For the next few weeks, she not only explained the intricacies of “plain song” through Debussy and American jazz, she would illustrate the style, characteristics and intricacies of the musical style herself. I don’t remember her ever using sheet music to do this.
We were simply amazed, and I’m sure I speak for others in her class, then and later: we were changed forever by that experience. Music, the arts, and an appreciation of our culture would forever after hold a special place in our hearts and minds. We were, safe to say, captivated by her various performances.
Every “age” through which we moved was itself, and for us, a renaissance of the spirit, of ideas, of technologies and evolutionary development. Through her eyes and enthusiastic “narration,” we witnessed, almost shared we were so connected, the important triumphs of the human spirit we now take for granted. In one year we grew up by two millennia.
The Gates of Kiev, or my own Paradise Lost?
When the class was over, we were disappointed, a day with Fran Kinne was always a better day, no matter what else was happening. We would also miss her role in our personal enlightenments. Because of her, for all of us, it had indeed become a brave new world–of opportunities, and hope, and promise.
After every class of enthusiastic, insightful explanations of the great events and developments, you might expect the class to race off to other classes or appointments. Not so. When the class was over, Dr. Kinne moved to the door and personally greeted and shook hands with every student.
Each student was greeted by name, not their first name, but their last name with the appropriate “salutation” prefacing the name. It was a sign of her respect for us as individuals. We were impressed that she valued us, each of us, for ourselves,
On one occasion as I approached her to say goodbye after that class, she fixed me with that incredible gaze and dazzling smile and asked, “Mr. Connors, don’t you just love Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition?”
I was stunned and nonplussed to say the least.
Those in this reading or listening audience who know Fran Kinnie also know that it is almost impossible when in her presence to be anything but close to mesmerized by her personality and warmth. I was immediately thrown into what we could call a major clash in core values.
I desperately wanted to please Dr. Kinne with a positive, even enthusiastic, response. The problem was – the truth was – I barely had heard of the name Mussorgsky, and I sure as shootin’ had never heard something called, “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Knowing from my strict Protestant background that the very gates of perdition were opening beneath my feet… that Dante’s Inferno seemed well within reach, and certainly I was facing Paradise Lost…I made a fateful choice – the truth is, I lied through my teeth.
Later, I might observe that my response represented a precipitous slide down Maslow’s hierarchy to the lowest level of self-preservation. But, who’s got time to worry about self-realization and possibly losing Paradise, when you’re faced with losing a smile from Fran Kinnie?
And you’ve got to make that fateful decision in a few seconds. It was to be one of the most significant moral crises of my life. Okay, maybe I should’ve been a drama major.
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