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A Pensieve Moment--Shostakovich

Today, while driving in the car, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 came on the radio, and listening to it, I realized that music is a powerful force in more ways than one.

Actually, I've always known this, but I've always seen music as a positive force.  It can get us to move, and dance, it can bring tears to our eyes (Taps comes to mind), it can spark romance.  But for me today, it acted as a very negative force.

In my junior year of high school, I studied the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2.  It's a fantastic piece of music, and the first movement was later chosen by Disney to be the backdrop for their Fantasia segment of "The Tin Soldier".  I actually competed in a concerto competition with it, and ended up losing (but I lost to my violinist boyfriend at the time, so I didn't mind so much, and I won the next year with a concerto by Saint-Saens).

It's short and rather fun to listen to (especially since Shostakovich himself is playing it):  Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2

There was no "internet" where I could go listen to music, no YouTube, no instant access to music.  So, in an interest in listening to more of the music of Shostakovich, I headed to our local used record store (used records were cheaper than cassette tapes) and bought whatever I thought looked interesting from the record jacket.  I ended up with Shostakovich Symphony No. 5.

Here's the first movement (in case you are interested):  Shostakovich 5: First movement

This piece isn't the typical "let's listen to some classical music" piece.  The first movement is rather dark and mysterious, and sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a suspense movie, or some foreboding subject.  I hated it.

It just so happened that I hated my life at the time too.

I guess, looking back on it, Shosty 5 could have been the soundtrack to my life.  In fact, there is one section in the first movement where the piano plays with the low brass.  Do you know how infrequently the piano even plays in a symphony?

I ended up listening to that piece a lot that year.  Afterall, I only had so many records, and I wanted to expand my horizons about music.  The final movement is fantastic, and listening to it now, I'm especially interested in the great brass section, but as a 17-year-old, I hated it.

Listening to it today on the radio, I actually had to turn it off.  All the bad memories of that time in my life surfaced, and I could feel myself spiraling downwards quickly (even though I had just come from a good workout at the gym!).  It felt like the demons of my past were dancing across the dashboard of my car.  I've never had that reaction to a piece of music before, and in all honesty, I hope I don't have it again.  I worry that there may be some other pieces of music from that time period that might catch me off guard.  However, I breathe a sigh of relief when I think of all the music that has accompanied me during the happy times of my life.  Let's keep those records playing, shall we?

Comments

  1. For the record, that piece has some CRAZY horn solos/soli's in it. Personally I love it, but I can also see why it coud bring up some bad memories.

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