Thursday, 10 August 06

Today's class was six people.

As I walked in Inna was playing one of her favorite songs, "Never Let You Go" by Dima Bilan, Ukraine's entry to the Eurovision contest. Anna's head was buried in her hands: apparently it's not so much the song but the frequency with which it is played at home that is driving Anna crazy.

We didn't spend time on this Bilan guy and moved on to one of Inna's other favorites (which is also Anna-approved) and we watched the video of "La Tortura". I have to admit to being a fan of the song; I have it on one of my cds in my car. I like the (to my ears) unusual rhythm and the sounds of the voices. I have never cared about the lyrics, concentrating on the sounds and rhythms of the music and voices. But Inna found a video where someone had added their own English translated subtitles to the video. The class found the imagery used in the lyrics interesting and a couple people said they like it more now that they know what the song is about.

Victor said that compared to the video of Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" from last session, this video is just too sexy.


Next up was a classical piece that Pei Hsuan brought in. She plays clarinet in a wind band back in Taiwan and though she puts up with this class's emphasis on pop and rock music, her heart is clearly more attuned to classical music.

Sadly, she doesn't know the name of the piece she played for us. The mp3 was titled "Vientosy Tangos". It is a piece she plays with her band at home. She chose this piece to play for the class because the melody is easy to remember; it's not her personal favorite piece. She does like the many layers of instruments atop each other in the song and the lonely, yet passionate feeling in the music. On the subject of lyrics, she said she feels the emotions of the music come through better without lyrics to intrude. I noted that with the Shakira song and other songs where I don't understand the lyrics the voices are just another aural texture.

It was obvious how much Pei Hsuan likes the music, interrupting herself as she talked about it to point out the trumpets "laughing" at one point and other passages she likes. But she was shocked when Victor said it reminds him of Tom & Jerry cartoons! I had to concur with him; my first exposure to many classical pieces was through Warner Brothers cartoons. For example, whenever I hear "The Barber of Seville" I picture Bugs Bunny giving Elmer Fudd a haircut. We talked about whether this is a good or a bad thing, that kids get exposure to classical music through cartoons. Victor and I think it's ok, but Pei Hsuan is clearly sceptical!


Next up was Edgar's pick -- finally we could hear something that *he* likes! He chose "Amazing" (video) by Aerosmith. I am not including a link to the lyrics as he said they are not important in his choice of the song. He then revealed that this isn't even his favorite Aerosmith song: that honor goes to "I don't want to miss a thing" (video). The rest of the class likes this song too. But interestingly it is all tied to the song being used in the movie "Armageddon"; the songs reminds them of the movie that they enjoyed a lot. The whole class recommends I see it.

I couldn't resist: at the end of the class I had to interject that Aerosmith to me is the band of sleazy rockers from the 70's and I played the song "Last Child" which had a photo montage over it. Ah, what a riff! But the class was not impressed and filed out the door.