Classical Music Helped or Harmed?

On Minnesota Public Radio the other day, the announcer said he thought that Looney Tunes had permanently damaged classical music pieces. It was his opinion that one could no longer hear something like "Figaro, figaro, figaro" without seeing the cartoon in their head. Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny and company are the bad guys that tainted amazing works of art, simplifying and "dumbing them down". This is certainly one way to think about it. And I DO see the cartoons in my head. I confess. I do, I see them.

I also know that my children, my husband and my friends love the old cartoons and their music. They and I laugh and sing along, learning beautiful melodies I might have never heard without those pajama-d Saturday mornings. It's not just cartoons. Who can hear the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger? I guess what I'm hoping for is less high-brow and more education. I think the announcer probably has the attitude of pianist Tom at the beginning of this video.

I wonder aloud sometimes about the fate of our classical music, in the hands of its worshippers.

(Tom plays Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 by Franz Liszt, Jerry plays "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" made famous by Judy Garland)

Monday Funny

For some reason I got a kick out of the garbage in the parking lot, on the way into the mall. In close proximity to each other were both this note and this can. Why would you bring your "don't wake the baby" sign to the mall? I made a sign similar to this once upon a time, but it never left the back of the front door, so I could use it gain and again. Who would drop this note on the ground at the shopping mall? Who would toss out a 24 oz. Budweiser can? Did the baby get beer? No wonder why they're sleeping. Let's hope not they didn't come from the same vehicle!