Seeing that the New Year is coming, it’s only right that this week’s pick be somewhat appropriate. Other than Auld Lang Syne, which I would post only if tortured, no obvious candidates come immediately to mind. There are no New Year carols, after all. But choose I must.
One must first determine, then, whether one should pick something that reflects on the year that’s passed, or the year to come, and must then determine whether to pick music with an optimistic or realistic pessimistic outlook. As to the former, I shall look forward to the coming year, fraught as it is with possibilities. As to the latter, I’ve decided to do a bit of both, but lightly on the realism, because a certain person with whom I live has put me on notice that I am becoming a cranky old man.
Many years ago, in fact it was our very first New Year’s eve together, my wife and I, along with one (or more, my memory’s hazy) of our roommates, chanced to put on a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth. Perhaps the substances we were inhaling had something to do with it, but no piece of music before or since has ever filled me with such…well, joy. In my own opinion it beats Strauss hands down as an appropriate piece of music for the day. This video is especially good, and really, how can you ever give up hope completely if you belong to a species even one of whose members can create something so beautiful. So here’s hoping that against all odds, 2012 will see some small measure of progress.
But as I hinted above, one can’t be too optimistic, and, when I think about the coming year it does make me want to cry for help. Which brings us to the second part of this feature, which was suggested to me, oddly enough, by this very silly clip, which appeared on the results of my search for Beethoven’s Ninth.
Anyway, here they are, speaking for all of us as we face a year that, speaking realistically, looks to be even worse than the last.
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