Modern Art Songs

M, our choir director, lent me a book of contemporary art songs...lyrics by poets, music by the likes of Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, etc., who probably are not considered modern any more, but whose music is pretty wild. I looked through the entire book and found two songs that are possible; the best, I think, is one written in honor of Leonard Bernstein's birthday. It mentions pickled herring, so you know it has to be a good one!

The dining room cum music room is still partly strewn with sheet music from the early 20th century. I have played through it all, and have kept out several songs. Perhaps one of them will work for church.

But in reaction to the modern music mentioned above, I pulled out Mom's Music: The Universal Language, which she might have had as a textbook in the 1940s. The illustrations are very familiar, and I must have looked at it when I was young. Many songs that she sang around the house are there...Summertime, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and so forth. They all seem eminently more singable than the more contemporary ones. Except that one with the pickled herring...