Unmatched Musical Bookends
The last two Saturday nights have found us at his and hers (no, make that hers and his) concerts. Our musical preferance couldn’t be more different, but we each indulge the other’s taste from time to time. My husband had a recent epiphany about why this is the case and did his quarterly Blog post: http://dsquared22.blogspot.com/ (December 15, 2005).
Last Saturday we went to hear Conjunto Iberico as part of the Dumbarton Oaks series, and free to us as a trade for my husband’s computer services to a friend of ours. This is a group of 8 cellists (no kidding, a cello octet) who played pieces from baroque to modern, some of which included a talented soprano singing in both Portuguese and Spanish. As we sat in the historic beautiful Dumbarton Church in Georgetown listening to this rich and varied music, I found my mind released to float once again and I only occasionally had to nudge my husband as he nodded off.
Last night we went to the annual folk music marathon put on by the Washington Folk Musical Association and hosted by Dick Cerri, Mr. Folk Music himself. This year it was just one night, not the typical two, because they had rented the new Schlesinger Hall at NOVA. But instead of paring down the program, they started at 6:30 so as to be able to pack in hours and hours of guitars, banjos, fiddles, and singers. The line-up did include a few folk "ringers" like Paul Stuckey of PP&M. It was a non-stop stream of words that made me work hard to comprehend the sad stories that went along with the tales of woe, from sailing ships that were lost at sea to coal miners who never came up out of the mine. It’s an aging audience who comes out for these, but they are passionate about this genre of music. At 12:30 I attempted to escape and drive myself home as they were still going full-tilt and it was well past my bedtime. (But, alas, I couldn’t get the Prius to go into reverse – that’s another post in the making.)
It looks like this year I will get one more big dose of folk music. On the way into the concert hall last night, my husband (who loves the intrigue of a silent auction) bid on a house concert by Side-by-Side. It turns out they were the opening act, meaning that it only got better through the evening. I found myself secretly hoping that he would be outbid – I mean he was just the first of many, wasn’t he? But towards the end of the evening, they read off the lucky winners and the 1,500 or so people in attendance learned that Doris Justis and Sean McGhee (http://www.wfma.net/Sideby.htm) would be performing at our house. Lucky us and well, happy birthday perhaps to my folk-loving husband.
The good news is that both of us honored the other’s musical taste by trying hard to stay awake and not be too seriously vocal about why we don’t vote as a pair when it comes to music. I could only think of it as unmatched bookends on a very long shelf...
Last Saturday we went to hear Conjunto Iberico as part of the Dumbarton Oaks series, and free to us as a trade for my husband’s computer services to a friend of ours. This is a group of 8 cellists (no kidding, a cello octet) who played pieces from baroque to modern, some of which included a talented soprano singing in both Portuguese and Spanish. As we sat in the historic beautiful Dumbarton Church in Georgetown listening to this rich and varied music, I found my mind released to float once again and I only occasionally had to nudge my husband as he nodded off.
Last night we went to the annual folk music marathon put on by the Washington Folk Musical Association and hosted by Dick Cerri, Mr. Folk Music himself. This year it was just one night, not the typical two, because they had rented the new Schlesinger Hall at NOVA. But instead of paring down the program, they started at 6:30 so as to be able to pack in hours and hours of guitars, banjos, fiddles, and singers. The line-up did include a few folk "ringers" like Paul Stuckey of PP&M. It was a non-stop stream of words that made me work hard to comprehend the sad stories that went along with the tales of woe, from sailing ships that were lost at sea to coal miners who never came up out of the mine. It’s an aging audience who comes out for these, but they are passionate about this genre of music. At 12:30 I attempted to escape and drive myself home as they were still going full-tilt and it was well past my bedtime. (But, alas, I couldn’t get the Prius to go into reverse – that’s another post in the making.)
It looks like this year I will get one more big dose of folk music. On the way into the concert hall last night, my husband (who loves the intrigue of a silent auction) bid on a house concert by Side-by-Side. It turns out they were the opening act, meaning that it only got better through the evening. I found myself secretly hoping that he would be outbid – I mean he was just the first of many, wasn’t he? But towards the end of the evening, they read off the lucky winners and the 1,500 or so people in attendance learned that Doris Justis and Sean McGhee (http://www.wfma.net/Sideby.htm) would be performing at our house. Lucky us and well, happy birthday perhaps to my folk-loving husband.
The good news is that both of us honored the other’s musical taste by trying hard to stay awake and not be too seriously vocal about why we don’t vote as a pair when it comes to music. I could only think of it as unmatched bookends on a very long shelf...
posted by Barbara at 7:37 AM
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