I normally dont share my favorite music because it's always hard to convince people to understand the music I like and explain why. But I want to try this time :)
I love Chopin's Barcarolle.
It has been my favorite song for almost a decade.
As the name suggests, its a boat song. It has very calming, relaxing and romantic sounds filled with motifs about water, ocean and sinuous movements. I sometimes sing with words while I play the main theme even though there is no lyrics; after all, its a cantabile passage and I feel certainly better with singing. I dont sing it when I play it for someone else, because those words are very personal to me.
The song is filled with romantic beautiful melody, and it may give an impression that it was written during Chopin's happiest moment in his short life, as we always assume Chopin as a sentiment artist, whose music was deeply effected by his emotions. But this song is one of his last works and it was written when his relationship with George Sand failed and his health was getting worse. And at this moment of his life, he wrote this undoubtedly beautiful song. I always believed it means something more.
Not long ago, I found this quote while I was reading one of Nietzsche's books:
"Chopin's Barcarolle. Almost all states and modes of life have a moment of rapture, and good artists know how to discover that moment. Such a moment there is even in life by the seashore — that dreary, sordid, unhealthy existence, dragged out in the neighbourhood of a noisy and covetous rabble. This moment of rapture Chopin in his Barcarolle expressed in sound so supremely that Gods themselves, when they heard it, might yearn to lie long summer evenings in a boat."
Apparently, he was fond of this music and you can find his friend's letter stating Nietzsche requested to play barcarolle and his friend joyfully played the piano whole day just for him.
I do think life in general is unhealthy, unhappy and depressing, that is why I am planning to end my own life. But I do think I had some beautiful moments. This song taught me how to appreciate those moments.