So it was Bag Day at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store on Saturday - all the clothing you can stuff in a grocery bag for 5 dollars (Canadian). And as I’m waiting for the dressing room to try on clothing that, miracle of miracles, hints at fitting my notoriously ill-proportioned frame, I glance down at a bin of assorted knick-knacks, where I find a blue-labeled compact disk. For some reason I pick it up (even though I never buy music) and discover it’s 21 tracks of “The Best of Johann Strauss”. Asking the price, I find out that it’s on for a quarter. I figure, just this once, why not splurge?
I took it home, and listened to it all the way through last night while I mended my underwear.
Now, I’ve never been a big fan of dances. Especially the kind we had in high school. I very rarely enjoyed myself at all. I don’t much like dancing, especially in public. And the “Dance Music” they played was horrible; too loud, too repetitive, too hip-hoppity-studio-fabricated yuck (IMO, of course) But if that stuff was machine-made t-shirts from Taiwan, Strauss is a fine, long, winter coat. An elegant, functional, and very warm one at that.
Strauss is excellent.
The Blue Danube: Superb. The Vienna Blood Waltz: Magnificent. The Emperor Waltz: Marvelous. They make me want to dance. They make me want to fall in love, just so I can take somebody dancing. They make me want to go to Austria, meet people and listen to orchestras and have a picnic in a canoe drifting down the river.
I can hardly avoid shashaying around the room as I fold my laundry. All day today at the factory, I had little spring in my step, my usual metronomal cadence replaced by a stride in time with the waltzes playing in my head. The candy bars rolling down the production lines had a marvelous new soundtrack. I can’t imagine what it would be like to hear a live orchestra play them.
Boy, they’re good.
Sooooo… anybody know if one can teach oneself to waltz? 'Cause I look pretty clumsy over here in front of the computer. And is there any other hidden magnificent music that the world has been keeping from me?
I love Strauss waltzes. Close your eyes and you’re in a different world, your petticoats swirling around you as the Archduke Rudolph whirls you around and around . . . Oh, where were we?
I also recommend Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow Waltz, one of the loveliest ever written.
When I listen to Strauss waltzes I enter a fantasy world. I visualize myself in a medium blue gown with a bell shaped, flowing skirt. My hair is put up in an elegant style and in it I am wearing a small diamond tiara. As the music sweeps to a climax I see my partner as a tall, handsome man in a Prince Charming sort of military uniform. We swirl round and round and when the music stops I give my most graceful curtsy and he bows. sigh Then I come to and see that the floor needs vacuuming, the dishes need to be washed, and so on. Time to play some more music and pretend I am Cinderella.
Probably because I recently read Mr. Blue Sky’s name in a thread I now have that song by ELO running through my head - but I don’t mind that song. When I have an annoying song running through my head I more often than not try to replace it with Stauss’s “Blue Danube” waltz - my all-time favorite piece of music.
And is there any other hidden magnificent music that the world has been keeping from me?