Our Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii & The Swingle Singers
Friday, December 19, 2014
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| Lauren December 20 2014 |
On Saturday we will attempt to have a quiet afternoon in which our two granddaughters will decorate the tree I bought today. The tree is a nice one, very symmetrical and already our living room has the nice scent of the Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (a Douglas Fir to all those who might not know).
I remember fondly and
with lots of botanical ignorance on my part how the Christmas trees we
purchased in Mexico City
in the early 70s were advertized as “importados del Canadá”.
Few would know that
the most extensive variety of pine species is to be found in Mexico. Somehow
in Spanish and particularly in some of these countries where Thuja plicata
(Western Red Cedar) the Pseudotsuga menziessii and other conifers are alien and
anything with a needle is simply a pino. These Canadian pinos must have been
Pseudotsugas. If you must ask, the name Pseudotsuga tells us that a Douglas Fir
is a quasi hemlock and the botanical name of the hemlock is Tsuga.
I always buy our
Christmas tree late in the season. Luckily I do not go to malls or have coffee
at Starbucks so I am not yet tired of Christmas carols that I have yet to
listen to.
While Rosemary was
stringing the lights on the tree today I wondered what would be the best music
to do it by. In the end I chose my 50-year-old (1964) Argentine mono recording
of the Swingle Singers. I was absolutely amazed on how a record that has
traveled and been played in all sorts of unsophisticated turntables could
possibly sound so good. When I first heard the Swingle Singers that year I was
ignorant on all things Bach. Now as I listened to it I could recognize the program
as I have heard them all played with “conventional” instruments like baroque
violins, violas da gamba and baroque timpani!
And anybody wondering
about that turntable in the photograph. It is a Sony PS-X555ES linear tracking
machine. The cartridge is a Stanton
500MkII.
Swingle SingersSymphonia from J.S. Bach's Partita No2 BWV 286
Swingle SingersSymphonia from J.S. Bach's Partita No2 BWV 286
