Christmas Music

All of my life, I have loved high quality christmas music. This generally means either singing hymns and other such songs, playing them, or listening to recordings of professional or high level amateur choirs, such as King's College Cambridge singers. I also really like music that is not identifiable immediately as christmas music to most ears-Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Tallis Christmas Mass...

On saturday, I played a Christmas cd for the first time since, oh, last December or so while I was cleaning up from my Sunrise class and then doing some setting of new clothes in a vinegar-water soak. It was a little bit hard...here's the thing, I love this music, but at the same time, I'm not exactly in top Christmasy-mood. That's what's so hard-is that I'm expecting myself to react differently, as I have before, and that's just not happening. I guess I should be glad that none of my recitals and concerts that have just happened or are still to happen in the next week or so involve christmas music. Friday was my Wind Ensemble concert and it went quite well. We played a Wind Ensemble arrangement of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', a work that I have always enjoyed listening to, and a Wind Ensemble arrangement of Aaron Copland's 'Appalachian Spring'. I loved both of the works, although I did find Appalachian Spring hard in some sections, because there is a quiet, expressive, almost sad theme, and during that theme in class, I would tend to think about my mom. In fact, the last time we rehearsed it on Nov 2nd, at about 3 in the afternoon, all I could think about was my mom and how I really wished I was there and maybe I should just leave...perhaps down the road Appalachian Spring will be easier for me to listen to.

The final part of the concert involved about 30 or so grade 12 students coming onstage to play a piece called 'Variations on a Korean Folksong' with us. This piece has special memories because when I was in grade 12 and was invited to join the Wind Ensemble for the last piece of the concert, 'Variations on a Korean Folksong' was the work we played!

Well, enough with the procrastinating. I decided to stay at home and work this morning instead of going into the university and working on my ethnomusicology assignment-so far, I've now spent about an hour doing things that, yes, were good to do, but not related to the assignment, such as hanging up the laundry I ran last night while going to bed and putting away other laundry, that sort of thing. At least I don't have class until 1:30 (flute lesson, followed by flute masterclass), but at the same time, it started snowing between the time I went downstairs to the laundry room at about 9am, and when I came up about 25 minutes later, it was snowing quite hard. So I really don't know how the buses are going to be-all I can hope for is the best, and perhaps take a bus earlier. Meanwhile, it's so gloomy that I think I'll have to turn on my light to properly see my notes.

First though, I think I'll make some green or peppermint tea...or maybe honey lemon, or raspberry white tea...or blueberry ginsing...or...well...let's just say that green, red, white and herbal teas keep me going and are a highlight of my day! But not black tea...for some reason, I don't really like it. And definitely NOT coffee. I like the smell, but cannot stand the taste unless it's a flavoured sugar and fat filled kind and I don't like doing that to myself. The teas listed above I can drink pure and as strong as I like, with nothing added, so all they're doing is warming and hydrating me. Plus they're drinks for my soul. Everyone should drink more tea.