Who’s afraid of classical music?

Do you remember the movie Somewhere in Time, with ex-Superman Christopher Reeve and the beautiful British actress Jane Seymour? He played a playwright who stepped back in time to meet and fall in love with a seasoned stage actress, played by Seymour. It was romantic, tissue-sniffling and incredibly unreal!

The sound track, however, lingered long after the film had been released as a rerun in video rental shops. It was Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra. It goes like this: Tam… (hold the first note just a wee fraction more before cascading to the next) -ta-ra-ra-ram, taram‚-ta-ra-ra-ram…. As the music played in the background, the lovers went sailing in a little boat. There is an image of Jane Seymour brushing her hand gently across the lake.

The same goes for the multi-Oscar awarded movie Out of Africa, starring heartthrob Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Several pieces by Mozart were heard, with the ultra cool and placid sound of the second movement of his Clarinet Concerto the perfect partner for the sumptuous photography. As Meryl uttered, "He never belonged to anyone… he never belonged to me," tears come rushing out no matter how hard I pretended to feel unmoved. It’s that clarinet! It brought forth feelings – sad, haunting.

Classical music is not strange or foreign. Whether we are aware of it or not, it has been used in so many of the movie films we love, whether it’s a bang-bang, shoot-’em-dead kind or a romantic comedy. The beauty of it is that once you hear it in the background, it does not distract you from paying attention to what is happening on screen. Music heightens or amplifies the story, sometimes shocking the public to feel a surge of emotion they may not feel normally.

How many of us still or once believed that classical music is intimidating? We assume that classical music and opera are inaccessible, difficult and not worth listening to?

Just check the television. It’s also there. Advertising agencies use classical melodies to sell everything from luxury cars and airlines to bug spray, painkillers, cell phones, hamburgers and soft drinks.

Try calling any business office or organization and they play classical music while you are on hold on the phone. You will also find a string ensemble in product launchings and corporate parties, because this type of music never drowns conversation. It encourages a free exchange of information whether amusing, business-enhancing or personal. Fine dining restaurants often offer a discreet background of Baroque pieces, too.

Contrary to what others may say, classical music is not hard to listen to. It is neither mysterious, but rather a part of everyday life.

Looking back at my childhood, I was one of those who playfully sang, hopiang di mabili (bean cake that can’t be sold) without the slightest trace of dislike or revulsion. It was later on, while listening to my father’s long-playing (LP) albums did I learn that my juvenile version was really the aria "La donna é mobile (The woman is wayward)" from Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. The fact that I recognized the melody lay to rest any premature conclusion that playful tykes would never acquire a taste for opera, even at a later age.

It was not a long wait. To my parent’s delight, Walt Disney had used classical music in most of their animated features and being like any average child, I whimsically dreamed of waltzing like Princess Aurora to the tune of the Waltz from Sleeping Beauty ("I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream…") in the arms of my Prince, ehem, Charming! Then along came Disney’s Fantasia that truly brought closer to home the joy of classical music.

Music is about celebration, loss, sadness and triumph. A gifted musician said "Every single emotion can be found in music, and once you open up to it, it’s hard to close yourself off again to things around you. Music makes you feel more alive."

Not only that, music can calm you, give you rest, quiet you down and give you the time to listen to your inner voice, if you must. Even praying or conversing with God seems more intimate with soft music in the background. Try it.

Do you need to review for next week’s exams? Listen to Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor – the odds are great that you would sharpen your discernment ability and identify more correct answers from a multiple choice test

Are you ready for romance? Play Debussy’s "Claire de Lune" from his Suite Bergamasque and watch your heart leap, if not soar.

If purging or cleaning your tear ducts is what you’re after, listen to one of the classic weepies, like Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48.

And if you want to put those cute, little angels in the nursery to sleep, play Bach’s Air on the G String.

Classical music is also the root of contemporary music, because modern composers and arrangers have adapted many of the works of the great masters. One of them is Barry Manilow’s Could It Be Magic, its melody taken from Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 in C- minor. There is even a CD of Elvis Presley hits played Baroque, not to mention popular hits of the Beatles arranged a la Bach and like Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

I have a tiny problem, though. At one visit to the open air concert arena in Verona, Italy, armed with a full picnic basket and the wind gently blowing on my face, the first sound of violins wafted through the air. It was so enchanting that I looked up at the fading sun and felt so calm and at peace that, before I knew it, I was cushioning my head, snoring blissfully! Alas. It was the ultimate (and most embarrassing) proof that music had indeed gone to my head!

Having been nudged from my early slumber, I quickly recounted to my host what the cellist Yo-Yo Ma said, when interviewed by the concert pianist, Joan Kennedy, "Life is so pressured today that we feel guilty about not doing enough, and we don’t often let our imaginations go freely to a pleasant spot. We become goal-oriented that all we do is think about goals and forget to live. Think about living as taking a trip to the top of a mountain. How are you going to take that trip? Are you going to drive 90 miles an hour to get there in as straight as possible a path? Or are you going to take a country road, stop for a leisurely lunch, pick a lot of flowers, and then get there and feel you’re on top of the world? The second way – that’s music."

Ah... excuse me, classical music, especially!