Music and the Soul

Do me a favor. Listen to my song on the top of the list over on the left. Let it be your blanket for a minute. Debussy's, "Au Claire De La Lune", has been in my life for a long time. I wanted to learn it really well in 9th grade. My piano teacher started me on the sheet music and I just never finished learning it. The first page: Beautiful. Second page: a train crashing into several parked cars. Throughout High School, I [had] to play the organ for a couple of wards and accompany the school vocal jazz ensemble (which they gave away my vocal solos so I could play the STUPID piano parts, which I promise I'm not still angry about), so I still did not have time to sit down and learn this beautiful piece.

I still have this intense love affair with La Lune, it sings to me, makes my bones soft, and can bring tears to my eyes any time of the day. Sometimes I sneak 1 minute 30 so I can just play the first page and pretend that's all there is.

I think the reason we have these intense feelings for certain pieces of music are because they remind us of our wonderful past. Or wonderful parts of our regular past:) I remember being 7 years old, and of course having nothing to do in a family of a thousand children, we improvised. It was a rainy day in the summer, and I remember as if it was in slow motion, jumping on an exercise trampoline with my sisters in the living room to The William Tell Overture blaring on the tape player. And playing my cello for the school orchestra at the age of 13, looking up into the flourescent gym lights and thinking I could someday play on a stage in Carnegie Hall. I used to listen the beautiful melody float into the air as my older sister Rachel played the Bach Double on the violin and in that moment, I thought she was some kind of goddess.

Ah, the more music in our lives, the better. Without it, where would we be???