Marriage focus
For my music appreciation class I chose several selections from musicals; we studied folk songs and then opera, so stage and movie musicals were logical to come next. My four students range in age from 9 to 13; it’s a challenge to keep their interest on the same thing for any length of time. The youngest is a firecracker; she has opinions and is not shy about proclaiming them. She’s willing to listen, but has a short attention span and pleads for what she wants to sing along with.
I chose “From Now On” from The Greatest Showman, with footage from the movie; she loved it. I gave a little background first, saying that the main character has realized that he made a huge mistake; he is going to make it right with his wife. Then we listened to the great Julie Andrews sing “Before I Gaze At You Again” from Camelot, with plain album art to look at. I explained that Guinevere is married to King Arthur, but loves his chief knight, Lancelot. She sings this song to Lancelot, knowing she can’t be with him.
This 9 year old girl was baffled by Guinevere’s decision to tell Lancelot to go away. She said, “She loves him, so why doesn’t she just…?” I told her that divorce did not exist. Someone else said, “She can’t.” I could see the girl not comprehending, and I wanted to explain the value of marriage, commitment to one person, staying loyal, not letting your interests wander, but this is music class. I have three other students and another mom present. This girl needs to have a discussion about loyalty and marriage, but not from me. At least, I didn’t stop to clarify further. Should I have?
Instead we listened to “The Prince is Giving a Ball” from Brandy’s version of Cinderella. I couldn’t find any footage of it on Youtube, because Disney has thoroughly scrubbed it. They own the copyright. So I showed the clip from my Disney+ account. Then I explained about fair use in copyright; this is educational use and I’m not charging them money for watching. I’m not setting up my own movie theater. With the copyright discussion we had a lot to cover and not enough time.
The last song was “Modern Major General” from The Pirates of Penzance, an awesome performance from a movie of the stage play. I told them that this particular performance is under copyright, but the song itself is 150 years old, so anyone can perform it. It shows up in Veggietales. They laughed, then went to lunch.
I didn’t realize there was a connection between the first two selections I chose. The plots of Cinderella and The Pirates of Penzance are also about whom to devote your life to… What should I have done?
