As I was saying to Nigel just the other day, Everything is related to Y2K and vice versa. Today while preparing to accompany some vocalists for a Civic light opera performance I came across a Rodgers and Hammerstein number from the "King and I" that really addresses how some of us may feel while preparing for Y2K and Beyond. Setting: The King of Siam is trying to make his country "scientific"...bring it into the next century...(not the 21st))...he's really bogged down with information overload...The lyrics tell the rest of the story.

A PUZZLEMENT

There are times I almost think I am not sure of what I absolutely know.....

Very often find confusion in conclusion I concluded long ago.....

In my head are many facts that, As a student I have studied to procure...

In my head are many facts, Of which I wish I was more cer----tain I--- was--- sure!

Is a puzzlement!

I know,...she's bonkers...but Nigel...see! Even a musical written in 1951 (51) is about Y2K!

Shall We Dance?

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 06, 1998

Answers

For all accomplished and fledgling musicians out there....Your instruments are Y2K compliant, as long as they don't require electricity...guitarists, stock up on strings...woodwinds...get some extra reeds...wax catchers for the candleholders on top the pianos....

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 06, 1998.

I prefer Rodgers and Hart, when they used to live in the city (before y2k) then they moved to the country with Oscar. Come to think of it more millennium prophecy. Opinion, apart from a few isolated songs, nothing written in the popular music field since the 1960s remotely compares with the "greats" like the above, Gershwin, Carmichael etc (especially Lloyd-Webber cr*d). PS I have started composing (expect dingbats on that one!)

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 06, 1998.

Maybe dingbats is the wrong word (slings and arrows). Diane are you a fan Shakespearian. He could only speak in verse all the time (must have driven his family etc mad).

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 06, 1998.

Donna can I have some composition/improvisation lessons. How much do you charge?

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 06, 1998.

"guitarists, stock up on strings"

Funny you should mention that....I already did;)

Rick - A very amateur guitatist

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), November 06, 1998.

ah, Richard, you do me much honor by your composition and improv question. I have only written some piano miniatures,...don't know why I've never tried to put the ream of poems to music...gutless I think...musical composition, like writing of any kind is, in my opinion, some of the hardest work...a profession fraught with mental collapse, little money, and a lot of personal satisfaction.

Rick T. Congrats on your dedication to your writing career.AND on your amateur guitarist efforts...making music is a meditative act to me...playing, writing,...I'd have been nuts before age 12 without music. Or at least nuts in a way that made me non-functional. At least now I have a channel for all my flights of fancy.

Geez..I'm blathering...sorry...not enough coffee yet this morning

For some fun pick up any recording of any Stephen Sondheim...who learned from the old masters of musical theater. One of the finest lyricists on the planet.. Try "Into The Woods" or "Sunday In The Park With George"

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 06, 1998.

A key item in my mobile Y2K kit is my dad's old guitar. I don't know how to play well (might have some time on my hands) but someone I meet is bound to. Gotta get more strings. Thanks Rick and Donna.

Diane (practicing twinkle toes dance steps)

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 06, 1998.

Thats all I've written a few piano miniatures (probably copies or pastiches of something else). How do you know if something is truly original, bearing in mind the thousands of musical passages ever heard. I find the idea comes to me in a dream (or a semi- dream state, ie theta), then I work on it. The tune comes to me in the "right" key for some reason, eg one tune will be "heard" say in A flat, major, another comes to me in A minor.

I can write down the melodic line and the basic harmony, but need to learn how to "arrange" it for want of a better word, and to be able to write it down correctly.

I did learn to play classical piano parrot-fashion (painting by numbers?) when I was young ie recreational art, but not composition.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), November 09, 1998.