Truth is funnier than fiction! (Pt 1) Thursday, March 18, 2010
As a retail sheet music store open to the public, with phones that ring off the hook and an active website that gets lots of inquiries, Stanton’s collects their share of amusing musical stories. Here are a few unwitting contributions from Stanton’s customers (students, parents, teachers and school staff members) and our own employees that poke good-natured fun at ourselves and fellow musicians.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! We had a caller asking for “Eric Copland’s Symphony called Rite of Spring that has that Quaker melody in it known as Simple Gifts.” It was enough information (although skewed) to ascertain he was looking for Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring which contains the famous Shaker melody.
A phone customer said, “I need the Praeludium in C Minor by Vivaldi for Bass Clef Baritone.”
Not finding it on the computer, the clerk, thinking it might be out of print, asked the customer, “Is this a fairly old publication?”
The customer replied, “Well, yeah it’s old—It was written by Vivaldi!” (Sure – back when he was specializing in music for Bass Clef Baritone!)
AÂ student’s mother said, “I need the Brahms Sonata Number Two in E Flat Major.”
To determine the instrument, the sales person asked, “And that would be for…?”
The customer replied, “My son.”
An elementary school secretary called and said, “I don’t know what I’m talking about, but our music teacher sent me a note saying she is one ‘Whacker' short! I guess she ordered a set of Boomwhackers and one ‘Whacker' is missing!” (So what DO you call just one of those crazy tubes?) The Stanton’s staff member asked which “Whacker†was missing and the secretary chuckled and said, “Well, the teacher wrote a big capital ‘A' on the paper—does that mean anything?” You’ve got to love a school secretary with a sense of humor!
Tune in tomorrow for more stories you won’t believe…