Love Conquers All?

Okay, so I’m not Margaret Atwood (in case you were wondering if I was having an identity crisis . . . haha -- very interesting material for a course on autobiography!!) and I don’t call myself superstitious. I may as well then tell you more about this piece I am currently composing. So, it is, surprisingly, in a major key: F Major (i.e. a key with one flat: b-flat). It explores a wide range of dynamics, which in layman's terms means, louds and softs and everything in-between. Basically, they're what keep the music from sounding monotonous!! I'm now working on a second stanza. The subject matter is, again, lost love. I should  inform you, however, that I have quite a vivid imagination, so this song is not written for or about anyone in particular.

Now, let me set the mood for the song:

When your heart is shipwrecked, it sinks timelessly to the bottom of your chest and beyond. You cease knowing what happened. You cease knowing yourself. Everything around you is submerged. You try speaking but only air bubbles come out. This is because when your heart goes under, your body goes with it.

The narrator of this song has experienced a love much purer than gold. However, that love is now lost and she is struggling, quite impossibly, to rekindle a dying passion. She rejects the newly unrequited love which haunts her. According to Virgil, after all, “Love conquers all.” Love, in its purest form, has such unspeakable potential for empowerment . . . self-actualization. It heals old wounds. It restores. It nurtures freedom and possibility. It changes for the better. This, of course, is the reason the narrator has such difficulty letting go; she can’t bring herself to accept the fact that her partner has moved on when in his absence she is incomplete.

So, there you have it, the story in a nutshell! I haven’t finished the lyrics, but the song is certainly unfolding quite nicely, something I don’t say about all of my songs. I think the song deals with the fresh wounds of lost love, the stage where the victim hasn’t yet realized the futility of flogging a dead horse, as the old saying goes.

But this entry has got me thinking more about love. After taking a 20^th Century Things course last semester (i.e. the spring term), I couldn’t help thinking of love as fetishistic. Is it negatively marked so? I like to think not, but sometimes I second-guess that evaluation. I mean, I suppose it could be perceived as negative in the sense that when in love, two individuals become so wrapped up in themselves that they lose sight of the world around them. I’m sure you’ve seen this with friends or family . . . after he or she marries, your relationship with that person is never the same. You hate to think of it this way, but you sometimes feel like a stranger in his her presence and as if you are now second-best, sometimes even as if you cease to exist. Your time will come soon enough . . . or will it?

Another more certain belief I have about love is that while you can find it, you can’t force it. I feel that a lot of young love (thinking back to my childhood, especially, when kids were dating in grade four!) is forced . . . misled. This is not to say that love doesn’t take any work, but definitely that love should happen, preferably when it is least expected and when, of course, the time is right. This is what I think makes it most exciting.

I could ramble all day about love . . . perhaps miscalculating some of its features. However, I will restrict myself to a few more comments on the perplexing subject. So, firstly, I do think love needs time to develop contrary to those who believe in love at first sight. I also believe that love feels good, which, as simplistic as it sounds, is more complex. To explicate, love does not feel like a submission to temptation. Inexperienced as I am, I may not be in a position to comment, but I do firmly believe that a lot of relationships can get physical far too quickly and that in some sad cases, physical attraction is all that sustains the relationship. This is not true love.

Okay, so I’m going to leave it at that. Nevertheless, a few more things I’ve felt I probably should have mentioned earlier on this blog are that I am actually a trained Classical musician even though I play and listen to all sorts of music across the ever-expanding span of genres (e.g. jazz, pop, country, Broadway, etc.). Also, my musical style has really evolved over the years, something you will likely note when you listen to my new finished piece (to be posted on my final blog entry at the end of October) and compare it with my earlier choral piece.

So that’s it for now. Happy Thanksgiving!!