Blog 3

Blog 3

Samuel Williams

              Last Thursday I went to a concert that the school put on. This performance was performed by the Alturas Duo  and they were joined by Alexandra Aubert,  a French native who is a professor and renowned pianist. This performance was focused on the music of  Violeta Para. She was a native of Ecuador and used the bandolin, an instrument that has 15 strings and originates from the Andes mountains. The music she had written was all in Spanish and so I did not understand much that they were saying, however through the music and the brief English translation of the title I was able to understand what she meant. The group performed this song using the bandolin and a guitar while the woman sang. The music was enthralling. Expertly performed the song was about a significant other who had left her to return north. This song was based on her experiences as when she wrote the song her boyfriend had just left for Belgium. The song was able to convey this feeling of longing and sadness to everyone, even those who weren’t native Spanish speakers.

              Later on in the performance, they switched to songs written by other artists from various places, such as France and Italy. They even had had a piece written specifically for the performance. The second half of the performance wasn’t as good in my opinion, it was still decent but the songs seemed less meaningful than the first couple. There seemed to be less emotion in the songs.

              The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe is a very disturbing short story about a man seeking revenge on another for many reasons, according to the story. There were no reasons given as to why Montresor hated Fortunato so much, all we know is that he does and plans to act on it. So, Fortunato gets led into the catacombs and gets drunk off wine. Then Montresor chains him to the wall and buries him alive. It is interesting that Montresor decided to take these actions rather than through normal legal means. Maybe this means that Fortunato didn’t really do anything wrong and it was just a perceived slight. If this is the case it makes sense why he reveals what he did 50 years later, as the guilt had been building up for such a long time. I also thought that the foreshadowing in the description of the family shield and Montresor agreeing that Fortunato will not die of a cough.

              My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke is a very nostalgic poem. The author seems to be reminiscing of one night where his father waltzed him to bed. The narrator seems to be very young as he says, “At every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle,” implying that he was very small at the time that it happened. The narrator also says that his father’s breath smelled like whisky and that it made him dizzy. This implies that the father was slightly intoxicated but in a good way, and that the child was intoxicated from the dance and the time with his father.

              Cincinnati by Mitsuye Yamada, speaks of her first time being free of the interment camps that the U.S. had put her in during World War II. At first, she seems so happy to be out in the world again with no one knowing her, but then someone spits on her face calling her a “dirty jap” and she realizes she isn’t free. She was still trapped by persecution due to her nationality and had no quick escape from it.