Eine Kleine Dad Musik

Lately, the younger Llama-ettes have been falling asleep to the sound of this CD:

Mozart's Magnificent Voyage, which tells some of the story of Mozart's life to the accompaniment of a pretty fair sampling of his music.

The gels have always been impressed that I could whistle just about the entire soundtrack of this story, but last evening the six year old asked me if I could play any of the music on the piano. "Oh, yes," I said. We went downstairs and in rapid progression I banged out some of the variations from the 1st Movement of the Piano Sonata in A, K. 331 and then the 3rd Movement of the Piano Sonata in F, K. 332, both of which feature prominantly in the CD. (Fortunately, I had had a glass of wine, so I was able to blow through the Allegro Assai of the F Major piece with a good deal of fearless aplomb.) We then finished up with the Alla Turca 3rd Movement of the A Major piece, also on this CD and an old Llama-ette favorite from Baby Mozart days.

The gel's reaction to Daddy's apparently limitless skill could be summed up in two words: A. Gog. She laughed to herself for pure joy the entire time and after I was done, she said, "Thanks, Dad" in a particularly melting way she has that she could probably use to get anything out of me - a pony, a sports car, a beach house - if she truly understood her powers.

By the way, if you're interested in introducing small children to classical music, I may say that I have heard a couple of this series and all of them seem to be very, very good. They involve some silly plots, but there is no denying that the Llama-ettes, at least, have taken in the music as well.