Music is a wonder of the world we live in, it is a wonder of humanity. People play or listen to music at all stages of life, from childhood to death, even as I write this I realize that I would love to be able to listen to music when I die. It will probably be hard to happen that way but just thinking about this possibility makes me imagine that leaving this world would be much easier...
I love music and it is definitely the pleasure I allow myself to enjoy the most. I listen to music all the time, even when I have something else to do, i.e. when I'm working, when I'm walking, and even now when I'm writing. I can reveal what I'm listening to right now if you go to Youtube via this LINK. When I'm writing I choose a playlist to run in the background and try to get something else going... to make time to listen to music. Because time is totally insufficient for how much music I want to listen to!
In order not to be confused by the music I listen to while trying to compose a story, I choose, as far as possible, instrumental music.
In this context, I found among 's suggestions for posts, from the Writing suggestions WEEK 146 - Weekend-Engagement, an invitation to write about a favorite piece of instrumental music " Is there an instrumental track that you simply love? One that moves you..."
Yes, there are even more but it's hard for me to say too many words to explain why, so I'll pick one of my favorite tracks that also signifies nostalgia for my younger years.
Bourée, played by Jethro Tull.
Jethro Tull, one of rock music's legendary bands, led by Ian Anderson, vocal and flute soloist.
Bourée was not composed by members of Jethro Tull, it is a kind of cover but better said, it is an arrangement after "Suite in E Minor for Lute" composed by Johan Sebastian Bach some three hundred years ago!
This song is part of the 1969 album Stand Up.
Why do I like this instrumental piece? Because it was a shock to me when I heard it and in the context of the era.
The 1970s, when rock was dominated by the "monsters": Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stone, and Pink Floyd, to name a few. Rock music was somehow in some kind of patterns, tending to sound, and instruments, always in the front being guitar.
Well, in Jethro Tull, the star instrument was... the flute.
A flute with a modified sound, with a modified playing style, with a reference to jazz. Moreover, adapting a classical suite in rock style made the Bourée totally different from what was played at the time. Obviously, what is different attracts attention and I, at 18 years old, was a sure "victim"!
This song has a special meaning to me because always, but always when I listen to it, it sends me back decades to my teenage years.
I first heard it in a modern dance performance. This show, at a theatre in Bucharest (Romania), in 1970 or 1971, I can't remember exactly, was called "Nocturne 9 1/2". Nocturne (nocturnal), because the show took place at night and 9 1/2, because it started at nine-thirty p.m.
This was a modern dance show, a show that was hard to believe could take place in a communist country like Romania. A show that now would look banal but in that historical and political context seemed unreal.
The choreographer and director are Miriam Raducanu. She is now 98 years old. A legend of modern dance in Romania.
Now I have to admit that I was not ready to see and understand modern dance, I couldn't tell what I saw but I can tell what I heard. Bourée, played by Jethro Tull!
Whenever I listen to this song I am transported back in time to my teenage years in high school. To inner freedom and a wonderful youth in itself.
I wrote all this just in the hope that you will listen to this song... Bourée