In the 1980s, as a teenager in a small and insular southern town, it was a difficult -- impossible in some cases -- to explore much classical music. What made matters worse is that I had a keen interest in 20th century composers. There was no local NPR station until 1991, but occasionally I could pick up the station in a nearby town. For a brief time, a local easy listening station played classical music on Saturday evenings and I would have a tape recorder ready. I would go to the public library with an armful of records. What I was unable to listen to, I read about in books, forever taking notes, writing lists of composers names. I eventually bought a Schwann catalog and ordered a few records (and then cassettes when most vinyl was phased out). It took six to eight weeks for a cassette to arrive in the local music shop. I had no idea what I was getting! I desperately scavenged for whatever I could find, even old scratched up records that were almost unplayable. Looking back, Ive forgotten what a lonely journey it was! Now, primarily with Amazon and iTunes, I have access to a considerable amount of classical music, some of it immediately available for download. But the real godsend is YouTube. And now I have to remember all the names of lesser known composers-- and discovering even more along the way! Im just thankful there is an outlet for all this music that I longed to hear when I was younger. Im sure there are a few children today, scattered here and there across the globe, who likewise are captivated by such sounds. At any rate, I remember reading for years about the French composer Charles Koechlin-- I never heard a single note. Sometimes I would try to play brief excerpts from his works I would find in books. And now here he is! Poem for horn & orchestra.....
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 22:25:28 +0000
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