I was listening to the radio the other day on my way home from work, and the guy (I guess he’s still called a DJ, even if he does work for the classical music station) introduced the next piece of music as The Spanish Dances by I-don’t-remember-who (he remembered who – I don’t). The music started, and I thought, this doesn’t sound very Spanish, but what do I know. Then the music cut off, the radio went silent, and after a couple of seconds, the DJ (that just doesn’t sound right) said, “My apologies. I jumped ahead. That was Haydn. These are The Spanish Dances.” And then something that sounded somewhat more Spanish (more classical guitar, less orchestra) started.
Good story, huh? I know. Hush. It struck me as odd, though. You so rarely hear silence on the radio, and I’ve never heard music get cut off so abruptly like that, outside of emergency broadcasts. If it were me, I probably would have let the Haydn finish, then apologize, identify it correctly, and continue with the actual Spanish Dances.