Music and Memories

Music and Memories

When it comes to music, I'm a bit old-fashioned: I have a special fondness for Big Band Jazz. My laptop is frequently tuned to the Big Band station on Yahoo's Lauchcast Internet radio site. Music by Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman are among my favourites.

I love watching the latest MTV music videos too but they are not the kind of music I would want to play in the background while I'm working. I also find Baroque music and Gregorian Chants the best kind of music for inducing concentration. Of course, there are a lot of theories out there about how music can enhance learning and also help in the healing process. Pregnant mothers today routinely subject their unborn children to Mozart and Bach.

Be it dangdut, Canto rock or hip hop, everyone has his or her own favourite music. There are lots of people who don't like to read but I haven't met anyone who doesn't like music. The music we listen to reflects our mental disposition and how we view the world. Part of the pleasure of music is the kind of memory they aways trigger back in our minds. Listening to Eurythimics or Duran Duran remind me of my teenage years. Dewa's music would bring me back to the crowded streets of Jakarta and the dinghy nightclubs of Kota.

Mozart and the sound of pianos always make me feel like a child again and evoke pleasant recollections of the sunny good times I had playing up in the hills and rubber estates. Sundanese music reminds me of nasi timbel, gurame goreng and the tranquility of Bandung. Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack brings me back to those cold and lonely nights studying in the university library.

Some music makes you feel so sad. Gabriel Yared's soundtrack for The Lover never fail to plunge me into melancholy. I am careful not to listen to it too often.

Big Band Music is the safest bet--it is always cheerful, playful and gay and redolent of times when life was a lot simpler. It makes me want to sit at Cafe Batavia, sipping red wine the whole night long...