Music News: A Spooky Recital

From Chopin to Michael Myers

I get a text from my wife: Print out a copy of Chopin’s Funeral March for piano.

Somehow, Little Bean has it in her head that she’s going to learn this piece for her second recital, a Halloween-themed affair on the weekend before the holiday.

“Chopin?” I text back.

“That’s what she wants,” my wife replies.

Honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of the theme from The Addams Family, but Chopin? Jeez, ok, cool!

Every single one of you reading this are familiar with this piece - mainly because it’s been used in so, so many cartoons. Really. Go to YouTube. You’ll recognize it in two seconds.

Anyway, my brain starts creating connections. Both my parents sang together in Buffalo’s Chopin Singing Society when I was growing up. In Western New York, the Polish Frederick Chopin is, of course, a big deal.

Also, my child is a piano prodigy. Obviously.

When I ask Little Bean’s music teacher about it, she very gently brings me around to more… realistic… territory - while it’s great that my daughter wants to attempt to level up to such a classic piece of music, the fact is they only have about ten day to practice so it’ll have to be something a bit more doable.

Later that evening, Little Bean calls to me from the piano and says she needs my help with something. She can’t reach the notes for the left hand on the piece she’s learning so I need to do that. She’ll play and tell me what to do. So I sit down next to her and she begins to play the Michael Myers theme from the Halloween movies.

“What?!” I’m laughing. “Where they heck did you learn that?” I’m praying she hasn’t actually watched those movies yet somehow.

She shrugs. She heard it from one of her friends and thought it sounded cool. I help her play the little left hand section and it sounds pretty good! (No need to get into the fact that whenever that song actually plays, something horrible is about to happen.)

Anyway, fast forward to my getting home from work yesterday and asking her how her music lesson went.

“Good,” she says, “I’m learning Little Fuzzy’s Halloween.”

She explains that they decided something a little more melodic would be perfect for her recital. Ok then, Little Fuzzy’s Halloween it is.

She has ten days to learn it and I’m confident she will.

But in the meantime, I lean in toward her like it’s a secret and say, “But we’re still gonna learn how to play the Michael Myers song, right?”

She grins. We’re on our way.