The Hamilton episode of the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast is everything I've ever wanted.
I keep saying, "Oh my god."
This podcast has the Sound Director of Hamilton basically giving away secrets about the music.
He makes explicit the details of the music that affect me so strongly as the story is told. It's the explanation of why it affects us. I appreciate this podcast because on my own, I don't have enough knowledge about or vocabulary of music orchestration and technology to do much more than just recognize that the music makes me think and feel very deeply.
Just the first couple minutes of the podcast reiterates what I realize every time I watch something about the origins and making of Hamilton: the people involved are the tops in their field.
And that Lin-Manuel Miranda is very special, and that people see that, and that they marshall their talents with his, and go so far beyond what I could ever have hoped music and words could do.
Once I heard the music in Aug 2016, and saw a few video clips, something in me came alive that hadn't been there in a while- a passion for something that was high quality and was going to sustain my imagination for a while. And then a month later I SAW the show and BOOM that thing has captured me, going on a year and a half now.
Actually, I was saying, "Oh my god," almost every time they'd start a song in this podcast, especially the beginning of "History Has its Eyes on You," which is just so gorgeous without the words. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Sometimes I feel like I missed my calling. I like teaching, I like it a lot. I feel so much passion for other things though.
I'm thankful for the people who were strong enough to follow their calling and do what it took to get to the tops of their fields so they could make this show for me.
Because I think it can be exhausting to follow a passion.
Maybe if there is one thing I can do, it's to support my kids in following their passion.
Also, I'd like to play in the orchestra for Hamilton. There are a lot of things I wish I could do.
I'd be happy enough just to sit in the pit, in the middle of all those instruments, with the sound washing over my body, during the show. I wonder how I could make that happen.
The world turned upside down... brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Lacamoire's instrumentation. What I would not give to hear Lin's demo of that, to see what was already there before Lac got it.
That podcast was so good, I had to take a break from it so I could think about it and write about it. Now back to it!
PS My calling was probably writing. I mean, I know it was. That would have taken me places. My passion is really for this great big beautiful ugly world, and learning about it, and telling others about it, to educate them. I know I can still do that- it's just not my day job.
Maybe I need to ask my students, "What is your passion?" What a weird word, by the way. I guess it means, what takes you away to where you're irrationally happy and driven? For me that's writing. I do it for no other reason that I enjoy it. That's pretty crazy. It feels good to write those words. It feels good to remember that I have a passion. I have a passion. I have a fire in me for writing.
I do good things when I focus on my writing. I wonder if I can do that again. I'd have to really focus.
But that's my true mind. My mind works best when I function in the world as a writer.
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