Gimme Some of that Ole Time Classical

Waipa River near mouth to Hanalei Bay  Photo:KCS

Classical music has never done much for me. Some find it relaxing. I've always found it to be a little nerve-wracking. Too dense and complicated. All those instruments playing notes so tightly strung I feel as though I might choke.

Give me some good ole R & B, please. Let me bounce around to the back beat.

Everything's changed since we've been sheltering in-place on the island. Yesterday and today, which is Sunday, I have rushed to my little Mini-Pod radio to turn on Classical. On weekends the community station that broadcasts from here in Princeville, begins the morning with a pleasant dose of Classical music.

For reasons I do not immediately understand, all the violins and horns and I don't-know-what, soothe my troubled soul. The music of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, Mozart and their coevals has become a pleasant backdrop to the island's intense flora.

I see tangles of tree roots swarming and branching, twisting with so many other green-leafed partners creating jungles that are too thick to separate. I lose count trying to note the different shapes and sizes of green leaves. Everything seems to grow on hyper-speed. I hear a multitude of orchestral violins.

My heretofore solitary experience with Classical music is intrinsically connected to my daughter Vanessa. I remember watching her at three-years-old dancing around the room to Peter and the Wolf, a 1936 composition by Sergei Prokofiev. She was overcome with the sounds and fantasy of characters represented by the music of different instruments.

Observing this magical connection, I became determined that she would learn to play piano, at least be given the opportunity.

And so it was.

Piano became her talisman, as I saw it. Throughout her early schooling, her ability to entertain school groups at the annual talent shows seemed like an anchor holding her steady. She didn't play Classical. She started with Rags, Al Jolsin music.

Midway or so through her college experience at Humbolt State University, behind the Redwood Curtain, as they called it, she made a life change, going from Social Science to a Music major. To accomplish this, she had to learn to play Classical music. Not merely play it, but understand the complicated musical language well enough to perform it proficiently in front of an audience and serious-minded instructors whose keen ears and eyes were focused on excellence.

Her repertoire to that point was popular music and improvisation. She started behind the curve of her fellow music majors trained in Classical tradition from early age.

Long story short, her Bachelors and Masters recitals, at Humboldt State and California State University Northridge, respectively, performing solo Classical pieces on piano were the two most amazing and satisfying "concerts" I have ever attended.

The soaring music represented personal achievement that every parent desires for their children, the result of dedication, discipline and motivation, over-coming obstacles that are created from without and within.

Perhaps the atmosphere of the island coupled with those recitals lodged somewhere in my heart, soul and niggled brain, have allowed me to connect with weekend morning Classical here on Kauai. How could I forget.

Hana hou: Happy Birthday to Mike Harrington! (Vanessa's husband, my son-in-law). Vanessa is currently teaching fifth-grade writing, with resorts to piano, at Viewpoint Academy in Calabasas, Calif. A musician himself, Mike is a school administrator with Los Angeles City School District, and a major supporter of Vanessa.