Inspiring, Cervaise.
Esprix
Moments in “relaxing classical music.”
I am in the bowels of the local hospital, about to get an MRI. I have had a headache for the last two months, and visions of tumors are dancing in my head. The kindly tech asks me what kind of music I would like to listen to whilst in the tube. Not wanting to be annoyed by music I hate, I ask for “classical.” They give me my headphones, put the goggles on me, and whisk me into the machine. The first thing I hear through the headphones? The opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth.
Yep. Nice and relaxing.
What Cervaise said.
Some pieces also remind me of certain things-Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet brings to the mind the Romanovs-because of a documentary I have that uses pieces from it while showing footage of the family. Thus, I find it soothing.
Or a song might be relaxing for sentimental reasons.
I just mean people who think that classical music, in general, is relaxing. To me, it’s stimulating-in that it stimulates my brain. Of course, like most music, if I’m involved in something, I often end up tuning it out-but that’s just how I am with anything-I do that to the tv or the radio.
And not everyone is going to have the same reaction to each piece. That’s a given. For example, I found that listening to Debussy’s La Mer while I study REALLY helps me to focus on what I’m doing, and I tended to be able to concentrate much better. Someone else may have a totally different reaction.
One thing that DOES relax me, that’s not meant to, is the Star Wars soundtrack (all of it.)
Mainly because I used to listen to it a lot when I was going through a major depression, because it distracted me-reading my SW books and listening to the music-and kept my mind off of my worries. So it’s a very beloved thing to me, and it never fails to make me feel better.
(Especially Yoda’s theme!)
I hope it is not unduly perverse to dig up this thread to say that today Amazon finally saw fit to actually deliver my Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach CD.
Thanks Esprix (and others), I laughed out loud at The Echo Sonata, inspired, irreverent lunacy.
And yet so, er… relaxing.
Conflicting drives - Auntie Mame mode, reading every post carefully, soaking up the fine prose and fascinating references (except for Estilicon’s rant, that was odd); and a simultaneous Arnold Horseshack “Ooooh-Oooooh-Ooooh” staccato urge to get to the bottom in order to type
Me Too!
Our orchestra (community-type) just started rehearsals including Ravel’s Mother Goose; five pieces for children. Did I mention I have this problem with weeping while playing?
Last fall we played Mozart’s Requiem at a huge cathedral, part of the national Rolling Requiem concerts held simultaneously on 9/11. There’s 100 of us, plus 100 members of various choirs were there. At the end of the first movement - the sudden silence - the echo - unforgettable. Our conductor was so stirred, he kinda forgot to give the tempo for the beginning of Deis Irae (sp?) and the first couple of measures were flubbed.