One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three...

In Response to Classics for Kids: Johann Strauss, Jr.-The Waltz

This weeks Classics for Kids taught it's listeners fun facts about the waltz including how it moved from just a dancing genre to performances such as concerts, ballet, opera and musical theater.  I've always found it fascinating how music fits into multiple areas even within itself.  No one set of music is right for one setting.  Each genre and tempo and time signature finds it's way into various areas of performance and musical usage.

Along the lines coexistance, Classics for Kids also taught it's listeners that Johann Strauss, Jr. was the king of writing waltzes, however, he himself could not dance the waltz.  I found this fact rather odd because I've always found that the different areas of art, such as music and dancing, work together, just how the different aspects of and within music work together.  I, personally, find it easier sometimes to dance when I'm learning a new song, or even just slightly move around my practice space to give my body and idea of how the song should go.  Inversely, when learning a dance, I find I learn it quicker and more accurately when I hum or sing along to the song.  I suppose I almost feel bad for Stauss, Jr. that he couldn't waltz.  He may still have been the king of the waltz, but he couldn't share in the joys of dancing and allowing your body to work with the music.