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Music to My Ears

...or Music STUCK in My Ears. Dive has posted an assignment, to name a song(s) that is hard-wired in our brains. I have been thinking about this very thing the last week or so as I come off of the Christmas frenzy. I tend to break out into song, especially when I am alone. It's a subconscious thing, so much so that I am not always aware I have begun singing until I am into the second phrase.

I think it started when I was a kid, and my mother would launch into a tirade about one thing or another--laundry that hasn't been moved from the washer to the dryer, or dishes that haven't been washed, or bedsheets that haven't been changed. I developed a Pavlovian response of singing when I heard that piercing screech through the house. And my mother would have to say, "Stop singing when I'm talking to you." I saw humor in a mother having to scold her child for singing over her yelling, which didn't go over well either.

Anyway, I no longer have a flyswatter hanging over my head just waiting for me to need a whoopin', but I still sing--randomly. And during the holiday season, the song that most often comes out is "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." I fancy myself as Judy Garland comforting Margaret O'Brien just before she hacks off the heads of the all the snowmen. The second most common song is "I'm Dreaming of A White Christmas," during which I fancy myself as Bing Crosby comforting the troops before the shells hit.

So, a few days ago, after all the holiday hoopla, I heard myself doing the Judy Garland number, and I realized I needed to recondition my subconscious, to reset it back to its non-holiday play list. Here is a list of tunes that come out during the rest of the year:

-Beethoven's Horn Sonata (no words, of course, just the melody)

-The Water Is Wide (I can't cross over, and neither have I wings to fly, give me a boat that can carry two, and both shall row, my love and I) Click here for the tune.

-Believe Me If All the Endearing Young Charms (which I gaze on so fondly today, were to fade by tomorrow and fleet in my arms, like fairy gifts fading away, thou would still be adored, as this moment thou art. Let thy loveliness fade as it will. And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart would entwine itself verdantly still.) Click here for the tune.

_To the Queen of Hearts (is the ace of sorrows, he's here today and he's gone tomorrow. Young men are plenty, but sweethearts few. If my love leave me, what shall I do.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
GOOD AFTERNOON
2:10 PM
dive said…
That's great stuff, Robyn.

Oddly enough, I know the tunes to "The Water Is Wide" and "Believe Me If …", thought not with those words. Traditional tunes get re-used over time and I wish I could remember the words I knew to these two. If I have a sudden revelation I'll let you know.

Other tunes I often find echoing round my head are Bach's Goldberg Variations (or as many as I can remember, but always the first aria and the sixth piece), Beethoven's 6th. and Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue (the whole album), and, rather strangely, Moon River, though that one pesky Joni tune is ALWAYS sneaking in when I'm not looking.
4:11 PM
Sassy Sundry said…
Wow. It sounds like you did not have good growing-up years.

I couldn't hear the link, but I'll trust you.

I have so many songs for so many different eras/moods, that I don't know if I could list them (and I'd sound completely insane if I did).

Great post.
7:57 PM
Anonymous said…
Whenever I'm very, very nervous -- for instance, when I'm on an airplane that's going thru lots of turbulence -- I begin to hum Mother Nature's Son to myself, without even thinking about it. It just pops into my head and it always calms me right down. tu tu tu du tu...
11:18 PM
Gina said…
I always break into song, it makes me feel better. Although it may not have the same effect on people around me.
11:58 AM
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