A little cello music
Schultz, Valerie
A LITTLE CELLO MUSIC Valerie Schultz My husband is taking cello lessons. He practices a scale, up and down, and the sound swells the house. It is not yet melodious-more like a mama grizzly in...
...Mine are not so close to the surface...
...The cello itself is a thing of beauty, despite the unlikely growls coming from it...
...I love him because he looks at a cello and is not daunted...
...That is why I love my husband so, as the squawks and grunts emanate like digestive problems from his cello, as he squints at the music on the stand, as he plays his piece...
...It nestles between my husband's legs, a lovely place to be, and he draws the bow across its strings smoothly, caressingly, his ear bent to hear the notes...
...By Christmas I expect we will hum along to bass-clef carols...
...He makes an occasional sound, whether of dismay or satisfaction I cannot tell...
...Our children shut themselves up in their bedrooms...
...Never stop trying, never stop dreaming, we say...
...We tell them how we could have been contenders-if only, if only...
...As a father he is a first-rate adventurer, building doll houses from scratch and trying out new recipes and scaling ever greater heights of computer literacy with our children...
...In his teaching career he is a groundbreaker, a forward thinker...
...A boyhood dream was by chance fulfilled, the important lesson being that his dream was still accessible to his everyday consciousness...
...And as crazy as it is-he doesn't have the time, we don't have the money, he's thirty-six years old, for God's sake-I love him for this...
...He lucked onto a cello teacher, complete with an instrument to loan, while setting up a music program for the school where he teaches...
...When I first met him, he was never without his harmonica...
...All the tired lessons, like practice makes perfect, and try, try again, and the one about the new leaf- all spring to life as he embodies them for us, he and his blessed, bellowing cello...
...They see that a person is never too old to grow...
...Even among the angels, there must be some who sing with unlikely voices...
...He's almost got "Moon River" down...
...He carried it the way some men carry a pocket knife, ready with some blues for any situation...
...So often we teach our children the defeats and surrenders of adulthood...
...Its polished wooden curves glow in the lamplight...
...Music of all kinds has always filled our house...
...He has taught our children to play the recorder, and has made up songs with goofy lyrics for them since their births...
...It is not yet melodious-more like a mama grizzly in labor, or a headache that has not quite visited the temples...
...Reach for the stars, we say, as our hands dangle earthward...
...My husband has always been willing to try new things...
...Our dog scratches at the back entrance, begging for mercy...
...He looks peaceful and, if he weren't wearing blue jeans, of another century...
...It is a quality that often led him to grief in his adolescence, but that serves him well as an adult...
...Deep in his heart, my husband has always wanted to play the cello...
...And as much as our children roll their eyes at the introduction of this velvety-throated stranger in the large zippered case, they are taking it in...
...but if we ourselves, in little things and large, no longer try or dream, that is what we teach...
...He has music in his soul...
...I love him for bringing this enormous instrument into the house and driving us all to distraction...
...We urge them to learn from our mistakes, even though we do not...
...the radio is always on in the car...
...At best the low notes rattle on the breastbone like a horror-movie soundtrack- impending doom, close-up on the victim's hand reaching for the knob: don't open that door...
...Valerie Schultz lives in Tehachapi, California.California...
Vol. 123 • December 1996 • No. 21
