‘Mum! Guess what? Tomorrow, I’m getting a recorder! And we get to bring it home.’
And I say, ‘That’s great.’
Because that’s what mums must say when their children are young and filled with the joy of it all even if said mums are, all the while, remembering their own mother, teaching music in a primary school, and pouring an extra brandy (and sometimes four), on recorder afternoons.
If you’re really lucky, they will never practice it, and the only irritating thing you will have to listen to is the sound of your own voice waffling on about Application and Commitment.
well, I DID say she could pick what she wanted to play, because the lessons were subsidized (at the time), so of course she picked the biggest, which was, of course, the cello.
Just be grateful that it is not a violin. I ‘played’ the violin for 4.5 years. I never moved beyond sounding just like an angry screeching cat. It was painful for all concerned.
Ah yes, the recorder. Spending the first four of her schooling years in Steiner meant that Sapph had *three* different recorders and all were played with, um, gusto.
Nowadays it’s the viola. Damn thing goes out of tune within two days and with a weekly lesson it means that there’s definitely the devil’s tritone-sound in even such innocent songs as ‘Advance Australia Fair’.
Brandy for you, chocolate and herbal tea for me, sitting outside cradling the rabbit and as far away from the front bedroom as is geographically possible whilst on the same property title.
Someone plays the recorder in my block of flats, which I find disturbing, given there isn’t a child in sight.
well, depending which one…there are lovely recorders. My grandfather gave me a beautiful deep one once. It’s just those dreadful descant things…they oughtta be outlawed
Run, don’t walk, to your nearest online story and order anything by Genevieve Lacey, Melbourne-based recorder virtuoso. Honestly, this woman can make her various recorders sound like poignant folksy tin whistles, or deeply sonorous bamboo pipes; and everything woody in between. Gorgeous, whether baroque or high modernist..