I ask myself why Baroque music
Is the music for me
Why not Tchaikovsky but W.A. Mozart
Is my main man
And not just for the horn passages
Sweet as they are
Stravinsky says all eighteenth century
Music is to dance by.
It’s true my feet prance off without me
At the opening measure
Of any toe-tapping tune and especially
Contra dancing
Where men and women take their turns
Meet and separate
Do their things and greet their friends
Together and apart
Grand right and left and swing your partner
On equal terms.
Baroque music is like that: two voices
Male and female
In animated cross-talk. The flute
Makes a remark.
The harpsichord agrees and amplifies
Or the bas viol asks a question
The violin responds
And off they go in joyful repartee.
If daughters could talk
With fathers like that they’d grow up
To be happy women.
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