(not necessarily in that order)
I didn’t feel all that great through most of today. Tired, plus a setback with some pain in my shoulder. What helped? Listening to more Rodgers and Hammerstein!
In addition to buying the soundtrack of Cinderella (and singing along with Julie!), I revisited gorgeous melodies from Oklahoma, The King and I, and State Fair. And they made me feel better. Seriously better! I feel like we should assign a nutritional value to beautiful melodies, for they truly do provide nourishment.
I grew up on musicals, many of which were by Rodgers and Hammerstein. I sang along to the soundtrack recordings of The King and I, South Pacific, and Oklahoma. I didn’t know Flower Drum Song, Carousel, or State Fair quite as well (meaning I didn’t have every single melody, lyric, and inflection memorized!😂), but between piano sheet music, concert band arrangements, orchestra pops concerts, and catching the occasional television broadcast, I was pretty familiar with those as well.
But I missed out on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella completely! True, I had the vaguest of memories of seeing something on television — once — when I was a little girl, but it wasn’t until many years later that I found it once again on the internet (that was the 1965 version starring Lesley Ann Warren).
What a revelation! I realized that hints of the songs had lingered in my awareness, even after only one viewing, and it was so wonderful to finally know what they were and where they came from.
Well…imagine my surprise when, just this past year, I stumbled across a DVD of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella…with Julie Andrews in the starring role! I just watched it for the second time tonight and now I’m looking forward to the treat of getting to know all these songs really well.
Having the voice and gracious beauty of Julie Andrews combined with the sublime melodies, witty lyrics, and emotional depth of Rodgers and Hammerstein definitely takes me to a very, very happy place deep inside.
Oh, and let’s not forget the humor; love this!🤣
I tried to write a completely different blog post tonight, but it just wouldn’t come together. So I’m falling back on something from yesterday (or was it the day before?).
At any rate, it’s a song I’ve loved ever since I was young and it lifts my spirits during challenging times.
Walk on
Walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone…
It’s from the musical Carousel, which is maybe the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that I couldn’t watch all the way through. I just couldn’t stomach the plot, but — oh my goodness! it had wonderful music. And this song is particularly pertinent in these times, when we need all the hope we can get.