If You Are Ready To Receive It
Yes I know I misspelled my brush lettering on the thumbnail what of it. Anyway…
I’m listening to the latest episode of my favorite podcast (The Hamilcast) about my favorite thing (Hamilton). Each episode presents me with gifts of quotes from the guests and this week is no different - I’m only 8:57 minutes into it and I’m already having a bit of a moment. The guest, the venerable Andy Blankenbuehler, was talking about how Hamilton as a show succeeds on so many emotional levels and you are very aware of what’s happening even if you miss 35% of the lyrics the first time.
“When you listen to a great piece of music… in first listen you don’t listen to the orchestration.”*
He continues with, “If your brain is astute to different things you go deeper into receiving the lyrics, then you’re hearing [with orchestration] the violins or the trumpet line… and those things color it in a different level if you’re ready to receive it.”*
He then talks about the repeatability of the show which I get - if you like this show even half as much as I do you also know that you can absolutely see the show more than once and love every moment as if it’s new, and you can listen to the recording on repeat and it wouldn’t ever get old. I see and hear different things each time that excite me and I know there’s still many nuances I’m missing that I’ll notice sooner or later or: when I am ready to receive them.
This actually happened to me recently, but this time it was much more than an “Aha!” moment. What I finally noticed made me cry, and the impact of what I heard struck me so hard that I’ve been compelled to learning that track on the piano. Until today I couldn’t tell you why it suddenly means so much.
The part I’m referring to is in “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” after Eliza says, “oh, can I show you what I’m proudest of?” and the ensemble sings, “The orphanage” the only music that plays under the vocals is a music box. I’m sure it’s a glockenspiel/xylophone but it’s supposed to be a music box but anyway something just clicked on in my brain and it gutted me.
My brain must have been, to use Andy’s words, astute to my mortality and my toddler’s mortality at that moment, combined with me being stressed out planning his 3rd birthday and the absolute fear I’m filled with right now of possibly losing him, or me and my husband dying and him not having parents because there are people out there too selfish to take Covid-19 seriously and who will likely kill us all…
Well that’s another story nevermind…
Seriously though I must have listened to this recording close to a million times now AT LEAST. And I know I’ve heard this particular orchestration before but its significance had never hit me so deeply. My heart and mind were clearly ready to receive that detail that day. I also can’t believe how it just went right over my head all the times before! {facepalm}
Thanks Andy Blankenbuehler (and Gillian) for, yet again, another very poignant quote. I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the episode and see what other nuggets I get from it!
*I am very much paraphrasing what Andy said because I don’t want to spoil the episode for you. If you’re at all interested in the intricacies of Hamilton I suggest you make full use of your time at home and start listening to The Hamilcast! Start at the beginning.
