Mark Walsen - Children's Suite for piano

[mgj32]

Hi Mark,

I'm glad the sort of childhood represented here waited for you before becoming the extinct species it appears to be now. Nah nahnah Nan Nah evokes a whole era perfectly. Good choice. Was I the only one who never cheated at hide and seek? Took me well over a half a century to finally be able to say "no wonder." "Toy Soldiers" is pleasing, and you've managed to keep the "toy" the key to it. In '44 and '45 we had lead soldiers, and locally made tanks and trucks of wood. I'm sure we heard our parents talking about strange sounding names from the South Pacific and many places associated with Europe, but we had no conception of what was really going on in any of them. Our soldiers could get back up and engage in battle after battle. The whole suite catches the innocence of the era very well. You might have called the last piece "Indian" dance. I've heard some rather sophisticated drum playing, both in the hand--actually under arm small drums--individuals might use to accompany a "social" song, but especially in Pow Wow drums, where 4-8 play in unison and amazingly vary accent and tempo, without a hitch and without a conductor.

Did you record the performance? The piano is either real of by far the best piano soundfont I've heard.

I will download the suite and put it together in a single file, which I'm sure will be played many times.

Welcome back,
mgj