(I should confess that right now I'm listening to Tool's Aenima so if my rhythm seems off or something...you know why.)

So a while back it was all the rage to list the sorts of music you associated with moods, place of mind or general life situations. People's answers were certainly insightful and I thought I should list my own ("should," of course, being a strong word) but I kept running out of time in my days. Also, something kept cropping up where I couldn't figure out of the music was something that you listened to when you felt a certain way (you're jealous so you throw on some Ani) or the music that you hear reminds of you of when you felt that way or is about that mood so it makes you consider time when you or someone you know has had that mood run roughshod over them....

In the end I decided I don't care. I'll explain what the music means and you can interpret that however you like.

So the first in the list was music for happiness.
At first I thought of Ani di Franco's "Joyful Girl" for all of the obvious reasons. While being obvious has it's merits, it's always been a state I've tried to avoid, finding a lot more comfort in oblique reference and subtle commentary. I'm not good at it, mind, but I like it.

Then I went home and started up the stereo and listened to Tori's Under the Pink (sidenote: I could respond to every single mood/whatever with a Tori song, or a TMBG song, but in keeping with being mysterious or some shit like that, I'm trying to come up with responses that you wouldn't think of if you knew me). I puttered around and the CD played through and the next one came on: The soundtrack to Immortal Beloved a very interesting movie, but only for it's subject matter, although since it's about a historical figure they did a *very* good job rendering the period and the chaos and social strata going on at the time. But anyway the movie was just a vehicle for the music and as proof of this I got the soundtrack several years before I watched the movie. The very last track is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, aka Ode to Joy.

There is no more eloquent or succinct statement about joy than this marvelous work that was produced by, of all things, a deaf sociopath.

The version on this album is by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Georg Solti.

In our lives there are few things that we discover that we can honestly and in good consience call "marvelous." This goes on my short, short list.

On a completely off topic tangent: The first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth- "ta-ta-ta-DAH" - is also the Morse signal for "V" - short-short-short-long. I remember this from a book I read when I was a kid about different European heroes during WWII. It came up in a section about a woman who was trying to make her way on a bicycle through a crowded part of the city and avoid the Gestapo who were stopping everyone and asking for their papers. She was the heroine of the story, but I can't for the life of me remember what she did, if it was smuggle intelligence to the Allies, or Jews down to Budapest or what, but of course if the police got her then her life would be over and much of her work compromised. Fortunately her group was a known underground group who's signal was a "V" for Victory. She started singing the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth and the people in the crowd heard and got out of her way so she could avoid the police.

Has nothing to do with the above topic, just wanted to share how Little Ludwig helped save a little corner of the world. };>

Obvious Answers
Tori Amos: Pretty Good Year
They Might Be Giants: all the Fingertips