Liberal Arts Blog — The Covid Waltz Work Out Re-visited — 9 Composers, 15 Waltzes, 92 Minutes

Thursday is the Joy of Music Day

Today’s Topic: The Covid Waltz Work Out Re-visited — 9 Composers, 15 waltzes, 92 minutes
Covid is back. Friend after friend. Family member after family member. Is it time to revive the “Covid Waltz Work Out”?
Three years ago, snowed in with Covid, I developed a substitute daily exercise routine that eliminated both the risk of human contact and that of slipping and falling on icy sidewalks.
And it brought me joy beyond my wildest imagining. The ticket was a collection of masterpieces from the likes of Chopin, Brahms, and Strauss to Shostakovich, Dvorak, and Mancini.
I would dance around my tiny office gazing through the windows, marveling at the world draped in a mantle of snow.
The links below will give you the list of specific waltzes and links to them. Here today three generic takeaways from my experience with the Covid Waltz Workout.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
TO TEACH MUSIC WITHOUT DANCING IS NUTS (below Johann Strauss II)
1. Rhythm is the solid foundation of all music.
2. To get rhythm you must feel it in your bones.
3. Dance is undeniably the best way to do this.
THE WALTZ IS THE BEST DANCE TO TEACH (below Tchaikovsky)
1. It’s so damn easy.
2. Three steps — away, together, in place. Any direction.
3. “The Idiot’s Guide to the Waltz” and most other guides make it much too complicated — 27 steps!!!! this is criminal.
BEST REPERTOIRE OF ANY DANCE — BY FAR (below Shostakovich — looks remarkably like Harry Potter, doesn’t he?)
1. Seriously! Top the Emperor’s Waltz (Strauss), or the Blue Danube (Strauss)! Can’t be done!
2. Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake? Can’t be done!
3. Shostakovich’s Second Waltz? Yeah, right, sure. No! Can’t be done!
CONCLUSION — WALTZING SHOULD BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF A REQUIRED PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM K TO 12
1. Mens sana in corpore sano — healthy mind in a healthy body.
2. “Without music life would be a mistake.” (Nietzsche)
3. “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” (Nietzsche)
Liberal Arts Blog — The Covid Waltz Workout: 9 composers, 15 waltzes, 92 minutes
Liberal Arts Blog — The Waltz, Part One: Strauss II, Tchaikovsky, Chopin
Liberal Arts Blog — Waltz (II): Waldteufel, Shostakovich, Verdi
Liberal Arts Blog — The Waltz (III): Brahms, Dvorak, Mancini
Liberal Arts Blog — Waltzing Through Covid (VII) — “Favorite Things”, “Feed the Birds”, “Rainbow…
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IP5ATbqCWPv0WKC4dCDgAiidbFVOaqR_
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
#3 Israel-Palestine Handout
YOUR TURN
Time to share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to music.
Or the coolest thing you learned in your life related to music. Say your favourite song or songs. Or your favourite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation. Or some insight into the history of music….Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers. jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter in your musical autobiography.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And perhaps to cement in your memory something important you would otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters to you.