A door opens

My mom and I meet for coffee and breakfast every Friday morning. Often, she will pick me up and I will ride with her to our local Panera. Last Friday, as we were driving, she had the radio on...tuned to Sirius XM's Symphony Hall Channel 76. She had it turned up because The Moldau by Bedrich Smetana was playing. She told me a wonderful story about how she and my dad, while they were teenagers, would go to a record store on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, and they would play music in the listening booths, and he would tell her about the piece playing. She has a vivid memory of the time in 1956 that they listened to The Moldau with him explaining what was happening musically to bring the piece to life as they listened to it. I could see this in my mind. My dad loved music so much, and he loved sharing it and talking about it. My mom said he opened this musical door for her, and to this day, she has a great love, appreciation, and understanding of not only classical music, but all forms.

I still listen to vinyl. And it has been making a big comeback in this digital world of ours. I am too young to remember the listening booths that many record stores had that allowed you to hear a record before you took it home. Of course, now you get a sample of a download before you buy it. But the listening booths did the same trick back in the day.

The Moldau, which is from a collection of symphonic pieces by Smetana called Ma Vlast, was composed in 1874. The Moldau is a river, also known in Czechoslovakia as Vltava. Smetana creates a musical description of this river from it's birth as a tiny brook, steadily growing in power and size to it's majestic enormity. This piece is so easy and fun to listen to. The melody is infectious and widely known though concert performances, recordings and TV/Commercial/Film use.

Musical doors await. Someone may open it for you. All you have to do is walk through.