At the Temple of Castor and Pollux, while Jaeger was on the phone, I took a minute to browse through a batch of library books that happened to be on the shelf. One of them was an NPR guide to building a classical music collection. It featured chapters on 50 or so classical pieces that are considered the greatest ever created. Intrigued, I picked it up and started reading.

I didn't get any farther than the introduction, but a statement contained therein was enough to spark a train of thought, which I now find interesting enough to write about here.

The author made a distinction between background (a.k.a. elevator) music, and music to which one must devote exclusive conscious attention while it plays. He put classical firmly in the latter category. For instance, he said that when he finds himself in a coffee shop or restaurant where some beautiful classical piece is playing in the "background", he will sit through the meal, pay the bill, and leave without having eaten a single bite or sip of food or drink. The music is too important to focus any attention elsewhere while listening to it.

This is an experience with which I can somewhat identify, although to a lesser degree. But with me, only very rarely does it happen with music that falls into the category of classical. My mind is much more likely to be swept up in some great metal or pop tune that maybe I haven't heard in a while, or just happens to be particularly resonant with my mood at a given moment.

The reason the statement stuck in my mind after reading was because my experience with most classical music is so opposite to what the author said. That's not to say I disagree. My brain just seems to react differently. When I hear classical music, especially if it's a work I don't recognize, my brain will almost automatically relegate it as a nice part of the atmosphere, and move on to thinking about other things. Background.

Even if I consciously try to focus on it, classical music (or, more generally, almost any music that has no vocals, and no strong driving beat) will usually, within the span of minutes, be far from the forefront of conscious focus. I daydream. My mind wanders. I think about what happened last week. How will I solve that problem I was having? Let me see, what's going to be on tv tonight? Replay a scene or two from memory. There, that was nice.

When my mind finally comes back to the present, either the music is over, and the moment gone, or I'll start to focus again for a few seconds, only to find the mind wandering away again. (Hmmm, now that I think about it, this is starting to sound a lot like meditation practice, except without as much attempt at discipline.)

I don't consider this a bad thing. It's just how my mind tends to work.

There are, of course, some exceptions to this rule. Beethoven. Wagner. Anything from Fantasia. (This last example tells me that there is something beyond the bare music itself going on here. Even when I'm not watching the movie, if I hear a piece from it, it grabs me. I theorize that this is because hearing the music with animation put atop it keeps my attention from inadvertantly wandering. Somehow, this predisposes me to open up more when I hear it again later.)

When I hear music with a human vocalist, especially if the words are in English, it is far easier to pay attention. That doesn't mean my mind never wanders or does other things then too, but it's not nearly as prone to do so.

Even now. I started out this rambling listening to Britney Spears, and kept getting distracted. [Insert snide joke from some reader about this being indicative of the reputed lack of quality of said artist.] Eventually, I just decided I was going to have to choose one or the other, and turned it off. Now I've got Yanni going, and I'm having no problem focusing on something other than the music.

It's like what one of the band members of Queensryche said in an interview once. A good strong vocalist ties your attention to the sound, unites it, makes it relatable.

I've often thought it would be cool to get into more classical music, not just because it's "something smart people are supposed to do", but because the few pieces I have been able to latch onto to tend to be very rewarding.

Waybe if the author of that book is to be believed, I've gone about it the wrong way when I occassionally try to acclimate myself by throwning on some on Mozart in the background while I program, or resorting to NPR classical in my car when everything else on the air just sucks too horribly to suffer another moment.

I don't know. Realistically, I'll probably just continue with my traditional pattern of spending time really listening and focusing on whatever sounds good and grabs my attention, staying away from the annoying stuff, and letting everything in between act as background filler. *shrug*

On that note, I'm going to segue into reprising a vaguely related topic that I rambled about a couple days ago.

Earlier today, armed with the revelation that the band Evanescence started as a sort-of Christian outfit (or at least Christian members in a Christian setting at first), and did exactly what Amy Lee has said she would prefer that people not do. I listened to the Fallen album, looking at it through the lense of religion, or at least as a work that could have a strongly Christian influence. Really listened, with my eyes on the lyric book. Twice.

Actually, even back when I first bought the album, I wondered. The first time I read the lyrics several of those songs, they did seem to have an oddly Christian-ish flavor, especially with the reference to Christ in Tourniquet, but I wouldn't have described them as anywhere near preachy, or even espousing Christian beliefs. Just a hint of the divine.

Well, having looked at it again, here's one interpretation: The album just might be about a soul that has been foresaken beyond all hope by God, yet longs desperately to be back with Him. I'm not going to go into belaboring the specific lyrical passages, but there are many that could be used to support this point. The fact that the album title itself is called Fallen pretty much clinches it for me.

Of course it's not a Christian record. Christianity teaches that God is willing to forgive and save anyone and everyone. (Exactly how that forgiveness is obtained varies a fair amount between denominations, as I recall. But everyone on this earth can be forgiven and saved somehow according to every Christian teaching I know of.)

Regardless of whether you buy into this particular interpretation, or put the album into it any religious context at all, I don't think anyone could make the case that there exists a single song on it that doesn't have "tortured soul" written all over it.

How is it that the best art always seems to come from tortured souls? Maybe because God, or whatever it is that binds the universe together, couldn't let evil occur without letting from it emerge something that is all the more precious and beautiful.

I'll let it end on that.