Billy Joel, who recently traveled through St. Louis, has said that writing a song in the key of C major “is like eating a sandwich with Wonder Bread.” It’s “light” and “fluffy,” and there’s “really no nutrition,” but “it’s always there if you need it.” Presumably, then, a considerable number of the compositions for which he is best known—Piano Man, It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, Only the Good Die Young, and New York State of Mind for starters—would be more nutritious in B-flat or E-flat, but I’m not buying it. The fact that Joel named his Long Island estate “MiddleSea”—simultaneously a nod to its waterfront location and a pun on the anchor of the C major scale, the first note every piano player learns—leads me to suspect that he’s not buying it either.
We are composing in the key of C major at MICDS these days. This week’s conferences marked the exact halfway point of the fall semester: 40 instructional days accomplished, 40 more awaiting. From one regard, especially that of memory, the life of a school proceeds from milestone to milestone—Opening Day to Parent Nights to Spirit Week to Homecoming and so forth—but more thoroughly and ordinarily it proceeds from Monday to Tuesday, from English class to science class, from homework to bedtime, from the moment accomplished to the moment awaiting. I love the word “quotidian.” It has come to mean “commonplace,” but it literally means “daily.”
Even in this abbreviated week, I have enjoyed so many songs on campus. At our varsity volleyball match on Tuesday, manager Quin Benbenek came off the bench at the outset—a Senior Night privilege—and hung with her starting-squad teammates through 11 unanswered points (go Rams!) before rotating out to thunderous applause from her fans. That same evening, I visited a bittersweet “goodbye” dinner in the Alumni Dining Hall for our 20 French exchange students, the presence of whom had enlivened our Upper School community since their arrival in St. Louis on October 5. This week also found me wondering at butterflies with our junior kindergarten students; being asked to admire the wardrobe of a senior kindergartener (“Everything’s black!”) as well as the shoes of her tablemate (“They sparkle!”); and reassuring a third-grade student that a sweatshirt misprint (“Hansas City Chiefs”) is not “weird” but rather distinctive and memorably funny, like the 1997 “Kansas City Chefs” Snickers commercial.
This week I entertained a petition from a Middle School student for additional lunch service options. (“Put this in a spreadsheet,” I encouraged him, “and come back so we can summarize the feedback.”) Later that day I enjoyed this year’s Upper School Harbison Lecture, delivered by one of our own MICDS parents, Dr. Caiyun Liao, who leveraged her expertise in human fertility and healthcare to offer broader observations about the importance of data integrity, the distinction between correlation and causation, the determination of statistical validity, and the necessity of applying a critical lens even to published research. This week also found me speaking with some Lower School students about their playground inventions (think Rube Goldberg); some Middle School students about their recent test on atmospheric systems (they all thought they had done well); and some Upper School students about the merits and perils of the Senate’s filibuster rule.
In the early 1940s, the composer Arnold Schoenberg declared to his students at UCLA, “There is still plenty of good music to be written in C major.” Even 80 years later, I believe there is plenty more. C major is the natural key (no sharps or flats!), the approachable key, the quotidian key, the key of Chopsticks and Wonder Bread and any given Tuesday. It’s there when Billy Joel needs it (Apple Music / Spotify), and it’s here for us at MICDS. Our inspiring teachers and our promising students compose in it every day. Come sing along!
Always reason, always compassion, always courage. My best wishes to you and your loved ones for a joyful and rejuvenating weekend.
Jay Rainey
Head of School
This week’s addition to the “Refrains for Rams” playlist: A Shot in the Arm by Wilco (Apple Music / Spotify). “We fell in love in the key of C…”