"Love! Do you know the meaning of the word?" 'How should I not?' said the Lady, 'I am in love...in Love Himself.'
~C.S. Lewis
The Great Divorce

Friday, November 5, 2010

Oscar Hammerstein and Me

For those of you who may check up on my blog periodically, I apologize for the lack of posts and hope that you will continue to check for updates. It has been an unusual season of life for me. I'm very tired. I took on too much work this year. Between teaching 25 piano lessons a week, spending nearly nine hours in other classrooms (including one in Philadelphia), rehearsing for performances of Berlin's White Christmas in December, all the grading and planning, plus dealing with the non-stop barrage of visitors to see my ailing grandmother (not to mention the stress from watching her slowly fade), blogging has simply been at the bottom of my to-do list. I hope that this will change soon.

As I sit here this morning, finally with a few minutes to write, I cannot think of anything to say. Which reminded me of something I read recently which some of you might find interesting.

In one of the more famous pieces from the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp children sing the song Do-Re-Mi. Their governess, Maria, tries to teach them the solfege syllables by giving definitions and illustrations of each syllable. "Do-a deer, a female deer" is one example. But for those of you who know the whole song, you know there is one line which sounds like Hammerstein just ran out of ideas. If you have ever thought that, you are absolutely correct. "La, a note to follow Sol" was intended to just be a placeholder until Hammerstein could think of a better line. However, that time never came. Incredibly, one of the most noted lyricists of the last century suffered with a bout of writer's block which was never rectified. It's almost comical when you think about the line-once you know it was intended to be a filler, it sounds ridiculously out of place.

Consider this post my "La, a note to follow Sol".

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