2 posts tagged “france”

It was probably not a good idea to have a going away party with my friends on a Sunday night.

I just woke up, it's 3:30 in the afternoon, I have tons of shit to do, and the first thing I want to do is lay in bed.  Even my cats think I'm lazy.

On a slightly more positive note, I am enamored with the new piece I have just begun to work on.  Jacques Ibert's Concertino da Camera pour Saxophone Alto et Onze instruments is like taking a weekend in Paris; there is the calamity and enormity of the city around you, overwhelming you until you begin to feel the life of the land and the people; anxiety turns to excitement in quick fashion as you walk about the city on a pleasant day, with all the sights and sounds you've never experienced.  You come upon the Tour Eiffel, soaring far above you, its size and scope dizzying, but your attention falls back to Earth and the beautiful city you are in.  You are there, but such a small part of this place that you are only a mere wisp compared to the noise of the city.  The magnitude of the place never leaves you, the constant motion, but you always come back to the beauty and life of the City of Lights.

Thursdays are always busy days for me.  For the last two years they've been a barrage of classes, lessons, and rehearsals.  This summer is no different, as I've been driving an hour south of my home for saxophone quartet rehearsal, duet rehearsal, partner lessons, then back, and an hour north for rehearsals with the Chicago Suburban Symphony Orchestra.  To pass the time, Eric and I engage in long, winding discussions about whatever comes to mind.  Today the topic of overseas study came up.

It has been in the back of my mind for several years that I want to study music overseas.  I think I'm moving closer by studying in Boston this semester, attending a French style conservatory, and working with a teacher with very close ties to the continent.  I need to get out of the United States, this cultural and artistic vacuum.  While modern American music flounders under it's own bulk and expectations, the traditional European centers of musical creativity - Vienna, Paris, London, Amsterdam - continue to bring new ideas to the classical idiom.

While American culture stagnates from the homogeny of our chain store landscape, there are places in Europe where the history and traditions of a town trace back before there was a Wal*Mart.  Or a McDonald's.  Or a Drive-In.

Of course there are places like that in America as well - our oldest cities predate Wal*Mart by at least 30 years - but they are predominantly on the East Coast, are all old English settlements, and even at their wizened age have seen barely 15 generations of local people.

Don't get me wrong - I really do like America.  I like the political ideas we still hold, or attempt to hold.  I like my freedoms, despite their steady shrinking.  I like being able to go virtually anywhere on this continent and still be in my own country, if not close.  I enjoy the diversity of the land and the different peoples that have come here.  But you can't spend your entire life in one place and expect to understand the world.

Eric wants to study in France as well, but his situation is complicated.  He is married, his wife (a Canadian) has barely gotten her citizenship and doesn't want to go through the process again, and he just started his graduate studies at DePaul here in Chicago.  So as something of a gesture of a shared wish, we spent the entirety of our 4 hours in the car today speaking... French. 

By the end, we were actually able to hold full, long winded conversations in a language neither of us had spoken in almost 2 years.  It's amazing what a little practice can do.

(It's also amazing how infectious and ubiquitous our product driven lifestyle is becoming.  I hope for the world's sake that we never lose the individual cultures that have given life to so many unique ideas.)