Thursday, December 14, 2006

Sound track for my death bed

How did people ever manage to die without being able to arrange the proper tunes for their exit strategy? Listening on my way in to work this morning to the piece commonly known as (but no more, by me) Albinoni's Adagio, I was caught up in its beauty and realized that this is what I want to hear as I leave this world, to soothe and to serenade and to sweep away my soul in a swirl. Our trusty morning explainer informed his listeners that this was not really a baroque piece at all, but had been finished by a twentieth century composer based on a few fragments of a piece by Albinoni. Rushing in to read more about this, I learned that Remo Giazotto was researching Albinoni, most of whose archival material had been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden, when he discovered a manuscript with the bass line and six bars of melody (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remo_Giazotto). Apparently this was in 1945, though on Wikipedia's Albinoni page it says it was done in 1958, the year of my birth. But in any case, it is interesting that this work, along with Messiaen's Quartet for the End of the Age, also written out of the devastation of WWII, speaks to me so deeply. I guess I am truly a baby boomer, a child who emerged from the fragments of that broken world. Only to crawl through the rubble of this one.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that I am not the only one who thinks about this stuff. There are two songs that I would very much like to hear or have heard at my funeral. "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and "The Dying California".

-d

Isidora said...

I think it is something about the Advent Season (especially in the Northern Hemisphere) and its emphasis on last things that make me particularly lean in that direction this time of year.

Who does "The Dying California." If we add popular music to the death track, I'd have to include "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" (Dylan.)

Anonymous said...

The version I have is by Cordelia's Dad (Fronted by Tim Ericson)

Anonymous said...

heh. Found this while looking up Sacred Harp.

http://partinghand.pbwiki.com/

Pat said...

You really got me to thinking, doc. Boom/whoosh? Sirens? Flatline BEEEEP? Teeth crunching up in head?
If I could choose, would select the sound of Psalms chanting.