Music and Memories

Today I ran 9.25 miles.  I still can't really believe it myself.  But for a brief moment, it caused me to think that maybe... maybe I can run a half marathon.  What a strange thing- to actually think that I could do something so huge!

This post, however, is not about running.  But it begins with running.  I run to either This American Life or Fresh Air, at least most of the time.  When I work on pace, I run to music.  Ideally, I would have loved to switch between a talk radio and music.  But my iPod on/off button doesn't work, so once the screen goes black, my iPod is still catching my run, but I can't get back to the screen to change music.  So as I was running and listening to Fresh Air, I thought about music.

And the memories music conjures up.

I am sure we all have music that conjures up memories.  Maybe it's because a particular song was important to us during a time in our life or the lyrics remind us of a person or event.  For example, the entirety of the album "I and Love and You" by the Avett Brothers reminds me of John.  So does "Songs for Silverman" by Ben Folds, because John and I listened to it together when we first met.  In particular, the song "Landed."  There are a lot of other songs that remind me of John.  All of them are pleasant memories, although not all the songs are cheerful.

There are pieces that remind me of my mother ("Forever Young" or "You and Me Against the World") and many pieces that remind me of Heather, in particular from our childhood together.  Those are ALWAYS fun pieces.  Probably because we are fun people.

There are also pieces that remind me of events.  Here is the whole point of this: There are no classical pieces that remind me of a person.  Classical pieces only remind me of large events.  Such as Vivaldi's Gloria- the first time I sang just the "Gloria," I had a musical experience.  Of "Songs for Athene" sung by Nordic Choir when I was still in high school.  I remember hearing these pieces and I remember the feelings and reactions I had.  I still don't have nearly as many classical pieces that conjure up memories, but this musical memory bank is always growing.  By the way, when I say classical, I mean the over arching genre and not Classical, as in the time period.

I love the way our brains work.  I love the fact that music is so integrated in our culture and our lives that it is powerful enough to bring back experiences, feelings, and memories.  I would love to know some of YOUR important memories that are brought about by music.