Clair de lune, by Claude Debussy:
Claire de lune simply is a beautiful song, I adore it. It's impact is strengthened by the lifetime of association I have with it. My late Grandmother used to play it (she was an accomplished pianist and singer) and I used to hear it a lot in general, whether it was my Mum playing it on CD or just hearing on the radio. I heard the song a few months back for the first time in a year or so and was taken by how beautiful it is, then when I watched that video I was truly lost and fighting back tears. When I hear this song I think of my Grandmother and my Mother. Claire de lune is the most beautful song I've ever heard.
This leads me to music and how it can take you back to the past. When I listen to System of a Down I think about many things - HELD was in its adolesent prime, and Smash Bros Melee was all the rage, and apparently jew fros were too. SOAD doesn't just bring back one specific memory, but memories of a time, of a period of my life - and that is very powerful.
What songs take you back?
- Dogman
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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The album Everything all the Time by Band of Horses instantly takes me back to when I studied in the US in 2006. I started listening to it on the plane on the way over, and listened to it in my dorm room, and listened to it on the Amtrak train making it a soundtrack for the Midwestern countryside, and yeah.. Many other songs bring back memories as well - cool post.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how memory works like that with triggers like songs and smells. It's as if the most emotional of our memory is almost exclusive from our conscious mind.
ReplyDeleteI spent almost every Christmas of my childhood opening presents to the Beach Boys Christmas album.
Some albums from my SthAm trip were The Who Sell Out, Return to Cookie Mountain - TV on the Radio, Funeral - Arcade Fire and Quadrophenia - The Who
Claire de lune has always been my favourite classical song! It's a beautiful song which definitely creates a vivid image of what it's title suggests 'the light of the moon', a light, sweet yet with a mysterious depth also. My sister Sarah also used to play this on the piano when I was growing up and I would always request it. So for me this song always reminds me of Sarah and how crazily talented she is- a gifted pianist, artist and writer. I also hadn't heard this song for a while and was reduced to tears by the end. Thankyou Hamish for reminding me of it!
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