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| Guilbault-Therien of St Hyacinthe Organ in St Andrews, Ottawa |
A good thing both of us passed our Music Harmony Exams, so that we could follow the sections by the pacing of the music, the meaning of which we learned for those exams. My favorite term was not there -- Andante. My teacher taught me how to remember that andante means at a walking speed -- just think walking with uncle and auntie she said.
Mary and I sat in the balcony so we had a full view of the organist, who, Glen Gould like, led himself through many of the movements.
Mary was taken with the vents opening and shutting to give the crescendos and diminuendos. I enjoyed watching the leg stretches of the organist, far to the left for those beautiful base notes and far to the right for the higher ones, thinking, "hey, this is turning into cirque de soleil, his splits are so wide".
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| Angel in the Memoial Chamber |
"What did you do in your other life?", I asked him. He only gave a mysterious smile.
I did not know that the Peace Tower would affect me emotionally. I stood at the inscription of McCrae’s now famous poem on a marble plaque on the wall and remembered Greg quoting all of the lines to us on one of our European jaunts across the French coast: “In Flanders Fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, /That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below.”
I tried to think it in my mind about the way Greg had said it, pausing at all of the right places and carrying the lines through for meaning.
That was enough for me. The tears flowed freely. A security guard walked by. “I can’t imagine that you don’t have a box of Kleenex nearby,” I said.
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| Altar of Remembrance, Peace Tower Pictures from Government Website |
“Strangely, we don’t, but I will get you some”.
II followed him to hear him make the request to his French-speaking colleague who went into a closet and came out with a roll of toilet paper, twirling it upright on his index finger.
“Yes, that is what we use when we are out, back in Alberta,” I said.
“I call this International Kleenex,” he rejoined.
Thus endeth my first report from the federal government. I am going to try to get back and watch the Senate tin session one day, and the house, sitting another day.
Arta
Arta
Thanks for taking me on the tour with you through the parliment building ... house of commons, senate, peace tower.
ReplyDeleteJoaquim told me a story he has never shared before. Thirty years ago yesterday, Joaquim was in class in highschool. He had found out the night before on the news that the Spanish Parliment Building was occupied by the Guardia Civil (a police force) and all the Parliment members were being held hostage including the Prime Minister and most of the Ministers of the Cabinet. This was six years after the death of the Dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
All schools were in session, but it was hard for anyone to concentrate, including the teachers. His teachers stood at the front of his class discussing whether or not to flee the country (head to France) because of their political affiliation.
Now, 30 years later, the transcripts of what occured in that building have been released. The attempted "coup d 'etat" lasted a total of 22 hours, and thankfully did not succeed. At some points there were danger of all the military heads of Spain rising against the democratic government, and bringing back the spirit of Franco.
The Tower of Peace is a wonderful reminder that peace that some countries have has come at a great cost to many and is a fragile state of affairs.
Thank you for the reminder, Arta and Joaquim.