Happy Birthday, Dad!

For the many years you've been my dad, my siblings' dad, my mom's husband, my uncles' brother, my grandparents' son, you are amazing, and I wish you the best and happiest birthday today.

Shostakovich and 20th Century Music

I know enough people disagree with me to make this worth my while, so I will make it known that I prefer Classical and Baroque music to Romantic and Contemporary.

Baroque and Classical make sense. There is a rhythm, it is strict, and you know what is going to happen. This is not to say it is not suspenseful; it is. Listen to Beethoven's 5th or 6th or 9th. They are amazing. If there is a dissonant chord in Baroque or Classical, it is a 7th chord. Progressions always lead up to the I or V chords, depending on where you are in the piece. There is a specific place to which you are going, and you always get there. Everything is resolved.

This does not happen in 20th century music. Take Mahler for example. Though much of his music is either powerful or beautiful or both, it never leads anywhere. As if you are running for your life through a dark alley while a mugger is chasing you with a knife, and suddenly you become a little girl with curly hair in pigtails playing tag with her brother. Some contemporary music just seems to be strange chord progressions full of even stranger chords.

Romantic music isn't bad. I don't mind listening to it at all. It's not the best to play, however. With so much rubato, it is hard to keep a steady tempo. Well, it's written in not to have a steady tempo, which is why I'm not too fond of it. I like mathematical styles. Romantic music is not mathematical at all.

I have no problem with people liking 20th Century music at all. A good friend of mine seems to be in love with Shostakovich, and I know a few young ladies who like Mahler themselves. It's a matter of opinion, really. But if I am wrong, and I am never wrong, classical and baroque dominate.

Clearing your Head

Sometimes you think you're clearing your head, when really you just want to know something that is practically impossible to know. It keeps gnawing at you and you can't do anything about it. You want the question to leave you alone, never to bother you, but you care about what the answer is, and you really want to know. Your "clearing your head" is never complete until you know that answer. Being alone will never help. Only the people with the answers will.

Catholic Education

We never learned apologetics, and I think as a teenager, that is the most important thing you can learn in a Catholic classroom. Yes, you need to learn about God in his almighty goodness and how amazing he is, but a lot of that needs to come from going to church, not from a teacher telling you in a classroom. Protestant churches have Sunday school where they read the Bible and learn a ton of stuff and I'm not going to say I know what all goes on in there because I've never been to Sunday school in my life. But obviously it works because protestants can argue their faith very well. Why can't they teach that to Catholics? We don't know the Bible and can't defend the faith at all. We either depend on what our parents taught us or Catholic apologetics websites, and that's how they learn: by argumental research. I know what I do now because of arguments with my best friend. We never argued to convert. She was Lutheran, I was Catholic, and we knew neither of us were going to convert, but we argued for the sake of arguing. I'm still not good at arguing. I know I come across as an arrogant know-it-all who says I'm right, you're wrong, get over it. I know less than half of what I need to know, and I know where to look it all up if I need help, but I know the basics to get by. I wish I knew this much when I was in eighth grade.

Regarding a note of caution I saw at the FIM...

PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON THIS HISTORIC PIANO

This pretty much makes people scared of the piano. Not only will they avoid putting anything on the historic piano, they won't play it, or even touch it. In admiration, a struggling musician may finger the music stand at the top, or the area just below the keyboard. However, no notes will be played. This is to the institute's benefit. Not one musician will dare play a note on this historic piano. What need is there for tuning? That's a lot of money they can save for tuning pianos that are actually used. Who cares if a C# becomes a G? No one's using it. But what happens if a daring young student touches a key? Presses down? Makes a sound? Finding out that playing a D will give you an A° chord would be quite surprising. It's such a historic and beautiful piano! How dare it be so out of tune and broken! To the relief and chagrin of the FIM, I'm the only one who knows.

Musicals

Why are some musicals more famous than others? Some have great music but awful plots, while others have the most interesting plots with crap for music. Some have great both, and some have crap for both.

Here are some examples:

Good plot, good music:

• Fiddler on the Roof*
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*
• Anything Goes
• Guys and Dolls
• Phantom of the Opera*
• Into the Woods
• Bye Bye Birdie
• Wicked*
• West Side Story*
• Annie*
• Sound of Music*
• My Fair Lady*
• The Lion King
  

Bad plot, good music:

• Cabaret
• Oklahoma*
• Jesus Christ Superstar*
• Grease*
  

Bad plot, bad music:

• Godspell*

Now, obviously I haven't seen enough musicals, or bad musicals, to be able to make a hypothesis, but not all famous musicals are good. I have no idea why they are famous. If you think of any other musicals that I should add to this list, comment and I'll add them.

Florida was fun.