Last week gave us the first day of spring. I began looking for a lovely song to celebrate this. One of my favorite spring songs is “Morning Has Broken” as done by Cat Stevens. Often, Cat Stevens is given writing credit. However, the song began its life at least a century before Stevens recorded it. 
 
“Bunessan”
The song’s origins go back well before 1880 when it was translated from the Scots Gaelic into English. Originally, it was written by Mary McDonald as a Christmas carol called “Child in a Manger.” The tune became called “Bunessan” after the village where she lived. 

Sometime shortly before 1927, Alexander Fraser(an actor in silent movies) heard the melody and wrote it down. He brought the melody to the composers Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who were working on a new hymnal. It was they who asked Eleanor Farjeon to write new lyrics for the melody. 

Eleanor Farjeon, in case you don't know, was an English poet who lived between 1881 and 1965. She is best known for her children's poetry. My favorite is: 

A Kitten

He's nothing much but fur
And two round eyes of blue,
He has a giant purr
And a midget mew.
He starts and cocks his ear,
When there is nothing there
For him to see and hear.
He runs around in rings,
But why we cannot tell;
With sideways leaps he springs
At things invisible –
Then halfway through a leap
His startled eyeballs close,
And he drops off to sleep
With one paw on his nose.
​

​To me, this poem defines what a kitten is. But, of course, she is best known for Morning Has Broken. (Which is also what this blog happens to be about.) 

Ms. Farjeon wrote Morning Has Brokenabout the beauties of her village in East Sussex in England. It quickly became a popular hymn both for adults and children. However, when most people think of this song, they think of the Cat Stevens version. 

Cat Stevens and Rick Wakeman
Cat Stevens had become interested in recording the song, but performance of it only lasted about 45 seconds—far too short for a pop song. Fortunately, he heard someone playing the piano in another studio. That someone was Rick Wakeman. (Rick Wakeman is one of those musicians who has worked with everyone. He is best known as the keyboardist for the group Yes.)

After some persuading, Stevens convinced Wakeman to compose and perform the piano part for “Morning Has Broken.” Part of the agreement included a payment for the huge amount of £10. Wakeman was surprised and upset when the recording came out, and he found that he was given no credit for his work. And they didn't even pay him! 
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In 1979, Cat Stevens left performing and became a follower of Islam. Not much was heard from him until 2006 when he returned as Yusuf Islam. At this time, he became aware of Wakeman's ill feelings.  He has apologized for credit not being given, saying there was confusion on the record label’s part. And he has personally paid Wakeman for his work. I sincerely hope that, at the very least, he included interest on the payment. 

Morning has broken like the first morning.

Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning.
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.
 
Sweet the reins knew fall, sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dew fall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung incompleteness where His feet pass.
 
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day.
 
Morning has broken like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning.
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.
​

Do you have any stories about “Morning Has Broken?” What’s your favorite spring song? I’ll be posting versions of this song on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.

Until next time!

This week is Teach Music Week! This is a program designed by Keep Music Alive, a non-profit whose mission is to promote music and art in our schools. They have declared March Music In Our Schools Month and selected the third week of March as Teach Music Week. 

Last year over 600 instructors and schools all over the world took part in this event. And this year, I have been asked to take part! I am really excited about the possibilities of this idea! And to kick things off, I am offering a free introductory lesson to the first five people who schedule either for or during this week. 

If you or your child have ever expressed a desire to learn how to sing or play an instrument, this is the perfect opportunity to give it a chance. And this doesn’t have to be local folks or just voice or piano students. Check out their homepage, put your zip code into the map’s search bar, and find a participating teacher! This is an international event, so there is a good chance that you’ll be able to find someone nearby. 

Why is music important? Music gives us so much enjoyment, but it also teaches us. Whether you sing or play an instrument, as you learn, you are creating new neural pathways in the brain. And this works at any age. In fact, on many websites devoted to helping people in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease, they recommend learning how to play an instrument. 

But music can do so much more. I was a lonely, and often unhappy, child. My brother was 9 years older than I, and the street we lived on had no children my age. Music was my solace and my joy. I would sit at the piano and play and sing for hours. I was painfully shy, but when I sang, I was confident and sure of myself. When I say that I am a musician, this is not just what I do, it is who I am. 

This week, I’ll be playing some of my favorite songs on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out. Do you have any stories about what music has done for you? I’d love to hear them.

Until next time!

I’ve been accompanying a couple of the local middle school choirs this past school year. It’s a lot of fun, and really stretches my playing as my hands are seceding the union. (I have really bad arthritis in my hands and have had three surgeries in the past 18 months. As I write this, I am preparing for my fourth in a few weeks.) At rehearsal today, during a break, a small group of girls started singing the theme song from the old sit-com Friends. 

Friendscame on in 1994 while we were living in Germany. Our American TV was one channel that came through the Armed Services. It was made up of what seemed to be popular in the States but was a year or two behind. We also got a couple of stations from the UK as well as VHS tapes from my sister-in-law who kept us up to date on the important shows. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: DS9, and Star Trek: Voyager. (I’m sensing a pattern.) 

There may have been the occasional episode of Friends, but I honestly don’t remember. We came back to the States in the summer of 1997… and got sucked into the show then. I remember sitting around watching it with the kids. I do remember thinking a few times that these were not nice people; not the kind that I’d enjoy hanging out with. But I loved the theme song. It was upbeat and fun. 

“I’ll Be There for You” was written by a group of people, proof that a committee can accomplish a few good things. One of the songwriters has been mentioned in this blog before: Allee Willis. She co-wrote Earth, Wind and Fire’s hit “September.”

The song began life as just the theme song for the show, but several radio DJs started putting it on a loop and giving it airplay. So, the songwriters went back to work and came up with the rest of the song. 
Its no wonder that I like the song. It was heavily influenced not only  by the Fab-Four (The Beatles), but the Pre-Fab-Four (The Monkees).

Apparently, there has been some confusion about the lyrics, particularly the chorus. People think the line is When the rain starts to fall, not pour. But fall would not rhyme with the next line’s before:

So, no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job’s a joke, you’re broke, your love life’s D.O.A
It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear
When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year, but
 
I’ll be there for you (When the rain starts to pour)
I’ll be there for you (Like I’ve been there before)
I’ll be there for you (‘Cause you’re there for me, too)
 
You’re still in bed at ten and work began at eight
You’ve burned your breakfast, so far things are going great
Your mother warned you there’d be days like these
But she didn’t tell you when the world has brought you down on your knees that
 
I’ll be there for you (When the rain starts to pour)
I’ll be there for you (Like I’ve been there before)
I’ll be there for you (‘Cause you’re there for me, too)
 
No one could ever know me
No one could ever see me
Seems you’re the only one who knows what it’s like to be me
Someone to face the day with, make it through all the rest with
Someone I’ll always laugh with
Even at my worst, I’m best with you, yeah!
 
It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear
When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year, but
 
I’ll be there for you (When the rain starts to pour)
I’ll be there for you (Like I’ve been there before)
I’ll be there for you (‘Cause you’re there for me, too)
I’ll be there for you
I’ll be there for you
I’ll be there for you
(‘Cause you’re there for me, too)

Did you watch Friendswhen it was on originally, or are you watching it now on Netflix? Would you want to hang out with any of these people? Let me know. I’ll be posting versions of this song on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.

Until next time!

Today is the day to march forth. So, I am writing about John Philip Sousa—for whom the sousaphone is named—the March King of America.

Sousa was apprenticed to the Marine Corp band at the age of 13 and given the rank of “boy.” (I kid you not.) His father enlisted him into the Corp to keep him from running off to join a circus band. (An argument could be made that that would have been the better decision.)
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Eventually, Sousa became the director of the Marine Corp band and composed some of the best-known and most-beloved marches in the world. I think everyone knows “Stars and Stripes Forever.” We all know its un-official lyrics: 

​We lived in Germany for seven years on an Air Force base. Every so often, they would run a test of the base-wide loud speaker system. When this happened, it was a John Philip Sousa’s march they played: “The Liberty Bell.” However, to some of us, this is better known as the theme song from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. (Sousa never could get completely away from the circus, could he?) You’d be out shopping on base and the march would come on the system. You could always tell the Monty Python fans! Someone would make the splat sound at the appropriate time, and the other fans would giggle, while non-fans would stare at us, bemused.

Sousa did not himself invent the sousaphone. That credit goes to James Walsh Pepper. But he did so at the direction of Sousa, who was not happy with the sound of the tubas in the Marine Corps marching band. The sousaphone wraps around the player, making it easier to carry. The bell is angled over the head of the player, helping the sound to carry over the rest of the band. So, I guess that what I’ve been calling a tubamy whole life is actually a sousaphone. It is a member of the tuba family, if that helps.
 
I have been told that as a child, my brother had a recording of Sousa marches. One Saturday, he decided to play this album at 6 a.m. Full volume. The album was destroyed by the time I came along. In a touch of irony, Sousa hated recordings and never directed the Marine Corps band when it was recorded. He feared that people’s vocal cords would atrophy from disuse due to recorded music.
 
Sousa wrote other things besides marches. He wrote operettas. I am shocked. As best as I can tell, of his nine operettas, only one is still occasionally performed: El Capitan. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the plot (I’m not even going to try to explain this!):

“Don Errico Medigua is the viceroy of Spanish-occupied 16th-century Peru and fears assassination by rebels. After he secretly has the rebel leader El Capitan killed, he disguises himself as El Capitan. Estrelda, the daughter of the former viceroy, Cazzaro, impressed by tales of El Capitan's daring, falls in love with the disguised Medigua, who is already married. Meanwhile, the rebels capture the Lord Chamberlain, Pozzo, mistaking him for the viceroy.  Hearing that her husband has been captured, Medigua's wife Marganza and daughter Isabel (who is being wooed by the handsome Verrada) go in search of Medigua.
​
Medigua, still disguised as El Capitan, leads the hapless rebels against the Spaniards, taking them in circles until they are too tired to fight. The Spaniards win, the mistaken identities are revealed, the love stories are untangled after Medigua explains to his wife the flirtation with Estrelda, and the story ends happily.”

It is pointed out that his operettas were heavily influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan. Yup. I believe that. And, of course, there are a lot of marches in the operetta. This synopsis leaves me with a lot of questions. Foremost of which is: Who is the handsome Verrada? 

Sousa turns out to have been a man of many talents. He also wrote a few books, including his autobiography: Marching Along. He was even an expert trap-shooter! But what we remember John Philip Sousa for the most are his marches. In 1987, “Stars and Stripes Forever” was declared the National March. (I guess it’s not a disaster anymore.)

So, today, be sure to March Forth! (And, do be kind to your web-footed friends!)

Do you have any marching stories? Favorite marches? I’ll be posting some of these on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.

Until next time!