MP3:
01 Milk Sandwich (0:49)
02 Wild Rose (1:26)
03 Toy Symphony (3:43)
04 Jasmine Blossom (2:00)
05 The Sun is Up (0:52)
06 Reverie (1:33)
07 Mama, Tell a Story! (0:51)
08 Little Snail (1:57)
09 Little Sister Leaves Her Doll Behind (1:12)
10 Tiny Stars (to the tune of "Ah! Vous Dirais-je, Maman") (1:16)
11 Butterfly (1:00)
12 I'm a Tiny Bird (1:05)
13 Lullaby (Wen Longxin) (2:03)
14 Clench Your Fists (1:03)
15 Back Massage Song (1:05)
16 Ten Soldiers (to the tune of "Ten Little Indians") (0:58)
17 Catching Fish (1:19)
18 Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down") (0:45)
19 Cool Summer Night (lit. "Enjoying the Cool") (1:20)
20 Tricycle (1:11)
A few years ago a friend of mine, who likes some moderately unusual music and knows I like some exceedingly unusual music, gave me a box set of cassettes he found in a thrift store for Christmas. Most of the packaging is in an Asian language that we couldn't identify, so all we had to go on were the illustrations and the music itself.
As can be seen from the image of the first cassette, they are fairly old—the labels are discolored and they have no clear leader tapes. The set's case has spaces for six cassettes, and the booklet lists the contents of six, but only five cassettes were there. The first two are entirely instrumental. And almost every other track throughout is traditional Western classical music, possibly copied from Western recordings. I haven't included any of those. The rest of the tracks are... decidedly not traditional Western classical music. The sound quality has deteriorated in some places, and in others an occasional tapping can be heard, almost like vinyl skips—something I've never heard on any other tape.
Because I had no titles and little information, I provided scans of almost the entire booklet—with the exception of page four, which is identical to page two except for the cassette designations—in the hope that one of the Project's listeners could read it. Listener Brian came to the rescue. Not only did he translate the titles, but he did some independent research. "I wasn't having much luck figuring out when/where the recording was made, since the booklet doesn't say and the internet wasn't turning up anything, but then I thought to search through some library catalogs," he wrote me. "Sure enough, I found it! It's from 1982, and it was indeed published in Taiwan. I also found out a bit about the editors: Wen Longxin is an award winning composer who has scored a few films, and Su Shuying is an educator."
So there you have it. Be warned, there may be some earworms here. And thanks again Brian!
- Contributed by: Andrew Lander
Images:
Booklet Cover,
Booklet Page 1,
Booklet Page 2,
Booklet Page 3 (cassette #1 contents),
Booklet Page 5 (cassette #2 contents),
Booklet Page 6 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 7 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 8 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 9 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 10 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 11 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 12 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 13 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 14 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 15 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 16 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 17 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 18 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 19 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 20 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 21 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics),
Booklet Page 22 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics),
Cassette #1
Media: Cassette Box Set
Album: Wonderful Childhood, Vol. 1
Label: Crystal Sound
Catalog: CS-9006
Credits: compiled by Wen Longxin and Su Shuying
Date: 1982
You're probably right that they're of Taiwanese origin. It sounds like the children are speaking Mandarin. Although they share the same dialect as the official language of China, the text printed is the traditional form of Chinese characters, which Taiwan has retained for the most part. China uses simplified characters which have been established and formalized by their government since the 1950s.
Posted by: Daren | April 27, 2007 at 10:41 AM
The title of the recording is "Wonderful Childhood, vol. 1" compiled by Wen Longxin and Su Shuying. I'll do my best...many of them are European classical pieces, in which case I may translate them wrong since I may not be able to identify the piece and know the correct title.
Cassette 1, Side A
1. Lullaby (Schubert)
2. "Meditation" from Thais [Massenet]
3. Prelude [to what??]
4. Little Raindrops
5. Moment musical (Schubert)
6. Clear Stream
7. Milk Sandwich
8. Rondo (Beethoven)
9. Symphony, op. 40, mvt. 2 (Mozart)
10. Wild Rose
Posted by: brian | April 27, 2007 at 08:33 PM
Cassette 1, Side B
1. Lullaby (Brahms)
2. Humoresque (Dvorak)
3. The Swallow
4. Spring is Here
5. Fur Elise
6. Ripples on the Danube [Blue Danube waltz?]
7. The Cuckoo
8. [not sure how to translate...apparently refers to the time of year before grain has ripened]
9. Nocturne, op. 9 no. 1 (Chopin)
10. Lullaby (Mozart)
11. On the Wings of Song
Posted by: brian | April 27, 2007 at 08:45 PM
Cassette 2, Side A
1. Mama
2. Spring Mountains and Rivers
3. Toy Symphony
4. Little Turtle
5. Minuet (Bach)
6. Little Bubbles
7. Rondo (Beethoven)
8. The Happy Farmer
9. Eine kleine nachtmusik (Mozart)
10. The Bodhi Tree
Side B
1. Dreams
2. The Lovable Family
3. Jasmine Blossom
4. March
5. Little Crow
6. Silent Night
7. The Brave Knight
8. Golden Wedding
9. Romance (Beethoven)
10. Song of Spring
Posted by: brian | April 27, 2007 at 09:08 PM
One more and then I'm calling it quits for now...email me and I can send the rest without spamming the blog!
Cassette 3, Side A (just titles)
1. Tadpole
2. Mail Carriage
3. Quiet Forest
4. Hey Little Green Frog!
5. Wagtail
6. Busy Bees
7. Robots Matching Strength [awesome!]
8. Two Tigers
9. Fantasia capriccio
10. Little Brother
11. Where are My Friends? [my theme song?]
12. Lullaby
Side B
1. Ave Maria [I think?]
2. The Sun is Up
3. I'm a Little Teapot
4. Minuet
5. Little Bunny
6. ["main theme" from something...I'm not getting what the foreign-sounding word in the title refers to]
7. What Do You Want to Eat?
8. Reverie
9. Mother Duck and Ducklings
10. Mama, Tell a Story!
11. Children's Dreamland
Posted by: brian | April 27, 2007 at 09:35 PM
03 Cassette 2 Side A Track 3 is Papa Mozart's (Wolfgang's dad's) "Toy Symphony."
Posted by: Hellbound Alleee | April 28, 2007 at 02:27 PM
Standout tracks for me are:
Cassette 3 - Side B - track 2 (The Sun Is Up)
Cassette 3 - Side B - track 10 (Mama, Tell a Story!)
Cassette 4 - Side A - track 1
Cassette 5 - Side B - track 8
Posted by: Mikey | April 29, 2007 at 03:48 PM
Dang, these came from the actual tapes? Nice - i haven't heard cassette rips quite this clean or crisp since, well, ever! Some of the songs are actually cd-comparable with their quality. Nice.
Posted by: Anonymous Fan | May 02, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Hi, I want to thank you for this. And if you ever, just accidentally happen to digitalize cassette 3, I would love to have some or all of the tracks sent to my e-mail. I think the titles of those songs are so great I think I will spend eternity trying to track them down, or just keep wondering what "I'm A Teapot", "Mother Duck And Ducklings", "Robots Matching Strength" or "Children's Dreamland" sound like...
My favourites are 08, 09, 11, 15, 19...
Posted by: Lumi Kartuuni | June 15, 2007 at 01:51 AM
thank you and i miss those songs...by the way,the song 19's name should be Tricycle.
Posted by: Bear | March 30, 2008 at 07:49 AM