Kill the 'wabbit!

In the sixth grade, well over 50 years ago we had a music appreciation class. The teacher had this old box victrola that played 33, 45 & 78 rpm records. Big black things with a hole in the middle through a terrible speaker. It was my second introduction to classical music. Her version had rivers running, breezes blowing and guns gunning. Mine had Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, et al. The music was the same, but the story wasn't. Now my memory of Wagner, Rossini, Liszt and the other great composers has changed over all these years, I just heard a story of a college instructor teaching the course the same as I was in the sixth grade. Granted classical music is timeless and remains pretty consistent...it doesn't change much I still feel that Bugs and company did a better job than she did. After all I remember Bugs, not her. 

As story lines go, you have to remember, classical music does NOT have lyrics. Therefore you have to use your imagination. Operas do have the words to follow, but for a sixth grader from North Carolina, the Italian language was a bit harder to follow than Mickey in Fantasia or on Bald Mountain. 

Taking this one step further, pretty much every piece of music written is re scripted at some point in a different style. Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news! Jazz, Rock, Pop, even TV ads have reworked classical to their needs. 

Smetena wrote an entire series of works on his homeland. Absolutely gorgeous and I have no difficulty "hearing" the sound of the rushing Moldau as the music plays. But I also like Nutrocker, a version of The Nutcracker as played by Bee Bumble and the Stingers! Getting them to listen is still the point, not what is written on the jacket.