The Spirit Within

This week I attended the dedication of a Legacy Sculpture presented to the City of Olathe honoring the city's sesquicentennial [150 years]. This life-sized monument, which is nearly 60 feet long, depicts a stagecoach, people and horses all in recognition of the heritage of Olathe as one of the final stopping places along the trails heading West.
Kwan Wu, the artist of this sculpture [who is internationally recognized for much of his work and happens to be a resident of Olathe], spent two years creating this bronze mural.
He commented that as he worked on this piece he found himself talking with the people as he fashioned them from metal - their spirits very much alive and vibrant.

I understand this very well. During the 31 years I was employed at the school for the deaf, I often felt the presence of those who had lived and worked on those grounds since 1867. Now that I am beginning to write their story, I find myself carefully listening to them and hoping to give accurate 'voice' to their tales, for these people are very real, very alive and very much a part of my life.

The Classics

Now that I am traveling almost weekly on a research project - 150 miles roundtrip - I have a lot more time to listen to my collection of CD's. I'm not much one to listen to the radio because I haven't found a station that plays only what I want to listen to . . . yeah, I'm getting set in my ways!

Which brings me to the question: What makes some songs classic? I'm sure everyone has their own opinion as to which music is 'classical' but since this is my weblog, I feel compelled to speak from my own point of view.

Songs can either be about the music or about the lyrics. If the song is about the music, the melody (as it were) needs to be complex enough that every time you hear it, you hear something new. Not an easy task, I would guess . . . having been someone who has never written music, but has an appreciation for the complexity that can be heard in 'classics'. [My current favorite is Howard Shore, composer for Lord of the Rings trilogy.]

If it's about the lyrics, the story line should be timeless and personal to the listener. Some of my favorite classical song writers are Harry Chapin and Simon / Garfunkel. I love storytelling in song and love that their stories are as relevant today as they were in the '70's. Fortunately or unfortunately, I measure other story writers against these people . . .

So as I'm cruising along I-70 you might see me singing the stories of these never-out-of-date writers or lost in the battle for Middle Earth. It really makes the trip to Topeka go quickly!