# I can't get this tune out of my mind...



## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

It's 3am here. I can't get this tune out of my mind for at least an hour now while starring at the ceiling in the dark.

It's the beginning of Act 2 of Carmen. That lazy carefree tune before the singer enters, plus the dancers stamping on the stage.

Dancers stamping... so it's Philippe Jordan's live Carmen at Glyndebourne! I've got only a handful of Carmens so I'm not obsessed with it in any way. Why did it come into my head?

Oh what should I do to get it out of my head?

At least this time I recognise the tune! Sometimes a tune comes into my head but I can't immediately tell what it is. That drives me nuts.

Do you also suffer from this condition?


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Yes that has happened to me a lot (thinking of a melody I don't know). 

And I've always been perplexed by how I randomly think of a melody from a piece I haven't heard in months, and suddenly it's stuck in my head. The next day a new melody will magically pop in, and so on. The human brain is fascinating (and sometimes frusturating)!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

That happens to me a lot, especially when I'm on vacation and away from my home stereo. The nice thing about getting a classical piece stuck in my head is, it allows me to concentrate on that particular fragment and analyze it, like the use of motifs, their development, the orchestral color, anything that I would normally miss. I'm hardly ever bored anymore; there is always something to think about. How to get it out? I usually listen to a pop tune. The banality shuts off my brain.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

It happens all the time. I think music is store in our somewhere in the subconcious without ourselves realizing it.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I suppose it's usually an impactful tune. Apart from Carmen, other examples include: the charging strings at the beginning of the 2nd movement in Saint-Saëns' 3rd symphony, or the Danse russe in Pétrouchka, or the first song in Dichterliebe, or when it goes wild towards the end of the scherzo in Mahler 5.... On the other hand, I suppose if I cannot hum it, it won't pop up. E.g. Boulez's orchestral Notations, anyone? Although I can remember very vividly whenever I listened to it I felt a tinkle up my spine!



Manxfeeder said:


> ... How to get it out? I usually listen to a pop tune. The banality shuts off my brain.


Bang on! I tried playing the beginning of Act 2 of Carmen on the stereo, but the condition got worse - I started comparing different versions... that's not a development I wanted. Eventually I put on some Japanese pop. The brain washing effect worked wondrously.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

Manxfeeder said:


> That happens to me a lot, especially when I'm on vacation and away from my home stereo. The nice thing about getting a classical piece stuck in my head is, it allows me to concentrate on that particular fragment and analyze it, like the use of motifs, their development, the orchestral color, anything that I would normally miss. I'm hardly ever bored anymore; there is always something to think about. How to get it out? I usually listen to a pop tune. The banality shuts off my brain.


Oh my God! Such things are you doing on your vacations ? Remind me not to come with you! :lol:


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