KennedyKat wrote:
I am new to anything like this site. And a bit embarrassed to admit I had no idea who Bruce Kimmel was when I was inspired enough by the Moldau post to actually go through the process of signing up. Since then life has been crazy and I haven't had any time to write about my own introduction to one of my favorite pieces of music......except the hour I managed to find Sunday morning when I actually got well into what I wanted to say only to have this !*#@*! machine send it all to another dimension before I had finished writing.
Oh well, at least I have had the time to Google "Bruce Kimmel " before trying again.
Reading that post I was taken back in time about forty five years. To my first year of, yes, Junior High and the required music appreciation class. Unlike you, Bruce, I already had a fairly solid introduction to classical music. My father and both of his younger sisters were all accomplished pianists. Not professional musicians although if any of them had been inclined they could probably have made a living with that talent. My dad probably had the most natural gift, he had an incredible touch on the keys, but his real passion was electricity of all things. Geared mostly towards sound....he was the electrical engineer who put together the local station KDWB back in late fifties and was also one of their first DJ's.....but pretty much anything to do with wires and currents and batteries and waves.....I lost all interest in electricity when my older brother, older by a bit over a year, handed me two wires to hold for him when I was about four and then proceeded to shock the pants off me cranking the small generator the wires were attached to. That and an experience with a metal lunchbox and an electrical fence with a very strong current running through it which took place during one of those week long springtime rainstorms put me off anything to do with electricity for the rest of my life. So far.
So anyway, I grew up listening to classical music. Mostly piano compositions but a bit of everything else too.
The music appreciation class wasn't very popular with most of the student body but I was predisposed to enjoy it not only because of my family background but also because that same older brother had taken the class the year before and raved about the instructor, Mr. Joy.
I am going to post this and come back to it....partly so I don't lose it and partly because I see a few hungry horses outside my window and I swear they are sending me subliminal messages.....gotta go.
