Howgarts Clubs ( was Ignorance and the Toad)

[o_caipora]

No: HPFGUIDX 85162

"Nora Renka" wrote:
> faculty advisor, and everything.  :)  But not to flog a dead horse, 
> a chorus is the kind of thing that takes directorial expertise,

Small schools and churches all over the world have choruses, and 
generations of schoolboys have sung "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell" 
without any adult direction, and indeed in spite of it.

Many universities have glee clubs or other singing groups (such as 
the Wiffenpoofs) that are entirely student run. 

Home singing and piano playing were vastly more popular before record 
players. Students without ipods, cd players, and Napster may be more 
inclined than their Muggle peers to make music themselves.

The ability to sing is surely no less in wizards than in muggles, and 
with no instruments involved, enchanted or otherwise, it's an area in 
which the WW and the rest of us would have least grown apart.
 
> we've had absolutely no indication that there's anyone at Hogwarts 
> with that skill, or inclination.  

It's one of those things that can be fun even when done badly.

> Painting wouldn't surprise me that 
> much (although there's an incipient sidethread in here about what 
> having magical things available does to the development of painting 
> techniques), 

There was a controvery a few years ago about the possible use by 
Renassaince painters of some sort of "magic lantern" device to 
project an image on the canvas, simplifying considerably the learning 
of the laws of perspective. 

No doubt real magic would have similar effects, though I can't 
imagine just what.

> -Nora also notes that there's probably no way the WW has opera, and 
> therefore would never want to live in it

There's a real-wold argument made in favor of state financing of 
things like ballet and opera that require a lot of people to dedicate 
years of study: if they must rely on fluctuating private support, a 
few lean years ends careers and kills the living tradition by which 
skills are handed on.

Note that Prospero just conjures up a magical masque/ballet, but 
that's not the same as an opera company.

Is this the sort of thing where the WW relies on Muggles?  Elderly 
Wizards disguised as Muggles would surely pass unnoticed in 
comparison with many dedicated opera buffs.

 - Caipora (who thinks Nora has hit on something important about the 
restrictions of a limited community, but who can live without 
Wagner)