The first time I heard this song was on a Ken Burns documentary. While getting photographed in The Traveling Red Dress there was a live band playing music for an event and it was wonderful background music for the outdoor setting I was lucky enough to find myself in, but when they began to play “Ashokan Farewell”, a song I love very much, it was all I could do not to cry and mess up my makeup. I play it when I’m happy or sad or just in need of hearing a song with a violin. It, along with the cello, are my favorite instruments and someday I would like to learn to play one or both of them. My ability to read music isn’t all that bad and I would hope that it would be a task I could complete someday. Both of them have a sound that makes me think they can sound like they’re crying.
Enjoy. But try not to cry. Unless you are in need of a Good Cry. Then, just let yourself go.
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I love that piece of music… but.. but… it was one of my ex-husband’s favorite pieces. He played it on the piano, insisted it be our first dance song at our wedding (I know, something so melancholic is such an odd choice – I should have seen the signs). So even though it’s beautiful. I cannot for the life of me hear it without thinking of him and feel a bit of sadness about my first, failed marriage, this the theme song for it, as it were. I guess it is the perfect tune for that, though, its melancholy appropriate finally.
Oof. That hit me in the gut. I get that, too. I’ll be thinking of you every time I hear it now.
xoxo
I love that music. It makes me cry every time, though.