Auntie Elsie’s music box
A few years ago a great-aunt died. She was a fabulous, eccentric lady, who sucked extra-strong mints and drove a succession of old Minis precariously around Surrey.
Auntie Elsie had an open wood fire, a large garden with a jungle and a lion (that we never actually met), and cats who would scarper from anyone else; a kitchen that smelled comfortingly of gas and bacon, a downstairs loo that smelled of perfumed soap; quilts, books, old furniture, and a room full of teddy bears.
She also had a music box.
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I’m very bad at keeping in touch with people. I have great intentions to, but something scares me off; and the longer I leave it the more I panic about it and do nothing. I’ll feel guilty at the drop of a hat, yet I seem to do everything in my power to exacerbate that.
I have a cousin with a severely handicapped son, who I keep intending to contact but don’t. Other members of the family have been going through rough patches and I’ve meant to get in touch, but haven’t. Auntie Elsie was herself ill for a while before she died and I desperately wanted to see her or contact her, but I didn’t.
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A little while after the funeral, my name was drawn as the happy recipient of the old music box. I was delighted, genuinely excited: I was going to have it restored, and I was going to put the tunes on the internet for the family to hear. Instead I let it sit forlornly in my office for four years.
But now I intend to get off my backside and do something with it. It’s the least I owe the family, and in particular my Auntie Elsie.
It does need restoring: bits are broken, one lever has snapped off (although I was told by an expert just after I acquired it that it wasn’t beyond repair), and I’ve a horrible feeling that one of the bumpy bits was pinged across the room when I tried playing it just now. I’ve also no idea any more what each lever does, and flicking them didn’t seem to have much effect, so I’ve no idea of the order of the tunes.
Thankfully the long-yellowed track listing, still coated in ancient sticky tape (not so sticky now), continues to hang loosely from the inside of the lid: sadly I can’t understand a word of it. I think some of it’s in French, but it’s also in a beautiful calligraphic hand that I can’t decipher (yet).
But no matter. Here, for your delectation and wonder, is a tune from Auntie Elsie’s (as yet un-restored) music box:
Auntie Elsie’s Music Box track 1
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Wow, that’s a beautiful tune, you should consider playing it on your radio show. You said you’ve got the tracklisting, what was that first one called?
Julia Gilbert
Unfortunately I’ve no idea. I called it number one because it’s the first I’ve recorded, but as they’re on a barrel there’s no identifiable beginning or end. I’m intending to record all of them (although I’m slightly worried about breaking it) and decypher the track list, and then invite people to try and help me match the tunes to their titles.
Michael