I turn up in “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Piano” in the New York Times. My selection is “The Homeless Wanderer” by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. This choice has proven successful, at least in the sense that many people have written to me, “Wow, I didn’t know about her! She’s great.”

The previous DTM post about this Ethiopian nun is “The Story of the Wind.” In that post I namecheck Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska’s “The Maiden’s Prayer,” which has turned out to be Lang Lang’s choice for “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Piano.” H’mm!

“The Maiden’s Prayer” is indeed a proven “gateway drug” selection. It’s not a great piece of music but it offers compelling introductory level piano glamor. (Lang himself plays it very well, of course.)

“The Maiden’s Prayer” makes me think of the theme to “Hill Street Blues,” also in E-flat, written by Mike Post almost exactly one hundred years after Badarzewska-Baranowska’s hit. How many kids have fooled around with the big box thanks to being shown these charismatic collections of E-flat, A-flat, and B-flat triads?