Bar 12- Carnival in Rio!

Or in Omaha.  Thinking about Milhaud again, and about narrative.  Discovering a story in Le Boeuf sur le Toit.  It is a ballet after all, let's visualize it...

...the party is in full swing even as the piece begins.  This is a work with what I call "pre-history," like Brahms 1, it seems to have been going on for some time before we enter into it.  Other works such works include Sibelius 2 and Dvorak 7, as opposed to definitive "Here we go!" beginnings such as Schumann 3 and Beethoven 3.   Something to consider as we talk about other works.

Back to Rio. ..ah-h-h!  With the first bar we open the door onto a street fair, carnival passing by.  Over the next 16 minutes, we meet different partygoers, couples, families; a parade of revelers each with their own stories.  I see women with big headdresses, shakin' it!  Some kids playing hide and seek, a lover's quarrel, the occasional monkey and exotic bird...there is a cab now trying to break through the line.  Is that the mayor stopping by, with a trumpet fanfare (before K)?  Not that anyone much cares.  I see a grouchy old dude, complaining about the noise, he mercifully nods off after L, and at M, guitars strum and the parade continues.  A child falling asleep exhausted (the 3/8 "lullaby"); Mom is saying,"let's keep going, but sh-h-h, don't wake him up!"   A sinuous, seductive 1st violin line (after V), very romantic and a little agitato (you'd be agitato too, if you had to play that lick in A-flat minor and B Major), then a conga line (after W).  After X, we revisit some of the characters from early on in the piece, maybe heading home; already the sun is coming up around Y, some vendors setting up their stalls, whistling (Z, note the violin harmonics!). I see the sun coming up as carnival continues...

Is it the "right" story?  Doesn't need to be this one.  What's yours?

Gotta have one, otherwise it is all beats and traffic, 4's and 8's, majors and minors.  Taking delight in sound and story is not just our job, it is our delight.  Certainly was one of the secrets to Lenny's magic.  So I'm going to channel my inner Bernstein, sip my caipirinha, loosen up my hips, let go of my beat and take in the local color.  You coming along?