This post brought to you by Soccer Mom in Denial - posting every Monday on a different musical memory.
***********************************************************
Joyfully, I find myself spending a lot of time buying baby gifts these days. If you invite me to a shower or over to see the new one I'll bring books and clothes (for 18 months - thinking ahead to the time when the 600 onesies you got will be useless).
Lately I've also been thinking about Baby Beethoven. I think it's partly due to a dinner I went to where the hosts played their CD incessantly - the child was upstairs sleeping and somehow the CD playing in the living room on the other side of the house for hours after the kid had gone to bed was somehow going to keep her in bed. Rather than soothing, I found the plunk-plunk of the toy piano on the CD mind-numbing. Maybe it was hearing my wedding procession played like I was a toddler that finally got to me.
Partly inspired by SMID's constant introduction of music to her children - real musicians playing songs the way they were written (graphic lyrics and all) - I put together a CD for a friend of a great album by Leon Fleisher. "Two Hands" is Leon Fleisher's first recording in 40 years after he suffered from focal dystonia - he had lost the use of his right hand. Thankfully, he recovered to great success and even went on to receive a Kennedy Center honor.
Hopefully my friend's baby will find this music soothing, at a time when she's probably more focused on burping better.
(I apologize for the poor quality video - go out and buy the CD!)
4 comments:
I could not agree more as far as giving it to kids straight; we've always done this, too. Who needs Baby Bach when you've got Glenn Gould, The Academy of Ancient Music, and Yo-Yo Ma?
I agree with you AND Luisa on this one. What is with introducing kids to wretched fake music when the real thing is so wonderful?
We were given a CD for Valentine's Day that included a rocking cover of the Monkey's I'm a Believer. It was awesome.
Indeed. Working in daycare I heard many many CDs for children and the worst ones by far were the ones that were "dumbed down" for kids. I played one of my Great Big Sea albums for the kids once and they loved it (I just had to hover by the player in case another teacher came in).
I'm all for the real thing. I'm sure the baby will find that MUCH more soothing.
Post a Comment