Saturday, November 6, 2010

My first Off-Topic Post

It's been a while, I know, but I'm going to disappoint you all, and drift from the topics I designated for this blog. Mostly because recently something else has been occupying my mind... and that's music. Yes, I'm going from superficial, to highly theoretical, abstract, and indescribable. What can I say, at the end of a tough week I can shave my legs and put on a dress, but during the week music takes over as my primary companion and solace for phrases that repulse me such as “this should make intuitive sense to you”. F-U.… Now on to my need to brag about what I’ve found.

I have found...the most intriguing artifacts in my ipod collection: classical music. I don’t know about you, but I used to find that classical music never quite fit the mold for me. It’s old, its complicated, word-less and seems rather outdated. What would a modern gal have in common with Beethoven and Chopin? I have no idea, but it must be something, for as of the last couple of weeks I’ve slowly cracked under their spell. And maybe this has some learning lesson in fashion: No matter how modern and chic you want to be, you CANNOT ignore the classics.

First it was Schubert. Mind you,  I was introduced to him in college and I've always liked him. But I had never cried to Schubert. A couple of weeks ago though, I was hysterical. It was kinda like one of those movie scenes, when a guy is begging the girl to forgive, and the girl finally cracks and says "Yes, Yes I love you!" A few days later, I was at work listening to Tchaikovsky’s  Rose Adagio, and I had to get up and take breather because the music I was so casually listening to was way too intense for me.

Classical music used to be a way for me to just simply bring a quiet, word-less, rhythm to my day, and all of a sudden it was making me emotional? I feel as if I’ve discovered the next element, or a new planet. And I can’t even really describe it! Yes I know what’s an E flat or A sharp, but I don’t know what’s going on in this music. Andante? I feel like Jodie Foster in Contact, when she goes out into space, she says, "its so beautiful, I can't even describe it! A poet, they should have sent a poet!" ALL that I Know, is that its tremendous and it’s somehow explaining something so universal to me in a completely different language. Its madness.

Now I’m hooked and I can’t get out. My latest joy is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. I can’t stop my face from contorting into strange shapes. I love it, I love it, I love him. In fact, I have to hide my face if I’m at a coffee shop.  While mathematicians may argue that math is the universal language, I’d like to challenge that. It's Music! Music is the universal language! In the least, it’s the language of emotion. I'm feelin’ it.

My favorite three right now:

Beethoven: Largo Piano Concerto No. 1 in C
Beethoven: Violin Romance No. 2 in F
Hoffstetter: Andante cantabile (String Quartet in F, Op. 3 no. 5)