Planetary Sunday
Yesterday morning, we woke up to yet another weekend snowstorm (the third weekend in a row!), and as our roads were not plowed, we decided not to make the hour-long trek to church.
I was getting ready to sing in a concert that evening featuring Gustav Holst's "The Planets" Suite-- I was asked to sing, along with a small group of other ladies, the vocal part on the "Neptune" movement.
As I had been practicing and memorizing in the last few days using YouTube recordings, I got a chuckle out of how many times I saw "Is this music from the Harry Potter movies?" or "Do they use this in Star Wars?" in the comments under the videos.
It's true; there are SO many moments from The Planets that remind me exactly of the Star Wars soundtrack. You all know what a big fan I am of Star Wars and John Williams, but I do have to wonder how knowingly he borrowed from Holst (and other composers as well).
Here's Neptune:
Never mind the fact that the opening duet in the flutes is SO Star Wars, but just skip to about... oh... 6:00 or so. Listen for about 30 seconds.
And now listen to this (start at about 1:30):
Uncanny, right? And that's just the beginning.
But I'll stop geeking out on you now. I think you get the point. Back to Sunday morning.
We were all lounging in our pajamas, watching the snow fall outside the window, and I gathered both N and L on my lap to have another listen to "Neptune"... I knew they would enjoy it, given their love of Star Wars. I wasn't disappointed-- they were rapt, and listened to the entire movement. We pointed out Neptune in the helpful picture of the solar system on the YouTube video.
And then they wanted to listen to some others. We heard a bit of Mars and Mercury, and some of Venus. We listened to a few tracks from the Star Wars soundtrack and talked about how similar they were. We talked some about the planets and the solar system and how it all works. Of course, we finished with Jupiter-- and N was so inspired by the mid-movement melody (the one that later became the hymn tune) that she wanted to get out her little violin and play along. She started on the lowest string as the melody began and then soared up to the highest string as the music broadened, and ended on a tremolo as the movement came to a close.
It was so fun watching her get inspired by the same music that inspires me.
I guess I'll take a little bit of snow if it means cozying up and sharing some fun learning and music time with my kiddos.
I was getting ready to sing in a concert that evening featuring Gustav Holst's "The Planets" Suite-- I was asked to sing, along with a small group of other ladies, the vocal part on the "Neptune" movement.
As I had been practicing and memorizing in the last few days using YouTube recordings, I got a chuckle out of how many times I saw "Is this music from the Harry Potter movies?" or "Do they use this in Star Wars?" in the comments under the videos.
It's true; there are SO many moments from The Planets that remind me exactly of the Star Wars soundtrack. You all know what a big fan I am of Star Wars and John Williams, but I do have to wonder how knowingly he borrowed from Holst (and other composers as well).
Here's Neptune:
Never mind the fact that the opening duet in the flutes is SO Star Wars, but just skip to about... oh... 6:00 or so. Listen for about 30 seconds.
And now listen to this (start at about 1:30):
Uncanny, right? And that's just the beginning.
But I'll stop geeking out on you now. I think you get the point. Back to Sunday morning.
We were all lounging in our pajamas, watching the snow fall outside the window, and I gathered both N and L on my lap to have another listen to "Neptune"... I knew they would enjoy it, given their love of Star Wars. I wasn't disappointed-- they were rapt, and listened to the entire movement. We pointed out Neptune in the helpful picture of the solar system on the YouTube video.
And then they wanted to listen to some others. We heard a bit of Mars and Mercury, and some of Venus. We listened to a few tracks from the Star Wars soundtrack and talked about how similar they were. We talked some about the planets and the solar system and how it all works. Of course, we finished with Jupiter-- and N was so inspired by the mid-movement melody (the one that later became the hymn tune) that she wanted to get out her little violin and play along. She started on the lowest string as the melody began and then soared up to the highest string as the music broadened, and ended on a tremolo as the movement came to a close.
It was so fun watching her get inspired by the same music that inspires me.
I guess I'll take a little bit of snow if it means cozying up and sharing some fun learning and music time with my kiddos.
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