My title is Spanish and it means "from a long journey." I'm naming my blog this title because I just remembered something very important. While I was at TMEA this past month, one of my Kodály instructors approached me and said, "I want you to write an article for the Kodály Envoy about your family's posadas.
Le what?
Let me explain things first. Kodály (koh-DIE) is named after Hungarian musician Zoltán Kodály. He died in 1967, but he was a tremendous influence in music education. With the help of his pupils to research, his philosophy was that "music belongs to everyone" which is, of course, true. His goal as an educator was to make children love music by understanding how it works. If you're a consummate musician, and you can teach them about music with high-quality music, you'll instill in children a lifetime of thirst for good music, and of course a desire to learn more about it; how to read it, write it, improvise with it, and of course sing tunefully. There's a specific style of pedagogy involved in teaching in the style of Kodály.
Which brings me to this paragraph. As an elementary music teacher in my district, I am required to become Kodály certified. That means over the course of three 3-week courses in July of each year, I'm attending a workshop to get me certified in the pedagogy. I'm learning folksongs, dances, games, recorder materials, conducting, and much more. This instructor I mentioned above is one of the people teaching us all. She's an ethnomusicologist and an elementary music teacher in San Antonio. She's got an undying love for Mexican folk songs for children. Being Hispanic myself (though I know I don't look it), I've grown up each Christmas with my family doing what's called a posada. The word itself means "shelter", as the idea behind the celebration is to remember Mary and Joseph's journey to find shelter before Jesus was born.
My mom is the youngest of 6 kids. She and 3 of her siblings host posadas every year. What we do is go to that person's house, enjoy family and friends, and then at some point in the evening, it's time to sing...and we sing a capella (i.e., no musical accompaniment). The men stay inside and act as the innkeepers. The women go outside and act as the pilgrims seeking shelter. When you do this tradition the "right" way, you're supposed to go from one house to another until a house admits you to their shelter, followed by prayer, and then a feast. With us, we keep it simpler; we use 3 doors of our home to act as the 3 inns. The women knock on the first door, and request shelter in song. The men turn them down saying there is no vacancy. At the 2nd door, the same thing happens. At the last door, the men finally admit the women. We gather at the nacimiento or nativity scene, pray, sing Silent Night, and then it's time to eat. :-)
So, my instructor asked me to write an article in the Envoy about this tradition. I was hugely excited since the Envoy is the magazine for the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE), a national organization of which I am a member. Have you any idea what kind of a career boost that is?! I was freakin' ecstatic! She asked me to interview my family, describe the celebration, provide its history and everything. I'll probably write it this weekend. I only remembered I needed to do it still this morning. I can't pass up this chance to both boost my career, and put my family history in a professional article. I'm so excited! She asked me to write it, submit it to her as she'd help me edit and revise, and then once we got o the OAKE conference this month, she'd introduce me to the editor of the magazine, or someone who works for it.
God-willing, my name will be in the Kodály Envoy, and my family's heritage will be professionally shared!
Oh...and as for the title of this blog, De larga jornada, that's how the singing begins in my family...thus the significance of the title.
Wish me luck!
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