I never received any musical instruction. My mother always believed that I did not have any musical talents. In fact, she used a Russian saying "медведь на ухо наступил" ("a bear stepped on one's ear") to describe my musical aptitude. When I was little, I assumed the bear story to be literally true.

When I became a little older, I realized how lucky I was--many of my friends had to spend many, many hours studying music, and every one of them hated it. Those who studied music further, hated their lessons even more. I had one friend, for instance who used solfeggio as a curse word.

To this day I do not regret not getting a musical education: I feel that all that reading, fishing and playing that I've done instead of music lessons was a better use of my time. Besides, I think my mother wasn't very much off in evaluation of my musical ability.

Having married into a musical family (my mother-in-law is a piano teacher and father-in-law is a senior tuner at Steinway and Sons), I have more music thrust in my life than I ever thought possible. My wife, an amateur organist, took up almost half of the living room space with an organ and a harpsichord. The mother-in-law and her take turns in bringing my baby daughter, whose entire vocabulary is limited to "papa", "mama", "baba", and "kaka", to the harpsichord keyboard and letting her hit the keys. My father in law has absolute pitch, but at this point it's unclear if little Natalie inherited it or my own "bear-stepped-on" ears.

While a harpsichords and an organs are hardly common instruments, I bet every one of you has encountered a well-abused piano situated in a classroom. Invariably, some kid pulls up a chair and starts playing a simple melody. In the United States it's usually a Chopsticks, in Russia--Dog's Waltz.

It turns out that Chopsticks is actually called The Celebrated Chop Waltz and it's composer is known. Dog's Waltz's, composer, on the other hand is unknown, but the tune has a wider international influence (also, musically, it's a more interesting piece than Chopsticks).

Dog's Waltz, as I learned from the Wikipedia article, is one of those things that has different names in different cultures. There are many examples of this: Russian roulette is known as American roulette in Russia, Mk 2 grenade is known as "pineapple grenade" in the US, but was called "lemon grenade" in Russian, cocks being called roosters in the US (for understandable reasons) and so forth.

The cultures don't agree in what the said roosters sound like, with versions ranging from "cock-a-doodle-doo" to "goh-geh-goh-goh" to "chic-chi-ri-chi" and so forth. Cat sounds vary from culture to culture as well, and so do dog sounds.

In the similar manner, Dog's Waltz has a multitude of names in different cultures, ranging from Cat March to Flea Waltz, Donkey March, Fools' Polka, and The Little Monkeys. The Japanese, take the prize by calling it Neko Funjatta--I Stepped on the Cat. Interestingly enough, this tune is relatively unknown in the US.

A kind reader alerted me to Metro's Best series of concerts at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning:

METRO'S BEST
Saturday afternoons at 3pm
The "Metro's Best" series features some of the finest musical performers discovered under the city of New York. All performers in our series are professional musicians who were sanctioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to give New Yorkers a bit of respite during their travels and perform in the subways. Ranging from classical and jazz to world music, these musicians breathe life into New York and radiate its diversity. After fighting our way through the enthralled crowds, we invited them to perform in the Jamaica Center for Art & Learning theatre. "Metro's Best" is an enchanting series of discovery as musicians of the Underground come to the surface in Jamaica, Queens. Admission: $5. For more information call 718-658-7400.

Featured Artists include:
Don Witter, Jr., classical guitarist
Luellen Abdoo, violinist
Jaili Kandjia Cissoko, Kora player
Manze Dayila, Empress of Haitian Roots Music

Of particular interest is Jaili Kandjia Cissoko. I wrote about him here and here.

It seems that I learn more about exotic musical instruments on the subway than I ever did in all the music classes in college and high school. Kora music remains one of my favorite things to listen to while I code. Recently I've encountered a girl playing the weirdest instrument that looks like a mix of a guitar and a grinding organ, but sounds like a mix of bagpipes and violins. As it turns out, it's an ancient stringed instrument called Hurdy gurdy that hasn't been very popular since the 18th Century.

The performer, Melissa Kacalanos aka Melissa the Loud (blog), is extremely talented. I purchased her CD right there on the spot, and it was the best 15 bucks that I've spent in a while. I especially liked "Lucifer Goes to the Circus", one of her original compositions. I kind of wonder, what "Stainless Steel Worm" would sound like as a song accompanied by Hurdy gurdy.

You know, being able to listen to ancient music played on ancient instruments by talented performers once in a while on a subway platform is one of reasons why people pay so much money to live in New York.

I am kind of surprized that I haven't encountered any Chapman Stick or Theremin players yet.