music appreciation

One more music-related story (hey, it's a theme)... And not surprisingly, it comes from the same child that I blogged about yesterday and the day before.

Since we were (FINALLY!!!) done with standardized testing and there is no class on Monday due to report card conferences, we spent today catching up on unfinished work and cleaning the classroom. Today's musical selection was something I dug out of my bedroom closet at my parents' house earlier in the week. I had been trying to locate the movie "Fantasia," when I found a storage box of old cassette tapes. Score! Among them was my beat up copy of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem. I figured it was nothing my kids had ever heard before, so I played it while we were finishing up a writing activity. My little Music Man approached me and asked, "Is this opera?"

Given that Sarah Brightman hits some mighty high notes, it was a reasonable question. (And bonus points to him for knowing what opera is!) I told him it was sort of like opera.

"Ok," he nodded. "It sounds like something they'd play when someone dies."

At this point, I was more than a little shocked. I can't imagine that he'd ever heard Webber's Requiem played anywhere before... it's not very well known, and I don't believe it's ever been used in a movie. But it does have that certain eerie sound to it, seeing as how it was composed for a funeral Mass.

I pulled him aside to show him the cassette cover. "That word requiem is Latin for rest," I explained. "This actually IS music they would play when someone dies. How did you know that?"

He shrugged. "I dunno," he replied. "Just sounds like it."

I think the boy has a real gift.