Akkordeon Meet's Gospel
Well, I went back to work on Saturday, a little weak, and slower than normal, but successfully. The weekend was absolutely tropical. The air was moist and warm, and it felt so good to be fraternizing with such degrees of freedom. No pains to report, my body is healing well.
A couple of things to note: Sunday was Landestag, which I am led to believe is voting day in these parts. To celebrate, the town Church held a concert, entitled (and I quote) ‘Akkordeon Meet’s Gospel.’ Entry was free, it being a church, so I simply had to investigate.
Upon entering, I found packed pews, and two different groups of uniformed performers were loitering about; one set with white shirts and blue scarves (these were the accordion players) and one with black shirts and rainbow scarves (these were the German gospel singers, non of whom were black, and one of whom I’m certain was either a transvestite or a hermaphrodite, which I noticed because I just finished reading a novel called ‘Middlesex,’ which I highly recommend). I took my seat, and a few minutes later, someone said something into a microphone (in dialect) and the blue scarves proceeded to the front of the church. Men, women, old, young, nerds, beautys, folks of all types, and about 30 of them, claimed their accordions, and their seats. Some of you may know that I have a certain fondness for accordions, a grahamcracker and orange juice sort of a fondness, an afternoon sort of a fondness. Such a strange invention is the accordion, that I am endeared that it has found popularity in so many different traditions. It is gentle, yet powerful, and I was quite thrilled about the performance that was about to be.
They began with ‘Palladio’ from Karl Jenkins, which I recognized immediately as the piece from the Zale’s diamonds ads on TV. Throbbing and mighty, the accordions filled the church, though I could sense an eager fellow rushing one of the parts along. When that was finished, a lovely Piazzolla piece brought memories of Tango-filled evenings in Oregon, and made me crave the dance and reminded me that I haven’t even been out to Tango since I returned from the West. Also at that moment, the sun shone so brightly through the west window behind the group that there was nothing to be seen but light, and it was indeed an Augenblick of pure magic. So beautiful was the Melodia en la menor! Then things got a bit sketchy.
What followed were two pieces from the film ‘Sister Act,’ by all means not intended to be played by 30 German accordionists. I thought maybe the choir would join in to make it heartfelt and spiritual, but their only contribution was some occasional and rather pathetic rhythm clapping from the back of the church, but since the speed of sound isn’t THAT fast, it sounded offbeat. When the first of these pieces were finished, the whole room burst into an incredible applause that one might expect at a Rolling Stones concert, which I suppose was in order, but I wasn’t emoting in that direction. I applauded the first pieces because they moved me, but I clapped for the others to be nice.
The second part of the show was of course the choir, whose program consisted of 10 traditional and nontraditional American gospel songs. They came marching up the aisle in glorious song, enjoying themselves to be sure, but I recognize a stick up the ass when I see one. I’m sorry to say that I chuckled to myself, just a little. Though so pleased that these folks were singing at all, and enjoying themselves, one has to admit that you gotta be black to sing songs like these (for an audience), or at least you have to be able to FEEL them with your entire being. We white folks do them no justice! It was a little bit painful to listen to the choppy German-English wordage coming out of such highly spiritual songs. The people of Friedlingen loved it though, and that is what matters. They were the intended audience, not a mildly judgemental American with poor German skills (who consequently also has a stick up her ass, and certainly wouldn’t be able to sing the songs any better) who believes that if you’re white and you wanna sing these pieces, you MUST be Joss Stone. You Must. Or else an old blind man who sits in a rocking chair on his front porch observing the world with only his heart. To note though, the piano player was AMAZING.
In other news, yesterday was Rosa’s nephew’s birthday, so we took out the party carriage and brought 6 5-year-olds out for a spin with the horses, which was great fun. Die Kinder sind gut um Deutsch zu lernen. Later, we visited the house for delicious Cherry Torte and cappucino, and watched the kids have races with grain sacks, and then with very colorfully decorated hardboiled eggs.
Tonight, I will go with Rosa and Antonia (the youngest daughter) to see Brokeback Mountain in the theater. I’m certain that it will be dubbed, and I have my reservations about that for purity’s sake, but I do like listening to the German words, and can even get a very impressionistic idea of what is going on. I think it’ll be pretty clear though; these Hollywood films are often very visual stories…
Also, bis spater.
A couple of things to note: Sunday was Landestag, which I am led to believe is voting day in these parts. To celebrate, the town Church held a concert, entitled (and I quote) ‘Akkordeon Meet’s Gospel.’ Entry was free, it being a church, so I simply had to investigate.
Upon entering, I found packed pews, and two different groups of uniformed performers were loitering about; one set with white shirts and blue scarves (these were the accordion players) and one with black shirts and rainbow scarves (these were the German gospel singers, non of whom were black, and one of whom I’m certain was either a transvestite or a hermaphrodite, which I noticed because I just finished reading a novel called ‘Middlesex,’ which I highly recommend). I took my seat, and a few minutes later, someone said something into a microphone (in dialect) and the blue scarves proceeded to the front of the church. Men, women, old, young, nerds, beautys, folks of all types, and about 30 of them, claimed their accordions, and their seats. Some of you may know that I have a certain fondness for accordions, a grahamcracker and orange juice sort of a fondness, an afternoon sort of a fondness. Such a strange invention is the accordion, that I am endeared that it has found popularity in so many different traditions. It is gentle, yet powerful, and I was quite thrilled about the performance that was about to be.
They began with ‘Palladio’ from Karl Jenkins, which I recognized immediately as the piece from the Zale’s diamonds ads on TV. Throbbing and mighty, the accordions filled the church, though I could sense an eager fellow rushing one of the parts along. When that was finished, a lovely Piazzolla piece brought memories of Tango-filled evenings in Oregon, and made me crave the dance and reminded me that I haven’t even been out to Tango since I returned from the West. Also at that moment, the sun shone so brightly through the west window behind the group that there was nothing to be seen but light, and it was indeed an Augenblick of pure magic. So beautiful was the Melodia en la menor! Then things got a bit sketchy.
What followed were two pieces from the film ‘Sister Act,’ by all means not intended to be played by 30 German accordionists. I thought maybe the choir would join in to make it heartfelt and spiritual, but their only contribution was some occasional and rather pathetic rhythm clapping from the back of the church, but since the speed of sound isn’t THAT fast, it sounded offbeat. When the first of these pieces were finished, the whole room burst into an incredible applause that one might expect at a Rolling Stones concert, which I suppose was in order, but I wasn’t emoting in that direction. I applauded the first pieces because they moved me, but I clapped for the others to be nice.
The second part of the show was of course the choir, whose program consisted of 10 traditional and nontraditional American gospel songs. They came marching up the aisle in glorious song, enjoying themselves to be sure, but I recognize a stick up the ass when I see one. I’m sorry to say that I chuckled to myself, just a little. Though so pleased that these folks were singing at all, and enjoying themselves, one has to admit that you gotta be black to sing songs like these (for an audience), or at least you have to be able to FEEL them with your entire being. We white folks do them no justice! It was a little bit painful to listen to the choppy German-English wordage coming out of such highly spiritual songs. The people of Friedlingen loved it though, and that is what matters. They were the intended audience, not a mildly judgemental American with poor German skills (who consequently also has a stick up her ass, and certainly wouldn’t be able to sing the songs any better) who believes that if you’re white and you wanna sing these pieces, you MUST be Joss Stone. You Must. Or else an old blind man who sits in a rocking chair on his front porch observing the world with only his heart. To note though, the piano player was AMAZING.
In other news, yesterday was Rosa’s nephew’s birthday, so we took out the party carriage and brought 6 5-year-olds out for a spin with the horses, which was great fun. Die Kinder sind gut um Deutsch zu lernen. Later, we visited the house for delicious Cherry Torte and cappucino, and watched the kids have races with grain sacks, and then with very colorfully decorated hardboiled eggs.
Tonight, I will go with Rosa and Antonia (the youngest daughter) to see Brokeback Mountain in the theater. I’m certain that it will be dubbed, and I have my reservations about that for purity’s sake, but I do like listening to the German words, and can even get a very impressionistic idea of what is going on. I think it’ll be pretty clear though; these Hollywood films are often very visual stories…
Also, bis spater.
posted by SK at 7:02 AM
1 Comments:
It is rather interesting for me to read the post. Thanks for it. I like such themes and everything connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.
Best wishes
Timm Clade
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