Little Sponges.

This morning, as I was on my way back from dropping Bray off at the transit station, I turned the radio to NPR. We usually listen to the kids' tapes, as Madeline loves to sing along, but today I wanted something a little bit more-well-educated. A dark, suspenseful passage, full of minor chord progressions came on, and I heard a little pretend-scared voice behind me say, "OH NO! It's the bad guy!" And then her brother chimed in, and as the music swelled, they both pretended that we were outrunning the 'bad' guy in the car. But, after a moment, the music changed, to light trills on flutes and oboes, high in the register. At this point, my daughter said, "Oh! That's not the bad guy! That's a biiird!" And my son agreed, saying, "Yes. There is the bird."
As I listened to this cute conversation, I was struck by how they so quickly picked up on the themes in the music. The dark sounds represented a 'bad' guy, and the light, fast, sweet trills were similar to the sounds of a bird. I, unfortunately, am rusty on my recognition of composers/pieces, and so waited till the piece was over to hear who and what it was. To my surprise, it was the Farewell (of Wotan) and Fire Magic section, from Wagner's Ring Cycle! If you recall, we took the kiddos to the children's version Seattle Opera put on several weeks ago. Not only did they pick up on the themes in the music, they remembered what the 'bad guy' part sounded like! Their brains are truly little sponges. And I need to brush up on my music skills-they'll be ahead of me before you know it!