Music Hath Charms

My mother was a master of reverse psychology. She told my brothers and me when we were small that if we ever wanted to smoke just tell her, and she'd give us the cigarettes. I remained a non-smoker. She never pushed serious music on me, but when I was in boarding school she sent me a stack of LP's. I don't remember what most of them were, undoubtedly whatever it was a 15-year old would have been "into" in 1954. What I'll never forget were the two Aaron Copeland albums slipped in among the other without comment from my mother. She was way too smart to urge me to listen to them, or even mention them, she just let me discover them for myself, and discover them I did. It took a while, but eventually I dipped my toe in the water and was hooked. Pretty soon I moved on to the three B's, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. Clever lady, my mom.