Saturday, April 1, 2017

My Writing: Folktale: Why a Certain Group of People Play with Fish on their Instruments

Hello, Friends!

This week is an extra week, so here is a folktale. (This folktale is untrue, however was inspired by true events.) By the way, can you tell which fairy tale this one is loosely based on?

Now, I know you wouldn't dream of putting fish on your instruments. That would be awful.

Now, this story was told to me by my great-grandfather almost 20 years ago.

You see, there was a certain group of people that got in the habit of performing some of their music with fish on their instruments. As you can imagine, this was the source of infinite confusion for their diverse audiences. However, no one had the courage to ask why such a renowned group of musicians did something so strange.

One day, a little girl with her parents was watching them perform. Finally, she turned to her mother and said: “Mommy, why do they put fish on their instruments?” The girl was too young realize she was being rude, and, as a result, talked so loudly the musicians heard.

“Well,” said the leader, kneeling down, “I'll tell you why.

“For a long while, all of us only played American music. Eventually, we got sick of that, and decided to play music from as many countries as the human race had created. One day, we came across some French music, and, right at the beginning, someone had written: 'Sardines.' We all thought this was very odd, but we had to do as the music said. I had our violinist buy sardines from the grocery store, and we put them on our instruments.” He smiled at the girl and stood up.

“But that's silly!” the girl cried. “Show me the music!”

“Now, now, honey,” the girl's mother said. “Leave them be.” She turned apologetically to the band. “We should go.”

The leader, however, smiled. “No, no, it's quite all right.” He brought their music to the girl.

“Why, that says sourdines, not sardines! It just means mute in French!” The girl exclaimed. “What's 'mute'?”

For, you see, the girl was bilingual.

And that is how a small girl made fools of some of the most famed musicians in all the land.



Spruce Nogard

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