https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxFAT581T4
When Spring hit Washington, D.C., on March 14th, I welcomed and celebrated its arrival by posting on Facebook the song from the pianist Ludovico Einaudi, Primavera, which in Portuguese means Spring.
A close friend saw the post and commented: “That´s kinda of a sad sounding spring song, no?”.
Without even thinking much, just feeling (I was listening to the song again), I replied: “This song is not actually sad… If you listen well, it describes Spring perfectly.
First, it starts kind of sad and melancholic, and that´s how people usually feel during Winter. And Winter comes before Spring.
As the song develops, the rhythm gets more energetic and engaging (after 1 minute the violins begin). That´s Spring coming.
At minute 2 it prepares to some kind of explosion, wich is just like the first days of Spring when the trees start to blossom, and we all get super excited about it. It changes our mood almost immediately.
But then because everything is impermanent and we can´t keep that energy and excitement forever, the song slows the rhythm a bit. This time, not as sad like in Winter (notice that the violins are there again), but as an ordinary day into an equilibrium. That´s when we are already used to seeing the flowers everywhere, and we don´t pay that much of attention anymore.
And what comes after Spring? Summer! And with Summer, it comes another wave of energy and excitement that brings along the heat of the temperature.
Once more, as nothing lasts forever, this heat that was once energy and excitement, now turns into something kind of suffocating (that´s when the rhythm of the song is so brutally energetic that it feels like something is about to break. You feel like spinning around and screaming).
That´s when you need a breeze. A cool breeze to calm you down and take you back to equilibrium one more time. The song gives you that by slowing down one last time, preparing to end its journey, just like life ends its cycle after one year, going through its 4 seasons.
It might sound crazy but if you listen to this song using earphones, and with closed eyes, you can actually see this scenario happening right in front of you.
Try it out. Give this song a second chance and you will see that it is not sad, but it is just like life.”
Ps: Although this was a real facebook conversation, I did some edit to best fit on a blog post 🙂