Ah, Geography

[Great.  It just took me 3 tries to spell 'Geography'.  In the title.  I got it right first time, in this sentence].

9-yr-old boy, whose dad sits in on the lesson.  Boy has a pair of Iranian grandparents.  He'd accidentally brought his brother's violin, 2 sizes too big for him, so we were doing some theory and general knowledge at the start of the lesson.  We started with Barcarolle, by Jacques Offenbach.

Me [inner smirk - this is always entertaining]: Who wrote this piece?
Boy [squinting]: Jack...wez... Off... batch...
Me: I know it doesn't look like it, but his first name is zhark, and his second name is Off-en-bark.  [boy looks skeptical] Trust me.  Where do you think he's from?
Boy: Iran?
Me: Umm... no.  His first name is... [stunned look on boy's face] from France, and his second name is German.  He's actually German.

We then went on to talk about the name of the piece, and what it means.  It's from a French opera, which doesn't really help.

Me: So, we have this guy with a French first name, and a German last name, writing an opera in French... [boy starts to giggle]... and this song is a boat song from Venice [his dad laughs].  Do you know where Venice is?
Boy: France?
Me: Er - no.  This country starts with the letter "I".
Boy [quickly]: Iran!
Me: I knew you were going to say that!  No, this country is where pizza comes from... and spaghetti... Ferraris [running out of ideas]
Boy's dad: Where are Italians from?
Boy: Oh, Italy!!!

We then had a delightful discussion about Venice and not riding a bike to school through the canal.  Unless it's a hover bike.

Andaluza and Tosca

I was working on Andaluza, by Albeniz, with a boy in grade 9.  The ending was a bit blah, so I played it for him.

Me: What do you think of when you hear the ending?
Boy: It sounds like the end of Tosca.
Me: Uh... ok... yeah, I guess so...
Boy: That whole tragedy thing, defeat, like when she throws herself off the parapet.
Me: Did you just see that recently?
Boy: Well, yeah.

While I Was Sitting Here

The piece I'm working on with my ensemble is one I've written myself, based on 2 songs they all know really well from school (One, Two, Three and Apple Tree).  Last week, near the end of the rehearsal, one of the viola players put up her hand.

Girl: So, while I was sitting here,  I thought up a rap version, and a jazz version, and an opera version.
Me: Ooh, can I hear them?
Girl: ummm... next week?

This week, I got to hear the 3 different versions.  I wish I could record them and upload it here - the viola player and a friend sang One, Two, Three first as a rap (complete with hand movements), then very seriously for opera (with a bit of vibrato), then a very groovy jazz version, which had us all swaying along and clicking.  I laughed so much my face went red.

If you don't know the song, it goes like this:

One,       two,        three
so           la            so
 
John-ny caught a  flea
so     so    la     la  so

Flea       died,       John-ny cried
so          mi           so     so   mi

One,      two,        three
so          mi            do