Thursday, February 22, 2007

Bach Is NOT Pronounced B-A-T-C-H

Are there no music classes at all being taught in schools these days? When I was in elementary school, we had music class and art class on alternating days in 4th and 5th grades, then I was in band from 6th grade all the way through college. Even so, even if a person has never experienced the beauty and excitement that is music class, is it not a fair expectation that they know at least some of the most famous classical music composers in the history of the world? Is it also not fair to expect that they know how to pronounch Bach's name? I'm not talking here about the debate between Bach pronouned as 'bock' versus 'bochh' with the clearing-of-the-throat sound at the end. And in context to what happened the other day, I'm not even talking about the composer Bach. I am talking about an author of personal finance books named David Bach, whose name, believe it or not (gasp!), is pronounced just the same as the composer's. Imagine my dismay and extreme inability to withhold hilarious laughter when, 2 days ago at work, one of my peeps radioed upstairs for another person to pull a copy of "Smart Women Finish Rich" by David Batch. Good golly.

Today the topic was 'Cloning' in my daily reading of The Intellectual Devotional. I almost wish the entries were longer in this book, but I guess the point is to be brief in length and consistent in the reading of them.

I leave for Colorado in a little less than 2 weeks. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I'm tired. That is all.

Wait. My post looks very unbalanced. It looks heavy at the top and light at the bottom. My post does not meet visual presentation expectations. I should do something about that....later.

6 comments:

CatBoy said...

Since you are already in this mindset, is it pronounced Mow-Zart or Moat-Zart?

PS. Is it Bern-Steen or Bern-Stine?

PPS. I really am done this time.

PPPS. Guiseppe Verdi is just Italian for Joe Green.

Have a good weekend.

vq said...

We had very fine music in Foat Wuth public schools, didn't we? I still remember the wonderful music teacher at Bruce Shulkey--Mrs. Abbott. She let us pick the songs we wanted to sing on Friday, and we sang our little hearts out. We had an elementary school choir that sang in parts, too.

Here in Yorba Linda, there is absolutely NO music at the elementary school level, except the kid who want to be in band in middle school get pulled out a couple of times a week. I think it's sad that people don't learn to sing any more--they're missing out on a great joy.

The Broards said...

Hey . . I cringe when someone pronounces Bob Dylan's name "Die-lan" oy.

***LadyMtnMedic*** said...

Verdi: VerDee or Verday?

Roger said...

Virgil Fox pronounced it "Bock." He's the authority I'd listen to. He's a now-deceased organist who popularized Bach's organ music. I once saw him at Wolftrap.

R

UrbanStarGazer said...

We had to take "Fine Arts" in school. The focus was classical music, architecture, art, etc. I loved that class.