If Carlton is having a rebirth moment, please don’t forget this song.
First, allow me to say a little about what has happened this week. Here in Orange County, we finished our school year, aware but seeming not to talk about the massacre that happened in Uvalde, TX.
Anyone who knows me knows where I stand on the issue of guns & children. I don’t need to explain any further. None of my current elementary students talked about it on Wednesday. I wrote about my fears after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre in 2018, less than an hour from where I was then teaching. (Some of my friends were right around the corner.) I wrote about what it was like teaching The Day After MSD. Most of the things I wrote about then still apply. I don’t believe we need to just move on, but I do believe that as teachers, we absolutely need to let our students lead these discussions. I had 1st graders crying on Wednesday because they didn’t want to leave their classroom teachers behind. I didn’t talk about Uvalde with them, and I haven’t talked about it with my own 1st grader, either. She knows what to do in her lockdown drills and what to do if she sees someone with a gun anywhere outside of school. When she has questions, I will answer them. Other than that, I’ll see you at the March for Our Lives on June 11th.
Back to Vanessa Carlton. It seems she’s been having a moment. I read a brief summary that stated that piano bars in NYC are experiencing a sort of renaissance. And apparently her hit “A Thousand Miles” is the song that makes everyone lose it. And that’s fine, 2000s nostalgia has arrived, I don’t feel great about it but it’s here. However, for me, the Vanessa Carlton anthem was her follow-up single, one that inspired so many of my toughest walks in 2002. I had just turned 20 that fall, started my sophomore year of college, and lost my father before the start of the semester. There were so many times that fall I didn’t want to get out of bed, but the lilt of “Ordinary Day” helped me more than I can say.
Fast forward back to 2022. On Wednesday, the day the school year ended, and the day after the Uvalde massacre, I went to CVS because everyone else in my house was sick. I walked in, and “Ordinary Day” was playing on the CVS radio. I have a hard time remembering when I’d last heard the song outside of my own imagination, so it was especially impactful. We know that music cannot change the state of violence in our country, or the lack of concern about children’s lives. And I also know more than ever that writing an inspiring song is not an automatic qualification for sainthood. But hearing the song did make me feel like the work ahead was possible, even if just for a moment.
Intro: Vanessa Carlton came up with the crop of early Aughts singer-songwriters (see also: Michelle Branch) and scored a top 5 single with “A Thousand Miles.” That song was indicative of the times, garnered Carlton three Grammy nominations, and helped to propel her debut album Be Not Nobody to platinum sales. “Ordinary Day” was the follow-up single, reaching no. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since her early millenium success, Carlton has continually released music, played festivals, and appeared on Broadway.
Analysis: “Ordinary Day” is in 6/8 time (although it could be interpreted as 12/8 time), otherwise known as symmetrical compound meter. I try to explain this concept to students as beats divided into 3 instead of 2, and that the number of beats in a measure can be divided by 2. The entire song is in 6/8, from the opening vocal & piano lines to the fully orchestrated chorus.
Considerations for Teaching: The video with lots of young people laying around and kissing might not be the best to show in class, but the song contains no offensive material and is a great way to teach symmetrical compound meter (or whatever you might refer to it as). I would absolutely use it for movement exploration in an elementary class.
