This year of 2024 is just about gone … here comes 2025. I have mixed feelings about that and I sure hope for the best. We can pout and grumble and groan and fret and stew or … we can do our best to help make things be ok. Maybe we will do a little bit of both, eh?
But also … let’s remember to enjoy what we have, celebrate what we have, and look for good times. Let’s keep our minds on what’s right with the world, what’s good about each other, and what brings us joy. Find happiness and share it.
Music is so important to me. My music CDs, my friends/neighbors’ ideas, my piano, and the internet bring me so much music from all around the world. Here are three videos of music that I’d like to share.
This first music video below is really cool. The horn is an Alphorn. Lisa Stoll has played the Alphorn almost all her life and has numerous videos and CDs showcasing her solo work or including her when she plays along with other musicians. I also enjoy the woman who yodels in this video, not a high frantic type of yodel but a lower, softer yodel. Don’t miss part way through the video when the tune changes key, and Lisa Stoll removes a section of the horn up near the mouthpiece in order to change the key of the horn. Pretty cool. 🙂
Notice that there are no keys or holes on the horn for fingers to play the notes. Lisa changes the note simply (simply?) by blowing into the mouthpiece differently for each note. Considering the length of the horn and the volume of air needed, and how long it takes the air to exit the horn and make the sound/note, I think her playing is absolutely stupendous, and perfectly on pitch.
I can’t find much online about the translation of the name of this tune “Gipfeltreffe”. I think it means “summit” or “we meet at the summit” or maybe a subtle meaning is “when we meet, there’s nothing better”. Ok, I’m making some of that up, but I like it. 🙂 And I like the music. Please DO let me know if you can translate the true meaning of the name of this song to English.
Now let’s move north from the Swiss Alps to Scotland. Here (below) is a traditional Scottish folk song sung by the group Zambra. These women are terrific! The song is about wool, and weaving, and sheep … and life. In many rural Scottish communities, ordinary citizens traditionally get together in groups to sing and/or play instruments, especially in winter when there’s not much else to do.
The first words are … “White the sheep that gave the wool”.
You might wonder what they mean by “blue and scarlet side by side”. Many, many Scottish tartans have the colors blue and scarlet in them, all woven from the wool of the local sheep.
And last on this list (for now anyway, until the next list that I share with you folks) is the video below, from 2013. When I play this video, I can’t sit still, absolutely can’t sit still. And then the song plays in my head for days afterwards. So beware, you might be humming this tune for the next four or five days, like I do. 🙂
I hope you find some fun and joy in the tunes above. If nothing else, maybe this will make you remember fun music that you love and then go listen to it. Find happy. 🙂
I love music so much too. I loved the women singing about the cloth…watching each face, all so different but all so similar.
These were extraordinary, every one. I can’t even pick a favorite.
And yes I’m happy! happy! happy! 🙂
Oh, I love the Scottish “Winter Charm” song. I’ve played it probably eight times so far, and can’t hardly stop long enough to post this comment. But then, I’m Scottish. 🙂 Thanks Ann.
The first video is my favorite … well, all three are my favorite. But that first video was really special. I liked the way the two women in the first video watched each other. Lisa, playing the horn, obviously couldn’t move her head, but her eyes moved. And the other woman watched Lisa a lot! They’ve obviously played/sung together before. And it was obvious that the woman singing kept her voice in tune/pitch with the horn, and in time with the horn, not with the dulcimer which was “off” a bit in places. The guy playing the dulcimer was great, but I think that HE thought he was in charge. He wasn’t. There’s a lever on the dulcimer that can change the pitch ever so slightly, but he didn’t use it. I loved watching and listening to two professionals. And I liked your interpretation of the name of the tune. 🙂 We meet, and we rise even higher. How true!
Music is SO important. My life is mostly quiet/silent, but when I do listen to music, it matters … and all three of these videos were wonderful! They have been saved in my “favorites”. 🙂
I used to conduct choirs (church and school and college), not a professional necessarily, but have some experience. Bill’s comments about the women keeping eye contact is spot on. I used to have small groups sing in a circle until they learned each other’s timing. Seems these two women in that video have learned it well. Really nice to watch. And the tune is nice too. 🙂
Music is the language when we can’t find the words. Thank you, Ann, for a lovely way to close out the year. Zambra was my favorite, and now I need to add to my music collection! All the best to you for the new year and beyond. Peace, love and happiness.