Applying Carl Orff therapy to the potheads living below my apartment.

No, marijuana isn't harmless, and also, enjoy 4:20 a.m. operatic wake-up calls.

Many years ago, my German sister Bine gave me a Carl Orff CD.

I have received many German classical CDs from her, often dark, brutal, and a reminder that Chopin’s Polish version of melodic depression is very different from most German composers’ versions; it is the difference between writing poetry and sharpening axes. It has often seemed to me that Ger…