The Odyssey Revisited

Unlike Odysseus going from one disaster to another, the Siren song I followed in the next day of this East Coast Odyssey didn’t lure me to crash on the rocks but led me to the doorstep of one of my favorite Orff teachers, Ms. Judith Thomas. Fourteen years my elder, she is of the same generation as my teacher Avon Gillespie and in fact, it was Avon who brought us together in Dallas when I taught my first Level I in 1986. Every time we’ve met in the last twenty years, she delights in telling the story of my asking her when she observed a class I taught in that course how she liked it and was met with a grand dramatic pause. Followed by “Get thee to Salzburg.” Meaning, “You have more work to do, young man.”

 

Four years later, I took her advice, not as a student, but as a teacher in the International Symposium and the Orff Institute Summer Course. My path was more learning on the job than more formal study and it suited me well. She witnessed much of that path as we presented at various Conferences at the same time and continued to offer both critique and praise. Two days from now will be her 87^th birthday, so she’s mostly stepped out of the ring, but still, I delighted in having time to talk with her about our mutual passion. Filling in gaps in our separate histories, telling delightful stories about the many people we knew and know in common, continuing the ongoing discussion of this work is and what it yet might be. 

 

Though our styles are different, I’ve always admired her work greatly. Her sharp sharp intellect, boundless imagination, delightful sense of humor, clever and poetic way with words, artistic skills, especially with cartoons, unrelenting curiosity, care for children and more make her the one-of-a-kind teacher she is. She often wrote to me about various piano concerts she gives, but I never actually sat down and listened to her play. 

 

So here in her home in upper New York State, where I had never been before, I had the chance to sit next to her on the piano bench and butcher some Brahms duets. Brahms has always been a yawning gap in my playing and the few times I’ve tried, the notes just didn’t seem to fit my fingers’ preferred pathways. Here was a duet I had never heard and in B major and it was not a happy combination. Then we tried some piano reductions of some of Orff’s Carmina Burana and here we both struggled with mastering the rhythms that had always sounded simple enough but in fact, were quite complex. Some 10 times, we tried to end on the same final chord at the same time and failed each time. But had so much fun trying! 

 

Finally I suggested we each play separately and she played a gorgeous Brahms Intermezzo with great feeling and mastery, followed by a tasteful version of Polka Dots and Moonbeams. I followed with the aria to the Goldberg Variations and version of Tea for Two and we both ended being members of a Mutual Admiration Society. 

 

Between the music, the talk, a phone call to our mutual friend Mary Shamrock (Judith’s age and also an Avon connection), a delicious eggplant parmesan meal, it just couldn’t have been better. Some more similar connections the next morning and off I went for my final 4 hour drive to return my rental car at the Rochester Airport.

 

Now settled in my Rochester Hotel, preparing for three guests classes tomorrow morning for kids from 1^st to 3^rd grade and then the music teacher Orff Workshop on Saturday. None of this makes for grand drama a la Homer’s version. The blessing of going from one delight to another might not make an interesting story to read, but does make for a lovely story to live. My reunion with Penelope doesn’t need a 20-year exile, but happens every morning and I’m spared from having to massacre the suitors taking over the house. 

I’ll take it.