Somewhere in my magpie mind I had a memory of a story about the dress that Ginger Rogers wore during the famous dance sequence of “Cheek to Cheek” in the movie Top Hat. All I could remember was that something had happened with the feathers coming off the dress and that Fred Astaire’s wife, who had trouble saying her r’s, had said, ““Fwed will be so embawassed.”
Well, there are two versions of the story. The first one with the commentary from Astaire’s wife Phyllis says that the dress was covered with red feathers and that Phyllis, who had come to the set with David Niven to watch the filming and who was a little jealous of Rogers, said “She looks like a wooster.”
I’m sure I sang “Down in the Valley” in grade school, and I know I’ve had a picture in my mind of someone on the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley, lying face down and literally hanging her head over the edge, with her hair falling over her face and blowing in the breeze. (I guess I always thought it was “her” since I pictured long hair.) The image seemed pretty strange to me. Why would anyone do that?
Yes. A full performance of the entire special service in the Russian Orthodox Church can indeed last pretty much all night, but be aware that the time is filled with much more than music–litanies (petitions and responses), Scripture readings, prayers, etc. A composer wouldn’t have to come up with hours and hours of music. Also, the service is often/usually cut, with the full version being performed very rarely.
What a wonderful message is contained in this song! Let me answer the question above first, and then I’ll cover some other issues. So the Hebrew words “Hine ma tov uma naim shevet achim gam yachad” are from Psalm 133 in the Hebrew Bible. I have always loved this psalm, and since the entire thing is so short I’m quoting it in full:
No. Your shinbone is named after an ancient Greek wind instrument, sort of like a flute.
So, last night we had the family over to watch the Broncos win over the Chargers (this post was originally written in October 2016), and I was telling my father-in-law about my choir’s upcoming Christmas concert with the Denver Brass, and how they’d be playing with us for the Rutter Gloria, among other pieces, and since he’s a former brass player himself he was quite interested. He looked through the copy I had sitting on the coffee table, taking note of the instrumentation, and then he read the intro material. “Guess where this was first performed?” he asked. “Somewhere in England,” I said. “Nope. Omaha, Nebraska.”
This is yet another of those songs everybody sings and nobody thinks about. Come on, now. Have you ever asked yourself this question? I sure hadn’t.