The Beat from Troy Music Hall #65, Poetry

Celebrate the written word!

Did you know April is National Poetry Month? To celebrate, this week The Beat is exploring words and language. We start with an article from NPR: Processing Social Distancing With Haiku

Even with distance,
The world feels painfully close.
But hope turns the page.
-Colin Dwyer

Iggy Pop Rages

We love this! Iggy Pop demonstrates the perfect marriage of poetry and music with this classic Dylan Thomas poem.

Do You Say Soda or Pop, You All or You’s All?

How do you pronounce “Aunt”? There are many different ways to do it, and how you pronounce it depends on where you grew up. Take this quiz from the New York Times and see if they can accurately determine what part of the country you grew up in. Click here to start.

What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

Most people will know the Langston Hughes poem, Harlem, but did you know he was a pioneer of jazz-poetry?
Learn his history Langston Hughes: Prolific Writer And A Leader Of The Harlem Renaissance” He was the first African-American man to make a living off of his writing and giving public lectures, and by doing proved wrong many white Americans who disregarded blacks simply because of their race. For one of the first times, whites considered a black writer to be on par with white contemporaries.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay

First Fig
Edna St. Vincent Millay – 1892-1950
“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!”

A Plea on Behalf of an Elvis Fan

Does anyone write actual letters anymore? Not emails, but physical pen to paper which you then mail off… with a stamp? From England, Letters Live is a program that celebrates the enduring power of literary correspondence. Each show features a completely different array of great performers, reading remarkable letters written over the centuries and from around the world. Here, Olivia Colman puts on her version of a Minnesota accent to read a letter from an Elvis fan to the United States Army.

What is a Dixie Chicken?

The Wheel played the Hall just a few weeks ago now. Enjoy their version of Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken”, and if you’d like to re-watch the whole show, please click here.

Ursula K. Le Guin

To the Rain
BY URSULA K. LE GUIN
Mother rain, manifold, measureless,
falling on fallow, on field and forest,
on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,
downwelling waters all-washing, wider
than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster
than countrysides, calming, recalling:
return to us, teaching our troubled
souls in your ceaseless descent
to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,
to sink in, to heal, to sweeten the sea.

Upcoming Streaming Performance!

Quintocracy Presents: The Music of Women Composers
Part 4: Music by Women Composers for Woodwind Quintet
Sunday, April 18, 3 PM
TICKETS

Featuring music by Hoover, Chaminade, Higdon, and Flutronix for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. A portion of the proceeds will support the Music Hall! Click here for more information.

TSBMH & WEXT present The UpLift Commissioned Series

We are excited to bring you new music!

The UpLift Commissioned Series features musicians commissioned to create one new song that reflects their experiences during this time. Each song was performed and filmed on the Hall’s stage. The resulting videos will be premiered on YouTube and Facebook, followed by an online discussion with the artist.
The complete series:

Belle-Skinner
Friday, April 23, 2021, 7 PM

Veena Chandra &Devesh Chandra
Friday, May 7, 2021, 7 PM

Taína Asili
Friday, May 21, 2021, 7 PM

Uplift Commissioned Series is sponsored by Price Chopper/Market 32

Educators, students & homeschoolers – register for these FREE virtual performances with the Hall’s Artists-In-Residence, Quintocracy!

The Hall and Quintocracy have created a series of three free, hour-long virtual programs that introduce local students, through performance, lecture-demonstration, and Q & A sessions, to a variety of woodwind instruments. They explore “endangered instruments” not commonly found in use today, and discover the importance of collaboration as a group. More info here.

The complete series:
What in the World is a Wind Quintet? – Friday, April 30, 7 PM
A Very Musical Journey – Friday, May 14, 7 PM
Endangered & Auxillary Instruments, May 28, 7 PM

Quintocracy educational series is sponsored by National Grid

Samuel L. Jackson Performs Slam Poetry