Something that happened to another person today has set me thinking about the power of music to resonate with emotions and events again. This seems to be particularly true of music that one has performed oneself, as certain pieces of music have been running through my head constantly tonight.
One instance which comes to mind in which this experience occurred happened when I was studying abroad in London last semester. We were walking through the halls of Westminster Abbey, in the company of monuments to some of the most amazing people in British history. Of course, as we walked through the area with monuments to musicians, seeing the graves and/or markers to Britten, Elgar, and Handel filled me with complex emotions. When I turned and faced the other wall, however, a large monument to Henry Purcell was staring me in the face, and immediately, without prompting, Dido's Lament ran from start to finish in my head, filling me with thoughts of death, of being remembered, and of the power of Purcell's music that it should be so utterly relevant 400 years after his life.
Tonight, I am listening to music as a way to sort of calm my emotions, as thoughts of death, remembrance, and the meaning of life are circulating in my head. Once again,I went straight to Purcell, and also to Mozart. Right now, listening to the Rex Tremendae from Mozart's requiem, I think about whether there really is a rex tremendae (great king), a meaning to life, or are we all confutatis (silenced, or condemned)? Music is able to explore these questions so much more of a deeply emotional and satisfying manner.
What I've been listening to today
Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell
Requiem in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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