was captured on film and viewable at www.thesecretsongfilm.com). After the performance, the Middle School hosted various booths and a haunted house and we ended with me telling a scary story back in the music room. And then ending that with the classic Skin and Bones song when I make the whole room jump with a BOO!!! erupting in an unpredictable place in the song.  My favorite day in the whole world!!! 

And then made more fabulous between 2013-2019 when James, Sofia and I took our Interns from around the world (Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Iran, Philippines, China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil  and various US states) to Belvedere Street for one of the most spectacular Halloween celebrations you can find anywhere. 

 

And so on this Halloween, I awaken in Athens, Greece, also the site of a memorable Thanksgiving my wife and I spent here in 1978 at the beginning of our trip around the world. Our Thanksgiving dinner was moussaka, mashed potatoes and Greek salad and that night, we went to the airport to fly to India via Cairo. A most memorable time indeed!

 

So with a morning free, I hope to walk to the Acropolis and then in today’s class, re-create a version of Intery Mintery to share as a model of an integrated performance, with a chant, song sung in canon, percussion instrument sound effects, Orff instrument ensemble accompaniment, alto and soprano recorders, creative movement and drama. 

 

The day Intery Mintery came to Greece. That should be memorable!

  

Loverly.

A 6:00 am rising in Istanbul, a long hour plus ride to the airport, a long 45-minute wait for the ticket counter to open, another 45 minutes in the plane waiting for it to get moving. The usual trudge of travel. Then a 90-minute flight to Athens and off the plane to Passport Control to a room filled with perhaps a thousand people. Moving at a glacial pace. With my ride waiting for me in the cell phone lot. I told her I hoped she had a good book and then remembered that I had one and took out my David Copperfield. Inched long a few feet for every page while David reviewed his years at high school and the two women he fell helplessly in love with before anyone had ever coined the phrase “puppy love.” Then suddenly, the line was moving fast and in some grand labyrinth dance, we snaked around some 25 turning paths in a row before slowing down again for the final laps to the people in the passport booths. When I got within 15 people, the end of the labyrinth in site, I was rewarded with Milt Jackson playing vibes on Autumn Leaves on some speaker somewhere. That was a surprise! 

 

One hour since deplaning, I finally emerged into baggage claim, got my bag that beat me there and had been patiently looping around waiting for me and was finally released into the fresh air of a sunny Greek day, picked up 5-minutes later by my new host, Maria. 

 

Unlike most places I go these days, I haven’t taught in Greece for quite a while, only one Greek person studied with us in the Levels Course in California and one more in the Salzburg Special Course over the last three decades. There are a few I know from the Salzburg summer courses, but only a handful. But by the time we drove into Athens proper, Maria and I already felt like old friends. When she dropped me at my hotel, it had been 10 hours since my Istanbul alarm clock!

 

I loved staying at my friends’ Ezo and Sencer’s house—they were great hosts and I think I was a decent guest. But there’s something about the solitude of hotel rooms that I love and I was so happy settling in for the next five nights. The pleasure of unpacking my suitcase and hanging my clothes (they actually had enough hangars!), charging all my devices, arranging books at the bedside table. The room has a terrace with a big glass door that I can open and close (great for controlling temperature). Great reading lights by the bed, something I often miss in the guest bedrooms I stay in. Lighting matters.

 

Once I got settled, I took off into the neighborhood to see about dinner possibilities and found a store with many pre-made meals. Got a Greek salad for a mere 5 Euros and nice to spend actual money again and have the independence to both shop and pay for things myself. Made a slight mistake by not noticing clearly enough the little turns I had made walking to this plaza and returning back, went down a couple of the wrong spokes. I didn’t quite remember the name of the hotel, had left my phone in the room to charge so even if I did remember the name, couldn’t use the GPS. So my old reliable instinct to ask for help from people did it's work and the two people I asked figured out that they could upload from the QR code on my hotel room key and find both the name and location— and lucky for me, they could! And did!

 

Made it back, enjoyed the salad on the terrace and settling in for a cozy evening before my next two days of workshops.  While writing this, thought I’d let Youtube serenade me and stumbled on the perfect song for the occasion: Wouldn’t It Be Loverly played by pianist Fred Hersch. 

 

“All I want is a room somewhere
Far away from the cold night air
With one enormous chair
Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?”

 

That’s exactly what I’ve got tonight. And I can testify: It’s loverly.