Today is my birthday. I’m not really into birthdays, despite what my wife will tell you. The natural thing for a birthday, I suppose, would be to post my favorite piece of music, or perhaps a piece that is who I am. This, of course, brings up all sorts of questions: who am I? who am I supposed to be? who do you expect or want me to be? whose opinion matters, anyway?

It feels a bit clichéd, but Wagner‘s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde speaks to me more than any other piece of music. The Prelude begins not knowing where it is going, and after a long twisted journey, the only resolution you get is a return to the beginning state of unknowingness. And then, the Liebestod: possibly the longest delayed climax in history (4 hours) – but when it hits you, it’s like bliss you never even knew existed. Crying, of course, is optional.

Personal preference for this piece – the brass can simply not be loud enough. If the trombones haven’t made you deaf, then it’s a failure.

I was introduced to the music of living American composer Daniel Dorff by my (young) children, of all people.

If you have kids, and you have a car, you’ve probably been there. A long car ride (and by “long” I mean “more than 30 seconds”), and the whining begins: bathroom, bored, s/he touched me, hungry, s/he wiped boogers on me. So as the parent, you learn important skills in distraction, and put together a literal bag of tricks in an attempt to retain not only a sliver of sanity, but also your will to live. In my trick-bag are many CD’s of music; many of them are just slightly less annoying than the sound of whining children, but hey, the lesser of two evils, right?

Then there was a Daniel Dorff CD: a handful of children’s tales set for narrator and orchestra. How wonderful to find something that the kids and parents could enjoy together?

While I don’t really know him personally, I admire Dorff because, while his music has been played by major orchestras and ensembles (thinks global), he’s a guy who clearly does not suffer from a big head (acts local.) Besides composing, is vice president of music publisher, gives lectures, plays clarinet, volunteers for professional guilds, helps to develop music software, among (I imagine) many other things. And his list of compositions shows that he is writing for people he knows, rather than untouchable superstars (though his pieces have been played by them as well.) So, it turns out that famous composers can be normal, nice, people!

Here’s a short movement of a different piece that I believe captures Dorff’s sound and writing style.

We all have different music we seek out when we are in a particular mood. When you’re itching for a certain song, piece, or genre, take a second and think: what is driving you to that music? Nostalgia, passion, love, sadness, joy, weariness?

What a piece of music means to one person might be completely different to another. One person finds a song to be deep, meaningful, and sacred to his/her soul; another enjoys the same song because it is “hummable”; another person finds it shallow and trite. Can one be right, and the others wrong? Can two, or all three be right at the same time? Does the composer of a piece, or the performers, have any say in what is being expressed, or is beauty simply in the ear of the beholder? Is there a universal beauty? Does it even matter what the composer or performer is expressing? Does it matter what the audience response is? If a composer’s intention doesn’t evoke the correct response in the listener (even if the response is a positive one), is the piece a failure? Does the composer even matter, or is s/he just a random collection of carbon-based molecules that happened to arrange dots on a page in a way that causes musicians to move their limbs in a certain matter which causes air to vibrate which tickles some weird nerves in our ears?

I could go on, but I’ve said enough. Being a human is confusing at times. At some point, we need to let go of all that, embrace our humanity, and just dive into what lifts us out of the muck and mire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7etjqZmAGs