Thank You Google and the Internets

Score one again for Google and the internet. The wealth of information accessible on the internets or “tubes” boggles my mind.

Back when I lived in Western New York one of my favourite radio stations was CJRT: a Classical/Jazz station out of Toronto. “Off the Record” was a program I never missed. If a show was especially good, I would tape it on the rebroadcast later in the week. My cassette tape of a program from the late 1980’s is just about worn out. It is the rather obscure work “Tanzerische Suite” by the German composer Edward Kunneke.

I can’t explain my fascination with this piece of music. Sound wise it has a rather “airy” sound that was so evident in some early electrical recordings. I remember the TV play of The Glass Menagerie in the 1970’s starring Katherine Hepburn. There is a scene where the music drifts in from the dance hall nearby with that “airy, ‘echoey’, melancholy” sound. It’s like pornography: I know it when I see/hear it!

I had been researching different heart monitor watches on line to use when I’m trying to bust butt on the rowing machine. I had one all picked out to order on Amazon. Then I got the idea to see if I could find if the “Tanzerische Suite” was available on reissue. The radio program I taped had used the Telefunken 78’s which were issued in 1938.

I had no idea of the spelling of the composer or the piece. German is hard enough to pronounce, let alone to get a correct spelling using phonetics! All I knew it was a Suite for Jazz Band and Orchestra recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic in the 1930’s. Using that information I was able to track down the spellings of this elusive piece.

It was an easy search from that point to find that indeed there was a reissue available. This CD appeared like magic on Amazon when I typed in my query. It should be in the mail to my Alabama home in a day or so! Talk about progress!!!

As much as I cherish the past, I relish being able to accomplish what I do online without having to explain to those who haven’t a clue to what I’m researching.