Cure for Pain

JB said earlier today:

But why on earth anyone would want to put on a headache song for their entertainment is beyond my understanding.

Can't say I'd go out of my way to listen to Jeff Tweedy's explorations of headaches . But there is a piece of classical music I enjoy which I've always associated with headaches.

From Mahler's 5th, the Adagietto movement. Free version available here.

It starts out sounding like the resigned, mournful mood you get after suffering a dull ache for a couple of hours. Then it transitions into slowly rising, intense crescendos and bounding plateaus of minor key agony. Just when you can't take it any more, they begin to stop short and subtly drop into brief passages of release, of beautiful, gliding ease. The sections of agony and ease then alternate for a bit. It's just like the feeling you get when the pain medication is finally kicking in. One moment the pain is gone entirely, the next it's back as bad as it ever was. Back and forth, with the pain incrementally lessening each time. So the last few times you feel it, even though it still really hurts, you know its going away entirely within a short time so you're happy, excited even. And each bout of relief increasingly feels like heaven, until you finally fall asleep.

Now that's a great headache song.

I'm not aware of anyone else, including Mahler, having this interpretation of this piece. Maybe one of our classical experts can chime in (Manny? Mitch? Osmo?).

All I can say is that it's too bad Mahler died in 1911. He could have made a fortune writing music for Extra Strength Excedrin commercials.

POST SCRIPT: If you're interested in giving yourself a headache, go to that same web site and give "Fratres for Cellos" a listen. E-gad! By name alone, I was considering it for the new Fraters Libertas theme song. For now, looks like we're going to have to stick with Bette Davis Eyes.