Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Donald Duck turned me on to classical music


It’s true. When I was six or seven I saw the Disney cartoon of Donald Duck taking a trip down the Grand Canyon Donkey Trail.
As he sat on the donkey, ready to go, the guide, or maybe Daisy Duck, took his picture. The donkey’s eyes went from giant black pupils to tiny pinholes. And off Donald went, on a blind donkey, down the harrowing trail, to the music of Purdy Grofé’s The Grand Canyon Suite.
Every kid the theatre laughed hysterically as Donald screamed and the donkey wandered precariously near the edge.
Over and over Donald Duck and the blind donkey veered to the edge, closer and closer each time. That afternoon I went home humming the Grand Canyon Suite. And the joy of that cartoon and the music never left me. Many early cartoons were scored with classical music and I loved them all. I was hooked on the music. The cartoons, not so much.

1 comment:

  1. I had to look this up after reading this description- sure enough, YouTube has it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wc3iA4n5MI

    Great music for sure!

    "Well I hope you're satisfied. You two have, in a matter of minutes, messed up what it took mother nature millions of years to create."

    This little quote from the cartoon stood out to me. Pretty relevant to a lot of things going on in the world right about now. Yeesh!

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