Author: Lilly McClure

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The Rabbit Hole

A Celebration of Singing, Healing, and the Brain

By Barbara J. Simon (Gallatin ’82)

Learning to sing is a rich three-dimensional activity dealing with the very depths of the human brain and spirit. A developing baby can hear its mother’s voice during pregnancy. In the brightly lit delivery room, some babies will turn to look toward their mother the first time that familiar voice is heard on the other side of birth. As a professional singing teacher, I’ve learned this is not the only time that memories of early sounds can lead someone out of the darkness.

  • Words Buried in the Mind

Recently at a local community lunch (at 55 Kip Center, Rutherford NJ), Lily and her parents sat at my table. Lily had attended FIT (the Fashion Institute of Technology) and succeeded in a high-pressure career in the NYC fashion world. A few years ago in her early sixties, Lily had survived a stroke. Now that her husband had passed away, she had returned to the home of her 88-year-old parents, who were doing a wonderful job of taking care of her. 

True to her professional life, they had her dressed in a beautiful colored top with an unusual neckline, which was the perfect compliment to her complexion. She sported a stylish cut for her pure white hair, and perfectly manicured nails. She ate gracefully with one hand while the other was settled on the armrest of her wheelchair. When she looked me in the eyes, I could see a warmth and intelligence that made me want to get to know her better.

Lily could speak a few phrases clearly, but the whole family was frustrated by her inability to ask for what she wanted. Sometimes it was clear to me what she was saying by her varying vocal inflection. Her strong connection to the arts made me wonder if music might be the key to expanding her speech. 

Searching for other ways that Lily might have had some early musical experiences, I noticed her regal posture while standing at her walker. And when she was dressed in summer shorts, her legs appeared smooth and toned. I asked, “Lily, do you like to dance?” Suddenly she reached out a powerful fist to her mother and loudly announced, “My name is Lily!” She had said that sentence several times before, but this time, I was sure it meant, “Yes, inside I am still a dancer!”

Explaining to her parents that although I’m not an official music therapist, I do know some things about how music springs from the brain, and for decades have used this information to instruct singers in a wide variety of musical genres. If they were willing, I’d be happy to take Lily on as a student and see if I could unlock some new language for her in song. They had a piano at home, and were willing to try anything.

I gave her dad a copy of a section from my book, Singing – Body and Soul: A Medley of Fresh Ideas about Musical Theater. It’s written for teenagers and covers ways to approach vocal performance that are not often taught in high school choral groups. There is one section entitled “Horror Films,” with a humorous but scientifically accurate explanation of the different parts of the brain that work together in a quality musical performance. 

  • Characters and Stories

Meditating on my new student, I knew that regular vocal technique was not the place to begin. I needed songs she already knew that we could pull out of her early memories. Songs with simple, clear lyrics that described a visual scene, and were made up of mostly nouns and verbs. Words that described a solid story, with interesting characters.

Christmas carols were perfect for this project! The simplest ones are taught to young children when the brain is new and fresh. They are sung the same way every year, so they get layered into the memory. Many carols have the same vocabulary (star, angel, shepherd, baby, manger), but in a different order, with various melodies. Thinking from a musical theater point of view, I knew these songs all told the same story from many angles – a historical story with some truth and mystery to it.

At Lily’s first lesson, the melody came more easily to her than the lyrics. But as she sang with me, the words starting blinking into her singing, and some phrases were tied together in a way that made sense. By the end of the first lesson, her parents in the next room could hear her pure voice pronouncing some of the lyrics to “Away in a Manger.” 

For homework, I asked them to sing the carol with her repeatedly, and at the next lesson I introduced “The First Noel.” She learned that song more quickly, and when we sang “Away in the Manger” again, her parents and I could hear many more of her lyrics. She wasn’t learning each song by rote or just imitating me. Some of her language was waking up across the songs.

Her favorite word was “yeah,” which was her answer to almost everything. After a couple of lessons, “yeah” began to blossom into new forms.  She started adding other affirmative words like, “Okay, Oh, Aw, Huh, Alright,” and a fast flowing “yeah, yeah, yeah” like the 1960s back-up singers of her youth. She was drawing these new words out of her own mind, and now she could make choices between them. Her vocabulary was growing from the inside out. 

  • A Door Opens

At the fourth lesson, before we got to “The Little Drummer Boy” (when I planned to have her tapping out the rhythm), her parents gave me some surprising news.

They had found a speech therapy program at a local university that had a summer semester starting in June. They called, but were told that the program was filled – call back in the fall. Instead, her dad drove the family to the campus so the program director could meet Lily in person. The staff was delighted with her open and cooperative nature, but the program was full and there was nothing they could do. 

Her dad asked, “What activities do you use as you work with the clients?” They explained that they work with speech and music therapists. He replied, “She’s already been taking singing lessons.” The director perked up and asked incredulously, “You got her a singing teacher?” 

“Yes,” her dad replied. “Do you want to hear her sing something?” She sang one song with her parents, and the director could hear Lily clearly pronouncing all the lyrics. Suddenly, the figurative key turned in the lock, the door sprang open, and she was signed up for the summer program right there. Lily started the following week!

Songs can unlock many things – language, memories, emotions. Meditate on the songs that are deep in your mind. Lullabies, love songs, tunes your grandparents taught you. How do they make you feel? Playful? Cozy? Do they bring a tear to your eye? Sing with your loved ones, and celebrate the songs imbedded deep in your mind. They are gifts that can stay fresh and meaningful wherever life takes you. 

Rejoice! It’s Christmas in July!

Categories
The Rabbit Hole

The Ladies, the Wish, & the Wardrobe

By Barbara J. Simon (Gallatin ’82)

Women’s bodies are amazing. The things that flow through a woman – the light in flashing eyes, the heat of burning lips, the tenderness of a healing touch – love, milk, children. All these things have a holy element. Fashion, at its best, can bring a woman’s personal beauty to the surface for all to see, regardless of her age.

• The Wardrobe

When I was 12 years old, and my body was beginning the long road to womanhood, my cousin introduced me to The Chronicles of Narnia, and I became a C.S. Lewis fan for life. Oh, how I longed to walk into that magic wardrobe! To put on an oversized fur coat like the siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy did as they walked from the inside of the wardrobe through to another dimension, into the outdoor wintery landscape of Narnia. What an adventure to find a secret country, private legends, and a mythology that prophesied my own arrival through a divine portal. This year, I was delighted to discover that my pastor was using the first book of The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) as his sermon theme for the entire season of Lent. 

• Adult Science Fiction from C.S. Lewis

As a senior in High School, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy became the next series of his books to captivate me – so much so that I wrote my final English term paper on these science fiction stories. What a surprise to discover that, at the end of the last book, the adult women characters find their way into the same wardrobe that is first introduced in his children’s stories. These characters find a more mature magic waiting for them there. Here is a piece of their conversation as they help each other dress for the festive climax of the tale:

“What is it made of?” said Camilla, fingering and then smelling the green mantle. It was a question worth asking. It was not in the least transparent yet all sorts of lights and shades dwelled in its rippling folds and it flowed through Camilla’s hands like a waterfall. Ivy became interested.

“Gor!” she said. “How much a yard would it be?”

“There,” said Mother Dimble as she draped it skillfully around Ivy. Then she said, “Oh!” in genuine amazement. All three stood back from Ivy staring at her with delight. The commonplace had not gone from her form and face, the robe had taken it up, as a great composer takes up a folk tune and tosses it like a ball through his symphony and makes of it a marvel, yet leaves it still itself. A “pert fairy” or “dapper elf,” a small though perfect sprightliness, stood before them: but still recognizably Ivy Maggs.

“Isn’t that like a man!” exclaimed Mrs. Dimble, “There’s not a mirror in the room.”

“I don’t believe we were meant to see ourselves,” said Jane. “He said something about being mirrors enough to see another.”

                                                           – C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

• The Women’s Clothing Swap

In the last decade, I’ve enjoyed the company of women in several spiritual communities where we shared a “Women’s Clothing Swap.” The one I attended most recently is advertised as an annual opportunity for all the participants to clear our closets of seldom worn garments in time for Spring’s renewal. We have a pleasant afternoon bidding on clothes to raise money for a specific local charity event before the remainders are donated to local thrift shops. But it has become much more than that. 

The hostess offers her home for the event, and some guests provide homemade brunch items, fresh fruit, and muffins. The church members invite friends, and it’s a party atmosphere as women start the bidding on anything from a cashmere sweater to sporty hat to sequined gown for $2 – and bid to a higher price for the more popular items. Once, the bidding went up to $25 for a black leather jacket, with just the right amount of wear to suggest a dangerous lifestyle. The pleasure and enthusiasm of the day often lead women to put larger donations, in addition to what they bid, into the collection envelope. 

Sometimes, while wearing one of my “new” garments to Sunday morning service, I’ve encountered another woman from the event, who donated the item I’m wearing. Each outfit is worn differently by the woman who inhabits it, and this leads to a deeper conversation between us: a new camaraderie, a wholesome appreciation of each other’s good taste and unique beauty.

• My Wish

It is my wish that spiritual communities could embrace this kind of celebration as part of their mission. How amazing to have found that the divinity inside me can be accessed through an adult woman’s figure – with style, fabric, colors, patterns, and textures. And to see other women, with their own original beauty shining through, each in their own way – to rejoice in them finding their authentic light. We can be the reflection of each other’s beauty – to be “mirrors enough to see another.” Finally, my inner child is delighted to realize that I can enter the fabled wardrobe, and witness its magic firsthand.

Categories
The Rabbit Hole

Map, Mapping, Mapped

A film by Tia Glista (Gallatin BA ’20)

“Map, Mapping, Mapped” is a dance film shot on Super 8 in Manhattan’s East Village and Downtown Manhattan. Against maps, guidelines, and conventions that determine the body’s movements and mobility, this dance film offers possibilities for discovering space autonomously, guided by impulse and imagination. It seeks to dislocate the viewer and make them think consciously and deliberately about how they experience space.