Intimations of mortality

Earlier this week, I felt the warmth of the sun for the first time this year. By Friday, though, the sun was washed out by a nest of grey, shining though with a silvery-white spotlight.

It's cold. The coffee-shops and restaurants have fewer customers. I don't see as many cars on the street, although there seem to be more cyclists, who may be avoiding public transit. Next-to-no dog-walkers. Poor dogs.

With the announcement that the Prime Minister's wife is infected with COVID-19, and is in "self-isolation" with the PM and their three children, things began shutting down. One of the first institutions in Victoria to go was the Symphony, understandably, given the median age of its subscribers.

Fortunately for us, our tickets for this season were used up in early February, back when the news was all about impeachment and Brexit. (Good times.)

It was the eve of Demeter's big birthday, which had put us all in mind of our own respective mortalities. Then the Resident Fan Boy and I went to hear a "Naked Classics" version of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony (No. 6). This is an event where the first half is a dissection of the work, while the second half is the piece itself.

The Pathétique Symphony was one of the pieces I studied when I indulged myself in a Music Appreciation course, when I was studying for a diploma in Applied Linguistics, and sneaking in electives for which I'd had no time when doing my undergraduate degree.

I haven't listened to the Sixth Symphony in years, but mainly remembered the four highly recognizable themes of each movement: the "footsteps of fate" closing of the first movement, the 5/4 faux waltz of the second movement, the frantic 6/8 scherzo overlaying the third movement, and the "sobbing" strings of the fourth.

When I was taking the course years ago, the received wisdom was that Tchaikovsky committed suicide shortly after this symphony premiered in October 1893, by deliberately drinking contaminated water and dying, horribly, of cholera. Apparently, they're not so certain of that anymore.

Our host, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, and live demonstrations of his points from the Victoria Symphony, went through Tchaikovsky's "plan" for the symphony: Life-force - Love - Disappointment - Death. The strings demonstrated that the descending main theme in the fourth movement is, in fact, a sort of trompe d'oreille, created by the first and second violins playing completely different melodies. Our attention was also drawn to the beating-heart effect in the same movement -- which eventually slows and stops. In performance after intermission, the lights dimmed, and the orchestra disappeared into darkness.


It's so odd re-visiting this symphony after first experiencing it as a twenty-something, when I found it just a bit over-the-top. Hearing it again all these years later, I appreciated it, recognized it, yet found it profoundly sad and disturbing. The pushing insistence of Life, followed by the falling short of one's dreams, and the descent into death. Cuts a bit close, these days.

I'm not sorry I went, but am somehow grateful that I didn't get it in my twenties. That would be profoundly sad and disturbing indeed.