Monday, April 22, 2019

What is is about music that moves you?


I am always fascinated by the way music can move us on a personal/emotional level . I find I'm moved for different reasons by different pieces. Cantique de Jean Racine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB_3rG7KZyU) moves me because I had a powerful experience as a teenager - one of those "I never knew music could be like this", moments while studying at Interlochen. It was one of the first times I was around people who loved music the same way that I did. I was deeply inspired by our conductor, Jerry Blackstone, and by the idyllic summer in northern Michigan. It was a magical memory of a serene piece that I will always cherish, and for that I am moved. In fact, it is difficult for me not to get emotional when I hear that piece. 

"If I loved you" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6wROfJMpUo) is one of the most fascinating songs ever written. The melody is masterfully crafted and is as beautiful as anything written in any canon, but part of the reason I am moved by this is in the text. It poses the hypothetical scenario, it's not "because I love you" or "yes, I love you," it is "if." It perfectly captures that awkward and exciting moment of an initial meeting and that first spark of romantic chemistry. I hear it and I am taken back to Stanziato's Pizza joint in Danbury, Connecticut. I hear the song and I remember that moment, and that feeling, as if it were yesterday.

There have been tunes that initial do not move me at all, but then something changes, and it is suddenly among the most moving things I have ever heard. My love of the music of Ben Folds is no secret. Having attended my first Ben Folds Five concert at 14, I feel as though I have "grown up" with him. His song, "Still Fighting It"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqPwR39VMh0) was released when I was in high school. The story of a father having a meaningful conversation with his young son did not resonate with my teen-aged self. Not.At. All. But after becoming a parent, there are several lines that are especially poignant including this text, which describes how wonderful, but also how difficult life can, and will, be - "It was pain, sunny days and rain. I knew you'd feel the same things." Almost 20 years ago, this meant absolutely nothing to me, but now it moves me to tears with regularity.

What is your story - what is it about music that moves you?



13 comments:

  1. So much music that has impacted me in one way or another, but here are three:

    When I was very young we lived in a single wide mobile home and were quite poor. We had no tv, and only one beat up car that my dad took to work, which meant my mom and I were literally stuck at home all day. However, we had an old record player and a handful of classical records. My favorite was the Tchaikovsky. I would play it over and over and make up dances. I was maybe 3 or 4 when I first heard this song https://youtu.be/Ybg2BEy_pu0 It brought me so much joy (and still does). My little soul soared every time I heard it. It was the song that made me decide I wanted to play the piano. As lessons weren't really an option, I taught myself with this song as my goal.

    Another really important song to me is this https://youtu.be/hHiySQuS_ws It. Is. Gorgeous. Every time I hear it I cry. Who knew seduction could be so beautiful ha. I wanted to sing this music so badly. Just like the song above inspired me to learn how to play the piano, this one introduced me to opera and I fell in love. Whenever I felt discouraged end of HS/early college I would listen to this song. But then a time came when I had a really hard decision to make about schooling. It was a dark time. I listened to this song on repeat for so many days, realizing I couldn't do it anymore and slowly let go... so many feelings wrapped in one song.

    In yet another time of life, this song moved me deeply. The message is what was important to me in this song. I had completely lost my faith, yet somehow this song penetrated my unfeeling heart. https://youtu.be/Zq-KhxsUxNo

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    1. So many great stories and excerpts here. This is really awesome, because I actually didn't know the SS piece, and it is stunning!

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  2. JL, your stories make that music that much more compelling. I think, MT, that's one of the neatest things - that as we share our experiences, they help others connect to music that might otherwise just be beautiful, or well-crafted, or well-performed... but instead, it can come alive because real people love it for real reasons.

    Since we're all doing threes, here are three of mine (as JL says, there are so many more! I could play this game every day with you). I wrote you a book, so three parts coming up!. =)

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    1. Yes! I so agree! I love, love, love listening to a song I've heard before knowing it has impacted a friend. It makes me put in the effort to listen for beauty where perhaps I didn't originally hear it before. My love for the person endears the music to me and gives it new meaning and life. Glad to have you join the conversation T :)

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  3. DUST IN THE WIND by Kansas
    https://youtu.be/zVokojoF_lY

    Heart: My dad and mom used to be the music for chill parties with their friends. Daddy brought his guitar everywhere and they both sang. This is one of the ones they did enough for it to stick so it became a family song when they had kids. I have such wonderful memories of sitting in living rooms throughout my life hearing him play this and so many other songs. But this one is treasured because, even as littles, we could sing it with him. The harmonies, the repetitions of "everything is dust in the wind"... And, best of all, my high tenor and very on pitch dad would sing the violin lines and the woos at the end - in their actual octaves, and would make the wind blowing noise at the end, having us rolling on the floor giggling by the time he "faded out."

    Head: That song has stuck with me in a way few others have. The text talks about how fleeting everything is, and that's something that's always with me, a weight always present in the back of my mind as I experience things... this moment is unique in all of time (so I try to be fully present and to make the most of it) and will never happen again (so there is an aspect of mourning, too).

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    1. See - and this is so awesome. That song has always made me think of the movie "Old School", but it now has a much more meaningful context to me. PS - Kansas is coming to Bay City this summer!

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  4. LITTLE WOMEN (the whole opera, thankyouverymuch) by Mark Adamo
    Link to the final song in a sec…

    So, this whole opera is something I saw live on a whim, just a date with D to a local college's School of Music performance. I had read the book, identified strongly with the main character, Jo, who struggled HARD to let things go and accept change, and thought listening to a musical rendition of the story would be cool. I walked out changed. It was a visceral experience. The way this composer pulls out the really universal elements of the story (which resonate with me SO STRONGLY) and then thematically (lyrically and musically) works them from end to end of the opera is something I could study and write theses on. If you want to really, really geek with me, you'll come to my house and we'll watch this opera together on DVD. I got to see it again in person later, as a major production directed by the actual composer… so on multiple levels it has been an EXPERIENCE.

    While you won't experience this properly until you've seen the whole opera, the link I'm sharing is to the last song. This ties together so many musical and textual themes it's insane… the melodies and harmonies, the instrumental underlay pull together snippets of themes and timbres from every meaningful moment, and you don't even know it's going on. And the story - Jo finally, finally accepting that change must happen, and that you must let go, is so poignant. She sings this with her sisters as they were at the beginning of the opera - in work/play smocks, harkening back to happy times - after we've watched them leave one by one - marriage, death, growing up and away… I tear up every. single. time.

    https://youtu.be/tv1qkYo1wHU

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    1. I HAD NO IDEA LITTLE WOMEN WAS TURNED INTO AN OPERA!!!! So this is like my all time favorite book. I read it to my eldest daughter when she was 2... and even though my girls are all named after Grandmas, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Jane are not a coincidence (I couldn't do a Josephine, so Jane was close enough :) ). I've listened to the musical, but never had any idea it was an opera. Thank you for sharing. Now I have something new to seek out and enjoy.

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    2. If ever you would like to borrow it, I have the 2-CD set, the DVD of the performance, and the libretto book close at hand. If you would like to watch it with a friend, just say the word. =)

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    3. Yes!! I would love to have a watching party :) But between both of our schedules we might need to wait until we're 95. ha. Seriously, though, let's figure something out!

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  5. INTERMEZZO (Op 188, No 2) by Brahms
    https://youtu.be/hrbQF6OZ-w4

    This piece is… transporting. =) The way Sunwook Kim plays it is my favorite interpretation (most folks play it way faster, so you miss some of the harmonic complexity and tenderness). Especially the B section in its context between the A and bridge to A'.

    So… I have 2-volume set of piano books that just pile up tons of classics, some very easy (classic but obviously learner pieces, or simple Bach or Mozart ditties) and some really tough classics (Rachmaninoff and Liszt show pieces, etc.). I've played through, sometimes just dinking around with one hand and the piece playing as intended only in my head, both books cover to cover. Somehow, in all of these years, I had totally missed this Intermezzo. I have no idea how - I LOVE Brahms, and it's not too hard to play (hard to play well, but it's approachable anyway)… but I found it very recently and immediately fell in love.

    But here's the cement that will hold this to my soul: a dear friend died no more than a week after me having found and falling in love with this piece. I'd thought about sharing the discovery with him, and then he was just… gone. Music like this is good for a soul in grief anyway (seriously, listen to it!), but: he was a Chicago Lyric chorister and his funeral was chock full of professionals playing their loss… and this piece was played by one of his dearest friends at the beginning of the service, as we settled into the reality of his death. I learned later, while I was nerding with the pianist about the work, that it was my friend's favorite piano piece. He'd never told his wife, also a dear friend, and a pianist (!), but somehow she found out before his final birthday… she worked it up in secret and played it for him as a gift. Because of its beauty, and this context, this Brahms is tied to my very being.

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    1. What a beautiful story! I too love Brahms! He's pretty dear to my heart for many reasons. I also love this song! It's pretty incredible the power music holds... I have yet to experience any other medium that so fully plays (ha) to my intellect, heart, body, emotion, and memory. Words or no words, the power to convey feeling is unparalleled.

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    2. Third vote for Brahms. What an incredible story. I think it's always fascinating which pieces stick to us for their ingenuity, beauty, and/or artistic merit and which stories stick to us because of something very personal. This is both, which makes it that much more powerful. Thanks for posting, guys! It's so great to get people chatting about things they love.

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