We were not given the music prior to the rehearsal, but that is normally fine. The music director assigns parts and there is an accompanist to support everyone as we struggle through everything.
One of the seven songs for our Act I part of the show turns out to be "You'll Be in My Heart," from the animated film Tarzan, from 1999. I have never seen that movie and I swear I have no memory of the song at all.
Of course, THAT'S the song the director wants me to sing lead for (tenors are in short supply). I had to admit I did not know the song at all.
Others in our cast of 17 were astonished that I did not know the song, but I gamely tried to sing the lead, but it was not good. On the other hand, I am certain that I will be able to learn the song in plenty of time.
Later I looked it up and it won the Academy Award for best song as well as the same award from the Golden Globes... and the song won a Grammy, to boot. In other words, this is not some obscure tune.
That's not really the point. The point was that I must have been doing other things as the last century was ebbing away (I had moved from teaching to an assistant principal position that year, and I blame my ignorance on that added stress/learning new things).
I can make myself a quick "expert" on almost anything if I am given a heads up and a little bit of time to practice or read more or just think about the topic in more depth.
But I don't read music, in this case, so if I don't "hear it" in my head, it's not happening. I need a little prep.
The teaching point for me was that I do better by staying in touch with the zeitgeist, even if my knowledge couldn't be more superficial. That is why I will "waste" an hour or two on some movie or TV show that is a current hit among people (usually) younger than I.
It's nice to be able to participate in even the smallest part of informal conversations and not just stand there at the party with a glazed look of total confusion when someone brings up the latest SNL episode or the newest Downton Abbey movie.
Kathleen and I are in a little weekly discussion group and we meet on Monday mornings, and today that new Downton film came up, with several in our group already having seen it and loved it. We are Downton fans, BTW.
I was only able to participate in any way because I had listened to an episode of the podcast "Pop Culture Happy Hour" while flying home from Seattle yesterday morning. BTW, the panel of "experts" were not big fans of the film, which was not the way the true-blue Downton fans were responding.
At least one couple attending our discussion today has not seen Downton Abbey in any form and I noticed that they were not able to participate in even small ways during that portion of the discussion. Perhaps they will find time to watch some old episodes on Netflix and they may become avid fans. Or they may simply accept that they missed this little blip in the cosmos and go on quite happily with their lives.
But teachers need to maintain connections with where their students are, not matter how much they may question current musical or dramatic trends.
Without some common knowledge and some shared cultural touchstones, classrooms can lose their necessary cultural ties. Teachers should consider paying attention to such things as a job requirement, albeit without pay.
But we sometimes can be pleasantly surprised.
My quick take today: That 1999 song is pretty good. I look forward to learning it and the challenge will be to make sure that audience members who, like me, must have been busy back then and missed it, can enjoy the message and the music.
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