No, I am not anticipating my demise at any particular time. My physician assures me I am in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in.
Perhaps we all have fantasies about what people will do and say subsequent to our achieving room temperature. I guess my fantasy has a bit of sadism in it because I want everyone who attends my memorial event to listen to music that I like.
So I have been piling up digitalized music into a special file on my computer as I listen, while doing other work, to randomly selected pieces from the hundreds of CDs I have sent to the hard drive. There is no way everyone, or anyone, will stand or sit still for the enormous amount of music I have tagged as “my favorite” or personally significant.
Here are some pieces I particularly like:
Bach: Cello Suite 1, I. Prelude; Chaconne from Partita in D minor; English Suite, BWV811, Movement IV, Sarabande
Bartok: Rumanian Folk Dances (piano & violin)
Beethoven: Symphony #6, “Pastoral” Movement- 3. Allegro; Symphony #7, Op.92, Allegretto; Violin Sonata No. 8 in G, II. Tempo di minuetto
Bernstein, Elmer: The Magnificent Seven（from the film)
Chopin: Berceuse for piano in D-flat major, Op. 57, and many of his préludes
Eno, Brian: Sparrowfall From “Music For Films”
Glass: Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out Of Balance) and Naqoyqatsi (Life As War)
Grieg: Edvard: Jag Älskar Dig (“I Love You”) and Solvejg’s Song
Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74 No. 3, II. Largo
Hovhaness: Prayer of Saint Gregory, from “Celestial Gate”
Khachaturian: Spartacus, Suite #1, Scene & Dance and the Waltz from “Masquerade”
Loeillet: Sonata in b: I. Largo
Mozart: Requiem In D Minor, K 626 – 1. Introitus and his entire Mass in C minor
Schumann: Piano Quintette–Scherzo
Sibelius: Valse triste, Op.44 No.1
Some significant composers I have not yet included: Boccherini, Brahms, Bruch, Chabrier, Corelli, Debussy, Delius, Dvorak, Faure, Gershwin, Ligeti, Marais, Martinu, Mendelssohn, Messaien, Pärt, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Rautavaara, Ravel, Satie, Scarlatti, Schubert, Stravinsky, Takemitsu, Tavener, Tschaikovsky, Vivaldi and Ralph Vaughn Williams. There could be more, indeed.
So, you who are to survive me, you’d better let me know which of the above you can’t stand so I can do some necessary editing. There are some non-“classical” pieces that come to mind without research: “The Original Boogie Woogie” by Tommy Dorsey; “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” by “Earl Scruggs and Friends”; “Infinity Promenade” by Shorty Rogers.
Suggestions for inclusion in either realm are welcome.
What do you want played at your memorial?
The Pavellas Perspective 