What Kind of Music Do You Like?

[Andrew]

David,
The morning we found out about his death, my other brother and I wandered across the street to the park and threw a football back and forth, just trying to get out from under the immeasurably huge dark Fact.  That was one of the saddest, most pathetic games of pass ever played - we gave it up after what must have been a very short time.  It was in Indianapolis, David - Christian Park, between English Avenue and Wentworth Avenue where we lived.   It was a mostly natural grassy park with scattered oaks, but there was a large sunken rectangle in the middle which was used as a football field, with rows like bleachers cut in the earth of the hills on each side.  I haven't been back to Indianapolis since college, when my family relocated - I wonder if that park where I spent so much of my childhood is even still there.

[ZouBEini]

Yes, Andrew - Christian Park is still there.     Last time I passed by, it looked very nicely maintained.

~Larz

edit: Sorry to hear about your brother.

[David In Indy]

David,
The morning we found out about his death, my other brother and I wandered across the street to the park and threw a football back and forth, just trying to get out from under the immeasurably huge dark Fact.  That was one of the saddest, most pathetic games of pass ever played - we gave it up after what must have been a very short time.  It was in Indianapolis, David - Christian Park, between English Avenue and Wentworth Avenue where we lived.   It was a mostly natural grassy park with scattered oaks, but there was a large sunken rectangle in the middle which was used as a football field, with rows like bleachers cut in the earth of the hills on each side.  I haven't been back to Indianapolis since college, when my family relocated - I wonder if that park where I spent so much of my childhood is even still there.

I know where English Avenue is. Did you live on the southside of town? Anyway, I haven't heard of Christian Park before, but it is probably still there. Indianapolis is trying very hard to keep its' parks; even the small ones. This isn't always easy to do because the city is growing so fast. But it is probably still there.

[David In Indy]

Thanks for answering Andrew's question. I wasn't sure. I was raised on the Northeast side of town (Castleton area). Fall creek and Shadeland Ave to be exact, right across from WFBQ/WNDE radio station.

Apparently we posted our threads to Andrew at the same time. When I clicked on the post button, I received a bright red error message telling me to check my message! Great minds, huh Larz?

See Andrew, you have a couple of Hoosiers thinking about you tonight!

[David In Indy]

My parents weren't into C&W but we also watched Hee Haw faithfully.  I wondered why Minnie Pearl never removed that price tag from her hat!  Well, duh - that was one of her trademarks!  "Howww-DEEE!"  A lot of guys were watching the busty girls in daisy dukes. I was watching the Hagar twins.  

~Larz

Does anyone know what price was printed on Minnie Pearl's price tag? I have always wondered about it.

I know. It's stupid. But I always tried to see what the price was.

[Andrew]

Indianapolis sure did a lot to encourage children to get interested in classical music back then.  In grade school music class there was an interesting program which actually tested you on your recognition of classical pieces.  We were played recordings of various short short pieces like the overture from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, then given blind tests to see if we could recognize which was which if just a short extract from the middle was played.  The younger pupils had just a few to learn, the older more.  I think the second graders had just four pieces to learn, the eighth graders sixteen.  After taking the tests once or twice in class, pupils from all over the city trooped down to a huge hall one Saturday and the Indianapolis Symphony performed the short extracts and we had to mark our test papers.  There was something amazingly solemn and important about it.

Then students were all learning orchestra instruments in another music class.  I learned a little about a lot of instruments then.  In high school, there was a big choice in music classes - I remember we sang Renaissance madrigals in an optional class before first period, then first period was choir, then second period was orchestra (I had settled on clarinet), and seventh period was concert band, where we actually played a lot more of the classical repertory than in orchestra since the orchestra conductor liked Broadway and movie music.

Then there were instrumental competitions - I had to memorize the Mozart clarinet concerto in a clarinet-piano version and perform it solo (with my piano teacher) the same day as hundreds of other students before a panel of judges.

You would think all this strictness and testing would have made me hate classical music but just the opposite happened...

[ZouBEini]

Oops, sorry David.    I later realized the comment was directed to you.  LOL-yes we were pushing the button at the same time it seems. 

In fact, http://www.cees.iupui.edu/Service_Learning/All_Projects/christian_park.htm

I grew up west of Indy but now live on the south east side, a few blocks from Garfield Park.

http://www.garfield-conservatory.org/

I would have included links to the .gov sites but they're sort of boring IMO.

~Larz

[ZouBEini]

Does anyone know what price was printed on Minnie Pearl's price tag? I have always wondered about it.

I know. It's stupid. But I always tried to see what the price was.

$1.98 from what I've always heard.  

[Andrew]

Larz - I was only addressing David because I didn't know you were from the same city!  Kind of remarkable since for a time the three of us were the three people on the thread.  Thanks for the update.  My mom taught at School 82 at the end of the park and I went there through fourth grade.  Later I would take the longer walks to School 58 and to Howe High School.  I sure didn't know much of Indianapolis outside of my neighborhood, the main library downtown, and Butler University where I went for the clarinet lessons and the Symphony.

[Andrew]

OK, I'm shaping up on my own, this is the music thread not the where are you from or the childhood memories thread.

Let me mention some more favorite performances of classics.

Scott mentioned Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande.  I love what I think was the first recording of this, Roger Desormiere from 1940's France, with the wonderful Irene Joachim and Jacques Jansen.

Someone else mentioned the Verdi Requiem.  There are a number of great recordings of this but my favorite is conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, with, notably, Montserrat Caballe and Jon Vickers. Incredibly, I'm not sure you can buy that now, I don't see it on Arkiv Music which has one of the best organized and easiest to use lists.  But you can get the one conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century series.  It features Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Christa Ludwig, along with Nicolai Gedda and Nicolai Ghiaurov.