When I was little my mom and dad had a beautiful Pretorian 35. We’d spend a few weeks every summer cruising on that boat - my dad, mom, brother, sister and I. Some of my fondest memories from childhood take place on that boat and I credit the Lancashire Lass and those vacations for instilling a sense of wanderlust and adventure in all of us. There were no televisions, no handheld gaming devices...we had books and our imaginations. That 35 foot boat became a place of endless opportunity for my brother, sister and I - we’d make forts, dangle our feet in the water, swing from the halyards, sit on the bow and make up songs as we bounced up and down with the waves, sit in the dinghy and be towed astern...it was wonderful.
At night - as my dad tucked us all in our bunks - he would play music. And it was always Pachelbel. That beautiful music would lull me to a dreamy sleep as waves lapped gently against the hull. To this day, when so many hear Canon in D and think wedding*, I hear it and think boats. Of being on the water. Of drifting to sleep. Of dreams. I know that piece of music so well I am convinced I could conduct it.
When we are on watch during the night, Scott and I do little to distract ourselves. We’ve heard of cruisers who watch movies, sleep on deck with alarms, and basically do anything to busy themselves for three hours. Sometimes I read, but my new love is listening to music on my iPod as I scan the horizon. I am still totally in tune with what is around me, but my ears and mind are occupied. During one particular watch of the Mona Passage I listened to my old friend Pachelbel and let me tell you, there is little else more soul calming than sailing along the ocean in the solitude of night, listening to the sound of a magnificent orchestra. It was so beautiful and powerful and nostalgic it almost moved me to tears.
If you have never heard this version** of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, please do yourself a favor and treat yourself to it. Curl up on the couch, sit on your porch, or lounge in your hammock, open your imagination and let it take you away. You’ll know what I mean.
When we are on watch during the night, Scott and I do little to distract ourselves. We’ve heard of cruisers who watch movies, sleep on deck with alarms, and basically do anything to busy themselves for three hours. Sometimes I read, but my new love is listening to music on my iPod as I scan the horizon. I am still totally in tune with what is around me, but my ears and mind are occupied. During one particular watch of the Mona Passage I listened to my old friend Pachelbel and let me tell you, there is little else more soul calming than sailing along the ocean in the solitude of night, listening to the sound of a magnificent orchestra. It was so beautiful and powerful and nostalgic it almost moved me to tears.
If you have never heard this version** of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, please do yourself a favor and treat yourself to it. Curl up on the couch, sit on your porch, or lounge in your hammock, open your imagination and let it take you away. You’ll know what I mean.
Love,
Brittany & Scott
*I did, also, walk down the isle to this.
** The entire album is amazing - it’s the Paillard Chamber Orchestra Works from Pachelbel and Fasch
8 comments:
Wonderful!...Me I always played Handel's Water Music.
Great song, no doubt. However, I prefer this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDDxMhUqXQ
Love it, thanks! Also love this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6yuR8efotI
Brings back such memories of our family doing the same thing on our Peterson 34 - Justified. My Dad always had Vivaldi playing - at sunset with a box of triscuits and a bar of sharp chedder. Vonic and Tonics (what I called them in my early youth) for my parents and Sprites for me and Chris. Just hanging out in the cockpit. Remember it just like yesterday... thanks for the trip down memory lane ;)
Canon in D gives me goosebumps. When my youngest daughter attended her junior prom, she ate at the inn where I was a waitress. I arranged for Hans to play the piano in the dining room (while the regular pianist was on break)and I asked him to please play this piece. I then waited on my daughter and her boyfriend. I'd also made her prom dress, and for me it was a most perfect evening. She graduates college next week and at her soccer banquet a few weeks ago she told everyone about that evening and I was amazed that she even remembered it.
We played this song at our wedding too! How great it must have been to end a day of sailing with this type of music instead of television! We will keep your story in mind for the far away future when we have grand kids on our boat! Today's kids need a little more of this type of music.
Ditto on having this at our wedding. It absolutely monsooned that day (they say rain brings luck)...so in a way, it reminds me of water too!
My all time tension releasing music. Have you heard Geoge Winston's rendition? It's on his December CD.
Check it out.
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