Glass Sugar Plums

Posted by DJL on Dec 17, 2012 in Music | 2 comments

I heard an interview yesterday with one of the parents of a first-grader who survived Friday’s shootings. He was taking his kids Christmas shopping in a nearby town. It wasn’t, he said, to try to forget about the tragedy or to put it behind him, but rather to help them hold onto each other as they took first one step and then another forward.

I have, as you probably have also, found this weekend’s events both heartbreakingly sad and, at times, immobilizing. But I think the advice of that parent is wise. As I’ve shared before, music is one of those things that helps give me both strength and encouragement, never more so than during Christmas. So I’ll put below one of my favorite performances of “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from “The Nutcracker.” It is played on what is affectionately called a glass harp, which is, as you’ll see, a collection of crystal wine glasses filled with water to reach a desired pitch. Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec hail from Poland and form the group, Glass Duo.

It’s hard for me to hear “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and not think of my four nieces who go with their dad to the Nutcracker every year. Perhaps as we listen we can remember the children of Newtown and give thanks for their lives, their wonder, and the joy of all the children that find delight in music such as this.

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