Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

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Le Baron
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Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby Le Baron » Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:52 pm

I'll name two. The first one is Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie from his preludes. I heard this very early on after finding it at my grandparents' house when I was staying there as a child. It was on an old LP of piano music which I played upstairs on a 'music centre' in the back bedroom. The pianist was Sviatoslav Richter. I skipped through some of the other tracks, but left this one playing and lay on the bed listening to it. After it was finished I was paralysed sort of and completely at rest. Amazing piece. I still conjure up that memory when I hear it.

Second one is completely different. Love Don't Live Here Anymore by Rose Royce. My father had this song on in the car, around the year it came out, and he was having a difficult time with my mother. So the song was like a needle poking into him. I remember the look on his face as we drove through the night and every passing street lamp lit up the car. I like the song though, and I know for myself now the pain it evokes.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sat Apr 02, 2022 4:54 am

First of all, I've been playing music for over 30 years. There are many songs, tunes, pieces etc. which I remember exactly when and where I heard for the first time. They remind me of people I've met, things that have happened in life, people I've lost...

Not unlike knowing exactly when you heard/saw a certain word for the first time.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby BeaP » Sat Apr 02, 2022 8:21 am

I often think that the biggest enemy of man is nostalgia. When I think back at my childhood, it feels like another life, it's so distant and different. Remembering it kind of tears me out from my present and locks me in a world of imagination. It gets triggered by a lot of songs from the 80s, and particularly my favourite group, Depeche Mode. I used to listen to them all the time on a walkman that played cassettes. The sound quality must have been ridiculous, but I enjoyed it very much.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby Iversen » Sat Apr 02, 2022 11:12 am

I don't like to develop emotional bonds to specific pieces of music - actually my motto is always to listen to something different from what I listened to last time, and it also applies to pizzas, yoghurt and travel destinations. But as I wrote in another thread my world is divided into areas with order and areas with chaos, and there are also things which should be exactly like last time because then I can avoid to think about them (maybe that's why some people choose to listen to the same twenty songs again and again to the exclusion of anything new). My wordlist format is one such thing.

So I don't have emotional favorites, but I have a few pieces o' mine that have played a special role. Like when I wrote a rock parody on "Dejlig er den himmel blå" (lovely is the heaven blue) renamed "hæslig er den himmel grå" (ugly is the heaven gray) which was premiered at the christmas celebration at the 'House where I painted my paintings - while it was played we hanged Father Christmas under the ceiling and let him swing hither and thither (great fun!). And then I put the original major melody into minor. Ye students o' Danish can see the complete text on the painting below (though it can be a tad hard to read), but I also quoted it on HTLAL long ago, and ... no, you'll get it here too:

First the sirupy first stanza of the polyanna-happy original text by Grundtvig:

Dejlig er den himmel blå,
lyst det er at se derpå,
hvor de gyldne stjerner blinke,
hvor de smile, hvor de vinke
os fra jorden op til sig.

HYPERLITERAL TRANSLATION HERE:
Lovely is the heaven blue
pleasure it is to look thereon
how/where* the golden stars twinkle,
how/where they smile, how they wawe
us from EarthThe up to them


My version here:

Hæslig er den himmel grå
Føj for den at se derpå
Folk de farer rundt som gale
Ungerne på slæb som hale
Gid det hele var forbi
Gid det hele var forbi

Hæslig er den himmel grå
Fy for den at se derpå
Folk foroven, folk forneden
Alle juler, bruger kugler
Gid det hele var forbi
Gid det hele var forbi

Hæslig er den himmel sort
Ta' og bomb det hele bort
Koldt derude, jul herinde
Værre nu end nogensinde
Gid det hele var forbi
Gid det hele var forbi


HYPERLITERAL TRANSLATION HERE:
Ugly is the heaven grey
Yuck-for-it to look thereon
People they run around like mad
KidsThe on tow as tail
Wish it all was over
Wish it all was over

Ugly is the heaven grey
Ugh/shame-for-it to look thereon
People above, people below
All doChristmas, spend balls
Wish it all was over
Wish it all was over

Ugly is the heaven black
Take and bomb it all away
Cold out-there, Christmas in-here
Worse now than everbefore
Wish it all was over
Wish it all was over


By the way, I later reused the music in a "Christmas suite" for orchestra (with a piano transciption) where I systematically destroyed all the Danish Christmas charols I could remember. I'm not a terribly Christmassy person ...

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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby Le Baron » Sat Apr 02, 2022 1:47 pm

Iversen wrote:while it was played we hanged Father Christmas under the ceiling

In most places this is a crime.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sat Apr 02, 2022 4:30 pm

Iversen wrote:(...)actually my motto is always to listen to something different from what I listened to last time


There was a time when I listened to my collection in alphabetical order. When I reached J. S. Bach, it was baroque for a few weeks. Then something else. But still under B.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:10 pm

The panpipe music of Gheorghe Zamfir that ends an old movie called Picnic at Hanging Rock left me stunned in my chair for a couple of hours after the movie ended. Watched at home obviously on DVD. The music haunts the Norse mythology that fills the movie, and which no critic ever picked up on.
Anyway, for any who care, here is some Gheorghe Zamfir play that brings some of the audience members to tears. \
How can music without lyrics have that effect?
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby Le Baron » Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:13 pm

Ah, Picnic at Hanging Rock. An Aussie film which is on my playlist. I watched about 10 minutes, then interrupted it and still haven't gone back. I saw that the nosy woman from Neighbours/The Sullivans was in it.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby Cerebral_Arbitrage » Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:16 pm

My mother was a very dedicated Southern Baptist who went to church three times a week religiously (pun intended). I no longer go to church and am no longer a practitioner of any organized religion really, but when I hear certain hymns the emotional response is immediate. I am in the station wagon with my sisters and parents singing along or sitting in a pew at church or listening to records with my mother. The feeling is overwhelmingly positive, which I find interesting since I didn't have an overwhelmingly positive experience in the church of my childhood. In the end, I suppose it connects me to my family.
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Re: Do you have a piece of music with a strong emotional memory attached?

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:16 pm

Cerebral_Arbitrage wrote:My mother was a very dedicated Southern Baptist who went to church three times a week religiously (pun intended). I no longer go to church and am no longer a practitioner of any organized religion really, but when I hear certain hymns the emotional response is immediate. I am in the station wagon with my sisters and parents singing along or sitting in a pew at church or listening to records with my mother. The feeling is overwhelmingly positive, which I find interesting since I didn't have an overwhelmingly positive experience in the church of my childhood. In the end, I suppose it connects me to my family.


The above (bolded by me) statement had me remember a Will Rogers quote and chuckle a little.
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