For those of you just joining our story, Corzoo is a feisty, precocious, curious little fellow, who happens to be a kazoo that is shaped like a French horn. He longs to be a REAL French horn player one day and has finagled and cajoled his way into being taken along on our travels, citing that I am responsible for his development as a musician and human being.
Our stay in Luzerne went by in a flash. What a shame, because it was a beautiful little town, with fresh, cool air, a mountain lake, and nice little shops. Our highlights were watching the swans on the lake and eating Eiskunst ice cream. “Das schmeckt mir gut!” as Corzoo would say. “Yummy!” as I would say.
The day of our travel to Dublin was here, and it was Dave’s birthday. Corzoo was getting in the mood – both for going to Ireland and for Dave’s birthday dinner that night.
“Top o’ the mornin’ to ya, Mr. O’Bilger! Seems a fine day for a wee birthday party!”
“Indeed it does, Corzoo,” he said.
“Would y’ care to dance a jig with me?” Away he jigged with funny little steps and kicks.
Dave pretended to consider, then said, “Perhaps later, lad.”
“I’ll dance with you, Corzoo,” I said and joined in. If Dave had any doubt as to whether or not I had lost it, now he knew for sure.
So off we went to Dublin. Whenever one sees photos of Ireland, it always looks exceedingly green. I had always thought that this was an exaggeration of some kind, or nostalgic memories of displaced Irish for their homeland. But, as it turns out, I could see as we landed that Ireland is very, very green. The weather was chilly and rainy when we arrived, but we ventured out for a walk in the fresh air anyway, hoping to make it to hear one of Dublin’s famed choirs sing Evensong. The choir of Christ Church Cathedral has a storied history and, along with the Choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, premiered Handel’s Messiah in 1742. Unfortunately, I had gotten the time wrong, and doors were closing to the church as we arrived. But it was soon time for Dave’s birthday dinner anyway, so we walked around and observed the people and the very active streets. Our cabbie earlier that day had told us that there had been a Gaelic football match that evening, so it was going to be mayhem in town that night.
“There are two things we Irish are known for,” he said. “Drinkin’ an’ fightin’!”
We promised him we would try to not get in the middle of anything, though I think Corzoo was hoping to witness some kind of scene.
We had a delicious birthday meal for Dave, and merrily headed back to our hotel on foot to enjoy the air and to walk off a little of our dinner. Dave was carrying Corzoo in his jacket pocket now, so the little guy could have a change of scenery. As we were walking we came across some street musicians playing dueling marimbas! We stopped and watched for a while. A few minutes later we came across two musicians playing a little tune and a young woman happily dancing by herself in the street, completely in her own world – that is until we walked by….
Before anybody knew what had happened she grabbed Dave by the lapel and said, “Dance with me!” She was so adamant and quick about it that I had no choice but to let go of his hand and allow Dave to dance with her.
“Heeeelp me, St. Paaaaaaadddyyyyyyy!” cried Corzoo as they were both being swept away. But in one of the whooshes and whirls of their dance I heard a buzzy yelp of delight. It wasn’t quite a jig, but at least Corzoo got to dance in the streets of Dublin with a real Irish woman!
The next morning, the orchestra had a rehearsal at the hall and I thought perhaps today was a good day to go with Dave and listen to a little bit of rehearsal. Corzoo and I happily found an unused corner of the lobby and practiced for a little while, then looked around the inside of the hall. What a pretty space! And of course, it had its share of green embellishments. We listened to the orchestra rehearse Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale and heard some of Dave’s big solos. What a fun piece to listen to with all of the effects the various instruments make!
After lunch, our next stop was the Chester Beatty Library.
“I have been doing a little investigating and have learned some things. Would you like for me to tell you about Mr. Beatty’s history?” Corzoo asked us.
“Yes, please do!” I replied.
“Well, Mr. Chester Beatty was an American who studied to be a mining engineer at Columbia University in New York. He then started working at the bottom of the mine shaft, so to speak, shoveling coal, but worked his way up the ladder and built a fortune for himself.”
“Wow!” Dave and I exclaimed. “Do go on.”
“He was a man with a great love of books and the history of the written word, and when he could, he started collecting things that interested him. He found and purchased Chinese books made out of jade. Can you imagine books with pages made of precious green stone?” Corzoo said excitedly.
“Mr. Beatty found ancient manuscripts, many of them religious – illuminated manuscripts of the Bible, for instance. Shall I inform you as to what an ‘illuminated manuscript’ is?”
“That wouldn’t hurt. Please refresh our memories, Corzoo,” I replied.
“In the Middle Ages, meaning from around the 5th century through the 15th century, monks would carefully copy out passages of the Bible or sometimes prayer books and other religious texts, but they would make them into works of art as well. They would often have elaborate illustrations, and they would always have a fancy first letter to begin each passage. Sometimes they would use pigments of real gold and other precious metals as their ink!”
“Amazing!” I said. “And what else did he find?”
He also came to acquire some of the very oldest Christian texts known to exist. Passages from the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – from as early as the year 150 A.D. and more from 200 A.D.”
“That is truly incredible!” we replied. We were all very eager to see such ancient texts.
“And this is not the oldest thing he found,” continued our young friend. “He found pages of ancient Egyptian love poems written on papyrus. Do you know what papyrus is?” he asked.
“Well, I think so, but go ahead and tell us again for good measure,” Dave said.
“Papyrus is like paper, but made from a plant that originated in Egypt. It is very fragile, so it is extremely rare to have in one’s possession Egyptian love poems written on a 3000-year-old piece of papyrus!”
We asked him if there were any other highlights we that should be sure to see.
“His collection also came to include some of the oldest Korans, Buddhist scriptures from every region, and also, you might be very interested to see his collection of elaborate book bindings throughout history.”
Book bindings! There was something I hadn’t thought of for a while. All the books I own are bound in such an ordinary way. Corzoo went on to tell us that Mr. Beatty retired to Ireland and opened up his collection to the public. He was later named the first honorary citizen of Ireland.
We thanked Corzoo for doing such great research and proceeded into the library to look at all of the treasures Mr. Chester Beatty had collected during his lifetime.
It was quite something to lay eyes on writings so ancient, to imagine the person who bent over his desk with a pot of ink — sometimes golden ink! — and so painstakingly penned words and illustrations that had such profound effects on societies and civilizations.
In addition to the spiritual texts were humorous prints of social satire. We all laughed.
“This woman has even Dallas women beat!” Dave said.
“Funny caricatures of women who desire the biggest and best hair is another thing that is not new under the sun, I guess!” I said.
Corzoo looked at me quizzically. Finally something that I could explain to him!
“Well, you know the saying, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ The ancient wise man Solomon said those words.”
“What about Kindles and iPads and iPhones?” Corzoo asked.
“He has a good point,” said Dave.
“Yes, yes, yes, you teasers,” I laughed. “But I think he’s trying to put things into perspective for us. He wants to show us our place in the larger scheme of things, and it is also something we can take comfort in. Everything we feel or experience may show up in a shiny new package or be communicated electronically, but underneath it all, human nature remains the same, and there is nothing we experience that hasn’t been experienced before. For instance, there will always be women who want the biggest and most elaborate hairdos.”
“Well, in any case,” said Corzoo, “that doesn’t mean that things aren’t new to me. Like Edinburgh! I’ve never been to Edinburgh.”
“Well, lad, what do you say,” Dave asked. ” Should we take a little jog, as opposed to a jig, across the Irish Sea and into Scotland to visit Dùn Èideann?”
“Sufferin’ Scot-itash! You already know the Gaelic name for Edinburgh. I was going to stun you with my vast knowledge tomorrow when we got there!” said Corzoo.
“Well,” I said, “I will have forgotten the Gaelic name by a minute from now, so you can still stun me tomorrow, Corzoo.”
Dave went off to play his concert, and we went back to the hotel, feeling like we had seen some treasures, and looking forward to the treasures to come.
