Piece #45 - Vienna- Billy Joel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0yvjk6mzKE

Time to step outside the box a bit. Here is one of my all-time favorite tunes- You see, I do listen to things other than Brahms...well not much, but here goes!

Opinionoids;
It's funny how songs are especially meaningful at different times in your life. We often associate a tune with a memory. This is a song that has always "spoken to me" although I've connected with different lines during different phases of my life.

I remember going through the struggles of graduate school. My first year in particular, I worked myself to the bone and was having virtually no fun. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, doubting myself, questioning my abilities, and in a general state of tremendous stress. On a Saturday night you could find me in my office working, which usually involved little work and lots of worry.

I can distinctly recall one of those Saturday evenings in 107 Music Building 1. I hadn't listened to anything written after 1900 in months and I played this song. I can still remember laughing as I realized the first verse had become my life. Here is the text:

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

It was shortly after that Saturday evening where things really started to click. Up until that point my life was driven by worry. I was unkind to friends and my girlfriend (she really dealt with the brunt of this), when I wasn't running a rehearsal, I was stressing out about the next one. That pivotal moment made me understand that there were other things that were more important than trying to be the best, and perpetually searching for validity. Oddly enough things really started to click after this realization. I got accepted into some wonderful summer programs, I did well in competitions, and things began to make sense - personally and musically.

I came to this song again during a similar time last October. Without getting too personal, I experienced a tough break up. Fittingly, it happened during one of those "when it rains it pours"  weekends, as within a 24 -hour period I conducted a concert that totally bombed, some students questioned my teaching philosophy, and broken up, as silly as it sounds it seemed like my world was coming to an end.

At this point I sort of wanted to curl up into a hole and escape. Things were difficult with my job, and what I considered the only thing going smoothly - my relationship, ended abruptly after several years. It seemed as though I was at the edge some sort of cliff. How was I to respond?

I remember driving home from New Jersey feeling perplexed, sad, and confused. I wasn't sure what was to happen next. Some people have comfort food, I have comfort music. I turned to Brahms, and Mendelssohn, but I also turned to that Billy Joel tune named after an Austrian city.

As I listened to Vienna in my apartment, endearingly nicknamed, "The Barracks" a different line stuck with me.

You know that when the truth is told

You can get what you want or you can just get old

And it seemed so fitting. I've made it my motto ever since, and things are much better. While I would be lying if I said everything was alright, I am in love with my job, I have wonderful family and friends, and I have a lot to appreciate. It seems so true that life is all about perspective, we aim for what we want or we can "just get old." It's funny that it took a song I had heard 500 times for me to realize that.

Have a good one!