Mozart was born today in 1756. And we're still playing his music.
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Today is Peter Tchaikovsky's 169th birthday. He is my all-time favorite classical composer, due in large part to Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, which took much of its score from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet.
Sleeping Beauty the movie introduced me to classical music and to ballet as well as to the fact that the film often takes liberties with the book (in the original story, there were 13 fairies, not 4). (Yes, Maleficent is a fairy. An evil one, to be sure, but a fairy, not a witch.)
Walt Disney also featured a short biography of Tchaikovsky on his television program around that time.
I did finally get to see a live production of the ballet, performed by the San Francisco Ballet Company, about 19 years ago. In the first half of the ballet, the company wears Russian-style clothes. Once Aurora is awoken, after 100 years, the costumes are Western European, to symbolize Russia moving from isolation to joining the Western world. I wonder what Peter would have thought of this interpretation?
You never know what's going to spark a child's interest. I was very lucky to have parents who encouraged us to "follow our fancy" wherever it led us. (And it has led to some pretty interesting places!) Because I was so taken with Sleeping Beauty the movie, my parents bought me an album of suites from the Sleeping Beauty. I near wore it out and kept it until it got irreparable warped when our garage flooded--some 30 years later.
I've since branched out in taste. But Peter has--and always will have--a special place in my heart.
(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
Hard to believe but Hubs just celebrated his 30th Anniversary with the same company. Okay, it's not really the same company--it's been bought and sold several times over the years. Fortunately, he's only had to reapply for his job once. And his seniority has always carried over.
He was able to chose a gift from a catalog, which caused considerable discussion. I finally told him to pick something for himself--he's made several sacrifices over the years, including agreeing to live on one salary with three kids in Catholic school and getting up at the crack of dawn to commute to his current location.
Since he loves music, he chose an iPOD. He thought it was just a simple 8GB model. Wrong--it's the 80GB model with Bose stereo headphones as well as the little bitty earbuds. So besides downloading just about all the CDs we own, and some of the stuff the kids have (our children have very eclectic tastes in music), he downloaded Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World.
The iPOD actually made Christmas shopping for him very easy this year: he got accessories. So he has the strap on case so he can listen while he works out. He got the docking station/alarm clock/radio (which is so bright I can almost read by it). And he got the docking station that connects his iPOD to our Home Theater System (such as it is).
The plus is the music quality is pretty decent. The minus is that Pirates appears very dark on our TV. We recently watched it via On Demand and the color was fine. The video appears normal when viewed on the iPOD, so we're not sure what the problem is.
Unfortunately this docking station comes with a remote. A little one that we're sure to misplace. It also means that as Hubs is showing me the neat things his iPOD can do, so we can't listen to a complete song. I don't mind if it's an instrumental, but I'm just getting into a ballad by Simon & Garfunkel and then we're in Chicago. Or an Irish ballad. Or the music from Pirates.
I hate that.
He's now left it on the 40 songs from the three Pirate movies. (Aren't they all the same?) And he's left the room while I write.
However, one of the pieces he's downloaded is Fanfare for the Common Man, which is one of my faves. Now that I know we have it, I may have to use it as the "alarm" for DS#2 and DD#2 on school mornings!
BTW, any suggestions for other iPOD accessories that are Good To Have would be appreciated. I'm especially interested in accessories for the car--Hubs commutes in our 1997 Dodge Caravan, which has a radio, but the cassette player is broken. Rather than fix it, I'm thinking that an iPOD dock would be nice. But is there a model out there that will fit the minivan, delivers decent sound, and won't break the bank?
I finally learned how to download music into my PDA. I loaded up music that I like, but that make my children cringe when I listen to it at home. Albums like Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits or Unforgettable by Nat King Cole.
On my way to BART, I decided to listen to my tunes to see how they sound. And I found myself singing along to Nat and dancing to the soundtrack to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Looking around, I was the only person doing this.
How do people listen to music without moving or singing? Or is it the fact that Simon & Garfunkel and Nat King Cole are just so much more singable than modern artists? (Although DD#2 also sings along with her favorite songs.) And how can you not dance to "Shoo Bop, Shoo Bop"? Unfortunately, much as I like to sing, I'm not very good.
Am I the only one who does this? Or is it a matter of finding more sedate songs?
My local classical radio station has a special online Christmas station:
http://kdfc.com/2006/christmas_stream.cfm
It's classical and traditional carols, quite suitable for work or as background music. Never mind, I'm now listening to "White Christmas"--played on violins. Okay, so maybe it's not quite so traditional!
Their sister station has more contemporary Christmas music:
http://koit.com/2006/stream.cfm
It's a little more secular but KOIT is actually broadcasting their Christmas music over the air as well as playing it online.
Both stations are actually advertising this music as Christmas music--not "seasonal" or "holiday" stuff. Give 'em a listen!
