Initially, I thought that the tune might be a composition of Antonio Carlos Jobim (composer of “The Girl From Ipanema”) or Henry Mancini (composer of “Moon River,” “The Pink Panther,” and scores of other well-known songs).

An at-work friend and I whistled the song into one of his Android phone’s “apps” that is usually able to recognize music from recordings. Evidently, our whistling was not up to the caliber needed to recognize the song. The “app” insulted our whistling (not really); and, was unable to identify the tune from our amateurish puckering,

Recently, I thumbed through a printed song-book (The New York Times, “Great Songs of the Sixties”) I borrowed many years ago from my musical mentor and friend, John Von Spreckelsen, and never returned (sorry, John). As I approached the half-way point through the collection, I found the song I’d been seeking: “A Man And A Woman,” (Un Homme et Une Femme) from a French (1966) movie with the same name. What a relief!

The movie is about a man and a woman, both whose spouses had previously died, who find each other and love, again. Very romantic. The movie is available from Netflix, even though the movie is in French with English subtitles.

The music was composed by Francis Lai who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for this movie score. While researching, I was surprised to learn that he also wrote the musical score for the 1970 movie, “Love Story,” which is another favorite of mine.

I transcribed the Percy Faith Orchestra arrangement I found on my subscription Rhapsody music-service. The instrumental sounds I used are from my Kurzweil PC3K8 and Synful Orchestra. I hope you enjoy my version of this illusive tune and the cartoon I inked to accompany the music.

I remember my parents agreeing that for most children (they believed that) before seven (7) years-old was “too early” to begin musical instruction. I vaguely recollect being about three (3) years old—and, banging, i.e., exuberantly-playing (i.e. having fun) on our piano when we lived on Oakwood Ave. (Huntsville, AL) and having been kindly corrected (i.e., stopped from banging) by Mother or Daddy. I don’t remember touching the piano or its keys again until (then, already having moved to Green Mountain (Huntsville, AL, USA) in 1959) when I was seven (7), my father had a fatherly discussion with me during which, he convinced me that I now had a wonderful opportunity to learn to play the piano from my mother. He was absolutely correct. I will write more on that, in follow-up posts.

When I began writing this, I believed that my first two piano piece had been: (#1) “C-D-E” and (#2) “C-B-A.” I thought that these pieces were in the John W. Schaum piano series. However, as I researched, it became clear that these songs were in another piano method. I believe that I found them in the the Leila Fletcher Piano Course, Book 1. And, they are not the first pieces in the book, either… An online version of Book 1 is here.

My memory of the piece itself, also, was not exact—my version of the pieces added a couple of extra notes to the end of each piece. My tendency to do that (adding notes or omitting them) drove one of my piano teachers, Mrs. Edwin Jones, crazy (not literally). I recall a story related to Mrs. Jones and my improvisation, that I’ll also save for another post.

The audio recording I have produced to accompany this post introduces my recollection of “C-D-E” and then, “C-B-A,” followed by three intended-to-be-original variations of each piece. I hope that you enjoy them.