Innovations during this semester!

The semester is almost over and while I am dealing with picking up the last things for the baby’s room, preparing the house for my parents’ arrival, washing baby’s cloths (they are soooo cute!!!!!!!), attending childbirth classes (yes, I cannot get rid of school… even to deliver a child they expect me to attend class… hahahaha, by the way – just to relax a little during this horrible last two weeks – check this hilarious video with Bill Cosby about Natural Child Birth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFMVeZyhagI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w-AG_yF1Uw&feature=related ), and finishing the school assignments for this semester I realize what a novelty semester this one has been.

During this semester I found out the baby’s gender, this semester I felt her moving for the first time, this semester I picked up the colors and theme for the nursery, in this semester our guest room is being transformed in the cutest place of the entire house, during this semester I was sitting still in class while was being experience a horrible heartburn, this semester I found strength to wake up and walk to class even when all I wanted (and probably needed) was to be in bed, in this semester I discovered that a very simple activity such as tie your tennis shoes can became an extremely challenging task and that at some point you WILL need your husband’s help, during this semester I had my learning edges and comfort zone expanded, this semester I have been introduced to more new (for me) composers than what I have in the last two or three years, this semester I realized that I don’t like an enormous amount of things and that I might like other stuff I have never thought before I would.

At the same time all this things come to my mind and I feel as they are all new I know that for some people this is only a Déjà vu. Today I heard about the birth of a fourth child of a former church family, not that the emotion and happiness would be different from what they felt with the first one, but I am sure that by now they know how things work and what is going on. I think that this also happens in music – as well as in other aspects of life. We saw so many things this semester that we consider innovation – and I am not daring to say that they are not, but hey really look more as an adaptation of what exists around us. I remember when Dannica talked about extended vocal technique, it seems so innovative – and it is – from the perspective of the singer however most of it was nothing more than a tentative to incorporate into the vocal repertoire vocal sounds which are present in other aspects of life (a good example was the different types of vocal clicks from African dialects that Nicola mastered so beautifully).

I believe that music – and all the other forms of art – is part of everything which was created and it is there for us to explore and the so-called innovation will only be the result of this exploration. Music is there, in everywhere for us to try the novelty of its experience. The greatest novelty in the Rodrigues’ life is yet to come – the birth of our baby girl. I know (or should I say I hope) that this will not be any novelty for anybody in the delivery room except for Higo and me, but we will explore this moment and let all the beauty and magnitude of it fulfill our hearts with thanksgiving. At that time I am sure that everyone in that room regardless of how used they are to do this will be able to see that we have never felt this way before and this experience will make all things NEW!