Those Songs...

We all know those songs. Surely today, with millions watching Felix Baumgartner's capsule dangling over the earth, many people had Strauss's Blue Danube running through their heads. A few may have even sung such out loud, initiating the reference through the room. Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey ingrained that one into many of our minds. Other great songs go back even further for us. Examples being, Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. Just a few notes of these tunes and we generally mentally write them off as songs we do not care to listen to as a result of their "belonging" to a certain event.

The Wedding March was first performed this day, back in 1843. However, it was not until Queen Victoria had it played at her wedding in 1858 did the piece begin becoming a marriage standard. Similarly, the 1901 piece, Pomp and Circumstance, was selected by Yale in 1905 and the tradition has been well set. Here is the problem (not that I am raging against a machine or anything here), we tend to never really listen to these pieces. The reality is, they are really good songs, thus being selected for these great events. I suffer from this myself with several more modern pieces. For example, Zeppelin's Black Dog use to beat me down faster than I could really start the song. I attributed this to it's over play on the radio. Another classical piece is Beethoven's 5th. Thankfully, I have forced my self to set aside the immediate, "oh, this song" emotion, and be able to hear and appreciate the greatness that made these songs, "those songs."

From my Facebook Post:

Today in History: In 1843, the first performance of Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Wedding March did not become popular at weddings until it was selected by Victoria, The Princess Royal for her marriage to Prince Frederick William of Prussia on 25 January 1858.
http://youtu.be/5FapP2wMCWQ

Credit:

http://racampbell.tripod.com/almanac/

http://www.youtube.com/user/medialabor1

My Wife & I.

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