Music and Athletics

neumes
Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:39:22 +0000

Interesting discussion. S’s longest essay was about having worked his way through just about every sport in existence (football, soccer, hockey, fencing, lacrosse, baseball), then finding his niche in rowing and an excellent men and boys choir almost simultaneously at age 10. He was able to row and sing for a couple of years, but had to drop rowing when theater overlapped. So it’s tough. But the camaraderie of singing with other people and in doing theater is his “sport”–it’s just that he misses the exercise factor. He’s lucky enough to to have inherited genes that will keep him slim forever (not mine, sigh), but that doesn’t mean he’ll be healthy. I was thrilled last night when he asked if he could join a gym (18th birthday present).

I imagine that composing is more solitary, but the teamwork aspect is huge when the piece is presented to the players, right?

Not sure what kind of composing SpiritManager’s son is interested in, but I’m guessing he’s looked at websites of young composers whose work he likes. I met two young composers last year–Mason Bates and Huang Ruo–who have interesting websites that show the variety of activities going on. Sounds like an exciting life to me.