As Cliché a Post as Ever You’ll Read Here

Last night we attend the band concert directed by the BIL. It was a very varied program and accented the many talents and the versatility of his students.

The penultimate piece was a medley of tunes from the Wizard of Oz. Now what Friend of Dorothy would not appreciate that!

I skipped mentally down the yellow brick road with We’re Off to See the Wizard. My own self image as the Cowardly Lion sang along to the tuba solo on If I only Had a Nerve.

But of course, - and you can see this coming - the climax of the piece was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The dancing clarinets and flutes and the comical, lumbering tuba and bassoon yield to the growing swell of the French horns and deep bass.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

My eyes begin to mist up. It is dark in the auditorium and I am thankful that we are also in the balcony. I try to fight the growing moisture. I’m a wussy sap anyway when it comes to emotional things - especially music. I’d probably cry at hearing “Chopsticks” especially if you played it on mellow bass instruments. Bring on something like this piece and add to it the emotional subtext that the Family hears all too well, and you’ve got a flood that could irrigate the Sahara.

The music continues to swell. I feel the tremors of the reverberating bass and the timpani in my heart. I try to swipe discretely at the wetness on my cheek with my hand. I rub my eyes as if the allergens in the building are affecting me.

And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

It is forte now. No, fortissimo. It is no use. I can only hope that I will not draw attention to myself and allow those around me, my wife, my SIL, my niece, to notice. If I can only make it to the Mussorgsky. It will be the last piece. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs will turn off the faucets. The Great Gate of Kiev will move me but in a much different way. If my luck holds out, my cheeks will dry before the house lights come up.

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I?

* * *

That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!