Wednesday, March 29, 2006

A lovely early spring afternoon. Some forsythia & budding trees, but it won't be the kind of explosively colorful awakening that occurs after a deep freeze winter. Significantly, I paid off a long-standing personal debt today & he'll be quite surprised. It would have been settled a year ago except a sneaky collector cut into line & grabbed my stash, so I had to start all over. But hardly a day passed when it didn't cross my mind, & the savings represented an accumulation of small things I went without - those "rewards" we give ourselves. So it became more or less automatic. When I realized I'd gone over the goal & another collector was lurking, it was time to pat myself on the back with a Vaughan Williams symphony, & a fat reference work on the ecology of the Jersey Pine Barrens, & go to the bank for a can't-bounce cashier's check.

Who are my personal fav "name" major classical composers? I'm ordinary. Palestrina, Byrd, Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Rimsky, Mahler, Janacek, Ives, Faure, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Ravel, Satie, Poulenc; which brings us to the "modern" era & that's another list. I feel bad not putting Mozart on there, but I'm still sorting out a relationship with him. Except for Charles Ives, none of these composers require an adjustment of one's ears.

Comments:
Do I sound completely uncultured because I know nothing about classical music?:(
 
You would love going on a "date" to hear a symphony orchestra in Carnegie Hall. That would make you feel plenty "cultured." I didn't grow up around classical music, & it really didn't make much sense to my ears until I was in my 20s, & that took a lot of effort. I don't consider people uncultured for not listening to classical music. It's not part of mainstream culture or education anymore. But when someone says,"I hate classical" or "I hate jazz" that's a tipoff they don't know anything about it & can't admit it, because it's impossible to hate it all. It's like going to a foreign country & hating a language one doesn't understand.
 
Coming from a music family, I was surrounded by all kinds of music. I delight in showing my 3+ grandson how to recognize a stand up bass from a cello, identify what is jazz (we snap to it) and know the sound of Mozart (he goes to sleep by his music every night).

I'm a baroque/chamber music buff. I love early morning light shining through the window with and some Bach in the background ... and a cup of coffee!
 
That's cheating Carrie. Your dad was a dues paying member of the American Federation of Musicians his whole life.
 
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