to want to use Bach's Goldberg Variations for pass the parcel music? dh has two objections...

[Lio]

1. We would have to make the parcel 32 layers thick, which obv has environmental implications.

1. He thinks the children would get bored, what with some of the variations being quite long. I say we just use the Glenn Gould 1955 recording, which is very zippy.

Any thoughts?

ds is going to be 5, btw. He is very advanced for his age.

[Marina]

Why not get ds to play them the Variations on his baby fortepiano Lio

[witchandchips]

lol i would just go straight for wagners ring cycle!

[SoupDragon]

Ponce.

[Cappuccino]

[Lio]

Don't get me started on ds. Marina: he argues forcefully in favour of only playing Bach on a harpsichord, fgs. I am surrounded by oafs.

[PuppyMonkey]

Will you have a toy or a sweet as a prize for each layer? If so, what items would suit the music?

[PathofLeastResistance]

[SoupDragon]

"loads shotgun"?? Have the rules for pass the parcel changed since I last did it?

[Swedes]

Are the invitees ordinary or extraordinary 4/5 year olds? Or are they all teenagers from DS's Chess and Russian Conversation club?

[Lio]

PuppyMonkey: oh shit, I have to provide prizes too? Isn't the gift of music sufficient?

[bundle]

dh visited John Taverner's house once

his kids played pass the parcel to the Rite of Spring.

I kid ye not

[StealthPolarBear]

good question puppymonkey
it is a party, so how about some wooden toys?

[Lio]

Swedes, I'm not normally one to judge, but I sometimes think the other parents are just not interested in enabling their children to fulfil their destinies. Some of them are even allowed to watch television

[Twelvelegs]

Is this a joke?
If not play hot potato, no papaer but a similar idea...however if you have the parcel you're out.

[Lio]

bundle, that is hilarious! I feel my thunder being stolen and will now slink off to buy some fizzy sweets and plastic tat from Asda.

[Twelvelegs]

Perhaps each child could then write an essay as to the merits of each game.

[bundle]

lio, hang your philistine head in shame

get thee to poundstrechers, gregg's sausage roll in hand

[PuppyMonkey]

The gift of music may not be enough for many five-year-olds, I fear.

A CD containing single popular classical music tracks as a prize might suffice as in-between prizes. I'm guessing tickets to the Albert Hall might be the only way to go as the main prize.

It's a can of worms you're opening here - not literally, thank heavens.

[bundle]

twelvelegs, don't you mean a critique???

[StealthPolarBear]

I fear I have shown my lack of taste with the wooden toys idea

[StealthPolarBear]

Twelvelegs - search for 'pesto' in the last couple of days...all will become clear

[SaintRiven]

Bach? sheesh. Advanced children listen to Scrabin and Rachmaninov.

[seeker]

My ds goes to sleep to the Goldberg Variations every night and has done since he was born 7 years ago. Sadly it has made very little impact on his musical development. His favourite song remains either "We Will Rock You" or "A Policeman's Lot is not a Happy One" and his instrument of chioce is the ukelele, on which he can play the opening bars of "Smoke on the Water."

[witchandchips]

why can't the stopping of the parcel tie in with a solo performance from each child on the instrument pictured on the next layer of wrapping paper. - As they are still under 5 you may need to send out the sheet music to parents before hand

[Marina]

Lio, if the paper wastage concerns you, why not wrap the parcel in the parts for Spem in Alium and get them to have a spontaneous singthrough
Or book Joanna MacGregor as party entertainer?