16.11.11

memory and music

Ahhhhh music.
classical music.
a balm that soothes the soul,
an arrow that penetrates the deepest crevasse of your heart.

yes, country singers can belt out the perfect lyrics to a love song, and alternative music has a mellow groove that I love!
Yet only classical music (especially arias), I believe, truly captures ones passion..in both extremes...from intense grief to jubilant bliss. Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert (and more) translated their interpretation of emotional strengthen onto pages and pages of musical brilliance.

Now.

I would suggest that classical music, is similar in preference to spicy food and Volkswagen's.
You either LOVE it/them...or you don't. Not a whole lot of "undecided" out there.
Pretty much black and white.

Thus, I understand that my appreciation for compilations that usually involve an orchestra and a foreign language, might make me seem a bit "odd". It may mean that I will be forever forced to listen to Gilbert and Sullivan in cramped quarters like the laundry room, or Kathleen Battle in small, spontaneous batches when everyone else has vacated the premises. My children did not inherit an "appreciation" for the Opera from their mother, they call it "the screaming music". And alas, Kent can only tolerate "the first minute".
I'm ok with that.

Some of the classical works are more meaningful to me than others. Believe me, I can't listen to everything out there! For example, the song/interlude, Ave Maria, by Mascagni, reminds me of a time when I was a very broken hearted 21 yr. old (see version on Youtube, but please excuse Celine's annoying distracting introduction to Andrea Bocelli).

On a quiet afternoon at home, after moving back from college (sooner than planned)..... my mother offered to play this song for me. knowing I was grieving a lost love. She told me it was originally written for a funeral. How very appropriate.

So, whenever i hear this melody, I can still see myself lying on my parents couch in our old house, the stereo volume cranked to its highest decibels, and tears streaming down my cheeks. I remember how the music took a lot out of me (i.e. passion), but it also brought me a sense of peace and helped me rest. I remember marveling at its effect on my aching heart.
 Some of the lyrics translated from the Italian:
Hail Mary, holy Mother,
Guide the feet of the wretched one who implores thee
Along the path of bitter grief
And fill the hearts with faith and hope.

O merciful Mother, thou who suffered so greatly,
See, ah! See my anguish.
Ah! Do not abandon me
In the cruel torment of endless weeping.

Hail Mary! Oppressed by grief,
Do not leave me, O Mother, have mercy!
O Mother, have mercy! Oppressed by grief,
Do not leave me.

NO POINTS GIVEN IF YOU LISTEN TO THE END.
BUT....i think you'll enjoy hearing his last (long held) note.
so beautiful

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