A to Z Challenge - 2016

The letter "O."

This is one of the letters I had trouble with.  Looking up "O words in music" led me to "obbligato" which is a neat sounding word, but since I don't know anything about opera (which is another "O" word in which the word obbligato is used and regarding which I know nothing), I didn't feel comfortable trying to write about it.

If you made it through that introductory paragraph without hitting your head against a wall, let me tell you about the word I settled upon:  Ode.

The definition of an Ode is a lyrical poem in which a person expresses a strong feeling of love or respect for someone or something.  It is usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style, varying length of line and complexity of stanza forms.  Now this is something I can sink my teeth into!

The obvious examples for me personally are the Cowboy Jack  and Mother songs I wrote about earlier.  I think both of those could be considered odes.

Putting a different spin on the word Ode, I think the scrapbook albums that I make could also be considered Odes.  While not exactly lyrical or poetic, the albums I make do express a strong feeling of love or respect for someone or something.

I have albums in varying degree of completion for each one of my children:

Amanda Learning Snaps

Jeff Graduating Tiny Tots

      

Rachel's Castle Cake

one for the Boulder Creek Golf Tournament in which my husband (and now my son also) have participated each year for the past 20 years:





 and I am beginning to work on an album to cover my husband and my courtship and wedding/honeymoon (since we've been married for almost 32 years I think that one's a little overdue!)

I have albums for the trips we made to Disneyland and a small one of my family history:

Of course, the concerts we are attending get an album (a bit behind on that one too since it is now 2016 and I am just working on the concerts we went to in 2009)!  

I am a "traditional" scrapbooker in that I don't make my albums in the digital format, preferring instead to move the embellishments/pictures, etc. around on the page until I get them just right.  Sometimes a page can take me an hour and sometimes they come together quicker than that.  Some pages have lots of pictures, some not so many, just as an ode has varying lengths of line and complexity of stanzas.  

Bringing it back to the musical "Ode," the one that I immediately thought of was "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry.  Here is that one:

Okay, I think I've done tribute to the letter "O."  What do you think?  Am I stretching the connection between an ode and my scrapbook albums or do you think they make the jump?  Do you know what Billie Joe was throwing off the bridge? 

Hope you are all enjoying the A to Z Challenge offerings and are checking out some of the other wonderful contributions!