Musique pour le Tristesse de Xion

Prompt 376: Music can often trigger powerful memories. Describe a memorable experience associated with a particular piece of music.

Well, I'm bending the rules just a bit on this prompt. I rarely actually associate pieces of music with memories. Mostly, I associate them with imagery or powerful emotions. I thought that, since Musique pour le Tristesse de Xion is the song I'm working on on the piano right now, I would write about it.

Xion's Theme is a song that I have always loved, even in its less complicated form. Something about it is just so graceful, perfectly combining with the tragedy in her story to really strike home. I just can't emphasize just how much I love this song, which is why I'm putting in so much effort to learn it, even though it has been taking a very long time. The music itself is very complicated, rhythmically and expression-wise, and I must admit that it's a challenge, but a worthwhile one.

I think, though, that what it makes me feel most is calm... like tranquility. The opening makes me think of droplets of water falling into darkness, hitting the surface of the mirror-like reflection in a pool and rippling outwards. It rises up inside you and crashes over you in a way that makes me think of a waterfall--not aggressive, but not still either. It's a waterfall hidden in an oasis, masked beneth the pink and violet hues of a setting sun, yet somehow it still manages to convey the strains of pale blue sadness as well. And in the end... you just float on the surface, staring up at a darkening, starry sky...

Okay, maybe that's a bit melodramatic of me, but that's what I think of. It doesn't make me think of any particular memory, but--like I said--a myriad of emotions and images that have little to do with reality.

Still, it doesn't strike me as the type of song you weep to, but more of a musical tragedy (much like the character it's based off, who dies tragically and soon after everyone forgets that she ever existed). I have to say, I've very excited to learn the whole thing! I definitely believe that the hours upon hours of sweat (not so much blood) and tears will pay off in the end.

One of my favorite parts of any song is the finished product. Perhaps it's pompous of me, but my way of playing it is always my favorite way of playing it, because then I can express exactly what it is that I feel rather than listening to someone else's interpretation of it. Think of it like you would someone's thoughts on a story. What someone else thinks of it and feels about it is completely different than the way you think and feel about it--it's like that. And, unlike when I speak (I hate speaking in front of people), I love playing piano in front of people. It's one of the few ways that I'm completely comfortable expressing myself in front of others.

Hopefully I should have it completed within the next week or two, though I'm quite certain my parents and my sister will be sick of hearing it by then, no matter how beautiful it is. Sacrifices... but it's one of those things you just have to drill. I'll thank myself for my hard work when my fingers move without thought and I can concentrate on the expression and inflection of the music rather than the technical bits.

That's all I have to say for now. I hope I haven't bored anyone beyond all reason today.

Note: I would strongly recommend looking it up unless you're really not into piano music, because it's absolutely gorgeous, even though I don't like the official piano track as much as I like the way I play it. But then, I'm biased. Heh.