Segment 7: Music!
Today was really one of those days where I set out with base expectations and then ended up surprised and amazed with where things went. Let me start with the end of this week. I have been busy all week; catching up after a weekend away and a late return Sunday night. I haven’t felt stressed by this, but I have felt myself desiring a little down time to read my Harry Potter book in French (I mean, it’s the last fifth of book seven! If you know, you know how hard it is to put it down!), and a little time to cook and eat slowly, in contrast to my recent trend of throwing something experimental together and getting the nutrition I need for the day. Despite this desire, I continue to feel challenged by my words for 2021: Courage and Curiosity (which nicely translate in french to courage and curiosité), and the challenge to say yes to things (in general, but also before I worry about figuring out all of the details). Thus, I went on that wonderful excursion with my classmates on Wednesday, got to try some baller (that one’s for you, Grandma!) Christmas cookies and spent three hours speaking unstressed French (well, the stress was at the end… that’s a linguistic dad-joke- holla if you got it ;-) ) because I was willing to say yes.
On Thursday, I recommenced my work with Susan Manoff, after a three year hiatus in the USA. Working with Susan is such a breath of fresh air. She is a stickler for style and language, but she is also a supporter of young women, she’s an empathetic soul, she is generous spiritually, emotionally and with her time… She wraps me in her arms of care and music and I feel safe, I feel bright and I feel inspired to be creative. She is the teacher I moved to Paris to work with and she does not disappoint. We worked together Thursday and Friday, focussing our time on two songs from Debussy’s 5 Baudelaire Poems. We took them apart harmonically; linguistically, feeling the sounds of the language and the rhythms; textually, discussing where the subjects connect with verbs and what the long phrases mean; and visually, painting invisible images, removing myself from the scene and looking into it and singing to a tiny teddy bear. Not to mention the meaningful conversations before the music began. Susan meant to send my an article from the New Yorker, but accidentally sent a poem instead (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/a-stranger) . This unintentionally shared poem drew out of me new emotions and new grief as I read the words that are so intense in their longing, their bitterness and their strength. It was an meant-to-be accident.
This morning, Saturday, I did not have the slow morning I had been longing for because it was time to get to work. I needed to record one more aria for the applications I have been working on, and I finally made arrangements with a lovely pianist here in Paris, Juliette Journaux. I arrived a bit before she did and tentatively waited for her to arrive before entering the studio with her. We were met by an older gentleman, David, who owns/runs the studio, and got everything set up for the recording. We ran the aria a few times and it went really well. As we were listening to the final version, David asked me where I was from and then surprised me greatly by saying that he was from Oregon. What???? I was blown away by his French skillz that blinded me to the fact that he is American! As we were wrapping up the recording session, he was calling an old friend on the phone to connect me with her, one of his dear music connections in Paris, and subsequently ended up giving me a long list of great people to contact for establishing myself musically in Paris. It felt like being handed a prize for showing up and working on a Saturday! So now I find myself heading back out and about this evening for a concert at his studio and heading to the American Church tomorrow to meet some of his friends!
And of course, I had to reward myself for my curiosity and courage by visiting a nearby pâtisserie from my list and taking home an amazing little tarte!
Marie in Paris
