Classic Jazz Choirs Music for children Relaxing music Net radio Links to on-line CDs Allegro scherzando

Classical music Both Margareta and Pär were brought up in homes with much music. Margareta and her mother went by train (30 km) to the town Umeå in rain as well as snow, for concerts with the Symphony Orchestra with or without a famous soloist from Stockholm or abroad. Pär played from his father's sheet music for piano, listened to the concerts in the radio on sundays, and bought LPs with his pocket money. The very first classical record (30 cm 78 rpm) was Sibelius' Finlandia! He also attended the performances of the Symphony Orchestra of Nyköping. A good start for both of us and as we continued and cultivated this interest over the years our shelves for music recordings are filled with records. The old LPs had to move a bit for all these CDs! 1986 - 2002 Sollentuna featured the "Amorina Recitals" - series of chamber music during the dark winter months. Every year we enjoyed five splendid concerts with fabulous artists. Pianists from many countries have been our guests! Swedish pianists of course but also from Japan, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Russia. Marc-André Hamelin has been here five times during these years. We got involved in this event, with Margareta's pastries for the intermission coffee, and Pär is the auditor in the "Friends of Amorina Recitals". We designed the home page for Amorina Recitals, with information about the conserts and the artists during the season of chamber music in Sollentuna. Alas you cannot find it any more on the Internet, that web address is now closed. Only one page is still to be seen - the one about the pastries.

Jazz Every night the teenager Pär listened to the radio - Voice of America - between 20-22, with popular jazz music the first hour - Les Brown or Glenn Miller, the second hour was filled with the "real" jazz. The dance music at the school dances was jazz music played by school bands, and many of the school mates were also interested in jazz music. As for instance, when we borrowed somebody's dad's Opel Rekord to go to a concert some 100 km away to listen to Lars Gullin, who was Sweden's best baritone saxophonist. Margareta got as a Christmas gift 1956 a ticket to a concert in Umeå with the one and only Louis Armstrong and his orchestra! Poor musicians! It was below 30 C almost every day, right in the middle of the winter and much snow! But they managed it - the concerts were great! The years of the teenage are perhaps a mould form for the rest of ones life. We still like the jazz of the 1950s and good oldies too (Ellington, Armstrong, etc). Duke Ellington Media Player Jukebox - The Duke and many other favourites, lots of music for many hours. Indeed a Jukebox!

Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton, Umeå 1956

Choir music Since Pär has been a choir member for many years, we want to present a small special section about choral music.He has stopped making noise together with others and part of the audience when our daughter and her husband sing in Mariakören in Västerås (the cathedral choir). Singing in a choir is one of the best hobbies you can have. It is inexpensive, even if some choirs take a small charge to cover for sheet music, conductor fees, and such. The instrument is free, unless you want to develop your voice by taking lessons. You meet many people with whom you share one common interest, but who come from many different backgrounds.The rehearsals make you forget your daily chores for a while - they demand your full attention. The concerts then come as the cherry on the cake - if you are well prepared, that is. Listen to: Swedish Choirs playing around the clock. Some advertisements now and then. Choral Net links to 4332 choirs for the moment. Akademiska Kören i Stockholm - Pär's favourite choir, much singing and joy

Music for Children Songs and music from early childhood, and even earlier especially if you are a singer or musician, will probably give the child an interest in music later. Anything will be fine, nursery rhymes, traditional songs, Beatles, ABBA, records from the parents' shelf ... Our children got a mixture of all kinds of music and they now sing and play together with friends in many ways and connections. The little girl, who just managed to climb the piano stool looking at the piece by Beethoven her Dad just played, is now a grown up person with a genuine fondness of music of many kinds. The extra lessons of music in the school (oboe, piano, choir) was a nourishment that will give her pleasure all her life.

No whale singing, please! About relax music Please, no whale's or dolphin's singing mixed with synthetic piano-up-and-down on the keyboard! Or CDs with "musical jelly-fishes" floating around at the sound of pan pipes. The grand finale of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony played on a single pan pipe is definitely not a favourite. I (Margareta) bought a CD - "The Waves of the Sea"- with the thought it would be a nice gift to a friend. Luckily enough I tried it on myself first, because the enormous waves thundering from the loudspeaker made me feel that I was drowning. Why did they not record a quiet flap-flap against the pebbles of the beach or a boat side, and seagulls and other birds too? But perhaps they recorded it on a stormy day? I prefer Nils-Aslak Valkeapää - Goase Dušše, the Bird Symphony winning the Prix Italia 1993. Different birdsongs, mostly birds from the Scandinavian mountains and a year of the sounds of the mountains, still available on CD. When listening I use to nod off in May and wake up when the herd of reindeer returns from the summer grazing. Moments of total relax. No mosquitoes either! Click at the picture below and listen to a sound clip from the Bird Symphony! - But note, the file is 720 KB.

Naturbokhandeln on Öland can help you find many CDs with Sound Landscapes from different parts of the nature, with NOTHING else involved. A fine thing to listen to when the winter and cold weather make you feel miserable. It will be spring again! We have used these CDs as back-ground sound on parties. At first the guests are unaware of the twittering of birds and the hum of the occasional bumble-bee, until they suddenly hear it and ask "but WHERE do you keep the birds ?" It happens that we relax to classical music from the radio or something from our own shelves, too.

Net radio Computer radio - lots of net radio stations broadcasting lots of good music: Internet Radio Plaza - mixed Accuradio - much jazz, some classical Sveriges Radio P2 - if you want to listen to the Swedish "Web radio" Denmark's radio - many different music channels

Links for buying on-line and Amazon, U. K. - easy and rapid within the EU. Also >>> Amazon - U S A, Japan, Germany ... Amazon, France - if you like French Chansons in new editions of old favourites (Montand, Brassens, Trenet, Piaf, Brel ...) SwedeJazz lots of links to artists, clubs, festivals, events, orchestras, record companies.(in English)

Museum for and with Music- The Stockholm Music Museum Recommended for whole family! How to make your own instruments, a Humla?>> se below! What is a serpent and how does it sound? Festivals now and then, concerts etc. Visit the museum when in Stockholm and you'll have a lovely time, also visit the Open Air Museum Skansen or the Wasa Ship. We do not give you links for music to download - having an artist in the family makes us a little sensitive about copyright issues.

Allegro scherzando A visit to a Music Fair with many different Merry-go-rounds

Music need not be pompous and strictly performed by the note as the composer once wrote it, even Mozart made some musical jokes. Still many musicians do so for fun, and add some new views to old beloved tunes. After such a happening you will chuckle to yourself everytime you hear the originals!

Fortunately you can find old favourites, but now on CDs, in the shops or on-line, and brighten up a rainy day with a disc of musical puns - with a "vintage" (from the vineyard of the Borge-Hoffnung-Lehrer era) or maybe a "newly pressed" ( P.D.Q.Bach / Peter Schickele for example).

Artists in this salon of humour and wit

Victor Borge - "Laughter is the closest distance between two people" Tom Lehrer - "Life is like a sewer... what you get out of it depends on what you put into it". He is also a teacher, not only in Mathematics - "O-U" -- A song to teach the "OU" diphthong. Gerard Hoffnung - his "Music Festivals" are now on CDs, and his books are reprinted! A happy fan will perhaps find the missing item for his Hoffnungiana collection here, or at the Amazon net stores in Great Britain and Germany ( the German link has Real audio listening too).

SweDanes - do you remember "Scandinavian Shuffle"? Svend Asmussen is "still fiddling" and Alice Babs "still singing",

P.D.Q. Bach / Peter Schickele - old wellknown tunes in a distorting mirror as New Horizons in Music Appreciation :  Beethoven's Fifth Symphony Sportscast, The "Unbegun" Symphony or the Oratorio "The Seasonings" (S. 1 1/2 tsp) with "Bide thy thyme" and  "Summer is a cumin seed" - Try them! Quite spicy. Navigate and listen to Audio samples on his Site Map!

Anna Russell , Spike Jones , "Jonathan & Darlene Edwards" , and many other musicians - merriment with a lot of laughter and love for the music.

Find your favourites at Google! We did!