Soundtracks

I have been listening to classical music lately. Every now and again, I need lyric free music just to clear all the chaos and word clutter out of my head. Sometimes I feel like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. “Word, words, words! I’m so sick of words!” Yes, dear readers, sometimes even I get weary of so many words. I retreat into the world of music created by Wagner and Vivaldi, Bach and Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn, Haydn and Chopin and Liszt. I don’t have the ability to listen to a piece of music and tell you the composer most of the time, although I have friends that can do just that. (You know who you are.) Oh, I can pick out Vivaldi most of the time, and many pieces by Mozart (thanks to that time I worked backstage at a production of Amadeus). I can usually tell a Tchaikovsky when I hear it, or Gershwin, and I am amused by how many of these classical pieces I recognise because I grew up with Bugs Bunny and his pals at Looney Tunes.

Can you imagine composing music like this? To have such knowledge of every instrument in an orchestra, and how they fit together musically, so much that you could write an entire four-movement symphony for every piece of the orchestra? Or know piano or violin to the extent that you could write a concerto for them, and still be able to write the orchestra piece that plays behind the main instrument? These poeple that could and can do this are amazing to me. I can sit and listen to these pieces quite peacfully for some time. If you listen just right, the music can tell a story. In fact, in college, my best friends and I used to put on classical music, turn off the lights, close our eyes, and tell the musical story together. It was a fun game, and I sometimes think those nights were the best sleep I have ever gotten.

If you have a moment, find Spanish Dance #2 on piano by Enrique Granados. Put it on and close your eyes and just listen. It is one of my most favorite pieces. I first heard it played by Tom Constantine of the Grateful Dead. You will thank me later.

While I was taking my break, though, a couple new words crept into my brain. Do you want to know what they are? Ready? One is phenomenology. It is very fun to say. (You should try it.) It is a branch of philosophy that explores the way we interpret the world. It exolores subjective experiences and the meanings that we put to them. The other is efficacy. It is fun to say too. (You should try this one too.) It is a noun version of the word efficient.

There is a song—well, sort of a song—-that celebrates specific words and how fun they are to say. Credit for this goes to (the late) Robb Hendershot. I like to think he would be amused at me promoting it here. It is called Bulbous Bouffant. You should look that up too. Especially if, like me, you enjoy words.

I am not entirely sure how I got from Wagner to Bulbous Bouffant. My musical taste has alway been eclectic. But it soothes me, amuses me, helps me feel sad, helps me feel happy. Helps me feel. Music is so many things. It is an escape, a retreat, a salve, a way to pass the time…..my music creates the soundtrack of my life, and is ever changing.

What is your soundtrack like?