Sometimes music hits you when you least expect it. The opening work on our concert this Saturday will be the second suite from Handel’s Water Music. In picking up a few things from our local grocery store yesterday I noticed both the water and the music were for real…..
Walking in the produce aisle, something broke the mundane to put me totally in the moment. Firstly there was the noise of those tiny sprinklers drenching the leafy produce, followed by the moist feeling from the spray and then through the entire store over the speakers, Singing in the Rain! I thought it had to be a coincidence but upon inquiring, not only was it not a coincidence, but they alternate it with Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head!!!!
I got to thinking that not all Muzak is bad after all, despite the railing by some in our business. In fact I might just give them a recording of our performance of Water Music to add to the produce play-list! I am sure we could all come up with a great list of works that would work in each aisle although I would avoid Where Sheep May Safely Graze for the meat department, obviously it’s not that safe for them! Any other suggestions are welcome…..
(1) Bach: Coffee Cantata
(2) Vaughan Williams: March Past of the Kitchen Utensils
(3) “Food, Glorious Food” from ‘Oliver’
(4) Prokofiev: Love for Three Oranges
(5) PDQ Bach: Breakfast Antiphonies
(6) Bernstein: La bonne cuisine
(7) Martinu: Revue de cuisine
(8) Ravel: “Dance of the Teapot” from ‘L’enfant et les sortileges’
(9) Various drinking songs: too numerous to mention!
How about the opening of Carmina Burana for the canned meat aisle? “O, Four Tuna”? Ok — that my be stretching it a bit.
I forgot the “Trout” Quintet.
Since you are a “fourner”, as some people pronounce it, should I point out that The Star Spangled Banner was originally an old English drinking song?