Playing Catch Up
(My yummy sheikh hits the shelves in November. He’s so stern… I adore him)
Do you ever catch up?
I’m a great one for writing lists and telling myself that I’ll have this draft finished by this time and that work finished by…
Well, you get the idea, I’m sure!
I’m also great at telling other people to write lists. I’m even better at starting one for myself, and then thinking: Better get that done first…
End result?
Nothing gets finished.
So, the question then becomes (in the middle of tearing your hair out and screaming at everyone) how do I relax?
The answer could lie in music, and when someone asked me to list my ten favourite tunes and I spent a long car journey thinking and selecting, I realised that was definitely the answer for me.
So, here are my 10 for you to mull over…
The first three are easy, because they resonate so strongly with my childhood memories, and also with my love of fairy tales that has never ever faded.
1) The Teddy Bears’ Picnic. This harks from the days when string quartets at posh hotels played requests. My grandmother always arranged to have it played for me when clinging to her hand as a toddler I accompanied her to afternoon tea.
2) The Happy Wanderer was the first song that alerted everyone to the fact that not only could I hold a tune as a toddler, but I was addicted to yodelling (almost as bad as the trumpet or a drum for a harassed mother!)
3) Billy Goat’s Gruff. My favourite, and then my children’s favourite ‘scary’ funny song. (you have to act it out of course, with exaggerated facial expressions, or it just isn’t the same)
4) ‘Coming Through The Rye’ Was the first song I ever sang at a public concert. I forgot the words in the second verse and made up new ones as I went along. Sign of things to come, perhaps!
5) Here Comes the Sun by George Harrison of the Beatles still makes me feel good inside.
6) Stevie Wonder’s ‘You are the Sunshine of My Life’ I got up to sing this with a band for my now husband in the first week I met him. Well, when you meet someone on Monday in a foreign country and you’re leaving on Saturday you have to throw everything into it!
7) Poor Wandering One from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. Coloratura singing has always fascinated me… those really high notes are only granted to a very few. Plus it was fun dressing up and wrestling with pirates when I was a member of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. Always fun to wrestle with a pirate, don’t you think?
8) Queen of the Night’s aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute for much the same reason, only more. No pirates this time, but boy what a tour de force of coloratura singing.
9) Pretty much anything by the Scissor Sisters right now. They dance that road rage right out of me.
10) Emma Kirkby singing anything to soothe me. I adore early music- I adore most music, and the fluidity of Emma Kirkby’s pure, true voice is both unique and heavenly to relax to.
Which leads me on to our prize-winning question for this week:
Q. Name one song or piece of music that means a lot to you, and tell us why.
Please send your answers to SusanStephensContests@gmail.com
I think this is going to be a great discussion, and I can’t wait to hear from you.
Love to all, and happy reading and music listening everyone!
Susan
I love this blog because it gives us chance to get together once in a while
