Rambling and pointless except to a few of you who are all classical music, woo!
Rambling and pointless except to a few of you who are all classical music, woo! Or maybe not even then. Anyway, if I mention Scarlatti, most people (who aren't going Scar-what-ee?) probably think of Domenico, and mostly piano (harpsichord, really) sonatas. However, his dad, Alessandro, was a really famous Baroque composer well-known for his operas and such.
Skip to the 20th century and probably the best known of Alessandro's arias are the ones stuffed in standardized teaching collections most frequently used to assault junior high and high school music class students. You know, like in choir and stuff, for lessons. To the point that even the purely instrumental students know some of them, just like everybody knows Kreuzer (violin) or Czerny (piano), or something (would this be the right place for #cavnessing ?)
Here comes the pointless anecdote. One summer it was really hot out and at a music camp thing and while eating lunch somebody noticed that it was so hot, the cafeteria jello was melting. And eventually a whole new set of words for "Già il sole dal Gange" was kind of frequently being sung by almost everybody. "_My je-e-llo-o i-is melting, my jello is melting, ..." etc. It was funny if you were there.
So now every time I see the melting stalagmites of ice I keep hearing the sta-la-ag-mi-ites a-are melting, stalagmites are melting, ... etc.
P.S. Surprise, Europeans were writing operas about the Ganges and India in the 1600's. (Il Gange is The Ganges). Who knew?
P.P.S. The first 20 seconds or less will give you the idea. It's very perky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwWiXcTZm90
Skip to the 20th century and probably the best known of Alessandro's arias are the ones stuffed in standardized teaching collections most frequently used to assault junior high and high school music class students. You know, like in choir and stuff, for lessons. To the point that even the purely instrumental students know some of them, just like everybody knows Kreuzer (violin) or Czerny (piano), or something (would this be the right place for #cavnessing ?)
Here comes the pointless anecdote. One summer it was really hot out and at a music camp thing and while eating lunch somebody noticed that it was so hot, the cafeteria jello was melting. And eventually a whole new set of words for "Già il sole dal Gange" was kind of frequently being sung by almost everybody. "_My je-e-llo-o i-is melting, my jello is melting, ..." etc. It was funny if you were there.
So now every time I see the melting stalagmites of ice I keep hearing the sta-la-ag-mi-ites a-are melting, stalagmites are melting, ... etc.
P.S. Surprise, Europeans were writing operas about the Ganges and India in the 1600's. (Il Gange is The Ganges). Who knew?
P.P.S. The first 20 seconds or less will give you the idea. It's very perky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwWiXcTZm90
Comments
Post a Comment