(1) The planet Zog could be accommodated in the average UK garden shed.
(2) Zog only exists to illustrate how it feels to own and depend on my right leg.
Sciatic pain expresses itself in different voices: a shrieking soprano resulting from raising bone marrow to boiling point, an interminable Heldentenor aria chewing away at soft tissue, and a rumbling bass which suggests the skeletal frame is collapsing into rubble and will blow away as dust.
But who am I to complain?
With a leg like that it's hard to sing well. Manfully I do my solitary rehearsals but my voice lacks precision. I do have a prescription though, provided by a friend. When my leg throbs like a tom-tom I turn to this:
ES IST EIN ROS ENTSPRUNGEN
It makes me cry but better to cry at - or for - this than the pain.
It's a four-voice part song (thus unaccompanied) here sung during Advent in Cologne's main railway station. A flashmob impromptu, albeit carefully rehearsed. In English it translates as A Rose Has Sprung Up. More elegantly: Lo, How a Rose e'er is Blooming.
More recently I'm learning to sing it as a duet with V. From a sitting position.
Just listened to the music. Even without knowing the words it is hugely moving and so much enhanced by the way it seems to stop the busy world, and bringing expressions of pleasure to people's faces.
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed the "Ros entsprungen", RR. Großartig und sehr bewegend. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about your sciatica, it sounds dreadfully painful as described by you.These facile nouns do not really tell others what you are experiencing - a bit like "arthritis" which means a lot more to me these days than when I was younger and thought it meant a minor joint ache. Have you yet found any medication to alleviate it?
There's a flash of commiserating pain running along my right leg - where two years after surgery I feel nothing at all anymore, neither pain no any other sensation, in other words, numb to the core. Still not used to this.
ReplyDeleteI believe the WDR Rundfunk choir does this flashmob thing every year. Here's another one from the cold raileway station to cheer you up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4vPUCpXsIs
also at the airport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxN4dhQZ6-Y
and for Easter: https://youtu.be/7V14mcaT3xQ
You do realise that plaent Zog is where Zig and Zag are from, two delightful creatures from my daughter's childhood?
They had a number one hit (at least in our family) with their song about their belly button fluff collection:
https://youtu.be/TCEsVNv4XAk
Sir Hugh: It is of course a mixture of the well-rehearsed and the impromptu, nevertheless the warmth seems palpable. And the singing is superb without being glib.
ReplyDeleteAvus: I may be on the turn with the pain but I'm being very cautious in my pronouncements.
Sabine: Ah yes, you would know all about pain. I hoped that being jocular might diminish its effect. As to the Flashmobs:
I liked Adeste Fideles because I went to a toffee-nosed school where they only sang that one in Latin. No other jot of education rubbed off on me other than pride at being able to sing the gynaecological verse:
Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine
Gestant puellae viscera
Deum verum, genitum non factum
except in my day the second line ran:
Parturit Virgo Mater .
Am I being horribly Brexit in that the German verse was sung with slightly less fervour than the one in English (which had a super show-off finale for the tenors).
I think the choice of songs was less successful at the airport but perhaps that's because airports are less welcoming institutions than railway stations, and harassment tends to reign supreme.
The Verdi, however was great, and I'm not a huge Verdi fan. So witty having the security man walk censoriously towards the lone soprano and then - blissfully - join her in song. And how about the pianissimo passage where the audience becomes silent? Only in Germany! Again, as with Est Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen, it sounded as if the full choir sound was made by more singers than were in the video.
The belly-button thing must remain a private personal thing. Very professional though.
What can I say.....the Christmas tree is still up because one of the Siamese cats (the old, somewhat addled one) has taken to lying under it every night? It's a table top tree. Ming prefers the lights on, but I can't discern that they give off any heat. Is the prescription in your name?
ReplyDeleteMikeM: Keep up the good work. Ming is not sleeping but thought-warping her/himself out to planet Zog where an indulgent transport authority allows her/him to take the wheel of one of the mole trains. In Catland it's the equivalent of being paid a pension - inflicting irresistible pain on an oafish human while leaving a trail of minced calf muscle and liquidised bone marrow to the rear.
ReplyDelete10 out of 10 (literary merit) for delaying mention that it's a table-top tree and allocating this revelation its own separate sentence.
I'm so horribly behind with my favorite blogs as we are inundated with northerners trying to escape the cold. Sneaking in a quick comment: I hate that you live with this pain.
ReplyDeleteColette: That's a nice thought. Thank you. Assuming I finish it before I leave for singing lesson, you'll see from my newest post I've found something else to whinge about.
ReplyDelete