Happy Times and Sad Times Remembered

The soundtrack of your life

A work shop facilitated by Tony May

17/11/2012

Tony started by explaining that to write a real character into a story the personality must be followed through, we cited examples of some soap operas where the characters go on holiday and come back as someone completely different . This change spoils the credibility of the whole story. One method, Tony felt was to use music as a "hook" to verify the character, he told us how pieces of music had influenced his life because they seemed to be playing at a time in his life when changes occurred We heard in all two pieces and were told of how they affected Tony, then were asked if we could think of a significant piece or two and wrote about it, preferably a light piece and a sad one. Tony also expressed that the time the music was popular could indicate a persons' age if that was the favoured genre. I wrote the following ( which makes me about 200 - sorry Tony)

Calming memories Beethoven’s' Moonlight Sonata

As a child, lying in bed, a brief time when I felt warm and safe, I listened to my mother on the piano playing "Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. She was a very accomplished pianist and I would drift off to sleep with the even ripples in my ears. My mother was an infant school teacher and said that if she encountered a disruptive class, she would sit at the piano and play this piece., immediately the class would calm down and all would sit and listen.

In later years when I taught the piano mainly to children, I found this a useful piece to teach, it is quite easy to learn and many children would go away after a few weeks of practice with the first three pages of Beethoven in their repertoire . It is very impressive, gave the child a feeling of pride and a boost to the self esteem, some even played it at their school concert.
All in all, the man who could hardly hear what he wrote down musically has passed on so many beautiful sounds for us all to enjoy.
 
 
This was my "sad" piece

  
Sadness The Rose

Some music can make me feel sad when there is no reason , ballet music for example , I fine emotional and Italian opera well some of the stories are sad maybe I relate to them. The other evening though I turned on the television and X Factor was on, not a programme I like at all but I was captivated by the man who was telling his story it was a sad story and when he began to sing it was as if all the sorrows of the world were being expressed , I just sat and cried.

Cynthia Price
Stevenage Survirvors