# What piece reminds you of a loved one?



## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

I believe we all have a certain piece that is linked between our heart and someone. It is a very interesting feeling to listen to a piece and have this love (for whoever) revive at its full health. It feels great, it wakes up memories, great or difficult, but reminds you why said person deserves all the love in the world.

I’m sure I am not the only one, but I assume we all have our own music to be the score of our own stories. I would love to hear which piece gives you this feeling and who it reminds you of. It can be a partner, member of family or any person you are very attached to!

Personally, it is Brahms’s 2nd Intermezzo from the Opus 118. It reminds of the struggle it was to gain her trust while fighting my own little world of difficulties that surrounded me, but yet reminds me of the high reward of seeing a smile on her face. Such a lovely romantic piece that I think Brahms might had written with a certain Schumann in his head?


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I lost a dear aunt about a year and a half ago, and when I first heard the news I could do none else but play Brahms’s German Requiem, the Klemperer recording. For that reason it is incredibly special music for me but I don’t listen to it often because the emotional connection is so strong.


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## numinisgos (May 10, 2017)

The anonymous Daphne from the Camphuysen manuscript performed by Leonhardt 



 as well as Couperin's Le Dodo ou l'amour au berceau


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Mozart's clarinet concerto was my mother's favourite piece. In her last weeks at home in 1992 (brain tumor) I often played it for her, even after she had gone into a coma. I love the piece myself, but find it impossible to listen to it anymore.

Bach's Air was used at her funeral and at my father's funeral 7 years ago, but somehow I still can listen to it.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

John Rutter's "Requiem". My wife and I lost my dad, then my older brother (also my best friend), then her mom, then her brother, and then my mom, all in 6 years. John Rutter wrote his "Requiem" in memory of his dad. Though a 'Requiem' which deals with the sorrow around loss, it is also filled with hope. After my mom's passing I played it often for just about a year.

On another note, my brother was a huge Pat Metheny fan. Whenever I hear "First Circle" or "Still Life Talking" I can't help but think he's listening in.


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## ojoncas (Jan 3, 2019)

I can definitely see music being linked to a loss loved one. My piano teacher passed away early from Cancer in 2018, a year after I had moved to another city for studies. I will never forget the last thing she said to me before I left: "If ever in life you don't know what you want to do, you should perform because you were great [at the recital]".

I definitely don't have what it takes but she had such a great heart, and so much patience while helping me learn Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata. Everytime I play or listen to the second movement, I can hear her say "link every note, make it sing". Great times..!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

There are pieces that remind me of my dad - Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Two examples for me - one relates to my mother who bought me my first recording of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (Klemperers EMI studio recording) she had no interest in classical music but took advice from a store salesperson as to what may suit - that work will forever remind me of her.

The other example is a little different, and a little off topic - many will recall the dreadful shootings of 16 children at Dunblane primary school by Thomas Hamilton back in 1996. 
As the news started to break I was sitting in my car in a layby less than three miles from where the horrible events took place, I had a disc of Faure's Requiem in the car (Dutoit/Te Kanawa) and played the Pie Jesu at least half a dozen times back to back - I now can't disassociate that piece from the event.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

An aunt who had been widowed was educated and well off, but never listened to classical - which is my passion. I was going to attend a concert in the Grand Tetons - they were doing Brahms 1st and she said she'd like to go and see what it's all about. It was a fine, powerful performance - the last two movements enhanced by mother nature's sound effects - a thunderstorm rising over the mountains just added so much. At the end, she looked at me and said she had no idea anything could be so beautiful and moving. She went along to many more concerts after that. Every time I hear or play in Brahms 1 I can't help but think of her.

The other was a college roommate who was as athletic and studly as I wasn't. He played on the football team and studied business; I was into mathematics and music. But somehow we bonded over our shared love of rodeo and Wild Turkey. I still remember one quiet evening when we were passing a bottle back and forth and the Mahler 10th (Cooke with Wyn Morris) was on. He died a couple of years later from a cerebral hemorrhage - I lost a great friend and the 10th still evokes strong emotions.

Every other loved one I associate with pop music - especially some of the great tunes from the 1940s.


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## The Sound (Sep 24, 2020)

The Lark Ascending´by Ralph Vaughan Williams. I won´t go into details but this one is close to my heart.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

Mahler's 10th (Ormandy/Philadelphia) is unrequited, unobtainable, undeclared teenage love.

Not only was she way out of my league, we weren't even playing the same sport.

I'm happily married now (but I had to tell you about this anyway, somehow...)

Forty-five years...

This post is pathetic. Go on about your business.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

One of my old friends loved the F minor Chopin piano concerto. He said the slow movement reminded him of relaxing under a large tree near a brook. I generally like the piece for its piano music but find it less interesting as a concerto, though.


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## adriesba (Dec 30, 2019)

Here's a connection that's not so sad. My grandma and I heard Smetana's _Vltava _at a concert back in May 2012. I believe it was the first time either of us had heard it, and it seemed to really make a good impression on both of us. My grandma still listens to the CD she has with it, the recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kubelik. When I hear the piece I think of her and all the times we've gone to concerts together. Lots of the pieces we've heard at concerts give me that feeling, but _Vltava _seems to have the strongest connection. Hopefully we can make more of those memories soon!


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## Guest (Sep 27, 2020)

Schumann's "Träumerei." My mother was a child prodigy pianist and played that work in a recital at age 8! (I still have the newspaper article about her concert.) She died many years ago, but whenever I hear that piece I think of her and still get misty-eyed.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

ojoncas said:


> Personally, it is Brahms's 2nd Intermezzo from the Opus 118. It reminds of the struggle it was to gain her trust while fighting my own little world of difficulties that surrounded me, but yet reminds me of the high reward of seeing a smile on her face. Such a lovely romantic piece that I think Brahms might had written with a certain Schumann in his head?


Yes, I get that and the middle section's close canon is like two lovers intertwined.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Dad would play Chopin's "Revolutionary" etude a lot when I was growing up.


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

Wife. Slow movement of "Pathetique" Sonata by Beethoven. She could play it years ago.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Saint-Saens The Swan always reminds me of my oldest granddaughter.


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