Current Entry
Archives
Profile
Notes
Guestbook
Rings
Email
Host
Designs

RECENT ENTRIES


Diaryversary. What what now?
OMG! Diaryland! Aren't you cute?
Mind the gap.
Oh hai, part deux.
Oh hai.

2007 Booklist
2006 Booklist
2005 Booklist
2004 Booklist
The bestest people on earth!
Basketball is EVIL
Mangofarmer saves TV!
Just another day in the neighborhood
Things that are good and things that are bad
New and Improved! 107 facts
cast
Trading card
Diaryrings A-J
Diaryrings L-Z
Strange google hits
mangosurvey
mangosurvey2
mangosurvey3
mangosurvey4
mangosurvey5
mangosurvey6
mangosurvey7
mangosurvey8
mangosurvey9
mangorama
mangomango
mangogoogoo
mangofest
mangoshake
mangopuke
mangorita
mangolassi
mamamamango

mangoognam
Ooooooh baby, randomize me!

This Girl's Life- A Story in Music
2002-11-24 - 10:00 p.m.


I thought of another list. I like lists. I have a list of bad things and good things. I have a list of all the kinds of Altoids I have in my possession. I have a list of stuff I feel strongly about. I have the usual 100 facts about yours truly and the soundtrack to my life. Aren�t you all glad I know how to link stuff now? ;) Anyway, I�d like to call this list music that is important to me. This sounds stupid and clich�, but music really is my life, and it has been from a very early age. So I�m going to go somewhat in chronological order:

-�You are my Sunshine�. My mom used to sing this to me when I was very little. It�s kind of a depressing song, when you think about it. I guess now it reminds me of the movie �Beaches� and it�s status as a ridiculously estrogen-filled tearjerker. But this was THE song my mommy sang to me so there.

-Symphony no. 5, Ludwig van Beethoven. I�ve mentioned this one numerous times. When I was 5 or 6, we lived in this big, beautiful house. Whenever there was a thunderstorm, my parents and I would turn off all the lights, curl up on the couch, and fire up the record player. We�d always listen to classical music, and this one stuck in my mind as my favorite. Those thunderstorm-induced listening sessions made me truly love classical music, I guess because I related it to spending time with my family. Therefore, amazingly enough, I became a music major and the rest is history.

-�Night Flight�. Around that same age, I had a habit of getting up at 4 am to watch the USA network�s answer to MTV. The Eurythmics, Aerosmith with Run DMC, A-ha, that sort of thing. Cheesy �80s pop which I grew to love.

-the entire �Sergeant Pepper�s Lonely Heart�s Club Band� album, The Beatles. This was one of the first CDs my parents bought when they got a CD player. This one was my favorite, and at some point I �borrowed� it from them. I got particular joy out of being able to pick the selection of music we listened to at dinnertime. I ended up really loving �old fogey� music. I came to understand that so much of it was so timeless. I know every word to every song on here. Such incredible music.

-�Hangin� Tough�, The New Kids on the Block. I put this on this list only to serve as a reminder that, at one time, I too listened to boy bands. �Remember, thou art mortal..� Was I the only one who was in love with Donnie?

-�Cuts Both Ways�, Gloria Estefan. This cassette tape single was the first cassette I bought with my own money (yes, my mommy bought my NKOTB tapes :-P).

-�Hot Cross Buns�. The first song I played on my flute. I remember the first time I picked up my flute. My dad was there, with that goofy, sideways grin of his, and he said �Well, play something!� I put the three pieces of the flute together completely wrong, blew into the mouthpiece as hard as I possibly could, giggled, and said �I don�t know how!� The rest, of course, is history.

-�Let�s Go Band�. Played at my first band concert, January 1991.

-�Everything I do (I do it for you)�, Bryan Adams. My long-reigning favorite song. As soon as I saw that Robin Hood movie, I had to see it again. I was all of 11, of course.

-�No Rain�, Blind Melon. This became the theme song of the 8th grade class trip. And the theme song to my life.

-music from �The Phantom of the Opera�. We played an arrangement of this in middle school band. From my vantage point in the flute section, I saw some random band parent crying. I don�t know if this was because the music was so beautiful, or so ear-shatteringly horrible. But it was the first time I understand that music can move you to tears, as I further understood when I saw the actual musical years later.

-the entire �Dookie� album, Green Day. First album that prompted me to buy a �cool� (not featuring some kid of baby animals!) poster for my room. These songs expressed well the kind of dork I was in 9th grade. As well as the kind of dork I still am. A �basket case�, indeed.

-�Midnight Sleighride�, from the �Lieutenant Kije Suite�, Sergei Prokofiev. The very first piece in the very first show I was in as a marching band geek. Memories�.

-Flute Concerto in G Major, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I played this at solo festivals in high school a total of three years in a row. I finally got an A+ rating my senior year. I also played it at my audition for the music school my freshman year of college (recall that I was an undecided major for a year). I played it at my three graduate auditions too. This is THE standard flute piece.

-�You�ve lost that lovin� feeling�, the Righteous Brothers. Every band trip has to have a song�.

-�Appalachian Spring�, Aaron Copland. I suppose every band geek does some sort of Copland show in their marching career. My defining moment came in 10th grade. We were undefeated that year� until the championships, when we lost to a band playing �Over the Rainbow�. A beautiful song, yes, but when played by a marching band? *gag*

-�1812 Overture�, Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky. You hear this every fourth of July. But when I played it in high school wind ensemble the first time, it was truly magical. It was also the first piece in which I squeaked out a high Bb on the piccolo.

-music from �The Wiz�. Yup. I was in the pit. Mmmmm. Scarecrow. Shhhh! I didn�t say that.

-�Flight of the Bumblebee�, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. My public solo debut. I finished playing and stood there grinning like a complete idiot, to hear all the applause that was for ME. I think that�s when I knew what I had to do with my life.

-�You�ll never walk alone�, from the musical �Carousel�? I�m not sure. But this was the band song. An end to one era of band.

-�I had the time of my life�, from the �Dirty Dancing� soundtrack (I forget who sang it). I put this on here because it was our senior prom song. Not that the music played at the senior prom had any significant meaning for me. I think this serves as a reminder that prom night was THE night to look back upon whilst reminiscing. And then to commence laughing hysterically.

-�Fanfare for the Common Man� and �Hoedown�, Aaron Copland. Part of the first marching band show in college. Every band geek plays Copland at least once. I�ve played Copland twice.

-the entire �Crash� album, Dave Matthews Band. I was late jumping on this bandwagon. And I�m sorry for it. Not the best music in the world, but has this power to make me happy, especially �Say Goodbye�.

-the entire soundtrack to �The Matrix�. The movie absolutely blew me away. As did the music. I learned what it was like to be angry.

-�My Own Worst Enemy�, Lit. Another band trip song, I think.

-�Variations on a theme of Haydn�, Johannes Brahms, and �Hary Janos Suite�, Zoltan Kodaly. How I ended up playing the first part on these two pieces in orchestra my junior year, I don�t know. But someone took a chance on me, and I rose to the occasion the best I could, gaining confidence all along the way. The Mendelssohn �Reformation Symphony� was a piece of cake in the end.

-Symphony no. 9, Ludwig van Beethoven. I heard this performed junior year. Necessary. That�s all I can say.

-Sonatina for Flute and Piano, Eldin Burton. I played it on my junior recital. I played it on my three graduate auditions. Not all modern classical music is harsh, angular, or pointilistic. Some is quite beautiful.

-�Carmen Fantasy�, Georges Bizet/Francois Borne. Junior recital. Showoffy, loud, everything my personality isn�t. It showed I can become quite the chameleon when I pick up a flute. I loved it.

-�Bohemian Rhapsody�, Queen. I think every band geek experiences this song in some capacity�

-the _____ University Alma Mater. Goosebumps. Every time. Call me a dork if you wish, but as a band geek and a music major, I was proud to be one of the few who knew the words to this.

-Adagio from Symphony no, 9, �From the New World�, Antonin Dvorak. Part of the most moving tribute I�ve ever heard.

-�Sonata Piccola�, P.D.Q. Bach. Senior recital. I found out that I can play music to deliberately make people laugh!

-Lento e mesto (2nd movement), Concerto in D Major, Carl Reinecke. Another senior recital piece. This so accurately depicted my abysmal frame of mind at that time. Great music, decent recital, just really bad day.

-�Jesu, Joy of Man�s Desiring�, Bach/ Canon in D, Pachelbel. To think that I was part of the soundtrack to my best friend getting married.

-�Bridge Over Troubled Water�, Simon and Garfunkel. I played this a lot this summer.

-Cello Concerto in e minor, Edward Elgar. I�d seen the movie �Hillary and Jackie� a while ago. But I really discovered Jacqueline DuPre�s music this summer. It makes me want to play the cello.

-�Sweet Home Alabama�, Lynyrd Skynyrd. A happy song from this summer.

-�Hallelujah�, as covered by Jeff Buckley. Where has this song been all my life?

I think that�s about it. Most are, but not all are necessarily �favorite� songs/pieces. This list may be classical-heavy, but I�m a music major/band geek/flute diva, so get over it. One thing I�ll make no apologies for, ever, is my taste in music. Like the clich� little teenybopper, I�ll assure everyone that music is my life. But I really and truly mean it. Pretty much every significant moment in my life, be it joyful celebration or time to wallow in despair, has a song or piece to go with it.

Well this is Preachy McBoringlady, signing off. Have a great night all, and thanks for reading.

0 comments

previous - next

100 Books Club 100 Books Club

Days until Bush leaves office.
Designed by georgedorn and provided by Positronic Design.
Grab your own copy here.