The Sunday full of music (December. 18)

The Sunday full of music  (December, 18)

   I waited all week for this Sunday. Last week was pretty tiresome.

It started from saying goodbye to my friend at the airport on last Saturday.

For a couple of days I lived automatically. I lost my taste in doing any kind of

activity. Playing my favorite 3-string instrument (sanshin) was the only thing I could quietly enjoy.

   Everything at school felt frustrating and boring. Visiting my friend, who wanted me to take her big aquarium, in the middle of the week brought some change into dullness of my everyday's routine.

I was looking forward to the weekend, as always. I wanted to stay at home, watching movies, doing some chores. But Saturday turned out to be just another busy day because some unexpected urgent matters needed to be solved, and I ended my precious Saturday driving back and forth, meeting people, making phone calls.

   Sunday was on the same pace but a little bit nicer. I went to two concerts, my son's X'mas concert and

Ryukyu classical music and dance concert performed by Nomura association.

   My son's elementary school together with its related organizations (junior-high school from Nago, Okinawa and high school from Hiroshima) organized a big Christmas charity concert in the biggest concert hall in our city.

   Even kindergarten pre-school kids participated in this event. Teachers and high-school students played the grand piano while the rest of the students sang and danced on the stage. Some songs were acapella, some songs were performed with hand bells only. I was amazed by the highly professional performance.

They put all their soul into the music. High school girls were singing with shining smiles on their faces. It looked really professional indeed! They were very confident and probably enjoyed the singing.

   After that concert I hurried to Naha to the next concert. I was 15 min late but I started to watch from the third number called Nufaa-bushi which was very essential for me to watch. This number is played solo, one person sings and plays the sanshin, another one just accompanies on 13-string instrument called koto. And this number is what I'm practicing right now for my sanshin performance exam. Listening to Nufaa-bushi I thought that I wouldn't be able to play and sing like that, even if I practice every day. But my teacher so wants me to take that exam that I don't want to disappoint disappoint her. I still have a half of a year to practice but I don't think I will pass the exam.

   The rest of the concert was very educative, too. I was listening to the music and thinking about my life in general. Ryukyu classical music always puts me in a trance. I thought about centuries that have passed since that music was composed. I tried to imagine what feelings were inside the hearts of ancient people who listened to the same tunes I'm listening to right now. Ryukyu music is not sad, it's rather graceful and soothing. But today I suddenly felt tears in my eyes.

It was a strange nostalgia like I forgot something important and couldn't remember it, while the music was trying to give me a hint.

   When the concert ended I drove home still thinking about the flow of time and my little annoying everyday problems.

   How nice it would be to stop the time and disappear for a while and get away from it all.

Classical music is so powerful, but overdosing might be harmful!