By Mona Seghatoleslami
It’s a cold, rainy afternoon. As I organize the library here, I’ve been idly pondering what music I should play tomorrow on the radio. Not sure if it’s all the rain, but I’ll admit I’m not in the sunniest of moods. I found myself lining up in my head an afternoon of late-romantic symphonies, desperately melancholy string quartets, and perhaps a requiem or two.
And then I caught myself…what am I doing? Is this really what I want to hear? Is this what everyone else wants to hear? So I've abandoned the library for a bit to write down my thoughts and see what other people think.
Do you generally want music that fits your mood or counters it?
Are dark days (emotionally or weather-wise) well-suited to some darker Elgar, Prokofiev, or Sibelius? Or are they exactly the time to brighten things up with Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet, early Mozart piano concertos, or some Leroy Anderson miniatures?
(And what are your exceptions? And are there some pieces fit many of your moods? Or is this all a pretty silly line of inquiry?)
Talk to me…meanwhile, I’m keeping it bleak with Nielsen’s String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 5.