The world of music

When his wife introduced him at parties or to old friends, it was as a singer.  They would ask what he sang or where he sang, and he looked down at the floor, maybe blushing.  It would come out that he only sang one song, ever.

They would ask him to sing it – they would always ask – and he’d say no.  No, it was for special occasions. Always more special than this.  Instead he would tell them about other songs:  he would describe the lilting, high pitched, melody of The False Knight on the Road – a medieval children’s song first recorded on paper in the early 1700s.  He could go on at length about the Catigas de Santa Maria – a cycle of 240 songs in praise of the Virgin Mary written by the Spanish King Alfonso the Wise in the 13th century.  Or the old Jewish prayer lamenting the destruction of the temple, before the birth of Christ.

If they pushed, if they heard these stories and weren’t satisfied, he would shake his head.

There’s so much great music out there, he would tell them, and you don’t know any of it.  And now you want me to sing my song, just because I’m standing in front of you?

Sometimes they would say yes and sometimes they would say no and sometimes they would look down at the floor, maybe blushing.  But his wife always smiled.  She loved these exchanges.  They ran together in her mind like an epic poem, set to a rumbling chorus that only she could hear upon command.

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St. John Campbell is a pseudonym

Read more stories by St. John Campbell

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