These past days, taking advantage of a short break, I've been spending fun evenings with my music-obsessed son.
One particular game that Jiggy loved to play since he was 4 or 5 was "name that tune." But with a snobbish difference. I'll hum a classical tune, and he'll try to guess the title and composer. If he guesses right, it's his turn to quiz me with his own increasingly wide arsenal of classical pieces.
At first I always won handily. But as the years went by, more and more, I found it difficult to keep up. To be honest, it has become a tedious, boring chore for me. But since Jiggy loves the game, I have to be a sport and play it.
Like tonight. I'm at the dining table, working on some forms that need to be finished soon. But Jiggy insists we play Name That Tune. He's in front of the computer (where I can't see the screen), browsing through Youtube for classical musical pieces. He plays one, and asks me for the title and the composer. Sometimes I guess right, and it's my turn to quiz him. But most of the time Jiggy gets it right, while I'm too often distracted and lazy to remember the right tune.
"Papa, I'm sure you knew that one! That's Trepak from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Remember? You taught me that crazy dance when I was in kindergarten!"
"Oh, YES I remember now," I say, slapping my palm on my forehead in an exaggerated gesture of sudden recall. "Trepak! Of course! How could I have forgotten that one?" I say to him with just the slightest hint of a wink in my smile. Then I promptly go back to filling up the urgent forms.
Jiggy is getting pissed off by my uncooperative attitude, but he plods on.
"Ah, this one's easy, Papa. I'm sure you know this one..."
The music is definitely familiar. I stop working, cock my ear to one side, and go through the motions of recalling. "Yup," I tell Jiggy, "I seem to recall that one..."
"It's a happy tune, Papa. We used to jump on the bed like a trampoline on that one, remember? Come on. The initials are HR2. I know you know it!"
"HR2... HR2... hungry... hungry rap..." The title of the piece is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't utter it. The naughty prankster in me is up to no good again.
"You're getting closer, Papa. Go on. Go on. Hungarian....?" Jiggy is practically prompting me now with the right answer.
"Ah, I remember," I say with a smile. "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, right?"
"Right! And the composer?" Jiggy is excited that, finally, for once this evening, I'll get something right.
"That one's easy," I coolly assure him. "I always watched cartoons when I was your age. They always played that piece. Hanna and Barbera." My smile is getting wider now.
"Cartoons? Hanna what?"
"Hanna and Barbera. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 was composed by Hanna and Barbera."
"Hanna who?" Jiggy is exasperated. "Papa....! You are such a provincial lout. It's by Franz Liszt, not some Hanna Barbera..."
"Sure it's by Hanna and Barbera. I can even distinctly recall the rousing piano performance in that cartoon show. Who's the two guys again, the cat and the mouse who were always on each other's toes? Ah, yes, Tom and Jerry. Such a sensitive rendition they did, too."
"I don't believe you. You're simply incredible."
"You don't believe me? But it's true! Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is by Hanna and Barbera, performed by Tom and Jerry. Take a look." I grab a seat beside him in front of the computer, and search Youtube for the right video. "Here it is..."
Well, as it turned out, Jiggy and I never had so much fun listening to HR2 like we did tonight. The rest of the evening, he and I browsed for other classical gems like Johann Strauss' Tales from the Vienna Woods, Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances, Georges Bizet's Carmen... I could go on, and on...
Some evenings, when you're bored with filling up tedious forms and you just want to enjoy the evening with your kid, it's fun to play the provincial lout who has a twisted sense of classical music. Lol.
moonriver posted on Oct 24, 2008
| views: 491
Comments
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the_infernal_optimist said on Oct 24, 2008....
[dies laughing]
You are incorrigible, aren't you? ;-) Too funny, moon!
~Infernal
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diabolicdame said on Oct 24, 2008....
THATS where I know Hanna Barbera from!! I knew it sounded familiar and I couldn't place it.. it drove me nuts from the time I read the title to when I found it in the post!! Cartoon network ofcourse!! *slap on the forhead* -
moonriver said on Oct 24, 2008....
hi infernal -- unfortunately yes, my friend. remember my 1812 overdrive post? i AM incorrigible in this regard. after you play the "name that tune" game for the 500th time, you tend to think up the most outrageous stories to spice it up.
it's like, after the 1000th night of reading "three little pigs" to two toddlers, you will tend to insert cute little spurious twists of the plot here and there -- the big bad wolf suffers from asthma, has to use a little ventolin inhaler before he puffs and puffs and puffs, and gasps and gasps, is rushed by the pigs to the ER where he finally expires -- that sort of thing, so you entertain yourself and don't fall asleep before the kids do.
hi ddame -- i knew you'd get it, my friend. you belong to the elite. to tell you the truth, i've been hearing that cartoony tune since i was a kid, and i DID believe for a while that it was a hanna-barbera original. heh. even until now, 40-odd years later, it's tom and jerry that come to mind whenever i hear that tune.
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diabolicdame said on Oct 24, 2008....
Hehehe.. yep.. we're the Tom and Jerry elite!! :-D -
the_infernal_optimist said on Oct 24, 2008....
Ah yes, the fairy tale gone humorously wrong...guilty! :-D I think Goldilocks had a mishap with porridge turning her hair purple once...although little one thought that was a vast improvement over the regular story. :-p
~Infernal
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moonriver said on Oct 24, 2008....
ddame -- yeaaahhh. as kids, we were exposed to the finer points of classical music. i've just rediscovered an incredible performance by mickey mouse of excerpts from william tell overture. cartoons are a treasurehouse of classical music, i tell you... :-)
infernal -- yes, you can really mine the goldilocks story for rich insights into the human condition ... traces of prenatal trauma, fears of parental rejection, the fundamental alone-ness of man in the cosmic forest ... and yes, the deeply-held desire for purple hair. lol.
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Lucytorial said on Oct 24, 2008....
You know whats utterly bizzaar about this post? HB and I spent last night listening to Classic Rock.. I kid you not I have not listened to that kind of music for years.. songs like Baker St, Year of the cat, Ride like the wind... we played the where were you when you first heard it..I love TV free nights like that and it sounds like you and Jiggy had a great night. -
RollingC said on Oct 24, 2008....
Cartoons have always been a great source of learning classical tunes for children. :^)Rc -
moonriver said on Oct 25, 2008....
lucy -- ah, tv-free nights... :-) families, lovers, friends should have more nights like this, my friend.
but, to be honest, this morning until tonight, i allowed jiggy to indulge in a marathon movie-watching on vcd. you know what he's watched so far? amadeus (a movie on mozart), copying beethoven, phantom of the opera... you think this is normal for a 13 y-o boy? i'm no longer sure. lol.
rc -- i fully agree with your observation, my friend. one of jiggy's most favorite animated films (since he was 2 or 3) is disney's fantasia. he must have played it 200, 300 times already. i think that's what got him hooked.
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CreativeWoman said on Oct 25, 2008....
I remember Tom and Jerry. There was a lot of classical music in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, too. I have some fond memories of those as a kid.
I'm glad you got to spend some quality time with your son. :-)
CW
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moonriver said on Oct 25, 2008....
hi cw -- yes! how could i ever forget the bugs bunny cartoon classics of my childhood? this one, for example, is bugs as the famous conductor leopold stokowski, the same one who conducted the philadelphia orchestra for disney's fantasia. ah, memories... :-)
here...
thanks for dropping by, my friend... :-)
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CreativeWoman said on Oct 25, 2008....
That's one of my favorites, moon. :-)
CW
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gingersoul said on Oct 25, 2008....
Moon........don't worry.......its normal for a 13 y-o kid watching and loving those movies...:-)
I grew up with all you mention in this post.....when my daughter was a kiddo i used to play out loud Vivaldi and Mozart in the house........she can recognizes them at first note..
Lately she is oriented toward the music and the movies of the '30's....you know....fox trot, swing, this kind of stuff...
Did you see Miss Pettigrew? Its a delightful movie with beautiful songs of that period......she is into that now......and its more than fine for me, naturally..
Oh, she looooves Frank Sinatra too .....go figure....lol....
As you well know, after two seconds she can switch - without batting an eyelash - to Lil Wayne and Fall Out Boys....but i am a firm believer in a transcultural, trans generational, all whipped up kind of inputs....
....
And I don't have to tell you that Fantasia is the best movie ever in combining cartoon and classic music...;-)
My memories of Fantasia is connected to Christmas....they used to play the movie in tv many times.......sigh.......;-)
Psst:...still i cant completely get Phantom .....some pieces, yes...but in the whole....nahh....but i tried....you know i tried.....lol..
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beyondtheveil said on Oct 26, 2008....
mrmoon- My formal introduction of music to others includes greats to my daughter of Queen and Rush. She was ahead of me in classical by age twelve.
While dating my wife before going out of town to work I handed her (once again) 'Hemispheres' by Rush and one time hit 'Asia' (Heat of the Moment - Sole Survivor).
My sons got 'wrapped up in rap' and wouldn't listen to my excellence in music. All they heard from me was shrill and almost violent screaming, growling and foaming at the mouth from having to listen to theirs.
I just get no respect sometimes.
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Lucytorial said on Oct 26, 2008....
Well Moon your son has wonderful taste what can one say to that? -
queenparanoia said on Oct 27, 2008....
awwww i miss cartoons like that!!! ;-) hello moon!!!! -
moonriver said on Oct 29, 2008....
cw -- my own childhood favorites included heckle and jeckle. for some reason, i've never associated them with classical music. just a lot of pranks and gags... :-)
ginger -- you daughter sounds like she is growing up into an intelligent lady with broad-spectrum cultural tastes. no, i haven't seen miss pettigrew, sorry. these past months, my film fare has mostly been war movies and historical documentaries.
you know what? this is the 3rd day now of a one-week school break, and jiggy is still playing phantom of the opera... again and again and again, as if he was the director exploring every nook and cranny of his own creative work. i know what you mean. with the phantom, you either love it or hate it. my son obviously loves it. i liked only a few songs and scenes. but after the 100th run on video, i tend to hate it more and more...
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moonriver said on Oct 29, 2008....
hi beyond -- i know what you mean, my friend. it takes some internal processing to absorb a wider range of music genre other than the ones we grew up with. maybe i was a bit luckier than you, in that the musical tastes of my kids tend to blend more easily with mine.
lucy -- wonderful taste, yes. but too much of a good thing is, how shall i say it, super-yucky. i mean, i don't know how long i'm going to have to take 24/7 wall-to-wall bach and handel and strauss and.... phantom of the opera, again? there he goes again.... arrrrrggghhhhh!
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moonriver said on Oct 29, 2008....
queenie -- hi miss pinay! any cartoon classics you want me to play today? ;-)
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queenparanoia said on Oct 29, 2008....
hmmm how about some fantasia??? ;-) -
moonriver said on Oct 29, 2008....
ok, here's some nutcracker suite music from fantasia...
and the spectacular ending...
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beyondtheveil said on Oct 29, 2008....
moon- I was really kidding about the rock music intros being anything special. The only music I could play games like you talked about would be primarily with rock and some popular (like Celine Dion). I'm familiar with most classical, but could never pick out names of pieces except for a couple or three dozen.
My main problem concerning a musical repertoire is my love for silence. I need a mood for music, not turning on music for a mood. The car won't start for my wife and daughter unless the radio is on, mine almost never is. I love certain music, it can move me like little else and I'll go to almost any concert, but at the same time on a long trip by myself, I go in silence.
I've never understood this silent life of mine, perhaps more than anything else listening to music is a habit, one I lost and need to nurture.
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queenparanoia said on Oct 29, 2008....
thanks for the videos moon... ;-) -
steppenwolf68 said on Jan 06, 2009....
Thanks, Moon, for putting another smile on my face. Super, your Jiggy. He must give you great pleasure. And how could Gingers little girl not be cultured?
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