Re: What you want for Xmas
Posted by:
Jazz_Sue (212.85.12.---)
Date: December 12, 2007 12:59PM
robert Wrote:
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> > It's just as strange that the play on the
> emotions, intellect and heart is exactly what the
> Christmas story also accomplishes. In a week and a
> half, I'll be doing the technical production for
> "The Little Match Girl" play in Wagga (lovely
> setting in a park). We are one of the few theatre
> companies who still dare to perform overtly
> spiritually themed plays yet I would describe both
> the director and myself as agnostics; but we
> simply recognise that faith is worth respect.
>
I've got the original Hans Christian Anderson stories as they were written, including the Match Girl. I still can't read it without getting a lump in my throat. Ditto the death of Tiny Tim in Christmas Carol, although that always gets me full-blown wailing. These are both very old stories yet still have the power to move, the way they did when they were written. It ties in with your comments on music, Robert - I remember crying my eyes out at the tender age of 8, just because my class were singing the original version of Bleak Midwinter. Ditto secondary school, when a gifted young cellist performed The Swan at assembly, with piano accompaniment. Yeeoww, all those minor chords! The only modern music that gets to me in the same way, is written for films - so long as it doesn't involve Kate Winslett, I'll listen. I've put Legend of 1900 on my wish list for Christmas - it was on TV a while back. Best 'arthouse' movie I've ever watched, with some fantastic set pieces. Critics described it as 'contrived,' and overblown, but it was a movie about a pianist - what did they want, robots with Mig weapons?!
There are several books that explain the 'psychology' of music, and I remember a TV documentary on it a while back, but I always think, when you take all the science away, the only thing left is God.