Mrs. Neff was my music teacher at Sante Fe Elementary in Independence, Missouri. She was a kind, elderly woman who loved music and us kids.
My favorite Mrs. Neff memory is from Halloween. Every year, she'd turn off the lights, put on Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain," and ask us to visualize the story Mussorgsky told through music. I was sensitive to classical music, even at that young age, and was frightened every time Mrs. Neff played this song. I was cast into swarms of ghosts flying up and down a rocky mountain devoid of life.
Apparently, Mussorgsky's piece was inspired by a Russian literary motif about a witches' sabbath that occurred on St. John's Eve. I love that Mrs. Neff didn't tell us this, but allowed our minds to create our own scenarios. Witches and ghosts aside, it was Mrs. Neff who introduced me to music's magical qualities.
Halloween itself is a bit corny, so I'm just going to say it: Thank you, Mrs. Neff, for scaring me every year, unfailingly, with a bit of classical music.
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