(NOTE: This blog may have been written in order to prove that I can write about things other than camp and the kids I work with)
Music has some power over us as human beings. Certain pieces of music can enlighten our senses,and not just our auditory sense, but all of them: Auditory, visual, kinesthetic, taste, and balance . A certain piece of music can strongly affect our emotions, positively or negatively. When listening to certain classical pieces, a concerto for example, where there are three distinct movements of fast-slow-fast tempo, we can come to feel a variety of emotions within one single work. Even still, certain instruments can elicit unique thoughts or feelings from us, or even inspire us in some brilliant way.
Music can take us to different places, too. Sometimes to places we have loved very much and might do anything to return to. Other times the music can take us to places less desirable, yet remaining as an important part of our lives. Personally speaking, no matter how much I think about it, I cannot identify a single song I do not have some specific nostalgic connection to. Try it yourself....
I was listening to CBC Radio One last evening (I LOVE CBC Radio One!). I'm not sure what the show was because I do not normally listen to that program on Sunday nights. But last night I decided to turn on the radio for my bubble bath, and happened upon this program. Also, I tuned in with just a half hour or so left in the show, and didn't catch the title off the top of the hour. But I did catch the subject of the show... They were talking about music, specifically music that brought some kind of comfort to people. A totally, completely, 100% subjective topic, but it intrigued me very much. I became completely enthralled in what the selections were of the hosts and callers-in and people who e-mailed.
So what defines a "comfort cut"? As I said, it is a concept with very subjective guidelines. Some may select instrumentation as the defining criteria, others lyrics. Even more may say that a song which is comforting to them is one without lyrics whatsoever. Does one define music as comforting based on the singer's voice? Or on the memory attached to it? Maybe it's just the overall warmness or the feeling of safety we are filled with that defines a comfort cut. Perhaps most of all, the static existence of the songs we identify as comforting is what pulls us in. In a world of constant change and turbulence these songs stay the same. We can count of them. At any rate, I found myself considering my own criteria and subsequent list.
My "criteria" for a comfort cut is something very schizophrenic-esque. What does that mean? I have no idea. I think what I mean is that my taste is sometimes here sometimes there. For instance, I find tremendous comfort in classical music, specifically that of impressionist composer Claude Debussy. A bit of background: impressionist music (in the early 20th century following the Romantic era, and correlated with the impressionist movement in visual arts) served the intention of creating an entire visual place(that is, visual in one's own mind)around the listener as the music unraveled. The music creates a profoundly vivid image in the listener's mind, even without the assistance of actual visual demonstrations. Take the piece "L'après-midi d'un faune" as an example... If you decide to close your eyes while listening to this piece, you can vividly see a faun in a luscious green, sunlit forrest. At least I can.
Debussy was considered a pioneer in impressionist composing because he was one of two (the other being Ravel [you've likely heard Ravel's "Caravan" before if you've ever seen any movie where animals are walking on to an arch by two's]) who embraced the movement and produced some of the best pieces of this era. So many of Debussy's pieces create an entirely new world for me, to which I can escape my current realm of worry or business and just exist in their fictional Eden (although the concept of "fictional" may be a blog subject of it's own, because my feeling is that we're escaping to places we already know and find comfort in themselves, but it has also happened that certain pieces conjure up images we have never experienced in real life before).
The music of other classical composers also tends to warm me. Handel's "Sarabande", Beethoven's "Eroica Symphony", Vivaldi's "Four Season's" and "Devils Trill Sonata" all do it for me. The music of Dvorjak is also spectacularly comforting, in particular his "New World Symphony" (even more in particular the 4th movement)). My classical comfort zone seems to be infinite at times, but that isn't where my comfort cuts begin and end....
I have A LOT of favourite music. Actually, I think "A LOT" is slightly understating it, but there's not really a word or phrase listed in my thesaurus that accurately captures what I mean. My first true musical love was and still is Sarah Brightman. What is comforting about her music? To me, it's her voice, subject matter, and the sheer beauty through which she tells the stories in her songs. I discovered her music during a time that wasn't the greatest for me and, at the time, found enormous comfort in everything I gained through her music. It relaxed me. It inspired me. It brought me happiness through the listening experience. And it's interesting to me that even though that bumpy time has passed, I still go back to the same music. Why? Maybe because it hasn't changed, even though I have. Maybe because, although the connection to those songs isn't the happiest from my life at the time, I can look back and recognize what I overcame. Maybe, now, those songs, which were always the same every time I listened to them, represent the change I went through. In many ways, they represent me. That's very cool. And very comforting. "This Love" is my most favourite Sarah Brightman song:
Acoustic music is also comforting to me. The music of the Dave Matthews Band is number one. It's Dave's voice, the sentiment and attachment I have to his music and the words he so eloquently takes from my head and expresses. It's the richness in the sound and quality of his music. And the overwhelming romanticism he portrays in his work is incomparably stunning. His voice is safe to me. His words inspiring. His vision of the world beautiful. But DMB is just one (albeit very large) facet of the acoustic pull. There is a large repertoire of acoustic music on both my laptop and desktop computers by artists both largely successful and some of whom are simply friends of mine. Acoustic music + Christine = love. "Crash Into Me" is my very most favourite DMB song (and how wonderful that he played it at the concert on June 1st. I <3 YOU DAVEY!).
Sometimes, though, I don't think a comfort cut has to be some song/piece from our past. I think it can also come to be a contemporary work that just makes us feel safe, or maybe a new song that reminds us of a particularly good time or moment. New music is constantly being produced and played on radio stations, released on iTunes, or played in local clubs.
And then I thought, I should attempt to list all the music I identify as a "comfort cut". I find the task a great challenge because it is a list which is constantly evolving as new music eventually becomes "old" (read: safe/comforting), and as I mature and evolve in my own skin. It includes all of what I have mentioned above and much, MUCH more. And anyway, if you've actually read this, to the end, I'm sure you're begging for it to be done. So I'll end it. But if you have any comfort cuts of your own, please share them along with your rationale :).
I think, if I decide to write another blog on the subject of music, it is going to be about guilty pleasures. Yes, that would be fun.
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