Copper


Music'al notes


Handel’s Messiah

Issue 203Music'al Notes

My wife and I have a subscription to the New York Philharmonic. I love the place where they play, now named the David Geffen Hall, because they have finally (after...

Vikingbåde

Issue 199Music'al Notes

“I wish this boat would stop rocking so much,” I groaned to myself as I opened my eyes and looked in the bathroom mirror. It was only then that I...

The Jewish Cemetery

Music'al Notes

The Jewish cemetery in Shettleston, Glasgow is a miserable place. Not because of what it is but because of its location. For some reason it is always raining in this...

Gatecrashing

Issue 197Music'al Notes

“Would you like to see the car?” Leland and I looked at each other in bewilderment. “Sure,” we said. Parties at hi fi shows are fun. They are a way...

A Most Interesting Man

Issue 188Music'al Notes

“My name is Father Michael Cooper; may I speak to Roy Hall?” “Speaking,” I replied. He went on to tell me that he was an Orthodox monk who was opening...

Neighbors

Issue 174Music'al Notes

Bukhara. It was the razor wire that really got my attention. The concrete paving of the back garden and installation of a 10-foot perimeter fence was bewildering, but the addition...

Memoirs

Issue 167Music'al Notes

Writing memoirs is a strange process. I have written 60-plus stories, but two things happened to curtail my writing. First, I have almost run out of stories to tell. (After...

Hey Jude

Issue 134MUSIC'AL NOTES

Music can bring you back to a certain time and place. I recently dug out and played Marche Militaire No. 1 by Schubert. This was my first record. I had heard it...

School Days

Issue 129MUSIC'AL NOTES

Fat Malcolm. Malcolm was fat. This was a rarity in the undernourished Glasgow of the mid-fifties. Virtually all of us kids in elementary school were rail-thin. But Malcolm was short...

Arran, a Whisky Tale

Issue 124MUSIC'AL NOTES

The ad ran something like this. “Invest in a new distillery in the Isle of Arran. Your £450 payment will result in 12 cases of blended whisky and a holder...

Whisky

Issue 123MUSIC'AL NOTES

The man with the whisky bottle kept filling my glass. I was thrilled; a 14 year-old drinking alcohol for the first time. It was a synagogue party and I had...

Dude Ranch

Issue 122MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Great recovery Roy,” yelled the wrangler as I tightly pulled back on the reins of my horse whose front legs had collapsed on the steep downward slope. This happened on...

Copenhagen

Issue 121MUSIC'AL NOTES

Hi Dad, we just managed to get a booking for Noma in Copenhagen. Would you like to join us?” My son Ilan is a chef and one of the things...

The Munich HIGH END Show

Issue 120MUSIC'AL NOTES

The Munich HIGH END show or springtime for (you know who) in Germany. The following story was written in 2007. It was around my first or second visit to the HIGH...

Israel

Issue 119MUSIC'AL NOTES

Our friend Allan was the Sherriff of Galilee. At least that’s what we called him. In actuality he was a commander in the border police and was often called on...

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Issue 116MUSIC'AL NOTES

The bride and groom walked down the aisle to the wedding canopy while the whole orchestra played the wedding march. That is the whole Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In the late...

Smuggling

Issue 113MUSIC'AL NOTES

I come from a family of smugglers. “Have you anything to declare?” the customs agent said as he pulled my father’s car apart. “No, nothing. Nothing at all,” said my...

Binghamton

Issue 110MUSIC'AL NOTES

My first impression of America was Binghamton, New York. With the exception of a few hours’ layover in JFK, (Green Acres was playing on the TV and I seriously considered returning...

Key West

Issue 105MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Go immediately to the emergency room. I can’t help you here,” said the doctor in Urgent Care. It was my first day of vacation in Key West (about a week...

Zaida

Issue 102MUSIC'AL NOTES

The headline in the local Jewish newspaper read, “Orthodox Man Accuses Delicatessen Owner of Cutting Meat With a Knife Used for Cheese.” This heresy of mixing meat with milk was...

Erna

Issue 100MUSIC'AL NOTES

As some readers may have noticed, the tales I write are stories of my life. Some of them, including the one below, are about my family history. My father, born...

Artek

Issue 99MUSIC'AL NOTES

I looked down at the bowl of pasta covered with green sauce. “Eat it!” Said Artek, “It’s delicious.” And it was. My wife’s uncle Artek was born in Poland and...

Puerto Rico

Issue 98MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Why are we here?” I asked my host Harry. “Wait, just wait” was his reply. I loved going to Puerto Rico. I would plan these trips in winter when the...

Top Chef

Issue 96MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Dad, can you lend me $2000? I’m good for it.” My son Ilan was a line cook in a New York restaurant called Casa Mono. He enjoyed the cook’s world:...

Cuba

Issue 95MUSIC'AL NOTES

The colorful buildings in the narrow streets of Old Havana beckoned us. The ever-present music drew us into the courtyard. Hypnotized we sat down and let the sounds wash over...

Dating

Issue 94MUSIC'AL NOTES

Leslie. “I’m breaking up with you. I have never been so humiliated in my life.” For a brief while I dated a woman with the wonderful name of Leslie Goldinger....

Muggings

Issue 93MUSIC'AL NOTES

It was the jostling that alerted me. I looked down and saw a hand removing money from my pocket. This was almost identical to an incident that had happened to...

My First Visit to China

Issue 92MUSIC'AL NOTES

[This article was first edited by Art Dudley and published by him in the May/June 2002 issue of  Listener magazine; I thank Art for his help. Originally titled, “In a Shanghai Speaker...

Budapest

Issue 91MUSIC'AL NOTES

I was sitting on a bidet in Budapest, thinking of Sam Tellig. Sam had told me about the Gellert baths many years ago. It’s a massive building decorated in Art...

Party

Issue 89MUSIC'AL NOTES

“This is S.I. Newhouse’s personal secretary, I would like to invite you and your wife to a party to celebrate the construction of his new apartment.” I almost hung up...

The Jewish Cemetery

Issue 90MUSIC'AL NOTES

The Jewish cemetery in Shettleston, Glasgow is a miserable place. Not because of what it is but because of its location. For some reason it is always raining in this...

Moscow

Issue 87MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Please list every single foreign trip you have taken.” This was just one of numerous ridiculous questions on the Russian Visa application form. Russia is the most bureaucratic place I...

Napa

Issue 88MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Hi Dad. How would you like to be my sous chef? I’m doing a charity event in Napa and I’ll need a assistant.” Ilan, my son, was the winner of Top...

Esther

Issue 86MUSIC'AL NOTES

She looked so summery, that I had to talk to her. I was on a bus changing terminals in the interminably slow London Heathrow airport and she was standing next...

Crazy Horse

Issue 85MUSIC'AL NOTES

“C’est mon mari!” yelled Arianne as we rushed into the kitchen to help her husband. Many years ago, I became the distributor of YBA electronics, a French company based in...

Cultural Differences

Issue 84MUSIC'AL NOTES

France. When my kids were small, we rented a house in Provence, France for a couple of weeks. It was a lovely Old Provencal style house, which was once a...

Taxi

Issue 83MUSIC'AL NOTES

The four of us shuffled into the doctor’s office. An old man gazed at us from behind his thick glasses. “Drop them!” He growled. “And the underpants!” We complied as...

New York Stories

Issue 82MUSIC'AL NOTES

Party. New York in the late seventies was run-down, crime-ridden, and affordable. We lived in the village; as many businesses had failed, people could rent one of the abundant industrial...

Laura

Issue 81MUSIC'AL NOTES

Years ago my daughter, wife, and I took a trip to Cabo San Lucas–a resort town in Mexico, and a tourist’s nightmare. At every turn, hordes of people assault you,...

Hong Kong

Issue 79MUSIC'AL NOTES

On my many visits to China, I always make a point of going through or leaving from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a western sea of tranquility amongst the tumult...

Motherwell

Issue 78MUSIC'AL NOTES

In the mid-sixties, I managed a furniture store in Motherwell, Scotland. Motherwell, in those days, was a steel town of about 37,000 people and when business was good, the Ravenscraig...

An Interesting Day

Issue 77MUSIC'AL NOTES

“You should visit the Yakeshi Factory in Foshan,” my friend Richard said. “They make really good products, and after every one of my visits, they send me back to my...

Citizenship

Issue 76MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Oh, you speak English? Thank God. You’re the first one today,” said the immigration officer. I came to the U.S. in 1970, following the love of my life. We spent...

Berlin Stories

Issue 75MUSIC'AL NOTES

KaDeWe  “How can you stand to be here after all that happened to your family?” Her name was Anna and she lived in East Berlin. I met her at the...

Trade Shows

Issue 74MUSIC'AL NOTES

Politics. “Roy, I need you to be on your best behavior,” said my friend Tony who worked for Epos Acoustics, an English loudspeaker company. “I’m going to bring Margaret Beckett...

Heart

Issue 73MUSIC'AL NOTES

I am awake. Not a slow-opening-of-my-eyes awake. More a slap-in-the-face awake. My eyes open wide and I see the nurse standing over me. A few days before this, I had...

Food, Wine, and Advice

Issue 73MUSIC'AL NOTES

One. When I moved to Manhattan in the mid-seventies things were not expensive, but I was almost always penniless. My wife, a student at Parsons School of Design, worked part-time...

Masumi

Issue 71MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?” “Yes,” she replied, to my great astonishment. I was on a business trip to Europe and as my timing happened to...

Suicide

Issue 70MUSIC'AL NOTES

As I age, I become aware of my mortality. My wife and I have talked about what to do if one of us becomes brain dead. I want her to...

Discipline

Issue 72MUSIC'AL NOTES

As a kid growing up in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1950s, it was not at all unusual to receive a whack if you did something wrong. Today discipline, as it...