soothing the savage breast

[adelaidesean]

I write listening to a particular kind of ambient music. What separates it from other, inferior kinds of ambient music is hard to tell sometimes, but I know the right stuff when I hear it. Mostly I source my fix from emusic (which I strongly recommend), while some comes from artist sites. The search goes on, and on.

Here are the top five most-played albums I downloaded this year, just in case anyone else happens to like my kind of sound:

Arc of Passion, Steve Roach
Glaciation, Patrick O'Hearn
Silver, Thom Brennan
Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich
Mysterious Skin, Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie

(Altus and Deepspace were also recurring favourite artists.)

Like laughter, music turns out to be good for the heart, hence the title of this post (from the other Bill Congreve). I really doubt, though, that anything called "Ode to the Misunderstood Potato" would be of much benefit (from the ongoing nightmare of nostalgia).

And speaking of nightmares, last night's dream was spookily appropriate.

Comments

[editormum.livejournal.com]

hee! That's one heck of a Freudian slip in your title Sean!

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I wish! In fact, that's the original quote:

"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." (http://www.bartleby.com/100/212.1.html)

It's like "Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well" or "Play it again, Sam". What's popularly recalled is not actually the original.

[editormum.livejournal.com]

*gapes* Truly? Well colour me apologised :) It look funny though :)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Truly, and no apology necessary. That it looks funny was one reason I led with the quote. :-)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

So nice to see someone getting the quote right.

Yes, I'm a Shakespeare pedant.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Somehow I'm not surprised. :-)

(I totally approve, btw.)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Did I tell you Iain gave me the Arden Shakespeare(all the plays, sonnets and assorted other bits + footnotes in a handsome csed edition) for my birthday? I'm planning some quality time with it over the Christmas break.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's exciting. I love annotated books. What a wonderful way to spend the solstice!

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I have The Annotated Hobbit. I need The Annotated Alice, which would bring the number of Hobbits in the collection to four, and Alices to five (I think: the catalogue is incomplete.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I have two copies of the annotated Hobbit (whoops), plus one each of the Alice, Frankenstein and Dracula editions. There should be more. Someone told me about an annotated League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which excites me a great deal!