Re: GG: Wagner transcription

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Junichi Miyazawa wrote:

> Help me to translate the original linernotes of
> GG's Wagner Transcription (CBS 32351).
> right hand tremolandos--which, to me, always sound like the
> worst excesses of Aunt Sadie at the parlor upright--
> <KH>: --in a moment of rapture!
> <GG>: Exactly.
> <KH>: But you don't mean to say that you played 
> fast and loose with Wagner's textures, Glenn?
> GG:  Not "fast and loose," no!  I simply decided that--
>
> ^^^^^
> Now, questions:
> Who is "Aunt Sadie"?  
> What is the "parlor upright"?
> What does "fast and loose" mean?
> 

"Aunt Sadie at the parlor upright" - I think he means anyone's older aunt
who plays piano, at the upright (i.e. non-grand) piano in the parlor
(room) of the house.  He's referring to a culture where most girls were
taught piano lessons, and then when they grew up they continued to play at
the parlor piano to amuse the family.  By "Aunt Sadie" he might also be
trying to make a reference to unmarried aunts...the English term "old
maid" who might have been the one to stay home and take care of the
parents while the other sisters and brothers got married and moved away. 

(Of course, Sadie could also refer specifically to a *married* aunt, as in
the phrase "Sadie, Sadie, married lady" from some American musical show (I
don't remember which, or maybe Sadie Hawkins, the woman after whom "Sadie
Hawkins Day" is named -- the "holiday" in which single women are supposed
to invite single men for dates.  But really, I think GG didn't mean all
that.) 

"Fast and loose" is just an idiomatic expression for "informal" or
"changing whatever details one feels like changing, to suit one's own
personal taste."  I'm sure somebody else on this list will say it better.

Hope this helps.

> My non-native speaker's intuition tells me that the
> description sounds dirty, doesn't it?

He probably didn't intend it as dirty; it's just an idiom in fast
and loose English.  :)

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ 

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music 
and cats." - Albert Schweitzer