The Music Life

Yesterday I went to a three hour concert for the brass band of one of the junior high schools I currently work for here in Japan. It was special because it was the last concert for third year students in the band (junior high school is three years in Japan). Now they have to focus on studying and getting ready for high school. One of them I talked to said she doesn't want to go to high school and instead plans to immediately pursue a career as a musician (high school is not compulsory in Japan). I'd say she has a good shot, given how good this particular school's brass band is, but all the junior high school brass bands I've seen in Japan have been amazing.

I suppose I don't have much frame of reference since I can't remember paying much attention to my high school brass band and my junior high school didn't have one. But I always enjoy watching the band's planning, procedure, and practicing. Unfortunately in this town, it's more difficult to build a rapport with students than it was in my previous town since I tend to be assigned to schools for only two weeks at a time with occasional longer or shorter spells of one to four weeks. I go back to the same schools--I'm working in only three this year--but I miss how in my previous town I'd be with the same school for four or five months at a time. This made it easier to get a sense of where the students are in their studies and decide what material to use or develop.

Yesterday's concert also featured students from another school I haven't worked at and I was delighted when they performed "Brazil", the same song featured in Terry Gilliam's great film of the same title. Though considering how that film skewers bureaucracy, it may be a little too close to home for Japan. But the students are of course unaware of that association. The students from the school I work at played a medley of Deep Purple songs, including "Smoke on the Water". I wonder how it got in their repertoire. I've seen their archive of music sheets, some of it looks very old. At one point someone must have been a rock fan, or maybe it was an inherited repertoire from some other source.

I discovered to-day Deep Purple released an official music video for "Smoke on the Water" just last year, much like Talking Heads only recently made a video for "Psycho Killer". I dig this trend.

X Sonnet 1966

As questions raised regarding hope arose,
We found a book describing black despair.
The channel page was choked with buggy prose,
But seemed to show a dance from Fred Astaire.
The group recalled that Rogers followed suit,
With cherry syrup squibs she laced her shoes.
This was a fact to grief the girlish moot,
We know the secret sauce was blood and booze.
Arise, o floor of dancing digit tombs.
Your kindle now aglow with burning veins.
Above, a falling flock of ghosts resumes,
Their haunt above the bay of rusty chains.
No blame could chase the turkey 'cross a year.
So gather feathers, make a poultry bier.