As the ancient Chinese saying goes, we have the privilege to live in interesting times. And it's looking likely that we'll also have the privilege to die in them. Speaking of dying, in days of yore it was a bold gesture to request that one's ashes be strewn across a sandy beach or tossed into San Francisco Bay from the heights of the Golden Gate Bridge. But in today's interesting times we've got more options. We can now have our ashes pressed into a gemstone, painted into a work of art or even (are you sitting down?) molded into a vinyl record. You choose the piece of music before you die (obviously), and your loved ones take care of the rest. When WOSU Music Director Beverley Ervine alerted us recently to this intriguing service, the possibilities seemed to rich for the musical likes of us not to explore. So I asked Beverley and and my fellow WOSU Classical Music Hosts John Rittmeyer, Boyce Lancaster and Christopher Purdy yesterday what recordings they might like to become when they go the way of all flesh. As you might imagine, the discussion of the fate of our ashes was grimly amusing, darkly colorful - in short, anything but (forgive me) dry. Our chat was so colorful, in fact, that it inspired John Rittmeyer to sing his version of the Rolf Harris classic "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport." Rex Harrison couldn't have done it better: [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-john-kangaroo-audio.mp3] That out of his system, John got down to business: [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-john-beethoven-audio.mp3] On Boyce Lancaster's list Handel's Messiah and Bach's contentment cantata Ich habe genug rub shoulders with an eerily appropriate Joe Diffie classic: [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-boyce-audio.mp3] And even though Christopher Purdy's final destination is currently in, shall we say, limbo, he did tell us he would like to become a very special vintage performance of Don Giovanni: [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-christopher-audio.mp3] And what else could our music director and resident Virginian, Beverley Ervine, chose but Shenandoah? [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-beverley-audio.mp3] And me? Well, I chose to leave myself behind as a recording of music my antiquarian survivors would enjoy listening to, in the hopes that they might hear it, smile and think of me: [audio: http://wosu.org/audio/classical/2010/101130-jennifer-audio.mp3] So now we're all curious to hear what pieces of music you might like to be memorialized as. Write in with your selections.
Ashes to Ashes: A Bare-Bones Chatfest with Your Classical Music Hosts
