{"id":167,"date":"2015-05-29T18:02:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T22:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=167"},"modified":"2015-05-29T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T22:02:23","slug":"mozart-in-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"MOZART IN THE MOUNTAINS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My latest book, HALLEY,<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When I first began to think of college as a remote possibility, at around age 17, I believed it was very important to become sophisticated.\u00a0 Intellectual, even.\u00a0 I\u2019d already been doing my dead level best to use good grammar without sounding too fancy to Mama and Daddy.\u00a0 They resented it when their young\u2019uns acted \u201cabove their raising.\u201d\u00a0 When hearing one of us use \u201cisn\u2019t,\u201d for example, Daddy would say mockingly, \u201c\u2018<\/span>Isn\u2019t<\/span>?\u2019\u00a0 You too good to say \u2018ain\u2019t\u2019 like everbody else?\u201d\u00a0 for that reason, I tried to improve my vocabulary, without actually <\/span>using<\/span> the long words.\u00a0 I struggled in vain to lose my southern mountain accent too–making sure to sound out \u201cing\u201d endings.\u00a0 It was like Loretta Lynn trying to lose her mountain speech patterns.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I tried to read and appreciate all the classics, only to find I disliked some of those books, like MOBY DICK and THE SCARLET LETTER.\u00a0 Other classics, such as Jane Austen, I immediately loved.\u00a0 Finally, when I managed to obtain a used record player, I was ready to move on to music appreciation.<\/span><\/p>\n

My hometown library had a wonderful collection of records that could be checked out like books.\u00a0 First, I listened to the recordings of Broadway musicals.\u00a0 Got those down–I still know some of the Rodgers and Hammerstein lyrics by heart. \u00a0 \u201cEverything\u2019s up to date in Kansas City.\u00a0 They\u2019ve gone about as far as they can go…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, I tried opera, which I knew you had to understand to be cultured.\u00a0 Was I ever in over my head!\u00a0 Even though I liked some of the music, I found little satisfaction in listening to Italian lyrics.\u00a0 My family lost patience with this \u201chigh falutin\u201d music right away.\u00a0 \u201cSomebody put that woman out of her misery,\u201d Daddy would say if he happened to be present when a soprano was belting out a love song or a lament.\u00a0 Later, when he watched one of the country\/western shows on TV, he would be sure to say, \u201cNow, that\u2019s music!\u00a0 What you listen to is just noise.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My sister Jean and my brother John agreed.\u00a0 They were listening to Elvis.\u00a0 They owned a few records of their favorites and played them whenever they got a chance at the record player.\u00a0 Since Daddy didn\u2019t approve of Elvis, they had to sneak him in when Daddy was gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though I refused to admit it even to myself, I liked a lot of the country music and the rock, but I kept on struggling to appreciate the \u201chigh brow\u201d stuff.\u00a0 I moved on to classical music–Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Chopin–and found some music I liked, but a lot more that was boring to my untrained ears.\u00a0 Then I discovered Mozart.\u00a0 From the first moment, his music spoke to my soul.\u00a0 I listened to those records over and over and over. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, I went off to college without achieving the sophistication I so longed for. The first year in particular, I had a mighty steep learning curve.\u00a0 With all I learned, I became more and more aware of how much more there was to learn..\u00a0 Eventually, I learned to accept who I was, with all of the contradictions and gaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day a few years ago, I was talking about funerals with a good friend.\u00a0 I said, \u201cI want daisies on my casket, a good gospel quartet to sing one of the Carter Family songs like \u2018After a While\u2019 or \u2018Some Glad Morning,\u2019 and then a really good pianist to play Mozart\u2019s Sonata 454.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joan laughed.\u00a0 \u201cAnd with dinner on the ground immediately following, I guess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d I told her.\u00a0 \u201cThat would sum up my whole life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, Awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon When I first began to think of college as a remote possibility, at around age 17, I believed it was very important … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}