~Day 2• 30: How About .... Bolero and 1812?

Every once in awhile I get an itch and subject my kids to a tiny obsession of mine. I force them to listen to classical music. Not the little excerpts you get on music sample CDs. Nope. The actual full length stuff. Not froo-froo stuff either. The real Meat and potatoes stuff (as my dad calls it). Somehow I came across Bolero, by Ravel. You know, the piece that goes on for at least 15 minutes with the poor guy on the snare drum keeping PERFECT time through the whole thing. I'm amazed every time I hear it. 

We had fun picking out the different instruments too. Brookie is getting pretty good at picking them out.  I made Brookie sit with me for most of it.  I loved it. The finale when the song crescendos is awesome too. 

Then I thought more about the big sounds. And 1812 came to mind. Cannons. Yes! Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture coming up!  Cailee joined us (by this time it was at least a half hour past bed time. Oops). Brookie kept asking when the she will hear the cannons. I told her to just wait. You will know when you hear them. Boom! There they were. It brought back many memories of when my parents took us to Deer Valley to hear the Utah Symphony play this, with live cannon fire. I miss it. 

I needed to calm them down, so I found The Moldeau (the River) by Smetana. Peaceful. Brookie just about fell asleep. Cailee was calm. Night night girls. 

THEN I found piano music. I pulled out some old pieces I had played in the past. Some I'm going to drag out and learn again.  And then I subjected poor Nick to the same torture as the girls. I found the songs on YouTube and listened to it for a long time while I followed along in the book. I used to do this with my family while growing up. It was nice to just sit and listen. 

Now it's time to rest. G'night.