This piece is a fascinating antiphon and its story has meaning for our experience with COVID-19. I read this article in the New York Times on Saturday, January 2, 2021. Click on the link below the section of score to read the article. I’ve included a recording of The Choral Project performing this piece in 2015. The soloist is Mike Fotinakis.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century Overview and Lesson 1
Thank God and Timothy Snyder for this book. Timothy Snyder and Jon Meacham (The Soul of America: The Battle for our Better Angels) are my biggest reasons for hope that we will emerge out of this national nightmare.
I am working on my second reading of this little book with big content. I approached Dr. Snyder about printing the book verbatim in my Blog. He pointed out that there would be clear copy write issues with this approach.
So, because I think that getting the content of this book out to my small , but loyal, readership is important, I’ve decided to re-state the lessons at the start of each of the 20 chapters and summarize the contents in my own words.
Dr. Snyder begins his book with these words: “History does not repeat, but it does instruct.” The folks that wrote the Constitution of the United States were concerned that their well conceived democratic institutions would devolve into oligarchy (a small group of people having control of a country, organization or institution) or empire.
Tyranny comes from the Latin tyrannus meaning “illegitimate ruler.” In the 20th Century Fascism and Communism arose in Europe in response to globalization. Nation states fearing that they were loosing control of power turned to Fascism and Communism. Fascists ruled for a decade or two in Italy and Germany in the 1930’s and ’40s. The Soviet version of Fascism lasted over seven decades.
The United States has the chance to learn from history, to seek out and understand where tyranny comes from and what it looks like and then to take action to restore the democratic forces that our nation was founded upon. This will not happen by itself. Dr. Snyder has identified 20 points or lessons that he thinks will help us to do battle with the forces of tyranny in our time.
Speaking of the Contents:
- Do Not Obey in Advance.
- Defend Institutions.
- Beware the one-party state.
- Take responsibility for the face of the world.
- Remember professional ethics.
- Be wary of paramilitaries.
- Be reflective if you must be armed.
- Stand out.
- Be kind to our language.
- Believe in Truth.
- Investigate.
- Make eye contact and small talk.
- Practice corporeal politics.
- Establish a private life.
- Contribute to good causes.
- Learn from peers in other countries.
- Listen for dangerous words.
- Be calm when the unthinkable arrives.
- Be a patriot.
- Be as courageous as you can.
Lesson 1:Do Not Obey in Advance
“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
Timothy Snyder
Dr. Snyder gives two examples of this tendency to presumptively following the new ruler in the book.
In 1938 Austria, the decision of a large portion of the Austrian people to follow Adolf Hitler without question decided what would happen to Austrian Jews.
In 1961, a Yale psychologist conducted an experiment to demonstrate why Germans followed along with Hitler in the 30’s and 40’s. He told one group that they would be applying an electric shock to another group in a learning experiment.
The group receiving the “shock” were instructed on what was happening. The people “giving” the shock did not know what they were doing. They witnessed great pain and suffering from people that they did not know. The instructor gave them orders to “increase” the level of the shock until victims complained of chest pain and victims appeared to die. There appeared to be no concern for the fate of their fellow citizens in light of the results of the experiment.
The experiment showed how willing people were to listen to a new ruler and follow them without question.
I encourage you to get a copy of this book:
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder. Tim Dugan Books, New York, 2017.
Just Say Yes. (The list is growing nicely. Keep the “Yes” statements coming)
Yes to Empathy
Yes to Racial Equality
Yes to Religious Freedom
Yes to Education
Yes to Compassion
Yes to Patience
Yes to Unity
Yes to Listening to each other
Yes to Tolerance
Yes to Equal Opportunity
Yes to Empathy
Yes to Thoughtfulness
Yes to Democracy
Yes to Science
Yes to Dialogue
Yes to Hope
Yes to thinking about others
Yes to Facts
Yes to Peace
Yes to giving
Yes to finding common ground
Yes to government that works for all people
Yes to hugs and kisses
Yes to solving COVID and getting our lives back
Yes to getting our kids back in school
Yes to Empathy
Yes to getting back to work
Yes to accepting change
Yes to making personal sacrifice when it is called for
Yes to caring for the planet
Yes to Yes!
Yes to Empathy
Yes to Patience and Equanimity
Yes to more more Public Health information
Yes to doing our part to save the planet
Yes to Honesty
Yes to volunteerism
Yes to the Arts
Yes to the printed word
Yes to creativity
Yes to collaboration
Yes to supporting teachers
Yes to Empathy
Yes to…
Updated Blog Welcome
I’ve made some changes to the Welcome and Introduction post that is now hidden at the bottom of this Blog. I’ve added a bit more information about myself and my goals for publishing it for you to see. While you’re there, you might enjoy my two latest posts titled Win-Win-Win and Musical Interlude.
You can read it at: https://singingcyclistmusings.com/?p=1
Thanks,
Bruce
Win-Win-Win
Some people are in it to win just for themselves. Others who know better are more selfless about it and look for the Win-Win where both parties benefit from a result. Maybe, if the stars are aligned, you might even find that the Win can go in even more than just two directions.
My wife has taken responsibility for the care and well being of her 91 year-old aunt. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about that except that her aunt lives a five hour drive away, has macular degeneration and glaucoma, has severe hearing loss, needs a hip replacement and remains fiercely independent. The job of meeting her needs is, to say the least, difficult.
She makes the five hour drive about once a month to check up on her aunt and make contact with her small network of caregivers. Aunty Nan loves her cats and pretty much the only way that she can live with her beloved felines is to stay in her split level home. She is in no way capable of living independently as much as she would like to think that she is.
Her network of caregivers includes her longtime once-a-month house cleaner, a wonderful loud voiced Visiting Angel who visits daily and makes sure that Aunty Nan is eating and does daily tasks to keep the house neat, hygienic and livable and a kind and competent young woman with a natural talent for working with elderly folks.
It is a fragile system that, if it works flawlessly, allows Aunty Nan to receive the basic care that she needs to at least function in the comfort and familiarity of her own home. But, the operative word is fragile. If one of the parts of this network is unable to carry out their role, the system falls apart. Ultimately that would mean that Aunty Nan would need to be moved to assisted living or perhaps even memory care. She has money, but not an unlimited amount of it. She has undiagnosed cognitive issues that raise questions about her ability to live alone in her home even with the two daily visits, and the diligent efforts of her niece.
For the sake of confidentiality, the kind and competent young woman will remain “the kind and competent young woman (KCYW from now on).” KCYW lives with her mother who has early onset dementia. KCYW is on her own to provide care for her own mother on her own with no other sibling support, financial or otherwise. She works for a home health care agency and cares for other needy elderly folks in order to support their small household. She works for Aunty Nan (and my wife) on the side to bring in a little more income.
KCYW’s job requires her to drive. Here’s where the Win-Win-Win comes in. KCYW was facing the prospect of having to give up her job caring part-time for Aunty Nan because her car was in worse shape than her clients. It barely got up the hill and then she was afraid to turn it off for fear that it wouldn’t restart. That would limit the length and quality of her visits because she was worried about the car.
KCYW is incredibly valuable to Aunty Nan and to my wife’s peace of mind. So, my wife and I discussed options on how to solve her car problem. We thought about Uber as an option. Under normal, non-COVID conditions, this might have worked. But, exposing KCYW to different drivers each day didn’t seem like a workable plan. The plan needed to involve a car, because mass transportation options simply aren’t available for her in her community.
So, we decided on an option that worked for us, Aunty Nan and KCYW. We researched the possibility of buying a dependable used car for KCYW. We had KCYW come to pick out the car that fit within our budget and together we made the purchase in her name. She will chip away at paying us back by having half of her pay for caring for Aunty Nan go toward paying us back for the car.
That could be where the cycle of winning ends, but the story isn’t finished. KCYW has a car (Win). My wife can relax knowing that KCYW is still able to continue caring for Aunty Nan (Win). Aunty Nan maintains her caregiver (Win). KCYW was surprised that someone would do this for her. Her mother didn’t believe that it was true.
But, it was true. I believe that KCYW got much more than just a car out of this experience. She also got a boost of self esteem. The fact that someone believed in her enough and valued her enough to consider putting her into a vehicle that would bring her peace of mind and allow her to focus on her job and the care of her mother, has the potential change KCYW’s life. How much change it will make is now in her hands. The possibilities of directly experiencing the generosity and thoughtfulness of another person can only result in good things for the other person.
KCYW knows that somebody cares. She received some bootstraps to pull up. What she does with those bootstraps is the gift that keeps on giving. The future is a little brighter for KCYW.
Merry Christmas KCYW and Happy New Year.
Musical Holiday Interlude
Here are some songs of the season that I hope will bring you some joy. Bruce
Ten Feel Good Things
In need of a lift? Maybe these will help!
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbLY46Vaq8&feature=youtu.be (2020: The Musical)
- https://www.smalldogplace.com/dog-humor.html (Small Dog Humor)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF1T9-6J4Hg&feature=youtu.be (Funniest Cats and Dogs)
- https://www.rd.com/jokes/animal/ (Readers Digest AnimalJokes)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUdoCgnj9qA&feature=youtu.be (Singers: This one’s for you!)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B7P_UGA8Ys&feature=youtu.be (Singers: Another one for you! Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir Bloopers)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OHda0GDm0 (40 Fingers Africa)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RZfZ3qpAMk (Laughing Babies)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXF3XX2Lx54 (Daddy and Baby Moments)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amK4TsNFTgU (Irish Blessing: The Choral Project)
The First Post Covid Concerts
This COVID lockdown has been difficult for many and tragic for others. Thanks to my privileged position in life, I have a number of tools in my COVID Coping Tool Kit.
I am retired and have a regular check sent to me each month without having to leave the house. I have hobbies like bicycle riding, walking, hiking and golf that I can still engage in because they are outdoors and have social distancing built into them. I have a computer and good internet access which means that I can write my opinions and send them out to friends, family and others which is something that I am coming to enjoy a great deal.
But, the tool in my COVID Kit that has had the largest impact on my ability to deal with the COVID lockdown is singing. But, I thought singing was shut down? Singing in person certainly has been shutdown along with live theater and all the live things that we know and love. But, along the way came virtual singing. Virtual singing has been a Godsend. I/we have learned more about virtual singing than we could ever have imagined or wished for at the start of 2020. Skills that will serve us well as we emerge from the lockdown. But, live concerts will be back. What will they look like?
What will singing in live concerts look like post COVID? I got a preview of what it might be when I saw The Aeolians from Oakwood University in Alabama singing as a part of “Live From London,” a concert series produced by Voces8. See the clip in the link below.
https://youtu.be/xD7QZgWlO9M?t=248
The singing was fantastic, but did you see what they were wearing? Yes, of course they were wearing masks, but did you notice the design of their masks? These weren’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill masks. These were different. I did a little internet research and found out more about these masks.
As we emerge from COVID and return back to the world of live performance, the first concerts could very well include masks like these for the singers. Concert attendance will be adapted to accommodate social distancing by allowing for multiple, smaller audience performances in the same venue. Tickets will be handled electronically for everyone. I can’t wait to find out what other methods will emerge from the creative minds of our arts communities that will make live concerts possible and accessible for all of us once again.
It is coming. We will be able to join each other and enjoy making and listening to live music once again soon. Hope springs eternal and we are getting ever closer to that reality. In the meantime, have a joyous holiday season. Make it the best ever and find peace in all that you do online or from a place of social distance.
Singing During Covid: Part 2
(From my Daily Journal of December 7, 2020 with slight editing)
Virtual Choir recordings are a challenge. I hear some extraordinarily good ones that are well produced, well performed and that provide a pleasant listening experience. I have made a few recordings myself for my church choir at The First Unitarian Church of San Jose, CA, for my virtual choir at Mission College in Santa Clara, CA and with The Choral Project, a fine audition choir based in San Jose, CA. I have generally had pretty good success with them and have learned how to produce them with increasing levels of skill and confidence. So far, I’ve found that the audio recordings that I’ve done (which is most of the recording I’ve done) have been of better quality than the recordings that have combined audio and video.
To my choir directors and audio engineers, please don’t take this as a critique of your efforts to bring me and my fellow singers the best possible musical experiences during this COVID-19(20) Shelter-in-Place period. Your efforts have been exceptional. But, I find that there is an inherent weakness in the Virtual Choir setting. I am isolated from my vocal companions and my voice is the only one that I hear in the production of a piece until all of the individual vocal and instrumental tracks are engineered together using the mind expanding tools of computer technology, the hardware and the software that allow us to continue making music when in earlier times, this would not have been possible.
There is a lot of energy that each performer puts in while trying to create a state of mind in which you can mentally put your colleagues around you in your rehearsal and performance spaces. This requires a considerable amount of conscious mental energy. This use of energy to create the choral setting in my mind draws energy that would otherwise be spent on vocal production. I am speaking for myself, but I find the virtual medium to be a challenging place to produce the vocal product that I know I am capable of producing. What comes out on the recording of myself is much different than the product produced when singing together with my mates.
The virtual singing environment seems to work better for individuals and small groups using high quality production equipment. Many of the most beautiful and spiritually uplifting pieces that I’ve heard online would rival the live performance of the same concert. The best of these works have been those where the choral ensembles practicing strict COVID precautions have gathered together to sing, video taped the performance and then shared it on the computer screen
Examples of this are “Live From London” and “Live From London Christmas.” These concerts were produced by Voces 8. They are professionals that sing for a living.
Again , with all due deference to the hard working choral directors and engineers trying to make the best of making music while in isolation, the choral experience is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to duplicated online. We can begin to see glimpses of it online, but the synergy, the eye contact, the socialization, the body language, the blending of sounds, even making mistakes together are all part of the experience of making music together. Music, as we are all too painfully experiencing during COVID is a personal/collective experience meant to be done together.
An episode in the third season of the Netflix series “The Crown” provides a strong illustration of my point. In 1966 there was a tragic accident in the small coal mining town of Aberfan, Wales that resulted in the deaths of 144 people (28 Adults and 116 Children). A mountainside of coal waste slid down and destroyed the local school. As you can imagine, the town’s grief was unimaginable in it’s scale.
At the memorial service following the disaster, the grieving townspeople still deeply in shock over the losses of friends and family began singing. The Welch people have a long tradition of being a people that sing. They coped with their unspeakable grief by doing what gave their souls and the souls of their departed loved ones the peace that they needed in the best way that they could. By channeling their personal and collective emotions through song, they were able to make it through that day and begin the healing process.
You simply must be together for some things.
So, as a singer, I must accept this virtual reality for a while longer and make the best of it. With the help of my fellow singers, our marvelous directors and the technological gurus that make it happen, virtual singing will bring joy into the homes and hearts of we the performers and our audiences around the world until we can once again do what we all long to do.
Seeing my friends and colleagues online is a step in the right direction and helps renew the contacts by seeing faces and hearing the voices of the people that we have not been able to see in person for going on nine months now. For this I am eternally thankful to those that have made singing possible during the pandemic.
Bless you, bless my fellow singers and bless all of us that benefit from vocal music. Have the best holiday season ever. Join Jimmy Kimmel and Andrew Rannels for “2020: The Musical.”
Lupe Roman
Tribute to my friend Guadalupe (Lupe, Roh-Mahn) Roman who is being buried today in Tulare County. Lupe died the day before Thanksgiving in a head-on collision on Highway 65 between Bakersfield and Porterville. Another Terra Bella Administator, Luis Mena, also died in the crash.
I met Lupe in the Winter of 1990 while interning at SCICON following a two year stint with the Peace Corps in Belize. Roman was there with his (and my future) colleague Elaine Barnard and the Sixth Grade class from Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella. It was my first week on the job and Roman was in full recruitment mode for a Science teacher at Carl Smith. To meet Lupe Roman is to never forget Lupe Roman. He was a big man with a boisterous laugh and a mouth that was seldom ever closed.
That Fall, I began a nine year stay in Terra Bella. Lupe new the kids and families of Terra Bella well. He was one of them. Born, raised, educated and nurtured there. I was a newbie teacher at 34 with much to learn about teaching when I arrived in Terra Bella. Roman taught me what I now know to be the most important lesson that a teacher can ever learn. The kids come first. Get to know them and where they are before you try to teach them your subject. It seems like a no-brainer now, but it took Roman and a few years of teaching for that to sink in.
Guadalupe Roman went on to become Principal at Carl F. Smith Middle School and then Superintendent of the Terra Bella Union School District. A few years ago we buried Elaine. Now I’m saying goodbye to my friend and colleague.
You can say a lot of things about Lupe Roman, but I will remember him as a genuine, in-your-face, intelligent, kind hearted and dedicated man that put others first. He was a true human being and model teacher.
I miss you my friend. Stop in for a visit once in awhile.
Brucie
PS: The only people that I ever let call me Brucie were Roman and my Mom.
