Spring Song

I've discovered that I should start writing up here. If I don't, then previews of the post (like on Google search, or on the side of my homepage) will just show the piece of HTML for the audio, instead of anything I actually said. I also hope you will forgive me for forgetting to set this post up on Sunday.

Listen to the song here
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Today's song was written by Felix Mendelssohn as part of a collection called "Songs Without Words." There were 8 different books of these that were published at different times in Mendelssohn's life. In the 1830s and '40s, when they were written, pianos were becoming more popular and larger numbers of people were learning to play them. Mendelssohn's songs became a favorite because they weren't too hard for new pianists to play. (If I ever feel like this one was too easy to play, maybe I should check out the ragtime version that I heard about while looking it up.)

Some of the volumes in the collection were dedicated to family members or to other musicians that Mendelssohn knew. However, not all of the songs got their own names like this one. Most of them were simply designated by the tempo and the key.

Mendelssohn was once approached with an offer to have lyrics written for these songs. He turned it down, saying that what he was expressing with his music was not too indefinite to put into words, but rather too definite. Perhaps he was trying to say that music can connect with a person in a way that words can't really convey.

Maybe I should rework the saying about being remembered for how you make people feel. "People might forget the lyrics of your songs, and they might forget how you play your instrument, but they will never forget how your music made them feel."

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya