Remember your early twenties? Mine were messy years full of failed romance, late nights at bars, career disappointment, money trouble, all the usual growing pains. This Chicago Symphony rendition of the Ravel “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” stays in my memory as the medicine of those years. Somehow these boozy, edgy, elegant, almost-out-of-control waltzes carried me through–not that I noticed it at the time. They come back to me like the shape of ashes after the years burned away. I really love these little pieces.
Scroll forward about fifteen years and you come to me writing my thesis at Dartmouth. I was still a frenzied mess, but enjoying it a lot more. Lou Reed’s 1978 version of “Sweet Jane” was on a loop for days while I sweat out the last few pages of the short story collection that would be my culminating work. This is still my favorite version, and really the only Lou Reed cut I like at all.
The first time I heard the Morten Lauridsen ”Lux Aeterna” was on September 11, 2001, when an NPR journalist played it in tribute to those who died in the World Trade Towers that day. This piece is a smooth stone I’ve carried and stroked for the past decade. It has been a sturdy accompaniment to all kinds of challenges: untimely deaths of several friends, spiritual crises, family drama. Sometimes I just need a “good cry” and this Agnus Dei always obliges.
I was seriously injured in October of 2005 and by the summer of 2006 I started to wonder if I’d ever be able to play the piano again. My back and shoulders were nearly immobilized and my left arm was out of commission with pain and dystonia. I made myself hack away at this Bach invention (#8 in F major) day after day. It is a compact little piece and though Glenn Gould makes it sound like the easiest thing ever, I advise you it is not. However–it saved me. Bit by bit my shoulders became more mobile and my left hand simply went along for the ride. I know the reason I’m able to play now is that I held onto Bach and wouldn’t let go. I still play several inventions whenever I sit at the piano. They are truly my life’s tonic.
In the winter of 2009 my life was at its nadir. I couldn’t work and was nearing two years without any income; my house was a shambles after a burst water pipe ruined the kitchen and the electrical wiring; I was tired, cold, and discouraged. One day everything changed–just a little bit, but enough for me to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I had just received good news from my lawyer when this “Serenade for Strings” came on the radio. The bright, bright opening phrases were sunlight pouring into the room. This piece radiates hope for me and has come to be my theme song for this part of my life. It promises joy and maybe even some lightheartedness. We all need these moments of sunlight–life is pretty hard without them.
always loved Bach’s Invention in F myself, though never played it so well
Glad it worked for you!