4. The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
5. Playing the Fool by Gentle Giant

In the summer of 1978, probably August, I spent two or three weeks staying with an aunt and uncle who lived in Québec City. While there I purchased a couple of LP's. By extreme coincidence they were the two listed above. I'm not sure which orchestra did The Rite of Spring. I checked this morning and, sadly, neither disk remains in my collection. I do, however, have multiple versions of the former on my iPod as well as the reissued version of the latter.

In 1978 I was nineteen and had just completed my second year of university at UBC. My first year was at the Okanagan College in Vernon, BC. During that first year I took a music appreciation course which must have been where I was exposed to the The Rite of Spring. The teacher of that course suggested to my friends and me that we might like Gentle Giant. How had she even heard of them? But was she ever right (for me at least, my friends stuck with big band jazz). I loved Gentle Giant's brand of pretentious progressive rock. They referenced RD Laing. They played the harpsichord. They were gargantuan. They played recorders. What was not to like?

I never got to see Gentle Giant in concert. By the time I was interested in them they weren't touring North America and were pretty close to breaking up. One of the guys at my residence at UBC had seen them play live. I think they opened for Yes. He said something about a dragon.

A decade or so ago (in the late 1990's) I went up to San Francisco and saw the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra perform The Rite of Spring under Michael Tilson Thomas. I thought I knew that piece of music very well. I'd listened to it regularly for twenty-plus years. I knew that piece of music. Ha! Watching it performed live was a revelation. I had chosen a seat close to and in front of the cello section (I was learning to play the cello at the time). I remember my astonishment at seeing waves of melody passing through the cellos. Themes that I had never consciously heard before.

I suppose I should make some pithy observation about those who listen but do not hear. But who would benefit from that? Me? I think not.

3. London Calling by The Clash

I generally have my iPod cycle through albums at random. On 5 January 2010 I read a posting on Boing Boing about the 30th anniversary of the release of London Calling in the United States. That very day it started playing during my commute home from work. It came up again today. I am listening to it as I write this post. Personally I think it has aged very well. It sounds as fresh to me now as it did when I first heard it on CITR when I was a student at UBC in the early 1980's.

Update:

I forgot to mention that I actually got to see The Clash in concert. They opened for The Who during their first farewell tour in 1982. This was at the Kingdome in Seattle. A friend drove a bunch of us there for the concert. I was not a fan of The Who but my friends were. I had heard that The Clash were opening and that was good enough for me. We were miles away from the stage. Up in the cheap seats. Even the huge screen showing the performers was too small to be seen clearly. The first act was, interestingly, T-Bone Burnett. I had never heard of him before. Later on he became a favourite. In part because he married Sam Phillips whose music I loved. I don't really remember anything about the music. I believe I was underwhelmed by The Clash. I didn't know much about The Who. Their music washed over me and left me unchanged.

Since that was The Who's farewell tour and I was there I have refused to listen to anything by them ever since! Why no, I am not vindictive. Heh.

Final Update:

While I remember almost nothing of the music I heard at this concert I do have two very clear memories: one from before and one from after. My friends and I were living at a residence on UBC and the cook there made us all bag lunches to take along since we would be missing dinner that night. We waited outside the Kingdome for a while until they started letting people in. When it was our turn to enter, the security guards made us throw away our bag lunches. I guess they were worried we'd start throwing apples at people or something.

On the way home, being quite hungry, we stopped at a restaurant that was open late. Some kind of fast food place no doubt. In the parking lot was one of my friends from Vancouver who had also driven down for the concert.

Those two memories are very clear. Everything is kind of blurry.

I still like the Clash...

2. Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach

Judging by the number of recordings I have of this music it is a huge favourite. Here's a partial list of artists I have playing one or more of these suites:

• Jaap Ter Linden
• Pieter Wispelwey
• Anner Bylsma
• Pablo Casals
• Janos Starker
• Yo-Yo Ma

When I studied cello (for about five years in the mid-1990's) I reached the point where I could play most of the first suite. I still have the score Karen, my teacher, and I marked up with fingerings. I don't think I will ever have the time or energy to pick up the cello again but I am happy that I was able play some of them.

My cello teacher played the first suite during my wedding reception at Hakone Gardens in Los Gatos in August of 1999. My wife and I had wanted her to play it while we were walking down the aisle but, well, I don't really remember why she wouldn't.

1. Historical Anthology of Music (volume I).

I have played the recorder off and on since the mid-1990's. I first encountered this book when my teacher gave me a photocopy of piece number 49, a madrigal by Jacopo da Bolgna. I believe I first played it on a Baroque alto in F.

When my son was born (premature and with issues) in 2000 I dropped almost all my extracurricular activities. I stopped all music lessons (voice, cello and recorder) and focussed on my wife and child. I started playing the recorder again about three years ago and restarted lessons (with the same teacher; thanks Carol!) about six months ago.

I recently revisited this piece. This time I am using it to learn to play the Renaissance alto in G. I also now have my own copy of this book and it is full of wonderful music. I suspect it will be a constant companion during 2011.

John Terauds of The Star proposes this challenge:

What are the 100 pieces of music -- including full operas -- that we simply can't live without in 2011?

Thinking about the music that I love has brought back memories of where I was and what I was doing when I first heard the piece. I'm going to try and capture some of those thoughts in a few posts about the music that is meaningful to me.

I'm going to talk about the music that I play (or have played) as an amateur musician as well as the music that I listen to a lot on my iPod. I will not claim that the music I discuss is significant to anyone other than me. Also, I will be listing pieces in the order in which they occur to me.