Saturday, July 2, 2011
A gorgeous version of an old favorite
I've been rediscovering Leroy Anderson, a composer I once dismissed as kitschy, and, surprise: his compositions (The Syncopated Clock, The Typewriter, Fiddle-Faddle) are charming and very well-written. He also wrote the perennial favorite Sleigh Ride, which I didn't appreciate until I tried to play it on the violin! Whew. It's much more sophisticated than it first appears. His lesser-known stuff makes me say, "Oh, THAT!", which is a mark of something, i. e. he has worked his way into popular culture, and deservedly. I first heard most of these on Captain Kangaroo, with bizarre pre-video effects like construction-paper puppets against a felt background.
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I had to do the NYEEE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-YAH on my cornet whenever our band played Sleigh Ride. I think my lip was permanently deformed from it.
ReplyDelete...or maybe it deformed my tongue...something. Brain?
ReplyDeleteI saw a video of Anderson on YouTube, and unlike his sparkly music he wasn't sprightly at all. He reminded me of my Grade 6 science teacher, dry and asexual,and boring. He sat at the piano and went on and on and on about how difficult it is to play The Waltzing Cat on the piano because you can't really do a string-slide on the "meeeee-ow". Also, it has lyrics to it, which he sang. Lame.
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