My most five significant pieces of music and the reasons why…
Gabriel Faure; Pelleas et Melisande, Sicilienne
This is one of my favourite pieces of music, but I really can’t explain why. In fact I love the whole CD (which includes the requiem, with Kiri te Kanawa). It’s so emotionally charged, and so incredibly beautiful. That’s not really a reason why, is it? But this music has always been a part of my life, and its effect is always soothing and uplifting.
Cat Stevens: Where Do the Children Play?
To me, this will always be the soundtrack to abuse. The sound of a life splitting apart, leaving childhood far behind. Normal life continuing, but inside, a huge silence, a black emptiness. “When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air. Will you keep on building higher 'til there's no more room up there? Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry? Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die? I know we've come a long way, We're changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?”
Hinemoana Baker: Ngaa Wehenga
Usually when a song is in Maori I try to understand what the lyrics mean. For some reason I’ve never really tried with Ngaa Wehenga. The song has so many layers of meaning for me already – perhaps I don’t want to understand any more. I just listen to the sounds, without trying to separate them into words and grasp their meanings. This song makes me think of my first counsellor, Lesli, and of the sadness I felt when we I left her to move to Wellington. She was the first person to show me empathy, understanding and acceptance. She gave me hope that I could find healing and peace. She gave me a voice to communicate my pain. Listening to Ngaa Wehenga I am reminded of the tears we cried when we said goodbye, but also the beauty of parting, because it meant a time of new growth. I needed to let go of her in order to stand on my own.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins
This was my grandmother’s favourite piece of music, and we played it at her funeral. When I hear this piece I remember how much we loved each other. I think of us as the two violins singing to each other, separate, but alike in so many ways.
Simon and Garfunkel; The Concert in Central Park
Ok, so this isn’t actually a song, it’s a whole album… but I couldn’t pick one. Every single track on this CD has some significance for me. And it was recorded a couple of months after I was born (and only a few kilometres away, relatively speaking) so it really had been the soundtrack for my whole life. Listening to this music the memories come tumbling over each other. The houses I have lived in, the streets I have walked, the friends who have come and gone throughout my life. “Now the years are rolling by me, they are rocking evenly, I am older than I once was, but that’s not unusual, no it isn’t strange, after changes upon changes we are more or less the same.”
ever see "harold and maude"? the soundtrack to this movie is mostly cat stevens songs. great movie. i highly recommend it.
Posted by: polaroid at May 13, 2003 01:58 PM