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RE: L.A. Guitar Quartet - 4 Variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Music
O, Twinkle!
O, the variation, the Suzuki tape!
One year, all three kids were in Suzuki, and we'd listen to that tape everywhere the old van took us. Oops: the cassette tape got stuck and couldn't be removed, so we were held hostage by Twinkle variations until husband finally found the right size pliers to pry it out. The car pool kids form the neighborhood dreaded the day it was our turn to drive. (Our tape was not by the LA Guitar Quintet. Oh no. Solo violin, Suzuki simple....)
The violin versions were what my mom had, as well, though I'm not sure it was the Suzuki version. Awesome stuff, either way.
Ah, yes, the joys of a stuck tape. In my first car it was an eight track, for those of us who even remember them, lol!
Funny, but having always been a huge Bach fan, I was actually not much of a Segovia fan in the beginning, because he took so many liberties with what was written. How dare he! I was far more a fan of John Williams, the (then) young classical guitarist, from Australia.
My first car was a Datsun 1200, which had said eight track, and shortly after I got it, I bought "Switched on Bach," which took FAR more liberties than Segovia ever had, but I loved it instantly, and damned near wore the tape out.
I loved the second as well, though the first was always my favorite, as it had both "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and "Brandenburg No. 3," which are both long time favorites of mine.
And this was long before I discovered that Walter Carlos was now Wendy Carlos, not that that would have mattered to me in the slightest. In any case, he/she was a synth God, and I treasure the recordings to this day.
Synth? Synth?? I'm only beginning to develop an appreciation for it. It took me years just to build up tolerance :) - when Queen went synth, their unique sound went downhill, I thought.
"Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" - our daughter played it to death after finding her favorite version of it on youtube:
Great version! I love their visual presentation of it, which I think helps even non-musicians to appreciate what they are hearing more . . . or perhaps that's just me.
I did the same thing to my mom, though no YouTube back then, I commandeered her Renaissance and Baroque boxsets from the Time Life Classical series, which actually had an excellent version as well, though I'm sorry to say I don't recall the name of the organist. But whoever it was played this with amazing feeling and depth.
It still blows my mind to think of comments by JS Bach's contemporaries, who said that he could play better just using the pedals than most organists could using both hands AND the pedals. That's one of my first points in time, if I am ever able to time travel, to go back and listen to him play this in its entirety, along with Brandenburg Nos. 2 and 3. And a zillion of his other compositions.
He is still my favorite classical composer, hands down. I'm a sucker for counterpoint. ;-)
His son, JC Bach was excellent as well, but JS Bach's compositions spoke to me in a way few others have. I learned to play Jethro Tull's take on his Bouree as a teen as a result. ;-)
Here's another one she listened to a LOT:
I am old enough to remember when the 8-track tape deck was a new and marvelous feature to have in a car. Dad bought a used car, pulled out the tape deck, and SOLD it. Gaaah! Dad! (He also disassembled a piano and hauled it out to the barn, where it rotted, rather than pay for lessons.)
Wow.
How I missed this when you posted it I don't know, but it brings to mind Neale Donald Walsch's recollections of his own dad smashing apart his piano when he was a boy, and his own crushing sorrow, when he refused to come out of his room, or even get out of bed, for four days after the fact.
My dad made a few bonehead moves in his life, haven't we all, but I'd wager that destroying a musical instrument was never among them.