Thoughts on Music & Mirth Introspective Reflection I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance. Ogden Nash They say (whoever They are) that laughter is the best medicine. So, in the spirit of nonchalance, insouciance, and a cure for the common cold, the Issaquah Chorale presents Music & Mirth, a delightful romp across, or perhaps stomp on, music‟s funny bone. Composers, from whatever time or place they happened to inhabit, have never quite been able to resist the urge to entertain, amuse, tickle, and poke fun through the medium of music. So we have gathered a bevy of silly songs, tickling tunes and merry melodies from past, present, and around the world, all designed to call forth grins, chuckles and groans, and to provide something of an antidote for having to make a living. Folksong and dance, with their roots in the vicissitudes of life, supply fertile ground for fun and frolic at the expense of the human condition. A number of our numbers draw on folk idioms, from the story of the Svensky logger gone to get his teeth fixed in The Potlatch Fair, to the rollicking folkdance rhythms of Feller from Fortune, which tells the tale of a boy and a girl and a…well, you‟ll see. Animals always supply a means for a great deal of fun, especially when they show us a reflection of ourselves, and we have a barnyard full of animal songs. For example, Frog Went a-Courtin’, a playful dance tune, outlines the nonsensical courtship of Frog and Miss Mouse in tellingly humorous images that may call to mind many a human wedding. Modern life and culture come in for their share of sly digs as well. The Chorale Chamber Singers become chugging trains of the working world in I’m a Train. And the concert world doesn‟t escape the lens of humor as Insalata Italiana, or Italian Salad, parodies the over-the-top emotions of opera in five easy minutes! But best of all, perhaps, are the zany, inspired “compositions” of PDQ Bach, the last and least of the sons of the great Johann Sebastian, who “wrote a great body of music that is,” to quote his creator and editor, Professor Peter Schickele of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, “characterized by its lack of body and greatness.” These selections from his Liebeslieder Polkas, for chorus and piano five hands, certainly show PDQ at his, er, best. But enough of program notes! Let the music speak for itself, and let silliness reign supreme. For, as Shel Silverstein says Draw a crazy picture, Write a nutty poem, Sing a mumble-gumble song, Whistle through your comb. Do a loony-goony dance „Cross the kitchen floor, Put something silly in the world That ain‟t been there before. We will do our best to comply!
