Although I'm an all-american boy; and slurpees and Flo-rida are good enough for me; I still sometimes feel the need to receive "culture". So lately, I've been listening to Mozart, and even though I can't tell a full C from a hard D, I've noticed an immediate impact on my life.
You see, it all started when I read the book Steppenwolfe, which literally translates to "a wolf from the Steppes." Anyway, the narrator, Herman, is a huge fan of Mozart; Herman likes the man more than Li'l Wayne or even Credence Clearwater Revival, if that's to be believed. He has these crazy dream sequences in which Mozart satisfyingly makes fun of Herman's intellectual narrowmindedness. He describes Mozart as the "last of the divine composers," and then proceeds to go on and on for two or three sentences about how great his music makes people feel.
Needless to say, I was highly skeptical. Mozart has no indy cred, has never appeared at Madison Square Gardens, and never signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Vitamin Water. But you know what? I LIKED Mozart. I liked him A LOT. His music makes me feel really, really good. It would be hyperbole to say that "nothing" makes me feel better than Mozart, but he's definitely in my top ten. I'd put him right behind "babies laughing," but way ahead of "eating breakfast."
There's just something about his- well, I don't have the words for it. He's kind of like Shakespeare translated to music. There's something really simple about his music, but absolutely nothing simplistic. Just a thorough mastery. But I have to, as they say, "practice devotion rather than reason" when it comes to music; I don't know beans about playing or appreciation. So I'll just end by saying that I really really like Mozart now, and if I ever forget to wear pants to class, I've either been listening too much or not enough.
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