Sadness - Music to Grieve to

Have you ever had your family break apart?

I have.

There are a hundred different feelings you go through, none of them good, but the emotion that lingers long after everything else has faded, is sadness.

Sadness for what happened, sadness for how it was handled, sadness for the lives that were changed and sadness for the loss of relationships that I still hold dear.

Major Minor / Happy Sad

This piece was a full and intentional look into how that sadness made me feel.

There’s this false happy opening - a simple descending melody that sets up the expectation of a sweet little melody and yet, within a minute, it’s fallen into a minor key.  Pretty much all the way through the track you never quite know if you’re major or minor, happy or sad.

I think when you’re dealing with grief, you have to accept that your emotions are going to do their own thing - some days they’re great, others not so much and there’s little warning as to what you’re going to get.

Sadness to me is soft - it’s passive - it doesn’t have the energy of anger or frustration - it’s quiet and delicate - the knife slips under your breastbone rather than bashes through it.

Optimist

Of course - I’m a hopeless optimist.

I can’t change the past but I can look forward to the future.  I don’t know how things will get better, I just believe that they will.

The track mirrors that optimism - after 7 minutes or so there’s a subtle shift, the energy is still low, the keys still change, but there’s a quiet hope, a more grounded representation of the theme.  And while the ending could have lapsed back into melancholy, it finishes on a hopeful ascent up the keyboard.

Wishful thinking?

Maybe, but life’s too short to feel sad the whole time.

Find Us On Spotify

We're going to be focusing a lot on Spotify over the coming year - it is by far the biggest revenue source for Musicto and music2work2 and the best way for you to support us is to listen to and share our playlists.

We will be developing the Music to Grieve to playlist by adding new tracks so make sure you choose to follow.

Aside from following Musicto and music2work2 on Spotify you can of course sign up for the email list.  We only ever contact you when we have new music available.

Scotland

It's 10:30 pm and tomorrow we leave for Dublin - it is unlikely that I will get to a computer to post before the new year - so - I wanted to leave a couple of thoughts in 2006 and write our intent for 2007:

For 2007 - we strive to be happy - to smile a lot, to laugh often and to deal with hardship courageously.

It’s been a crazy year – it has been the year that music2work2 actually came into being – the website – the music – everything. At this point we have over 100 people on our mailing list that we don’t know – and we are seriously excited about this.

I cannot wait for 2007 – I, Andrew, cannot imagine anything better that I would want to be doing with my time – I am full of hope and optimism for the future. I love the music that is coming out, I love the idea of “music2”, I love working with Charlotte, …it is just a dream project for me and I hope that my enthusiasm, energy, delight and passion is reflected in the music.

2006 has been a year of building, it has been a year of struggle, of focus and of course, many, many questions. If you haven’t yet registered at www.kelli.com, please do so, I love the music there and it will be a huge part of my life next year.

None of this would exist without Charlotte – the music would, but this whole entity: the new sessions, the blog – the business – would not exist. I cannot thank her enough for her belief in this music, this whole idea and of course – in me! ;-) Thank you Charlotte – and btw – you’re not allowed to reply to this one ;-)

We both wish you a happy, healthy and harmonious 2007.