Pick a new theme song for myself each week or so

Like many musical snobs, who consider ‘pop’ music an abomination and a plague (A POX on the Houses of Pop and Rap, say I!), music with words that I can understand irritates me. Words distract from the music itself, and reduce it to a supporting role; it’s music for non-musicians, perhaps even for the unmusical.

And like any generalisation, it is as idiotic as the subject it tries to typify. [See what I mean?]

So now we come to my theme song for this week: Body and Soul. Not just any Body and Soul, but a jazz rendition so wonderfully crafted after the sense of the words that the words have become superfluous. Yet the words had to exist for Coleman Hawkins to interpret the music as he has.

Have a look before you have a listen:

_You’re making me blue
All that you do
Seems unfair
You try not to hear
Turn a deaf ear
To my prayer
It seems you don’t want to see
What you are doing to me
My arms are waiting to caress you
And to my heart they long to press you, sweet heart_

_My heart is sad and lonely
For you I cry
For you, dear, only
I tell you I mean it
I’m all for you
Body and soul_

_I spend my days in longing
And wondering it’s me you’re wronging
Why haven’t you seen it
I’m all for you
Body and soul_

_I can’t believe it
It hard to conceive it
That you’d turn away romance
Are you pretending
Don’t say it’s the ending
I wish I could have one more change to prove, dear
My life a hell you’re making
You know I’m yours for just the taking
I’d gladly surrender
Myself to you
Body and soul_

_Life’s dreary for me
Days seem to be long as years
I’ve looked for the sun
But can see none
Through my tears
Your heart must be like a stone
To leave me like this alone
When you could make my life worth living
By taking what I’m set on giving, sweet heart_

_My heart is sad and lonely
For you I cry
For you, dear, only
I tell you I mean it
I’m all for you
Body and soul_

Every once in a while, it’s nice to be wrong.

A friend of mine has just left his wife and kids after 30 years of marriage. No clues given beforehand, no hints at discontentment – according to the soon-to-be ex-wife – just “I’ve got an important announcement …” and two hours later he’d packed his things and was gone.

BOOM

Seems he’s been doing the right thing, the responsible adult thing, the self-abrogation thing since about the age of 18 months, and needed to cut loose. And being so desperate, and so profoundly inexperienced at ‘cutting loose’, he met another woman, fell in love, and cut loose BIG time. As though with one enormous act he tried to compensate for all those years of never cutting loose.

Of course, old habits of being responsible don’t just evaporate overnight. So he’s replaced feeling responsible with feeling guilty. MEGA-guilty. Life-lamingly guilty.

But where are the clowns?Quick, send in the clowns.Don’t bother, they’re here.

Tradition dictates that this should be Auld land syne (old long ago), but that seems a bit over-the-top for a bloody job. Retirement from a life-long career, full of accomplishments and personal rewards, yeah; quitting a job I’ve grown enormously weary of, nah.

But beside the fact that the excitement of what I go to vastly overshadows the drudgery of what I leave, there are people whom I will miss, and worthwhile goals I have reached that I ought to commemorate – or at least recall – in this week’s theme song.

Hmmm … I know! Beethoven’s Rondo a capriccio in G major, [Rage over a lost penny], op.129. Not without humour, not without joy, but expressive of loss and frustration over that loss.

PS: The link is to a free download of the piece performed by Elena Kuschnerova, a Damn Fine Pianist! Have your headphones ready.

Not that I thought much about Prokofiev during it, but the music I chose ‘framed’ my mind for a light, compelling and relaxed attitude that the team of interviewers noticed and commented upon positively. So jolly good for me.

So now a new piece of music: the 3^rd movement of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. The fast stacattos echoing among the strings, the questions of the horn choir – the entirety becomes a visceral experience for me. That man was a genius!

And this week it’s Prokofiev’s First Symphony. Wordlessly beautiful.

It is a ‘light’ symphony, in that it was composed as an exercise in re-visiting the Classical style. And I need ‘light’ this week. Living in Denmark at this time of year, it’s dark when I drive to work and dark when I drive home again. I also have an interview for a new job, where I think lightness of spirit will be an advantage …