"Close your eyes......"

My earliest musical recollection......Bruch’s violin concerto – I still LOVE it.

Like many kids of my generation, “pop” music was not something my parents listened to at all. Having been born in the 30’s, there was never a time in their childhood where pop music even existed! Their musical tastes were restricted to light opera, classical music and the show-tunes and war-time songs of the era. Put another way – my folks were in their 20’s before Elvis hit the recording studios!

But music was still a huge part of our lives. The sideboard sized “gramophone” took pride of place in the living room, across the room from the piano. I can’t recall a day that passed without one or the other being pressed into action – notice I say “recall” – there might have been days – I just don’t care to remember them!

Mum particularly enjoyed the light opera side of things – “The Student Prince” by Sigmund Romburg was a particular favourite. It was a huge hit in its day, running for a couple of years on Broadway and particularly remembered for the song “Drink, Drink, Drink” which was particularly popular in the midst of prohibition! (I wonder if this was a subliminal influence on my liking of continental beer???...) Mum and Dad even spent their honeymoon in Heidelberg where the show is set... I think that’s just brilliant! There are plenty recordings of the show – but this clip from the film adaptation gives a good idea what it’s like.

Dad’s taste was a lot more highbrow. Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach. It was really Dad who set me down the road of appreciating music as something more than just background noise. I remember like it was yesterday him sitting me down and telling me he was about to play some “close your eyes” music. This was not some cunning plan to get me off to sleep (he’d talk to me about the music afterwards) he really wanted me to sit and listen. 

The mirror-like polished walnut gramophone would be warmed up for the requisite 10 minutes, until the point you could see the valves glowing gently behind the brown grille that covered one side, the LP would be carefully removed from the parchment like inner sleeve lining and dusted lovingly with the special cloth only Dad could use. With great care, the Vinyl would be perched at the top of the perilously tall spindle of the turntable, a good three or more inches above the platter, and the “Start” lever pushed. While gears clicked and whirred, Dad would carefully adjust the cream Bakelite bass, treble and volume controls before the almighty loud THWAKK as the vinyl splashed down onto the deck of the turntable. Another almighty clunk would follow and the chunky mechanical arm rose menacingly, jerked towards the run-in groove and slammed with alarming force onto the surface of the LP – I’m surprised the thing did not cut its own groove!

But then...after a few light pops and clicks of the run-in-groove had faded away and I’d settled into my chair and closed my eyes........wonder. The idea of concentrating on JUST listening to music is now becoming something from a lost era (it’s probably why I like concerts so much – it’s all you can do!) but to sit and listen to music like Bruch’s violin concerto like that was wonderful – new details jumping out on every listen, dynamics of the music opening up as you paid attention to different passages each time. And Dad sat there the whole time. 

If you snuck a peek, you could witness his complete immersion, thumb and forefinger lightly touching each other as if clutching an invisible baton, gently drawing invisible lines during slower passages and jerking like the needle of a VU meter during the swells in the music. As the music faded to completion he’d relax back into the chair in complete contentment and after a moment his eyes would open and we’d talk...

What did you think? What about this bit? How did it make you feel? I was not bombarded with questions each time, but he’d always take the time to ask me, and talk about his reaction to the music - it really was a wonderful shared time and well and truly set me up for most of my music experiences to come.

But no pop music I said, well – that’s not altogether true....more next time...