Musically Childhood Memories

The first thing which struck Susanne Keck was the unusual, large, square format of the song book Die schönsten Lieder (The most beautiful songs). Followed by the colorful cover with the cuckoo and the donkey – that was one of her favorite songs in her childhood! Of course she wanted to explore further!

The first thing which struck me was the unusual, large, square format of the song book Die schönsten Lieder. Followed by the colorful cover with the cuckoo and the donkey – that was one of my favorite songs in my childhood! Of course I wanted to explore further!

I found many songs which I learnt in my youth but have forgotten over the years, and I was able to feast on memories:
“Meine Oma fährt im Hühnerstall Motorrad” was one of the few funny songs I knew as a child, apart from “Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass”.
We even acted out “Ein Vogel wollte Hochzeit machen” in school.
As a teenager, I loved English-language songs such as “When the saints go marching in” and “Morning has broken”, but also Hebrew songs like “Shalom chaverim” and “Hava nagila”. “Bona nox” – wasn’t that the canon by Mozart with the rude text?
I even found the German national anthem “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit”. Perhaps I should finally learn it properly?

The generous format offers plenty of space for the beautiful, colorful illustrations affectionately painted by Stuttgart artist Frank Walka to match the texts. Even if I didn’t sing, I would happily bury myself in the book and enjoy the pictures. This way, families who don’t sing that much can find their way towards singing together. Those who do not know the melodies will find an instrumental recording of each of the 166 songs on the singalong CD, in varied scorings, at pitches suitable for children.

If I still had young children (or grandchildren) I would really enjoy diving into the book with them, talking about the pictures, and teaching them songs they no longer hear at nursery school. Learning by looking and listening are wonderfully combined here.

And at the end, the book will be a handsome addition to any bookcase!