Music out of place

[vaneramos]

My upstairs neighbour only ever watches action movies, the kind where everyone gets blown to bits. As I was passing his door just now, I heard a familiar orchestral strain, and paused, enthralled. It was Wagner's magical prelude to Das Rheingold, a simple rising liquid motif, incessantly repeating and gathering strength like sunlight on the waters of the Rhein. I'm not a particular fan of Wagner, but love the orchestral interludes from The Ring of the Nibelung ("Ride of the Valkyries" being the most famous). This prelude is generally not performed apart from the whole bombastic opera. I stood transfixed in the dark hallway as the episode approached its climax, but instead it died away, giving away to inane dialogue, breaking the spell.

In other musical trivia, this afternoon I heard a choral ensemble performing "I wanna hold your hand" in German, in the style of the father of Lieder. It was awfully convincing, right down to the puttering piano accompaniment. Come to think of it, didn't Schubert really write that? After 500 songs, it's hard to keep them all straight.