Banish tears with twiddles
If you're nursing a broken heart, or even if you might decide it's just a bit bruised, and not really broken, I wouldn't recommend the otherwise excellent soundtrack to The Commitments. Great driving music, yes, and lovely to sing along to Destination Anywhere when you haven't actually been ditched by your lover.
It's uncanny: twice now, when I've felt that something was Not Right about my fledgling romance, which track do I find playing in my car? Bye Bye Baby. (You know you took my heart/And you broke it apart... You know you took my love/Threw it away...) Now, it's not uncommon to find me with the soundtrack in my car - it's great driving music, as I said - so you'd expect it would crop up every now and again. But the timing of that track playing has been eerie: the night before each of my recent break-ups, when I was thinking to myself, Myself, art thou being Dumped? I suppose I should take my clairvoyant CD changer off 'shuffle'. Jinxed tjoon.
Back to the point: should you ever need unbelievably cheery-making music, there are two choices from the namesake of this site, and the first reference to him here thus far. Chalk it up to genius (I choose this option) or simply the way certain movements of baroque music affects one's alpha brainwaves, but I have yet to remain unhappy after the following works:
1. Concerto for strings in F major (1st movement, allegro) - harmonically this dips this way and that, with a frankly astounding number of forays into different keys. I believe I counted upward of a dozen in a minute. Not to mention the sheer exuberance of a string orchestra sawing away at the melodic invention that only Vivaldi can muster (yes, we've all heard the Stravinsky joke about writing one concerto 400 times, but what invention in that format). Exhilirating.
2. Concerto for violin in D major, Opus 7 number 12 (1st movement, allegro). The cheeriest-making piece of music I have yet to find. Ebullient. Go give it a listen. It lacks the dazzle of Op. 8, and has nothing of the counterpoint of Op. 3 but it is Just. Genius.
It's uncanny: twice now, when I've felt that something was Not Right about my fledgling romance, which track do I find playing in my car? Bye Bye Baby. (You know you took my heart/And you broke it apart... You know you took my love/Threw it away...) Now, it's not uncommon to find me with the soundtrack in my car - it's great driving music, as I said - so you'd expect it would crop up every now and again. But the timing of that track playing has been eerie: the night before each of my recent break-ups, when I was thinking to myself, Myself, art thou being Dumped? I suppose I should take my clairvoyant CD changer off 'shuffle'. Jinxed tjoon.
Back to the point: should you ever need unbelievably cheery-making music, there are two choices from the namesake of this site, and the first reference to him here thus far. Chalk it up to genius (I choose this option) or simply the way certain movements of baroque music affects one's alpha brainwaves, but I have yet to remain unhappy after the following works:
1. Concerto for strings in F major (1st movement, allegro) - harmonically this dips this way and that, with a frankly astounding number of forays into different keys. I believe I counted upward of a dozen in a minute. Not to mention the sheer exuberance of a string orchestra sawing away at the melodic invention that only Vivaldi can muster (yes, we've all heard the Stravinsky joke about writing one concerto 400 times, but what invention in that format). Exhilirating.
2. Concerto for violin in D major, Opus 7 number 12 (1st movement, allegro). The cheeriest-making piece of music I have yet to find. Ebullient. Go give it a listen. It lacks the dazzle of Op. 8, and has nothing of the counterpoint of Op. 3 but it is Just. Genius.
posted by vivaldifan | 7:45 AM
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